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98.7 ESPN is now in mono

J

jvn

I noticed tonight that 98.7 has switched to Mono. I think it they made the switch sometime Monday
as the stereo indicator on my car radio was still lit Sunday Night. I noticed that when they were broadcasting in stereo all program material including spots and music beds were in mono. It makes sense for them to go mono just as wemp did no multipath and the signal gets out a litter further .
 
I find it interesting that most car radios don't seem to have a way to switch between stereo and mono. It would certainly help when listening to fringe stations. I guess the manufacturers figure no one will know how to use it anyway.
 
I find it interesting that most car radios don't seem to have a way to switch between stereo and mono. It would certainly help when listening to fringe stations. I guess the manufacturers figure no one will know how to use it anyway.
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My understanding has been that car FM radios automatically switch to mono when the signal strength drops below a certain level.

Traveling around on the fringes of the New York signals in Western New Jersey there is no stereo separation, which is why the stronger local stereo signals sound so much better. And why, when you drive closer to NYC the NY FMs sound so much better in stereo.

In a case like 98.7 transmitting in mono, the car receivers would just automatically switch to mono and gain whatever benefits that has to offer in the fringe areas.
 
ncountysurf said:
Are they going to change call letters? The HD display is WRKS (it used to be KISS).
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An application was filed yesterday to change the calls from WRKS to WEPN-FM.

There are no pending changes for WBLS, and at least as of this writing, the WRKS letters haven't been requested for any other station.
 
Don't you think most people thought of WRKS more as as KISS, and WBLS is the more established call letter brand of the two?

Since the "merged" station is now on the WBLS frequency, they'd be making a mistake to change those call letter even if they decide to call the station "KISS."
 
TimeIsTight said:
Don't you think most people thought of WRKS more as as KISS, and WBLS is the more established call letter brand of the two?

Since the "merged" station is now on the WBLS frequency, they'd be making a mistake to change those call letter even if they decide to call the station "KISS."
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I think I'm more surprised that the WRKS calls haven't been warehoused on another station in the Emmis family
 
How's the reception for 98.7? The dentist board has had many posts saying that in some parts of Suffolk County, 1050 comes in better than 98.7! In Central NJ, it's been posted that 98.3 in New Brunswick and 99.1 Zarephath are clipping 98.7. Overall, that board is saying that ESPN didn't full solve their problem by getting on 98.7 FM.

In Ocean County NJ, 98.7 is receivable in my car, but not in my home, which isn't unusual for NY FMs. Quality of signal in the car depends upon what direction I'm driving. Driving south, it runs into 98.5 FM. Heading north and northeast toward the Monmouth/Ocean border, it's much better.

I just returned from vacation and while in my car yesterday, noticed 98.7 is now in mono. :)
 
Even if Emmis doesn't own any stations where the WRKS letters would be suitable, perhaps some independent station in need of a thousand bucks or so could hoard the calls for a while.

You know ... stations blessed with call letters like WHXH-FM, or WSHT, or WXSX-FM.

It IS curious, though, as ReallyReel points out the apathy ; that no one else has applied for the letters. Was it specifically stated and sealed during the takeover that the calls were included in that intellectual property business? Call letters in major markets mean less than they ever did, true. Still, this reluctance to jump on the calls cannot be a mere oversight on either side.
 
How's the reception for 98.7? The dentist board has had many posts saying that in some parts of Suffolk County, 1050 comes in better than 98.7! In Central NJ, it's been posted that 98.3 in New Brunswick and 99.1 Zarephath are clipping 98.7. Overall, that board is saying that ESPN didn't full solve their problem by getting on 98.7 FM.

In Ocean County NJ, 98.7 is receivable in my car, but not in my home, which isn't unusual for NY FMs. Quality of signal in the car depends upon what direction I'm driving. Driving south, it runs into 98.5 FM. Heading north and northeast toward the Monmouth/Ocean border, it's much better.

I just returned from vacation and while in my car yesterday, noticed 98.7 is now in mono. Smiley
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When it comes to listeners that "count" in the Arbitron ratings used for "by the numbers" advertising sales, listeners in Ocean County don't matter at all. PPM meters are only given to people who live in the counties that are in the "official" market. What matters is where you live, and therefore shop, and not where you commute to or drive through.

All of Long Island is in the "official" Arbitron NY Radio Market, but NONE of the NYC FMs, reach the East End, which represents a small percentage of the total market population. So, all the NYC FM Class-B's are in the same boat, and as we have noted, over and over, the exception being WFME which has a signal that drops off 10-or-15-miles sooner, going East, than everybody else's. Reports are that the 1050-AM signal doesn't go significantly farther out there.

For regular talk show programming 98.7 gets the job done in the official Arbitron market. For teams that want to reach all their fans with game coverage they will probably add local affiliates in counties, like Ocean, that are outside the NY market.

As to the mono, it will be interesting to see how long that continues. The audio is now being fed from the AM studios, and network feeds, which are likely all mono, so it doesn't make sense to weaken fringe reception just to add a "stereo" light. At some point a program director is going to have to decide if "stereo" talk shows produce a ratings advantage. My guess is, that it will make more sense to stick with mono for better fringe reception.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
It IS curious, though, as ReallyReel points out the apathy ; that no one else has applied for the letters. Was it specifically stated and sealed during the takeover that the calls were included in that intellectual property business? Call letters in major markets mean less than they ever did, true. Still, this reluctance to jump on the calls cannot be a mere oversight on either side.
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Nobody else CAN apply for the WRKS callsign yet, since it's still in use on 98.7. There was a request filed on May 7 to change the callsign there to WEPN-FM, and it's only after that change has been consummated that the WRKS callsign will be released back into the system for use by someone else - IF Emmis (or YMF?) doesn't first apply to put that callsign somewhere else. In the meantime, it's premature to conclude the calls won't get parked somewhere.
 
Apparently no one has picked up the WRXP call, since it signed off of 101.9 last July.
Maybe it is not considered a valuable "brand," as it did not make a big splash in this market.
 
You have to wonder in a PPM world, how much value many station call letters now hold. In the case of WRKS, the brand was really KISS-FM.

Another example is WHTZ, which is almost universally known as Z-100. Its call letters get "legally" buried at the top of the hour, along with Newark as the city of license.

On the other hand, WKTU has its whole identity and brand in those call letters. You can listen, or you can check out the station web sites and see what is emphasized and what is ignored.

Gone are the days when some call letters were valuable because they had been heavily researched to be catchy, or different from other call letters in the market. That was when call letters were important in major market diary ratings, because the research subjects had to remember to write them down properly.

Now, with PPM, the listener doesn't even have to know what station he, or she, is hearing for that station to get credit for a listener. So, even well known and remembered call letters don't mean anything in that regard. In cases like WABC, they still represent "the brand" but otherwise, very often, call letters only matter for legal ID purposes.
 
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