Best / Worst Signal - Best / Worst Processing (Sound)

[damian542]

OK... before you slam me for this totally pointless post.... I'm just tired of all the Country talk and figured we'd all take a quick break (and yes, I'm sure this has been asked before).... so, what stations for what NJ markets do you think have the best signal coverage and the best processing... for that matter who has the worst.... here's my 2 cents

Atlantic City...

Best signal: I would have to go with either WFPG or WXKW(97.3).... they are both non-directional signals, and FPG is IN atlantic city... but 97.3 hits the WHOLE market better...

Worst Signal: OK... I'm not including those crappy signals in Cape May... so, I have to go with 102.7. I said that on another post... that signal really stinks...


Best Processing: Ya know... there's something about analogue processing that get's me goin'... and although the digital processors stay tuned forever, the prisms are real nice units... so I have to give my vote for 95.1... very unique sound, stands out in the market for sure (and I know it's not prisms )

Worst Processing: Hate to say it... 102.7 again... bad bad bad....


I don't know many other Jersey markets... but in trenton I have to give BEST / BEST to NJ 101.5... nice signal, nice processing....

 

[JerseyShor]

I don't know what market 104.9/WSJO is considered, but it is by far the best signal in Southern New Jersey. The worst signal in all of Southern NJ is definately 99.7/WBHX which only covers from Margate to Toms River and sends more than half of it's signal over the Ocean.

Of the "Atlantic City/Cape May" market signals, WFPG-FM is superior to all IMHO - I get them fine from Cherry Hill to Cape May Point to Belmar. I can get traces of the station as far north as Middletown.

Of the "Monmouth/Ocean" market signals, I'd say the best is WCHR-FM, I can get them on parts of Rt.440 in North Jersey, throughout most of Philadelphia and down into Ocean City.

 

[SoulCrusher]

What you said about WJSE 102.7 is so true, and that's a big part of what's holding it back. WJSE is the only place to hear today's rock if you don't feel like sitting through Fleetwood Mac or Kansas or whatever AOR relics WZXL feels like playing. There's actually no other commercial FM quite like it in all of New Jersey, and that's why I would love to see it succeed. But with that inferior processing and that WEAK signal, they have two strikes against them.

This might not be the best idea in the world, but I personally think if Access1 were to take a gamble and swap frequencies for WMGM and WJSE, it would actually pay off big time. WMGM has a loyal audience that would follow it to 102.7, and WJSE would experience a big ratings boost in the market on the 103.7 frequency. There's a lot of people in the southern half of the market that can't receive WJSE and still mourn the loss of WDOX, and I'm sure those people would become loyal listeners of The Ace. I also think that with the lack of an Active Rocker in Ocean County, if word got around, they would even attract some ratings and advertisers from that area as well. In fact, I am completely confident that WJSE would pull better ratings in Ocean Co. than WMGM, due to the fact that there's far less competition for its format.

This would be considered a gamble considering the heritage of WMGM. But with the weak signal for WJSE and the fact that WMGM took a ratings hit in this past book, maybe a frequency swap wouldn't be such a bad idea. WMGM wouldn't be any worse for wear, and things would only get better for WJSE.

 

[tom]

"It's not the meat - it's the motion"

WDOX used to get 1.5 to 1.9's 12+, even with the
competition from WJSE. Now WSJQ gets a .4 on that signal.

WZBZ's 3000 watts beats four 50,000 watt stations in the market.

How far a station goes isn't all that important, what is important
is how well it serves the people that want to hear it, and how
many of those people are in a rated area, and how many get
rated.

With the increased competition from better sounding alternatives,
like CD players in cars, XM, Sirius, MP3 players, etc - radio
stations need to sound smoother and not distorted, to promote
longer listening. I had a station on for less than three minutes
yesterday, I had to turn it off because the music sounded so
bad. Back to Ethel - XM 47.

 

[Starscream]

I don't know many other Jersey markets... but in trenton I have to give BEST / BEST to NJ 101.5... nice signal, nice processing....

"What reverb?" - Eric Johnson

 

[SoulCrusher]

"It's not the meat - it's the motion"

WDOX used to get 1.5 to 1.9's 12+, even with the
competition from WJSE. Now WSJQ gets a .4 on that signal.

WZBZ's 3000 watts beats four 50,000 watt stations in the market.

How far a station goes isn't all that important, what is important
is how well it serves the people that want to hear it, and how
many of those people are in a rated area, and how many get
rated.

