920 carrying the Patriots

[bloodshot56]

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at HJJ this afternoon. Got in my car and hit the scan button on the radio. It stopped on the Patriots game so i thought i'd listen. As I turned it up I looked at the the tuner and was surprised to see 920. Ok maybe i was wrong to think that PRO carried them since i'm not a diehard fan so i continued to listen. Then about ten of 5, I hear Glenn Beck and he's in the middle of his show. What just happened? Then i pieced it together that they were carrying the CBS Network feed of the local game. You can just see that red hotline light blinking from who's ever programmimg that station to tell the entry level producer to "SHUT IT DOWN NOW!!!!", GO TO BECK!!!!. Maybe i'm wrong but thats how it played out in my head.

 

[onair]

Chances are it was a computer issue rather than a board op error. Not sure if there is any one live there at HJJ on weekends running the board, but it could have been a wrong command in the automation that turned the wrong satellite on at the wrong time. Someone could have remotely went to the right thing, or if there was someone else in the building they could have fixed it. Either way, your analysis is pretty funny

 

[raccoonradio]

Scanning dial up here on North Shore of Boston yesterday aft. and noted WPRO was carrying a diff.
NFL game...btw a couple searches for Patriots Radio Network (Wikipedia and "radio" page of Patriots site)
lists WPRO and WEAN-FM as Prov. affiliates. Also the websites for WHJJ and WPRO do not either, at least on the front page, boast of being a Patriots affiliate.

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

Even though 630-WPRO is the local affiliate of the Patriots network, I still find myself listening to the coverage on the originating station, WBZ-FM 98.5. Like a lot of other folks, I just find the "listening experience" somehow more satisfying on an FM signal rather than an AM one....which is kinda sad, since I'm from the generation that grew up with AM radio, and still loves it....what's left of it, anyway.

Given the signal footprint of WBZ-FM, the Patriots network could almost get away without having a RI affiliate, except for coverage of some parts of South County and Newport County.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBZ&service=FM&status=L&hours=U]Click here: http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBZ&service=FM&status=L&hours=U[/url]

 

[N1WVQ]

Even though 630-WPRO is the local affiliate of the Patriots network, I still find myself listening to the coverage on the originating station, WBZ-FM 98.5. Like a lot of other folks, I just find the "listening experience" somehow more satisfying on an FM signal rather than an AM one....which is kinda sad, since I'm from the generation that grew up with AM radio, and still loves it....what's left of it, anyway.

Given the signal footprint of WBZ-FM, the Patriots network could almost get away without having a RI affiliate, except for coverage of some parts of South County and Newport County.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBZ&service=FM&status=L&hours=U]Click here: http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBZ&service=FM&status=L&hours=U[/url]

I find just the opposite to be satisfying to me: A.M. sports sounds better than F.M. because of the more restricted bandwidth. F.M. sports broadcasts sound like there's a lot of empty space to them.

 

[MarcB]

FM sounds better. I live in Bristol, CT and have access to 2 ESPN stations. - "98.1 Campus Radio" WX4ESPN Bristol owned by ESPN and "ESPN Radio 1410" WPOP Hartford owned by CC. Saturday Morning ESPN Radio was carrying some sporting event and it sounded so much better on 98.1 FM. On WPOP it sounded flat - especially the crowd noise in the background.

 

[raccoonradio]

Indeed, same here where WEEI is on both 850 and 93.7 in Boston area (ONE rumor has the AM switching to all-ESPN in a short while, rumor...) and you can switch back and forth between them during events like
Mon Night Football (West. 1) and ESPN's playoff/World Series coverage and it sounds better on FM
(including the absence of static/interference, fading, etc) The FM signal is slightly behind the AM of course
so you can hear the same thing on FM about 5-7 sec. later etc.

I had run across that 98.1 in Aug. when I attended a Little League world series game in Bristol; a few
hours later I drove past the various ESPN campuses and noted the ESPN on 98.1
Note: WX4ESPN (-LP?) 98.1 isn't listed on radio-locator.com but the Wikipedia page for "ESPN Radio Affiliates"
says: "A station under FCC experimental guidelines confined to the range of ESPN's broadcasting campus with a range of 134 watts and also transmitting in HD Radio. Their HD2 subchannel carries ESPN Deportes Radio, with HD3 rotating among other ESPN Radio stations owned by ABC across the country."

134 watts must actually reach more than a few miles. My own station in Salem MA (WMWM) is 130, and
we do...it must reach maybe 15 mi radius or so? Or is the 134 a misprint?

 

[MarcB]

What I do know about 98.1 WX4ESPN is that they used to be in HD, but from the 2 people I know who have HD Radios in their cars tell me the station has not been in HD for months. What I can tell you is that they were not in Stereo before and now they are. The signal does get out pretty far. Of course what bugs me is obviously as you approach the ESPN Campus and in some parts of Southington near the campus the 98.1 signal completely wipes out KIX 97.9 WPKX from Springfield (Enfield). I'm pretty sure that 98.1 will have to go off the air once WPKX moves from Springfield (Enfield) to Hartford (Windsor Locks).