• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

990 WXCT's night signal

Tonight I had to bring my friend Rodent to Brunswick Bowling Alley on South Main Street on the Cheshire-Southington Line. Rodent didn't know WXCT had flipped to Spanish Christian Programming, and asked me to turn the station on. I switched the station on just as we were approaching the fork in the road where if you go straight you go down Old Turnpike Road and if you go right, you continue down Main Street. So of course being right down the street from the station WXCT's 80 watts was blasting right in. So I followed Old Turnpike Road and turned right onto Carter Lane and eventually ended up on South Main Street by Slider's Sports Bar (formerly Gene's Restaurant). Over there which is down the street and around the corner from WXCT their 80 watt signal was starting to fade. I could hear other stations faintly underneath. So I dropped my friend off at the bowling alley. I left WXCT on. Left the bowling alley. Turned right onto Mulbury Street and Left on to Old Turnpike Road past the station. Old Turnpike Road turns into Route 10. In the downtown area of Southington just prior to Delavehcia Funeral Home on the corner of Route 10 and Hobart Street WXCT's signal began to fade. Continuing down 10 past Stop & Shop, the signal is getting weaker and weaker. And finally WXCT's signal was completely unlistenable by the Hess Station just past the Walmart I work at.

Where the heck does WXCT's 80 watts at night go? It doesn't seem to go very far. For a radio I was just using the stock radio in my 95 Pontiac Sunfire.
 
Marc,

Go to Radio-Locator.com

Find station WXCT, click on View Nighttime Coverage Map.

You'll see that the signal transmits/points more towards Meriden & Cheshire than it does Southington, & that's only predicted groundwave coverage.

At night, changes in the Earth's ionosphere can greatly extend the coverage of AM radio stations.

So, at night, you might be able to hear this station from a distance much further than the map indicates.
 
amfmradio1 said:
Marc,

Go to Radio-Locator.com

Find station WXCT, click on View Nighttime Coverage Map.

You'll see that the signal transmits/points more towards Meriden & Cheshire than it does Southington, & that's only predicted groundwave coverage.

At night, changes in the Earth's ionosphere can greatly extend the coverage of AM radio stations.

So, at night, you might be able to hear this station from a distance much further than the map indicates.

That station sure has fallen on hard times. Telemundo on radio! ;D
 
MarcB said:
Tonight I had to bring my friend Rodent to Brunswick Bowling Alley on South Main Street on the Cheshire-Southington Line. Rodent didn't know WXCT had flipped to Spanish Christian Programming, and asked me to turn the station on. I switched the station on just as we were approaching the fork in the road where if you go straight you go down Old Turnpike Road and if you go right, you continue down Main Street. So of course being right down the street from the station WXCT's 80 watts was blasting right in. So I followed Old Turnpike Road and turned right onto Carter Lane and eventually ended up on South Main Street by Slider's Sports Bar (formerly Gene's Restaurant). Over there which is down the street and around the corner from WXCT their 80 watt signal was starting to fade. I could hear other stations faintly underneath. So I dropped my friend off at the bowling alley. I left WXCT on. Left the bowling alley. Turned right onto Mulbury Street and Left on to Old Turnpike Road past the station. Old Turnpike Road turns into Route 10. In the downtown area of Southington just prior to Delavehcia Funeral Home on the corner of Route 10 and Hobart Street WXCT's signal began to fade. Continuing down 10 past Stop & Shop, the signal is getting weaker and weaker. And finally WXCT's signal was completely unlistenable by the Hess Station just past the Walmart I work at.

Where the heck does WXCT's 80 watts at night go? It doesn't seem to go very far. For a radio I was just using the stock radio in my 95 Pontiac Sunfire.

Couldn't this entire post have been condensed down to the last 3 sentences? Just an observation.
 
I just did a search of "wxct" on the Connecticut board... Roughly one out of every two threads about WXCT were started by "MarcB" (or his alter ego, "wxctintern").

Obsess much?
 
Diamond Joe, wxctintern is not my alter ego. That was my user name on Radio-Info way back before Ms. Flemming and the current management of this site took it over. When they converted I was unable to use my old account so I started a new one. And I'm not obsessed with that station. Being that I was an intern there I felt I had an obligation to post the goings on with the station (of course everything I posted had to be approved by Charlie Profit before I posted it). Nowadays I don't listen to it, except for listening to the Italian Show on Sundays if I have a Sunday off, which I usually don't. As I mentioned Rodent didn't know about the switch to Spanish Christian Programming back in May 07, so I had to turn it on because he didn't believe me when I told him about the format flip.
 
Ok, and please don't take this wrong, but let's be honest: More people listen to CB (Citizens Band) Radio Channel 19 than 990 AM (WXCT or whatever's its call-letters-of-the-month are), as well as WMRD and WLIS combined. They are all worthless, dead AM stations. The only CT AM stations of any value are WTIC and WICC. But, that too will change as Cumulus (WICC) and CBS (WTIC) continue to strip away the values of those stations until there's nothing of importance left. With the younger generation locked into iPods and the internet, the younger generation IS NOT listening to AM, WTIC or WICC, and certainly have no idea what a "WXCT" or "WMRD" is. As the younger generation grows up, and the baby boomers die off, so too will AM completely die off. The ONLY way for AM to have a chance to survive is to try to emulate stations like WCBS-880.

So let's stop wasting time talking about "peanut-whistle" AM's like WXCT, WMRD, etc. Enough already about these waste-of-power peanut whistles!!!!

Sorry...but it is the truth. Let's accept it.
 
