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Bruins Coverage

S

ssetta

As most of you know, the Bruins have advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, hoping to win the cup. On Friday night when they won, each local station did something different. It took place around 10:45pm.

WBZ: Ran a ticker at the bottom of the screen saying that they had made it to the finals for the first time in 21 years, and that coverage begins at 11 pm, and they did have an extended newscast.

WFXT was already in the middle of their 10 pm newscast, so they just did it during their regular newscast.

Both WCVB and WHDH interrupted network programming, but it seems like WHDH will have more Bruins coverage than any other station. They have 2 sportscasters out in Vancouver for the game, and apparently they had news coverage earlier this morning when the Bruins were leaving for Vancouver, and they will have a pregame report before every game, pre-empting Extra.

I heard from the "Save Boston Channels" group on Facebook that the Providence stations had almost no coverage whatsoever of this event. Maybe they will if we do win the cup. I also wonder what WMUR did, if anything.
 
since whdh has some of the games it would make sense,and i think providence might feel that there arent alot of bruins fans donw there they run Yankees scores for all the fans there!!
 
WJAR is sending Joe Kayata to Vancouver - don't say Providence doesn't cover things. People also shouldn't be so quick to make a direct comparison between Providence and Boston. Providence is a #50+ DMA, while Boston is in the top 10. There's no way that a Providence station is going to match what Boston can do, though they are definitely trying hard.
 
This is a classic case of boston bandwagon jumping the bruins most often are the equivalent of nascar but hey the celtics were eliminated this is all we got.
 
Boston has the better goalie but is about to be crushed by the better team.

The road games are on late at night in Bahstun. Good thing. ;D

Canuckles in six (Thomas has two good games).
 
bg02445 said:
WJAR is sending Joe Kayata to Vancouver - don't say Providence doesn't cover things. People also shouldn't be so quick to make a direct comparison between Providence and Boston. Providence is a #50+ DMA, while Boston is in the top 10. There's no way that a Providence station is going to match what Boston can do, though they are definitely trying hard.
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You'd think though that given Rhode Island's proximity to Boston, the fact that 99% of Rhode Island sports fans are Boston fans, and that this was the B's first Stanley Cup in 20 years, that they'd put a little more oomph into their coverage rather than shelfing it in the sports section...
 
landtuna said:
Boston has the better goalie but is about to be crushed by the better team.

The road games are on late at night in Bahstun. Good thing. ;D

Canuckles in six (Thomas has two good games).
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The road games are on 8:15 EST. They start 5:15 PST to accomodate the East coast markets.
 
someplacesomewhere said:
The road games are on 8:15 EST. They start 5:15 PST to accomodate the East coast markets.
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I'd call an 8:30 start (which it was tonight) a late start. Of course in Bahstun they may not have to get up tomorrow (and after the Vancouver winning goal in the last :18.5 seconds they may not want to anyway). ;D
 
You'd think though that given Rhode Island's proximity to Boston, the fact that 99% of Rhode Island sports fans are Boston fans, and that this was the B's first Stanley Cup in 20 years, that they'd put a little more oomph into their coverage rather than shelfing it in the sports section...
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99%? I would say 80% to 85%. We got some fans of the New York teams and other teams as well. We also have our own Yankee Radio Network station 790 WPRV in Providence and you can easily hear the Mets and Giants on 660 WFAN, and the Jets on 1050 WEPN especially in the southern part of the state.
 
I'm sorry, Jay... did you just write that 1050 WEPN could actually be heard in the state of Rhode Island? When tropo is not involved? I find it hard to believe, since the station, especially after sunset (where a great deal of the Jets' games are played - the price that comes with being a popular NFL team) can barely be heard in parts of Long Island, let alone Rhode Island!
 
WEPN's signal problems in Long Island are largely in the central portion of the island, which is a big (and very non-conductive) sandbar. The 1050 signal from the Meadowlands actually aims most of its power due east, and if you're along the very conductive Long Island Sound, it shoots up to Rhode Island and Cape Cod about as well as any of the other Meadowlands-based stations (though not quite as well as WCBS/WFAN, whose signals don't have to get across Manhattan and the Bronx before hitting the "salt water way" eastward...)
 
We get 1050 WEPN here on the coast of Maine at night. As a kid I listened to it about every night when it was WMGM and WHN.
 
Games 3 and 4 were on Versus, not NBC. In Boston, did WHDH air them with the NBC programming moved elsewhere? Does the NHL have an NFL-like clause for that?
 
AFAIK, the NHL's deal doesn't work that way. Perhaps if the league experienced a bump in popularity, that part of the deal could be modified.
 