With the increased competition from better sounding alternatives,
like CD players in cars, XM, Sirius, MP3 players, etc - radio
stations need to sound smoother and not distorted, to promote
longer listening. I had a station on for less than three minutes
yesterday, I had to turn it off because the music sounded so
bad. Back to Ethel - XM 47.

Maybe Coastal Broadcasting is realizing the error of its ways, and that WSJQ (Q-107) wasn't such a good idea. Perhaps a Mainstream CHR that covered most of the market could have performed well (I still don't understand why WAYV moved away from it, or why Millennium didn't try this on 104.9). Q-107 is an Urban leaning CHR, which means that it's essentially competing with The Buzz for listeners. Meanwhile, WDOX was competing with a station that pulls a smaller share that recently altered its format to more of an Active Rock approach. If they were smart, they would give you a call and ask to re-launch DOX on 106.7 - the area needs you now more than ever. Of course, Ocean County would love to have DOX too, but that's just a pipe dream - even the low-power FMs sell for quite a bundle over here. And speaking of Q-107 - isn't former WJSE personality "The Beast" the current PD over there?

As far as WJSE goes, this book isn't going to display how listeners are warming up to Scotty & Alex in the morning or the new format & branding (which happened in March, if I'm not mistaken). While it's true that the power of your signal isn't everything, as proven by The Buzz (I can't tell whether 99.3 or 105.5 pulls in more listeners, but I would guess the former since it covers Atlantic City better), there's just something about WJSE that I can't put my finger on that's holding it back, and it's not the format. I don't know if it's signal location, presentation, lack of advertising, Access1's decision to play some Classic Rock acts even when the station was still considered Alternative, etc. Something definitely needs to be tinkered with in order for this station to return to its former glory - for starters, maybe after the Late Night Leak (which I think is a great feature, and I wish G Rock Radio did something like it) they could bring in a DJ to cover the overnights instead of going automated. Everything else that needs work is more on the technical end of things - hey Tom, I think they need you!

 

[damian542]

"It's not the meat - it's the motion"

WDOX used to get 1.5 to 1.9's 12+, even with the
competition from WJSE. Now WSJQ gets a .4 on that signal.

WZBZ's 3000 watts beats four 50,000 watt stations in the market.

How far a station goes isn't all that important, what is important
is how well it serves the people that want to hear it, and how
many of those people are in a rated area, and how many get
rated.

I agree that the wattage does not matter if you can hear it... but you are saying that ZBZ is 3kw, and that's true, but when you take into account the coverage from GBZ, I believe the 60dbu contours overlap giving them a signal better than most 50kw stations in that market... better than FPG (until you raise that tower)... but in Pleasantville or A.C. there is no difference between AYV and ZBZ... I agree with that... but don't downplay the coverage of the Buzz and Touch... they make up for it with southern signals...

Maybe Coastal Broadcasting is realizing the error of its ways, and that WSJQ (Q-107) wasn't such a good idea. Perhaps a Mainstream CHR that covered most of the market could have performed well (I still don't understand why WAYV moved away from it, or why Millennium didn't try this on 104.9). Q-107 is an Urban leaning CHR, which means that it's essentially competing with The Buzz for listeners. Meanwhile, WDOX was competing with a station that pulls a smaller share that recently altered its format to more of an Active Rock approach

AVY moved away from it because of the Buzz... they use AYV to take listeners away from FPG and keep AYV on top, then they fill in the younger audience with the Buzz. This also makes people think twice about putting on a true CHR... it's such a small slice to insert into the matket... you have separate stations playing most of the music that makes up a CHR... and Millenium does not really see SJO as an A.C. station.. Millennium's business plan was to create their own market called "New Jersey", and SJO fills in the Philly burbs nicely...

 

[blueclaws1210]

for the monmouth book i would say the strongest station is "wwzy" (the breeze) i am able to hear it up through central middlesex county (edsion) problary becauce many monmouth and ocean people work around there. for worst signal in centraljersey i say wctc and wmgq they both stink and are good for middlesex county around the rartitan bridge area but after that for get it. also wpht-philadelphia comes in pretty good in south central jersey.

 

[markhunter2001]

"It's not the meat - it's the motion"

WDOX used to get 1.5 to 1.9's 12+, even with the
competition from WJSE. Now WSJQ gets a .4 on that signal.

WZBZ's 3000 watts beats four 50,000 watt stations in the market.

How far a station goes isn't all that important, what is important
is how well it serves the people that want to hear it, and how
many of those people are in a rated area, and how many get
rated.

With the increased competition from better sounding alternatives,
like CD players in cars, XM, Sirius, MP3 players, etc - radio
stations need to sound smoother and not distorted, to promote
longer listening. I had a station on for less than three minutes
yesterday, I had to turn it off because the music sounded so
bad. Back to Ethel - XM 47.

The key words here regarding DOX are "used to get 1.5 to 1.9's". In the end the station was not. And this is while Tom was still doing the music... there is a reason why Alternative stations across the country are changing to formats like Q-107, or The Beat in Philly, and that's because of the point Tom makes at the end of his post... XM, Sirius and other electronic means. Unless you're an Alternative with legendary calls (KROQ - L.A.), the Alternative format on terrestrial radio has probably gone the way of FM easy-listening stations... gone forever.

 

[SoulCrusher]

I honestly believe that WDOX is capable of pulling those ratings or better. This station had a very loyal following that would tune right in again if it came back. There is nothing quite like WDOX anywhere, and that includes XM or Sirius - no station on either service has the same sound, or a library as deep as the one that WDOX had.

Are you inferring that fans of Alternative music have enough of an income that they can afford to buy satellite radio units and subscribe to the service for about $175 annually? If anything, I think if you were to look up the average per capita income of radio listeners per format, you would find that Adult Contemporary and Smooth Jazz listeners probably are far more well to do than Alternative radio listeners. That's why it makes sense to have a station like this on terrestrial FM radio.

I believe that the reason why the format has struggled in recent years is because of the way it's programmed - media conglomerates like CBS and Clear Channel are notorious for taking a real bland & generic approach to the format, almost CHR-like in how they slam the hits and play the same tired Gold tracks. One needs look no further than the charts as of late to see that Alternative artists are making a comeback - acts ranging from Slipknot and Mudvayne to Pearl Jam and Tool to Nine Inch Nails and Thom Yorke have either topped the charts or come very close to doing it, and then there's Christian metalcore band Underoath that came this close to hitting # 1, and nobody around here plays them, not even the Christian music stations! Can you think of any Country acts that have done that besides Rascal Flatts? I can't think of the last kiddie bubblegum act that has done it. The audience for the Alternative format is there, and the record sales prove it. If only radio programmers in New Jersey would start to take notice.

 

[Herb999]

If it is not something unique and local that you can't get from XM/Sirius or digital portable players, then you only have two types of listeners to go for.

The poor, zbz and cat do well with them


The lazy and uninterested in dealing with new technology, fpg and ayv do well with them.


At least you can make money with the lazy.

 

[tom]

XM and Sirius are exactly making money, and are in fact, on
the verge of collapse. Try listening to XM or Sirius inside a
building with no windows. Try getting a weather forecast or
local information without having to tune to a robotic weather
channel on XM (not sure how Sirius does it)

I don't think XM and Sirius are only for the "rich" since it's
only $ 13.00 a month. If you can't afford that, you have
bigger problems in life - it's just that not everyone wants
it, knows about it, or is compelled to buy it. Running a
25 foot cable for a little antenna that you need to put in
the window is not for everyone. Many cars come with it,
and people either refuse it, or don't renew the subscription.

I have it - I like it - but don't think it replaces radio.

 

[Starscream]

XM and Sirius are exactly making money, and are in fact, on
the verge of collapse. Try listening to XM or Sirius inside a
building with no windows. Try getting a weather forecast or
local information without having to tune to a robotic weather
channel on XM (not sure how Sirius does it)

I don't think XM and Sirius are only for the "rich" since it's
only $ 13.00 a month. If you can't afford that, you have
bigger problems in life - it's just that not everyone wants
it, knows about it, or is compelled to buy it. Running a
25 foot cable for a little antenna that you need to put in
the window is not for everyone. Many cars come with it,
and people either refuse it, or don't renew the subscription.

I have it - I like it - but don't think it replaces radio.

Agreed. I'm surprised that they don't push the online streams harder for people in offices and such - The stream is flexible enough that you can use it in Windows Media Player, or the separate XAMP desktop (which is actually a lot better than XM's standard stream interface), etc.

The problem, as I see it, is that both XM and Sirius have overblown niche programming (Oprah, NASCAR, etc) when they should be focusing on the core of what will attract people - the music and their core talk programming.

The day-to-day core personalities (O&A, Stern, Brucie, etc) should be what they should be focusing on, because in the long run, people don't listen to football or auto racing on the radio for more than a few minutes at a time, and they aren't going to be compelled to get XM or Sirius over something like DirecTV.

"Daily" sports are a better investment (MLB, NBA, NHL) than "appointment" sports like the NFL, NASCAR, and the World Cup.

Didn't Stern cost Sirius the same amount of money as the NFL deal? I wonder, in the long run, who attracted more subs. I guarantee that Stern probably did at least 5:1.