I traveled through the Asheville area yesterday and got to listen to the local stations a bit. I did enjoy the classic country on WZGM but would have been better with a few voices on it. The signal was good until I hit the Canton area and it died quickly after that. Not very good for a 10kw station. I ran into an engineer on the Tennessee side of the mountain on my way home, he does some work in the W. Carolina area, he mentioned the tower and ground system aren't that good for that station. That would explain the poor signal. WPTL in Canton has a good sound for a 500 watter, they were running the real country network. I tuned past the talk station in Asheville, nothing caught my interest so I didn't listen long. WOXL sounded more like an adult hits station than oldies, playing stuff from the early 60's to early 80's. I enjoyed it but a hardened oldies person probably wouldn't. Makes me wonder what format the move in FM in Weaverville will have. A good AC/lite rock would fit it well. Any other ideas out there?
-
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
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Asheville Visit
- Thread starter knoxbob
- Start date
Just for the record WZGM's tower, transmitter, and ground system are only a couple of years
old, so that "emgineer" obviously doesn't know what he is talking about. It has more to do with
the frequency than anything if he knew anything about frequenices that is.
old, so that "emgineer" obviously doesn't know what he is talking about. It has more to do with
the frequency than anything if he knew anything about frequenices that is.
I disagree. It's just my personal opinion that the gentleman who built the tower and ground system did so on the cheap because he knew he was flipping the station in a few months anyway. It may be brand new, but that doesn't mean it's good. After all, Daewoo built "brand new" cars for a while several years ago, but that didn't make them "great" just because they were new.
I've long said that even though the tower and ground system were just built, the station doesn't get out like it should. The transmitter and processor are brand-new and top-of-the-line. But if you wanna save some real money building out a station, just look at the price of copper, and do the math. Cheating? Yes. But would I put it past some people just out to make a buck? No. As you know, Mr. Spindoctor, our little 1kW AM on 1490 (a LOCAL frequency, MUCH worse than 1350, a regional) gets out further than WZGM does most days. None of us were there when the new tower and ground system at 1350 was built, and I'll leave it at that.
On another note, I think what HRN Broadcasting is doing now is the right thing for Black Mountain. Good things are happening there in an effort to bring the community something they don't have. Much better, in my opinion, than trying to be an Asheville station doing talk and trying to compete with the big boys.
I've long said that even though the tower and ground system were just built, the station doesn't get out like it should. The transmitter and processor are brand-new and top-of-the-line. But if you wanna save some real money building out a station, just look at the price of copper, and do the math. Cheating? Yes. But would I put it past some people just out to make a buck? No. As you know, Mr. Spindoctor, our little 1kW AM on 1490 (a LOCAL frequency, MUCH worse than 1350, a regional) gets out further than WZGM does most days. None of us were there when the new tower and ground system at 1350 was built, and I'll leave it at that.
On another note, I think what HRN Broadcasting is doing now is the right thing for Black Mountain. Good things are happening there in an effort to bring the community something they don't have. Much better, in my opinion, than trying to be an Asheville station doing talk and trying to compete with the big boys.
While I was crusing around Black Mtn the technical quality was exellent. I was there during the day so I can't comment on the low power at night and how well it covers Black Mtn. It would be nice to see them do some live stuff on the air ie..trading post, sports or community type programs. The overhead shouldn't cost that much and I think it would pay for itself in the long run.
P
PaulBWalkerJr
Guest
I also think it has alot to do with the technical plant more then the frequency..... a GOOD ground system, tower and associated parts REALLY go a LONG way into a good signal...
A
Art Sutton
Guest
PaulBWalkerJr said:I also think it has alot to do with the technical plant more then the frequency..... a GOOD ground system, tower and associated parts REALLY go a LONG way into a good signal...
I have the AM engineering software and 200 watts on 570, WWNC's frequency, goes as far as 10,000 watts on 1350, Black Mountain's frequency.
It's the frequency...and ground conductivity.
Also, Asheville has the worst ground conductivity in the nation. We have had taken a lot of AM signal measurements in that area. The worst on the FCC charts is a .1. It's even less than that in many areas up that way..especially from about Marion west. Any where you have mountains, it's bad, real bad. Higher frequencies at the 1700 end of the dial are more affected than the low end toward 540. Also, the gain of a full ground system over 30 to 40 radials isn't much...less than 5% gain.