DToTheJ said:
I'm sorry, Jay... did you just write that 1050 WEPN could actually be heard in the state of Rhode Island? When tropo is not involved? I find it hard to believe, since the station, especially after sunset (where a great deal of the Jets' games are played - the price that comes with being a popular NFL team) can barely be heard in parts of Long Island, let alone Rhode Island!
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Yes, 1050 WEPN (also has the New York Knicks and New York Rangers) does come in like a local along the south coast of RI during the day like 1010 WINS.  At night they sometimes drift in and out.  As Scott said, the stations have their towers west of NYC in the New Jersey Meadowlands and do not reach as far inland as 660 WFAN and 880 WCBS with their towers located on High Island, east of the city.  WFAN and WCBS are listenable in all of Rhode Island area during the day.   
 
Wow... I had no idea WEPN's signal was THAT strong... WCBS and WINS coming in like locals on Rhode Island, I could buy - they're blowtorches... WEPN is also, to an extent, but there's limitations involved... I may have to take a trip to Providence and do a "test run" if it's that strong... ::) Why do they even NEED an FM station in New York for?
 
DToTheJ said:
Wow... I had no idea WEPN's signal was THAT strong... WCBS and WINS coming in like locals on Rhode Island, I could buy - they're blowtorches... WEPN is also, to an extent, but there's limitations involved... I may have to take a trip to Providence and do a "test run" if it's that strong... ::) Why do they even NEED an FM station in New York for?
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I'm not sure what's so surprising. WEPN is a 50 kW directional in the middle of the AM band, just like WINS. And just like WINS, it's operating from a recently-rebuilt transmitter plant in the swamps of the Meadowlands, within sight of the Manhattan skyline.

So why does it need an FM? A few reasons: first, that "directional" bit. WEPN has to null its signal in the direction of a co-channel station in Toronto, CHUM, which is also 50,000 watts on 1050. And it has to null its signal in the direction of an adjacent-channel station, KYW 1060 in Philadelphia. So very little of WEPN's 50 kW goes to listeners in most of north Jersey, which means anyone with an Arbitron PPM meter in, say, Metuchen or New Brunswick or Morristown isn't going to get much of a useful signal from WEPN. (That's why ESPN simulcasts on WNJE 1040 in Hunterdon County, though it doesn't do a complete job of filling in those directional nulls on the main 1050 signal.)

And then there's the other big problem for New York City AMs: New York City itself, and especially Manhattan and the Bronx, are built on some of the least conductive rock anywhere in the country. The granite schist of upper Manhattan is deadly to AM signal transmission. All those AMs that blast out of the Meadowlands are loud and clear on the west side...but by the time you cross Central Park to the east side, they're much, much weaker. And it gets worse: the New York City Arbitron market extends for another 120 miles out to the tip of Long Island, which is basically one long non-conductive sandbar. If you're near the north or south shores, you can get NYC AM signals that shoot out Long Island Sound or along the ocean coast, but if you're driving out the LIE, fuggedaboutit.

The radio-locator maps are actually very useful here, since they show the effects of ground conductivity on AM groundwave signals. Look at WEPN's map on radio-locator and then compare it to this:

http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/PPM_Diary_Markets_NY.pdf

Everything within the thin red line - the five boroughs, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Fairfield (the Stamford-Norwalk portion), Passaic, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Union, Somerset, Middlesex and Monmouth - is measured in the New York City ratings. No single NYC station completely covers the area (WCBS and WFAN probably come closest, followed by WABC), but WEPN is particularly impaired in some very populous parts of the market.
 
DToTheJ said:
Wow... I had no idea WEPN's signal was THAT strong... WCBS and WINS coming in like locals on Rhode Island, I could buy - they're blowtorches... WEPN is also, to an extent, but there's limitations involved... I may have to take a trip to Providence and do a "test run" if it's that strong... ::) Why do they even NEED an FM station in New York for?
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In addition to the above-mentioned signals, WFAN and WABC also come in pretty well in southern RI and even out to Cape Cod (particularly the south shore) and the Islands. As a kid, I recall marveling at WABC's strong daytime signal in places like Westerly and Narragansett, RI as well as New Bedford, Falmouth and Hyannis, MA.

The nighttime fading that radiojay is referring to is likely groundwave/skywave cancellation, which is apt to happen at that distance from the transmitter. The groundwave signal is still receivable, as is the skywave (which just made a slightly longer trip). The two "source waves" get to be slightly out of sync and that messes up reception. Get closer to the tx and the groundwave overwhelms the skywave; go farther away and the skywave takes over. In between is where reception is dicey.

Tropo, on the other hand (which DtotheJ referred to earlier) affects mainly the VHF/FM and higher bands and would not be a factor for AM signals.
 
Back to the Bruins coverage, with Game 7 being tonight, according to another thread, WBZ-AM is carrying Game 7, simulcasting WBZ-FM. However, I wonder if there will be just as much coverage on Boston TV (and radio) if the Bruins lose. I remember this happened a few years ago when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Giants, and I think maybe even last year when the Celtics lost to the LA Lakers. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because a lot of people seem to guess that the Bruins will NOT win the cup, but everyone will be very emotional regardless.
 
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