Big News for AM 830 WCRN

[PaulBWalkerJr]

www.wcrnradio.com is reporting that big news is coming to WCRN 830 in Worcester and that it's the biggest news in WCRN history and possibly.. the biggest news in Worcester radio history.

What could it be?.. Are they finally going to 50,000 Watts Night? Are they hiring some well known personality?

Seriously, I don't know and no one over there will tell me anything. Don't shoot the messenger!

 

[radiodouble]

www.wcrnradio.com is reporting that big news is coming to WCRN 830 in Worcester and that it's the biggest news in WCRN history and possibly.. the biggest news in Worcester radio history.

What could it be?.. Are they finally going to 50,000 Watts Night? Are they hiring some well known personality?

Seriously, I don't know and no one over there will tell me anything. Don't shoot the messenger!

new red sox affil.

 

[Neggy]

If they were going to 50Kw we would have seen the application on the F.C.C. Daily Notices long ago.

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

I would think the WEEI Radio Network(WEEI-AM-FM-WVEI,etc) would have all the Red Sox rights

 

[JustinT]

I would think the WEEI Radio Network(WEEI-AM-FM-WVEI,etc) would have all the Red Sox rights

Not necessarily. Right now, the Sox air in Worcester on Clear Channel's 580 WTAG, despite having the WVEI 1440 relay since the late 1990s.

 

[DanStrassberg]

If they were going to 50Kw we would have seen the application on the F.C.C. Daily Notices long ago.

We DID see it in the FCC actions A LONG time ago! A CP was granted for 50 kW-N using a three-tower in-line night array with unequal tower-to-tower spacing. This would have required adding a fourth tower to the site on land that Carter owns just to the east of the existing array. The steel for the new tower was on site and waiting for the riggers to arrive when the Town of Leicester denied the building permit. Carter took the Town to court and the CP was tolled (meaning that the clock was stopped to prevent it from expiring). Given the Mass Supreme Court's decision a year or so ago in favor of the radio stations in the Champion case (WUNR/WKOX/WRCA vs. the City of Newton), it appeared likely that Carter would ultimately prevail--assuming that WCRN didn't go broke first and that AM broadcasting didn't first end in the US. Of course, when all this started, WCRN was running a classy NOS format as Swing 830. Now it's just the same right-wing talk that's on WRKO, WTKK. WCAP, and others in eastern Mass. So. if the power increase is the big news, the news is no longer very newsy.

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

It'll be interesting to see just WHAT this supposed big announcement really turns out to be.

 

[DanStrassberg]

If clues are supposed to be contained in the audio that came on after I had camped for a couple of minutes on the WCRN Web site, I'd say that 50 kW-N is probably a smart guess--although, based on what I'm taking as a clue, the new night signal won't be on for another six months or so. What I heard was a promo that began with a clip from the song "Please Come to Boston for the Springtime." The new night signal will not just be 50 kW; it will be aimed pretty much due east--right at Boston. The 50-kW day signal is aimed northeast--more toward Lowell than toward Boston. But they could have faded out the song before the words "for the springtime," so I'm guessing that the engineers don't want to be making field-intensity mesurements in the snow. Besides, if we have a wet spring, the soil conductivity will increase, and the coverage will look better.

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

I've been assured it isn't the 50KW upgrade that we all think. That's been put on hold due to issues with zoning and town folk. Apparnetly, they think it's damaging to run 50,000 Watts full time......

I've passed the promo onto a few friend sof mine.. and the other 3 that have heard it all made the same guess as to what's going on.

 

[FPB]

They finished the audio announcement saying "This is 830 WCRN", not True Talk WCRN. I wonder if they're dropping talk?? Maybe even come back to their senses and bring back Swing!! Not that I'm holding my breath, of course.

 

[raccoonradio]

Howie Carr has told his listeners that if they're in an area where WRKO can't be picked up after dark they can hear him on WCRN instead. And next year MOST Sox games will be on WRKO (Friday nights and weekday
1 pm starts might be on WEEI instead, I think), and I don't know if the Red Sox pre-game show--
at 6:30 pm when it's a 7 pm start--will be on WEEI or WRKO. If it's on the latter, it also would be a reason
to have Howie fans tune to 830 for the end of his show. If, indeed, it's still talk...

 

[DavidZ]

Maybe they are hiring John DePetro. LOL

 

[DavidZ]

Now that I have gotten my sarcasm out of the way, here are my true thoughts on the WCRN “major announcement”, they begin their promo with “Please come to Boston” (from Dave Loggins) and end it with “Boston you’re my home” (from the Standells).

It definitely sounds like the upgrade to 50,000 watts is a reality. It also hints that there will be another station leaving their COL behind and “moving” to Boston. After all, they are already fairly Boston centric with their current news presentation, etc.