Also, some folks feel like the AM coverage maps in the mountains don't take into consideration that an AM radio wave travels along the earth....but if you have two points one mile away from each other..that radio signal has to travel up a mountain and perhaps down to reach the other point. It traveled more than a mile to get there. There's probably some physics involved but since I had to charm my physics teacher to make it out of college, I can't figure it out.
I didn't even actually take physics, but I think you have a good point about the mountains. It's something I've put a whole lot into. Practically any sort of electronic signal is diminished over a distance. You can only daisy-chain a certain number of light fixtures with a single wire...cable/satellite TV runs larger than a certain length have to have boosters...that sort of thing. Anyway, I'm no engineer, and most certainly don't know much about RF. However, it would make sense that, since AM travels in the ground, it has to travel further in our mountains to get to a given point than if the land was flat here. And since the signal diminishes over distance, doesn't it essentially make sense that the moutains do in fact reduce the radius of a signal?
Has anybody else ever thought about this? Or, has my mind turned to mush from getting up at 3am for two weeks to fill in for my news guy?
Has anybody else ever thought about this? Or, has my mind turned to mush from getting up at 3am for two weeks to fill in for my news guy?
P
PaulBWalkerJr
Guest
Who said your mind wasn't mush in the first place, Wilkey ;D
What do you mean "fill-in" for the news guy! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzsnore, snorezzzzzzzzzz
Who hasn't been up to DO the news in four days?!
Kidding, just kidding, I kid that's my job.
The now out of work Spindoctor
Who hasn't been up to DO the news in four days?!
Kidding, just kidding, I kid that's my job.
The now out of work Spindoctor
You're fired. Not really. But, don't be expecting an email with all your local news written for you in the morning. If you are going to accuse me of actually sleeping instead of digging up your local news, then I'll actually do it.
Geez, ya give a guy a job, pay him good, get his picture put on the front page of the local newspaper two weeks in a row, and what does he do...he criticizes on on radio-info!
;D
Geez, ya give a guy a job, pay him good, get his picture put on the front page of the local newspaper two weeks in a row, and what does he do...he criticizes on on radio-info!
;D
Guess it's time to lick the boots again. You bring the boots, I'll bring the A-1.
Okay, today I'll only work 22 hours instead of the regular 23 and a half.
I'm out ...(of a job),
The Spundoctor
Okay, today I'll only work 22 hours instead of the regular 23 and a half.
I'm out ...(of a job),
The Spundoctor
Now children lets play nice. ROFL Reminds me of the time Hoyt Potts was showing a prospective employee around at WTLK in Taylorsville. I was doing afternoon drive at the time. So in the morning I was digging up the coax to find where it was bad. Hoyt came out to introduce his afternoon drive/ditch digger. I came out of the ditch and as I shook the guys hand I handed Hoyt the shovel and said "I need a drink." When I came back out Hoyt was in the ditch. The guy didn't take the job. Guess he didn't want a job where EVERYONE was expected to do EVERYTHING.
R
radioguy801
Guest
spacetrucker said:Now children lets play nice. ROFL Reminds me of the time Hoyt Potts was showing a prospective employee around at WTLK in Taylorsville. I was doing afternoon drive at the time. So in the morning I was digging up the coax to find where it was bad. Hoyt came out to introduce his afternoon drive/ditch digger. I came out of the ditch and as I shook the guys hand I handed Hoyt the shovel and said "I need a drink." When I came back out Hoyt was in the ditch. The guy didn't take the job. Guess he didn't want a job where EVERYONE was expected to do EVERYTHING.
Oh that's awesome! I started at WACB and WTLK in Taylorsville, NC! It was my very first job and I appreciate EVERYTHING they did to teach me. I was told the story about when the Potts' owned WTLK. Tons of history there!
-radioguy801
We need to get together sometime. The stories I can tell you about both stations. Like how I became Engineer of them both while still in high school. [email protected]
I'm a relatively young guy...I really wish I could have been in radio twenty years ago, back in the "good old days". I try my best to run my stations in the spirit of the good ol' days, though, and it has done well for us. I hope Mr. Spindoctor would agree that I don't ask people to do much that I wouldn't dig in and do myself. People who've never been in small market radio just don't understand that sometimes, we all really DO have to do everything. I may be the owner, and Mr. Spindoctor may be the Operations Manager, but that doesn't mean you aren't likely to find either one of us in the celiling running wire or at a tower site cutting grass. I'm personally of the opinion that if more owners "put their back into it", this would be a much better business.
I think we could all tell stories about having to do everything from make coffee to vacuum to, yes, even dig ditches...and I love hearing those stories!
I think we could all tell stories about having to do everything from make coffee to vacuum to, yes, even dig ditches...and I love hearing those stories!
P
PaulBWalkerJr
Guest
Well, I'll start the story telling...
I was working for a 250 Watt, High Dial Position Daytimer in The Mississippi Delta. Before going to bed, I walked outside to check on the weather. It was ever so slightly drizzling with a little wind, but nothing too bad, so i thought nothing of it and went to bad.
I woke up at 6:45am the following morning (I lived at the station), walked outside and it was raining cats and dogs, n then some. The water was 1/4 inch from coming in the front door. The building had already flodded once before a few years ago.
I grabbed a shovel, went outside in just my shirt and shorts(shoes woulda been soaked) and started digging a ditch across the front lawn. I went from one end to the other digging a ditch about 4 inches deep that led into a nearby creek.
Just to give you an idea of how much rain had fallen, you could not tell where the foot deep creek ended and road began. I called up the owner and said, "Jason I hate to tell you but I had to dig up the front lawn and there are chunks of it everywhere". His reply?, "You do what you hafta do".
When a client came by the next day and asked about the little ditch, the owner said... "Oh, that was our little water problem yesterday!" anbd the client just goes, "Oh, Ok!"
I was working for a 250 Watt, High Dial Position Daytimer in The Mississippi Delta. Before going to bed, I walked outside to check on the weather. It was ever so slightly drizzling with a little wind, but nothing too bad, so i thought nothing of it and went to bad.
I woke up at 6:45am the following morning (I lived at the station), walked outside and it was raining cats and dogs, n then some. The water was 1/4 inch from coming in the front door. The building had already flodded once before a few years ago.
I grabbed a shovel, went outside in just my shirt and shorts(shoes woulda been soaked) and started digging a ditch across the front lawn. I went from one end to the other digging a ditch about 4 inches deep that led into a nearby creek.
Just to give you an idea of how much rain had fallen, you could not tell where the foot deep creek ended and road began. I called up the owner and said, "Jason I hate to tell you but I had to dig up the front lawn and there are chunks of it everywhere". His reply?, "You do what you hafta do".
When a client came by the next day and asked about the little ditch, the owner said... "Oh, that was our little water problem yesterday!" anbd the client just goes, "Oh, Ok!"
Bet you didn't know you could dig a ditch so fast did you. Great story.
P
PaulBWalkerJr
Guest
It took me just over 2 hours to finish.
i was soaked to the bone and I was sore in places for days that I never knew I had....
i was soaked to the bone and I was sore in places for days that I never knew I had....
Gotta love small market radio. Not a lot of money but the experiences are priceless. It's one of those deals that if you never been there a lot of the stuff would be hard to believe.
P
PaulBWalkerJr
Guest
I got a couple more....
The program module blew on our Harris Mono 5 Rotary Pot board the evneing before thanksgiving. The gospel people came in at 7am and found it not working. When i offered my assistance, the gospel people rudely said they could handle it and pushed me outta the studio. Come 10:15am when theire show would've been over, they left.
I finally got an engineer on the phone around 12:15pm... I took the wire out of the monitor speakers i nthe studio and rerouter it to the compressor limiter and ran everytting thru audition. It stayed that way for atleast 9 months after i left.
We were a strict daytimer, signing off at sunset. I got a call around 9:45pm for a song request. After I determined what genre it was, I said, "Ma'am, we sign off at sunset every day, we aren't even on the air now. Call back between 7am and 10am weekends... and they'll gladly play you're song". Guess who called two nights later asking for the same exact thing? Yup.. you guessed it! I just told her "Yes ma'am, we've got it.. I'll try and play it here for you shortly" and hung up.
One night, around 12midnight I got a phone call asking for help in identifying a song. The female caller didn't even know who the aritst was. I told her I needed to know what genre it was from. When I then asked, "Where did you hear this song?".. She replied, "Oh, it's on 93.7FM right now!.. 93.7 is over 50 miles
away and was by no means co-owned!!
The stupidity continues.........