MarcB said:
Nowadays I don't listen to it, except for listening to the Italian Show on Sundays if I have a Sunday off, which I usually don't. As I mentioned Rodent didn't know about the switch to Spanish Christian Programming back in May 07, so I had to turn it on because he didn't believe me when I told him about the format flip.

Then why is it that, just last summer, you were listening, not on a Sunday, but on a Tuesday, when "their computer melted down and they ran a dead carrier for more than 16 hours"? Or did you wake up after a 48-hour slumber falling asleep during the Italian show?

And furthermore... Why are you hanging out with a giant rat?
 
DToTheJ said:
Then why is it that, just last summer, you were listening, not on a Sunday, but on a Tuesday, when "their computer melted down and they ran a dead carrier for more than 16 hours"? Or did you wake up after a 48-hour slumber falling asleep during the Italian show?

If you re-read that post from last summer it mentions I was listening to WLAT down at 910AM and when I pushed the scan button on my Walkman it stopped on 990AM. That's when I heard what I heard. And being that I know the station is unmanned I wanted to see how long they would be running a dead carrier before the station was back up and running.

And furthermore... Why are you hanging out with a giant rat?

Joe, I think that cheap wine-in-a-box you drink during The Radio Racket is destroying your brain cells. I know I've mentioned several times during that show that my friend's name is Rodent. Remember? The hosts always get confused and call him "The Marsupial", "The Marmacet", etc?
 
990 hasn't been a real station since it was "The Mighty 990" WNTY. When it was a full service AC station back in the 70's and 80's when the Steven's had it. Now you can level the building and call it the Southington Dump.
 
videokilledtheradiostar said:
990 hasn't been a real station since it was "The Mighty 990" WNTY. When it was a full service AC station back in the 70's and 80's when the Steven's had it. Now you can level the building and call it the Southington Dump.

That was before my time, but last night I was just discussing the station past and present with a new co-worker of mine at Walmart, who just happens to have been WNTY's News Director back around 84. Apparently WNTY was the station to listen to if you liked sports. He told me in addition to local play by play from Southington High School they carried The Mets, The Whalers, The Patriots, and The Univerisity of Hartford Hawks Basketball.

Well anyway if I had the means to buy the station, it would be an awesome station again. None of this canned crap coming over the airwaves from an internet stream in New Jersey. Local personalities who are actual personalities - not some liner card reading robot. If my one of my DJs has a funny story to tell I have no objections to him (or her) talking about it on the air as long as they keep it clean. Local-in house music format (none of this canned crap from Dial Global or ABC). And just for some fun New York Giants Football every Sunday Afternoon September-December. Local sports play-by-play from Plainville High School. (I refuse to carry Southington High. That school's team has a way too over inflated ego). Not sure what I'd use for call letters though. WNTY now belongs to a 92 FM in Florida. And I don't like the WXCT call letters. (Never have since the day Charlie flipped the calls from WNTY to WXCT).

I also know of two well-known personalities I'd like to hire to work at 990 if I owned it, but it might chafe their egos going from previously working at 50KW equivalent FM stations to a 2500 watt AM station. I'd like to hire both Doug Taylor and Frank Holler. Both alumnists of The Big in Hartford.
 
MarcB said:
... last night I was just discussing the station past and present with a new co-worker of mine at Walmart, who just happens to have been WNTY's News Director back around 84. Apparently WNTY was the station to listen to if you liked sports. He told me in addition to local play by play from Southington High School they carried The Mets, The Whalers, The Patriots, and The Univerisity of Hartford Hawks Basketball.

Have you asked him for old airchecks of WNTY yet?
 
I worked at NTY back in the late 80's for extra income on the weekend. Board op'ing NY Mets games and other weekend specialty shows. It was a great time. I believe the station was either a top 40 or hot ac?
The Stevens family were great to work for.
 
videokilledtheradiostar said:
I worked at NTY back in the late 80's for extra income on the weekend... I believe the station was either a top 40 or hot ac?

Damned if I know.

Marc?
 
DToTheJ said:
I just did a search of "wxct" on the Connecticut board... Roughly one out of every two threads about WXCT were started by "MarcB" (or his alter ego, "wxctintern"). Obsess much?

If it wasn't for Mark, I'd know next to nothing about this station. Even though AM has been dying for a long time, it's good to keep the memories alive online for future generations to get a sense of how things were. And come on, it gives us something to read... :D
 
I have a few minutes of a Mets pregame on audio tape from 1988. It was recorded off of WNTY with the legal ID in it somewhere. I have to go find it now.
 
MarcB said:
Well anyway if I had the means to buy the station, it would be an awesome station again. None of this canned crap coming over the airwaves from an internet stream in New Jersey. Local personalities who are actual personalities - not some liner card reading robot. If my one of my DJs has a funny story to tell I have no objections to him (or her) talking about it on the air as long as they keep it clean. Local-in house music format (none of this canned crap from Dial Global or ABC). And just for some fun New York Giants Football every Sunday Afternoon September-December. Local sports play-by-play from Plainville High School. (I refuse to carry Southington High. That school's team has a way too over inflated ego). Not sure what I'd use for call letters though. WNTY now belongs to a 92 FM in Florida. And I don't like the WXCT call letters. (Never have since the day Charlie flipped the calls from WNTY to WXCT).

I also know of two well-known personalities I'd like to hire to work at 990 if I owned it, but it might chafe their egos going from previously working at 50KW equivalent FM stations to a 2500 watt AM station. I'd like to hire both Doug Taylor and Frank Holler. Both alumnists of The Big in Hartford.

And how would you pay for it all? You will find the business reality is MUCH MUCH different than good intentions.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom