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AAA Radio in Rhode Island

RockRoll360 said:
What do we have to do to recieve a Quality AAA Radio station here in our beautiful state of RI -
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Well you have two choices. Sirius is one. Internet stream is the second. Other than that you are pretty much out of luck. But you honestly should be happy. Those are two more choices than you had 15 years ago.
 
RockRoll360 said:
Sirius Radio - Enough with the monthlys - I sick of being nickel & dimed to death - I hope for HD radio to catch on .
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Well nothing beats internet radio in your house. I have an audio output cable running from my computer to my bedroom stereo. Sounds awsome. Any format you couyld wish for is out there. Sirius radio is being transmitted to every radio in the house as well. So even though local radio may have a lot to be desired, I managed to give myself some additional choices. What else can you do? You can sit here and complain all day. But in the end that still isn't going to make your radio sound any better.
 
WMVY is good, although not a RI station. I really don't think a niche format like triple-A would play well in Providence. I keep my XM mainly for diversity of formats & to get exposed to new rock that isn't your typical AOR music. XM isn't the end-all, but I don't even notice the quarterly hit on my credit card & I've discovered a lot of artists I wouldn't have if I didn't have satellite radio.
 
They tried a AAA/bluesy-type format on 99.3 WERI back in the mid to late 90s, after WBLQ and before Swing FM. There's also the WMVY translator on 96.5 in Newport. They should put a AAA-format station on 99.7, as right now the signal is being wasted on a simulcast of WPRO. 630 WPRO has a good signal the way it is. Economically, you could probably run the station jockless, but I would rather see some jocks on such a station. The fact that RI is using 2 of his better FM signals for talk/sports radio is just terrible in my mind. Boston is about to have 3 major FM signals broadcasting talk/sports programming. Just ridiculous.

Jacko
 
Jacko, I agree with your sentiments. I wouldn't, however, call 99.7 one of Rhode Island's better FM signals. WPRO's nighttime signal has never been a problem, even in South County. The only pick-up 99.7 gives Citadel, in terms of listeners, is parts of New London and Windham Counties. And unlike WEEI-FM, which has a great signal in New London County, Citadel is not trying to pick up advertisers in Southeastern Connecticut.
 
South of the Route 37 exit on 95, you can hear the 96.5 Newport translator of WMVY pretty good.
Used to hear it further north before the LPFM signed on in Providence.
 
Well, I say "better" as a relative term. 103.7 WEEI-FM (I typed WWRX but had to backspace, yikes!) does have quite a good signal stretching from the Cape to almost the New Haven/Hartford area. IIRC correctly, you can start picking up 99.7 around the Old Lyme area on I-95 in Connecticut and maintains a decent signal until around North Attleboro. It still covers pretty much all of Rhode Island clearly but does have some hash problems in Providence itself. Although you may not be able to bring in New London area advertisers on 99.7, you may be able to at least bring in Westerly/Stonington area advertisers, which would be an advantage. If I were given the keys to 99.7 today, I would turn it into a quality rock/AAA station with good depth of older and newer music, and not try to position the station directly toward Providence, but position it toward "Rhode Island" or "Southern New England." I'd let the station run jockless at first and run a few ads, but really let the station be known word-of-mouth. I'd also make sure there's a web presence. That's my personal taste. Someone else might want to make it a hip-hop station or a variety hits station, which would also make sense.

Jacko
 
Jacko said:
Well, I say "better" as a relative term. 103.7 WEEI-FM (I typed WWRX but had to backspace, yikes!) does have quite a good signal stretching from the Cape to almost the New Haven/Hartford area.
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In the mid 90's when 103.7 still played music, I lived in West Haven for a short time. Used to listen to the station in my apartment. It was cool to be able to switch between a Rhode Island FM station and a New York City FM station. Can't do that with any other station besides WEEI. The only other time was one night in my car driving along the south shore of Rhode Island right next to the beach. I don't remember which beach. But I do remember under a certain stop light Pro-FM faded out and New York's K-Rock faded in. I drove back and forth a few times and the same thing happened each time. So I actually think there is a small area in Rhode Island which can actually get 92.3 from New York if you have your antenna pointing the right way. Some people down there in those beach houses may already know this.
 
Skynet, the only means by which any Rhode Islander can pick up K-Rock (actually, it is currently WXRK/Now 92.3) is via tropo conditions. Even in Watch Hill, WPRO-FM is the station that is easily heard on 92.3. If there's any New York-area catch from Southern Rhode Island, it would be 97.5 WALK/Long Island, which often battles WOKQ/Portsmouth, NH. In addition, from extreme Southwestern Rhode Island, at times, 92.1 WLNG/Sag Harbor can be heard. However, WLNG is much more difficult to pick up than WALK.
 