The question is “How will they fare as another Boston talk station in a very crowded market?” Maybe along with the power upgrade they plan on taking the station “left of center” to run counter programming to WRKO / WTTK-FM.

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

I'm pretty sure it's not the fact they are going to 50,000 Watts at night. I don't think they've put that 4th tower up and doing so in a New England winter wouldn't be easy!

 

[raccoonradio]

Left of center programming...not sure if that would get them ratings. There's NPR, WBZ (Leveille at least
has seemed to be on the left side), and Air Bankrupt drawing that audience...though maybe some of those non-AAR hosts might
draw higher ratings...Maybe something a bit more centrist might draw from both sides of the spectrum (but
of course radio talk tends to go to the extreme ends)

I would think they'd stay with Bluto, Ingraham, Howie, Savage et al...but who knows

 

[Eli Polonsky]

If Entercom ever puts IBOC HD on WEEI, you could forget about getting a listenable WCRN in Boston.

I know that the nitpickers will say that the IBOC noise would be on 840 rather than 830, and it's true that most of it would be, but most of today's AM tuners are poor quality and don't have particularly good selectivity. HD on WEEI would still do a serious number on WCRN for most greater Boston area listeners.

 

[DanStrassberg]

It definitely sounds like the upgrade to 50,000 watts is a reality. It also hints that there will be another station leaving their COL behind and “moving” to Boston. After all, they are already fairly Boston centric with their current news presentation, etc.

Even without IBOC, there is NO chance that, under current FCC rules, WCRN could change its CoL to Boston. WCRN is second-adjacent to WEEI. The overlap criterion for second adjacents is no overlap of 5 mV/m contours. It was the loosening of the previous second-adjacent-overlap criterion that enabled WCRN to increase its D power to 50 kW and should eventually permit the night power increase. The signal requirement for coverage of the CoL is 5 mV/m days over the entire CoL. At night, the NIF contour must cover at least 80% of the CoL. WCRN's NIF is 10.55 mV/m. Since WEEI must cover all of Boston with at least 5 mV/m days, WCRN cannot deliver 5 mV/m to ANY of Boston. Under current rules, WCRN cannot even change its CoL to any community closer to Boston than Framingham--and a move to Framingham would be possible only after the 50-kW night signal was on the air. And even then, it might not be possible. I've seen the map of the projected 10.55 mV/m NIF contour. I don't recall whether or not it encompasses most of Framingham as it would have to do for a CoL change to Framingham. For sure, the NIF contour doesn't cover Natick. If the NIF doesn't encompass 80% of Framingham, it comes close, but not necessarily close enough.

 

[DanStrassberg]

OK, here's a theory: WCRN might move its main studios (such as they are) and offices to Boston in the spring of 2007. When/if the night power increase goes on the air, WCRN might be able to change its CoL to Framingham. Would anybody (except maybe a couple of WCRN employees or members of the Carberry family) care--at all? I suppose such moves might improve the chances of WCRN selling spots to advertisers in Boston (ones who would buy time without proof that anyone listens in Boston).

Does anybody know where Peter Blute lives? Is it closer to Boston or Worcester?

 

[AKLes]

I can't see that moving a studio to Boston would have any influence on advertisers. At one time it was general practice to have studios at a transmitter site away from the high rent but to maintain a business office in Boston (or other large city) for advertising, mailing and general PR purposes.

Like in the legendary Stan Freberg stuff...radio is theater of the imagination. I once purported to do shows regularly from the depths of a cold war era bomb shelter in a mountain cavern. We won't go into what the format was..... But with a little reverb and occasional sound effects a very large percentage of the audience bought it. Especially when guests were in on the scheme and worked in comments about the dampness, cold, guano, etc. Had some of the damndest resident/guests that made regular appearance. Late night, of course.....

 

[DanStrassberg]

I once purported to do shows regularly from the depths of a cold war era bomb shelter in a mountain cavern. We won't go into what the format was..... But with a little reverb and occasional sound effects a very large percentage of the audience bought it. Especially when guests were in on the scheme and worked in comments about the dampness, cold, guano, etc. Had some of the damndest resident/guests that made regular appearance. Late night, of course.....

Sounds like a great sendup of shows by Al (Jazzbo) Collins, a well-known New York and San Francisco radio personality of the late 40s and early 50s. On the old WNEW (AM) 1130 in New York, he did a show called the Purple Grotto, which was named for its imaginary point of origination--in the studio basement, of course. Collins had a droll sense of humor and he played jazz (real jazz) in the late evenings. Among the denizens of the grotto, besides Jazzbo, was a purple Tasmanian owl, whose name I can't remember. Although I want to say Wilbur, I'm pretty sure that's wrong. When Collins moved to SF, I believe he took the show to KSFO (decades before it sank into right-wing whacko talk). Heck, when Collins was on WNEW, two-way telephone talk hadn't yet been invented.