One night aroud 10pm, I got a call from a lady who asked, "Do you have the number to that 102.1 FM station over in Sardis?". my reply was, "No, not off the top of my head but let me go check the computer".......... when I came back on the line, I said.. "Ok, ma'am.. their number is 662..... and their address is... in Senatobia"
She said, "Well i thought they were in Sardis?" I then said to her, "They are licensed by the FCC to the town of Sardis but as long as they have a studio within 25 miles and puty a crystal clear signal into Sardis they can have their studio anywhere"
Her next line to me was, "I thought ALL radio stations were interconencted?"... I said, "No ma'am, but nthanks for calling" and hung up.....
I also had a 6 foot 4 inch 260 pound black guy take me(20 years old, 6 feet 2, 175)... by my shirt collar, throw me face first to the studio floor and threaten to kill me. I tried to press charges that day, but it was Martin Luther King Day a holiday, they wouldn't let me. I eventually got a court date and while in court, the judge not only told Pastor to shut up(rather "be quiet0 10 times, but his wife, who was 1/3rd his age... was thrown out of court and almost arrested for contempt of court 'cuse she mouth off to a couny prosecutor.
This is the same man who threw a fit on the air when the station went from TOp 40/CHR to oldies and we wanted him to start using the new slogan but he bitched about how we can't make changes without telling the FCC.. he somehow confused our slogan with our call letters.........
I've got airchecks of this guy, 2 of them.. if anyone wants to hear them, let me know! And I swear to all the radio gods, everything I've mentioend above are true stories... I just wish I still had the court documents to prove some of it!!
Paul B. Walker, Jr.
http://www.theradiogod.com/blog.html
[email protected]
The program module blew on our Harris Mono 5 Rotary Pot board the evneing before thanksgiving. The gospel people came in at 7am and found it not working. When i offered my assistance, the gospel people rudely said they could handle it and pushed me outta the studio. Come 10:15am when theire show would've been over, they left.
I finally got an engineer on the phone around 12:15pm... I took the wire out of the monitor speakers i nthe studio and rerouter it to the compressor limiter and ran everytting thru audition. It stayed that way for atleast 9 months after i left.
We were a strict daytimer, signing off at sunset. I got a call around 9:45pm for a song request. After I determined what genre it was, I said, "Ma'am, we sign off at sunset every day, we aren't even on the air now. Call back between 7am and 10am weekends... and they'll gladly play you're song". Guess who called two nights later asking for the same exact thing? Yup.. you guessed it! I just told her "Yes ma'am, we've got it.. I'll try and play it here for you shortly" and hung up.
One night, around 12midnight I got a phone call asking for help in identifying a song. The female caller didn't even know who the aritst was. I told her I needed to know what genre it was from. When I then asked, "Where did you hear this song?".. She replied, "Oh, it's on 93.7FM right now!.. 93.7 is over 50 miles
away and was by no means co-owned!!
The stupidity continues.........
One night aroud 10pm, I got a call from a lady who asked, "Do you have the number to that 102.1 FM station over in Sardis?". my reply was, "No, not off the top of my head but let me go check the computer".......... when I came back on the line, I said.. "Ok, ma'am.. their number is 662..... and their address is... in Senatobia"
She said, "Well i thought they were in Sardis?" I then said to her, "They are licensed by the FCC to the town of Sardis but as long as they have a studio within 25 miles and puty a crystal clear signal into Sardis they can have their studio anywhere"
Her next line to me was, "I thought ALL radio stations were interconencted?"... I said, "No ma'am, but nthanks for calling" and hung up.....
I also had a 6 foot 4 inch 260 pound black guy take me(20 years old, 6 feet 2, 175)... by my shirt collar, throw me face first to the studio floor and threaten to kill me. I tried to press charges that day, but it was Martin Luther King Day a holiday, they wouldn't let me. I eventually got a court date and while in court, the judge not only told Pastor to shut up(rather "be quiet0 10 times, but his wife, who was 1/3rd his age... was thrown out of court and almost arrested for contempt of court 'cuse she mouth off to a couny prosecutor.
This is the same man who threw a fit on the air when the station went from TOp 40/CHR to oldies and we wanted him to start using the new slogan but he bitched about how we can't make changes without telling the FCC.. he somehow confused our slogan with our call letters.........
I've got airchecks of this guy, 2 of them.. if anyone wants to hear them, let me know! And I swear to all the radio gods, everything I've mentioend above are true stories... I just wish I still had the court documents to prove some of it!!
Paul B. Walker, Jr.
http://www.theradiogod.com/blog.html
[email protected]
- Status
- This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.