ScottBurns said:
Skynet, the only means by which any Rhode Islander can pick up K-Rock (actually, it is currently WXRK/Now 92.3) is via tropo conditions.
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Well I'm one to believe that at the beach anything is possible. Salt Water causes crazy things to happen. There is a Beach/Park in Connecticut located in Madison. Hammonasset State Park to be exact. Whenever I've parked next to the water there I can get 94.1 WSYP out of Philly. It's happened more than once during daylight hours when no other odd stations seemed to be coming in.

I also can say that WXRK's signal regularly makes it as far as Exit 62 on I-95. That is 95 miles from New York. Before Stern was heard locally I made regular trips to Southwest CT to record the show. Depending on how I parked my car in that McDonalds parking lot right next to the freeway, I could always pull in WXRK. Weak and staticy, but it still came in. So that is where I've always drawn the line of how far the station's regular signal will go. That is only 47 miles from Rhode Island. Even less air miles. Factor in some salt water and it's not all that far out of reach.

So I have a theory that if you are in the right zone and right next to the water, there are certain hot spots the regular signal can be heard if your antenna is positioned just the right way. Signal maps are not going to reflect this. But my personal experience does.
 
ROBGv1 said:
A few nights ago on Mineral Spring I was picking up Z103.5 Halifax.
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OK.. well I'll admit, THAT'S TROPO! As long as you are talking about Halifax Nova Scotia and not Halifax Massachusetts. lol
 
Tropo can always amaze people. I remember one night, I was having difficulty listening to 95.5 WBRU because WPLJ from New York was bleeding in to the signal. And this was in the Warwick/Cranston area. 'BRU was getting phone calls that they were playing live on air from listeners about how they were getting this 'PLJ station and where was WBRU. The same thing would happen with PRO-FM, but I think WBRU would have it worse in that they run at lower power and their transmitter is several miles farther away from NYC than PRO-FM is.

One night, several years ago my buddies and I were camping at Burlingame in Charlestown and while we were drinking by the campfire (I don't think Burlingame allowed alcohol, but shhh...) we were listening to 100.7 WZXL from Wildwood, NJ on one of our car radios. It came in clear as a bell.

Jacko
 
Yeah lots of these are cases of Tropo. However I firmly believe that I wasn't having a Tropo experience when I received WXRK in extreme Southwestern Rhode Island. Same thing with getting Philly's WYSP when I have been at the beach in Madison, CT. That is the one that blew me away the most. It's like 180 miles from Philly. But I heard it on mutiple days in the same spot. I thought for certain that it had to be HJY. They both played Rock music at the time. So it would have been easy to confuse the two. But I made damn sure to stay there and wait for a station ID. I couldn't believe it when I heard "94 WYSP Philadelphia". I'm tempted to go back again some day and see if I still get it in the same location. I bet I can. Fluke of all flukes. But it happened.
 
The other day I picked up my first ever RI station in NJ......I was way up on top of a hill driving along the Hudson River and I was able to pick up WHJY for a short period of time......Usually the only thing we can pickup around here on 94.1 is WYSP and they are 90+ miles away.
 
Skynet, your WXRK experience had to be tropo. The only other possibility is e-skip, and you were too close to WXRK's tower for that to be a realistic possibility. I agree that the salt water does amazing things to the FM band; however, you were less than 50 miles from WPRO-FM's stick.

One example might be instructive. About three years ago, I was at Clearwater Beach in Florida. The tropo was outstanding. Depending on the direction I was facing, I picked up either Q93/New Orleans, or the local 93.3 WFLZ (which, incidentally, has a monster signal). Tropo can and does block local signals.
 
ScottBurns said:
Skynet, your WXRK experience had to be tropo. The only other possibility is e-skip, and you were too close to WXRK's tower for that to be a realistic possibility. I agree that the salt water does amazing things to the FM band; however, you were less than 50 miles from WPRO-FM's stick.
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Yeah I was thinking about that. But I chalked it up to still being far enough away from the PRO-FM tower to be able to hit a weak spot in their signal. Weak enough where it allowed WXRK to come through. To clarify.. I was getting Pro-FM in. It slowly faded out under a stop light and XRK faded in. I retraced my steps and it happened the same way each and every time. It didn't appear to just be a random signal. It actually appeared that I hit a weak spot in PRO's signal which made it fade out. That is when XRK came in.

Oh well.... it was cool no matter what happened. I'll put the official wall of the WXRK signal in Madison, Connecticut at Exit 62. I can confirm that one since it's happened to me so much. It's a horrible signal at the point. But it's still there.
 
When I heard AAA in RI, I automatically thought of some fluke of getting 92.5 WXRV "The River" out of Andover. Obviously with the blowtorch that is WPRO 92.3 this would be next to impossible, but after seeing stories of people getting WXRK out of NY, anything's possible. Has anyone ever gotten WXRV anywhere in RI?
 
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