A question for people in Providence?

[wpxt]

I've never been to Providence, RI but I was wondering since Rhode Island is such a small state do radio stations in Providence cover the whole state?

 

[Skynet74]

Yes they do. They also cover Eastern Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts too.

 

[wpxt]

That's pretty cool. How many square miles is Rhode Island?

 

[Skynet74]

That's pretty cool. How many square miles is Rhode Island?

Everything can be found at this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island

 

[JustinT]

Coverage of a typical Providence FM signal: http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WWLI&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

 

[wpxt]

Wow Rhode Island's smaller than I thought 37 miles wide and 48 miles long. I guess that's why Providence can cover the whole state.

 

[Skynet74]

Wow Rhode Island's smaller than I thought 37 miles wide and 48 miles long. I guess that's why Providence can cover the whole state.

Yeah you can drive from any town in Rhode Island to any other town in the state in less than an hour. It's more like a big city than a State.

 

[necrat123]

I've never been to Providence, RI but I was wondering since Rhode Island is such a small state do radio stations in Providence cover the whole state?

I've never been to Providence, RI but I was wondering since Rhode Island is such a small state do radio stations in Providence cover the whole state?

The big commercial FMs do. ( 92.3, 94.1, 95.5, 101.5, 105.1).
The smaller college FM signals don't however. (88.1, 91.3)
Rhode Island also has one class B FM which is licensed to Westerly, a town on the south-west corner, but it's facility is in Exeter, in a location almost due center of the state (103.7). It covers the whole state (and can be heard in four other states!)
Rhode Island has six smaller class A signals, licensed to other towns and cities, none of which cover the entire state, but 99.7 comes very close. (the others being 100.3 which is in Tiverton, covers the east-south eastern part of the state, 102.7 covers the real southeastern corner, and 106.3 which covers the Northern and Providence metro area).
Two of the class A's are transmitted from Block Island, off the south coast and cover only the southern half of the state reliably (95.9 and 99.3)
The University of Rhode Island has a nice class A signal that covers a large portion of the state on 90.3. To the northwest it gets interference from WAMC.
There are a couple of other smaller powered college stations throughout the state that really have a local only signal, (88.7, 90.7, 91.5)
The big commercial AM signals, however, do not cover the state when operating on their night pattern. 630, 790 and 920 all can be heard statewide during the day time. They all suffer a little "in the corners" (Burrillville, Westerly) and at night time, they lose a large chunk of the state due to the direction the patterns are aimed. The other AMs are either too low powered or stay on a pattern that covers some areas and not others (550, 990, 1110, 1220, 1590).
Also both ends of the state have metro populations with local signals that cover their ends but not much else. (1230 in Westerly, 1240/1380 in Woonsocket, 1540 in Newport)

 

[ScottBurns]

Wow Rhode Island's smaller than I thought 37 miles wide and 48 miles long. I guess that's why Providence can cover the whole state.

Yeah you can drive from any town in Rhode Island to any other town in the state in less than an hour. It's more like a big city than a State.

Skynet, try driving from Misquamicut Beach or Watch Hill to Sakonnet Point in under an hour. I'd also suggest the drive from Wright's Farm to Ninigret Park in Charlestown. There are many other examples of which I can think.

 

[Jacko]

I once drove to all 39 Rhode Island cities and towns in an 8 hour period. Starting point was New Shoreham (more commonly known as Block Island) and ferried it back to Galilee, then drove the rest of the 38. We were doing a fundraiser for the victims of the Station fire a few years back. I was actually interviewed on 100.3 WKKB when they were a rock station about the fundraiser afterwards.

As far as signals go, 93.3, 94.1, 95.5, and 101.5 are tricky to pick up in the extreme SW corner of Rhode Island due to their tower locations and/or that they are not true full 50-Kw equivalents. 92.3 and 105.1, however, have better transmitter locations and are full 50-Kw equivalent, therefore have better reception in Westerly, Charlestown, and Hopkinton.

Jacko

 

[Skynet74]

As far as signals go, 93.3, 94.1, 95.5, and 101.5 are tricky to pick up in the extreme SW corner of Rhode Island due to their tower locations and/or that they are not true full 50-Kw equivalents. 92.3 and 105.1, however, have better transmitter locations and are full 50-Kw equivalent, therefore have better reception in Westerly, Charlestown, and Hopkinton.

Jacko

I've picked up all those stations in Connecticut. No place in Rhode island should have trouble picking any of them up unless you are using a radio with a crappy antenna.

 

[necrat123]

I've picked up all those stations in Connecticut. No place in Rhode island should have trouble picking any of them up unless you are using a radio with a crappy antenna.

Just because you picked them up in Connecticut does not mean they are going to 100% cover the state. RF is not black and white like that.
Jacko is the correct one here, the Rehoboth based signals (93.3, and 101.5) and the lower powered 95.5 due suffer some multipath noise, especially in parts of Westerly. I know when I was doing DTV signal tests out in Foster, there are parts of the western edge of the town were 93.3 and 101.5 suffer a lot of signal deficiencies. In fact there is a road, which escapes me now, that I did a DTV test on, in Foster, where everyone from Hartford was in solid both FM & TV, and 101.5 was a bad mix product of WWBB and WPDH. This was not on a day with any severe tropo either. It was just the virtue of the high west facing location.

There is one spot where 92.3 and 101.5 just do not come in very well at all, and that is in Johnston, when you are in that neighborhood right underneath Neutakonakut Hill. Its a spot that shadows the towers very well and basically you hear nothing but multipath. However with that said WPRO-FM 92.3 is a flame thrower and arguably the best signal in the state. I have picked them up in York, Maine just about every time I've gone up there. And I know they are audible in Hartford when WWYZ's HD is off. You can hear them along the MassPike up until Palmer where they start to mix with WFLY out of Albany and WWYZ's HD as well. WWLI's signal GREATLY improved when they replaced the old 6 bay RCA with the new 5 bay Shively. The signal which was always real noisy in the Springfield area improved tremendously when they put that in. (however it appears as though WNEK is on full time, eliminating that reception.)

 

[Skynet74]

In fact there is a road, which escapes me now, that I did a DTV test on, in Foster, where everyone from Hartford was in solid both FM & TV, and 101.5 was a bad mix product of WWBB and WPDH.

WPRO-FM 92.3 is a flame thrower and arguably the best signal in the state. I have picked them up in York, Maine just about every time I've gone up there.

As a teenager I dated a girl who lived on Shippee School House Road in Foster. It's the last road on Route 6 before you hit the "Entering Connecticut" sign. Whenever I would call her up she would always be listening to a Hartford station. She could pick up three different markets from her house. It made me jealous... LOL. So yeah I can see your point. I also used to go camping in York, Maine every summer. I went last September too. I didn't attempt to pull in Pro-FM up there. However I did listen to WPRO on the AM side. It comes in just fine each and every day. If WPRO wasn't so focused on Rhode Island politics, I bet that more people up there would listen and call. I have heard some people on Long Island call WPRO before when Steve Kass used to be on. His show was less political which is why I believe more people from outside the area would tune in and call.