• 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

Clear Channel puts NPR on AM 640 (can reach Bos. with good radio)

Clear Channel's WNNZ AM 640 in Westfield will be doing a limited marketing agreement with WFCR 88.5 ("Five College Radio" I think is what it stands for) to place some NPR programming on WNNZ. (Am mentioning it here because by day, at least, much of Metro Boston can pick up WNNZ with a half decent radio)

Day signal:
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WNNZ&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

night signal:
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WNNZ&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

The shows that will appear on AM 640, which are currently on WPNI 1430 in Amherst, include BBC World Service, Morning Edition, On Point, Fresh
Air, Talk of the Nation, The World, Weekend Edition, Whad Ya Know,
Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Tavis Smiley, and Car Talk. It takes effect
April 2.

details: http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html

Seems that WNNZ was having a tough time running sports (Fox Sports
Radio) and they didn't want to "cannibalize" the talk audience
from their WHYN 560 in Holyoke (Rush, Howie Carr, Michael Savage)
by putting another (conservative) talk station on 640...

I'm surprised they didn't put the conservative talk on 640 and move
560 to running some NPR....but WHYN's signal isn't as good as the 640
 
raccoonradio said:
Clear Channel's WNNZ AM 640 in Westfield will be doing a limited marketing agreement with WFCR 88.5 ("Five College Radio" I think is what it stands for) to place some NPR programming on WNNZ. (Am mentioning it here because by day, at least, much of Metro Boston can pick up WNNZ with a half decent radio)

It is barely audible, but very faint, in Boston, and a portion of metro-west may not get it due to adjacent interference from WSRO 650. I was surprised how far the fringe of the signal kept rolling out into upstate New York when I was out there last summer. I could hear it (better than in the Boston area) about 50 or 60 miles past Albany.
 
not as bad on North Shore, at least parts of it with good car stereo
I noticed it coming it well in VT

See the chart (link above) to see how well it reaches upstate NY
 
The actual WFCR signal (88.5) reaches much of eastern MA during the spring, summer, and early fall months.
 
There used to be several college carrier-current transmitters set to run on 640 AM here and there. WTBU and WNBY immediately come to mind. I think WECB did at one point, too. A lot of 'em don't work anymore, though. And it's not like the range on those things wasn't barely a block from the dorm it was in, anyways.

I wouldn't think 640 comes in worth much in Boston...too much splatter from WPRO 630 in Providence; esp. if WPRO is running IBOC, which I think it it's supposed to be (or will be soon).
 
martin1945 said:
The actual WFCR signal (88.5) reaches much of eastern MA during the spring, summer, and early fall months.

Winter, too. No reason for it not to in the winter. I know there's less "ducting" in the winter, but the extreme fringe of WFCR's signal gets out here without it.

However, the problem is that there are at least three pirates on 88.5 in the greater Boston area. The powerful Caribbean one in the Dorchester area, the Middle Eastern one from a southwest suburb (someone here said Dedham), and "Off-Coast Radio" (the equipment of the former "Radio Free Cambridge") from somewhere in the Cambridge/Somerville area.

webcastboy said:
There used to be several college carrier-current transmitters set to run on 640 AM here and there. WTBU and WNBY immediately come to mind. I think WECB did at one point, too. A lot of 'em don't work anymore, though. And it's not like the range on those things wasn't barely a block from the dorm it was in, anyways.

That wasn't always true. WECB was on 640, and for a while in the early 70's, it was running an obviously illegal amount of power. I could hear it, faintly but strong enough to make out what was being said and played, where I grew up in Newton.
 
getting back to WNNZ, aren't they on the Yankees radio network? Will they have to drop that (or run PSAs
during the ad breaks--but the Yanks network would demand they run ads...unless they stay as a "commercial"
station but simply will run non-comm stuff most of the time....

weird.

>>Massachusetts

* 1340 AM WBRK Pittsfield
* 640 AM WNNZ Springfield
 
I beleive "NPR 640am" will be required to air any sporting games until the contract expires, and then not renew it.
 
PaulBWalkerJr said:
I beleive "NPR 640am" will be required to air any sporting games until the contract expires, and then not renew it.

There will be no Yankees on NNZ this season. The contract wasn't renewed.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom