Confusion over WKTU's format

[TonySantiago]

And regarding Pulse...it's not their problem regarding the signal. That has to be communicated to the FCC and THEY (Mega Media) would have to be the one to file an application for a boost of signal. Then again, they COULD do like Party 105 did with the 101.5 frequency and acquire another LP signal somewhere in perhaps Bergen or Essex County to help boost their signal further.

Except that a translator (like the 101.5 in Plainview) can only rebroadcast another licensed FM signal. It can't rebroadcast the audio of a TV station, which is what Pulse is licensed as.

Ahhhhh....I see!

Guess our only hope for a better signal would be if a frequency would be up for grabs and Mega Media spends the megabucks for it! But until then...we're just SO FRIGGIN HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!!! We got something!!!!

 

[nd2023]

How about if one of the many pirate stations rebroadcasts Pulse?
I wish Pulse launched early last month, when I was driving to Connecticut from NJ every other week. I heard Pulse all the way up to Bridgeport, where even the Empire signals started having trouble. Hopefully Pulse can increase power when WPVI in Philly goes all digital.

 

[Ike]

Would be nice if FreeForm WFMU 91.1 FM here in Jersey City would play Dance music on Saturdays. Pulse 87.7 has such a BAD SIGNAL.

Tony Santiago, have you tried to contact PD/MD Brian Turner about this?

I can try! Give me a number

This is hilarious to me, although articulating why it's hilarious is difficult. I'll just say that I doubt WFMU's overall listenership has a taste for much mainstream current dance music. FMU is free-form, yet it all fits together in a strange way. It almost has a single unified station-wide character.

FMU DJs are volunteers. Also, the station's transmitter is actually in the Oranges. You probably can't get it in most of Jersey City any better than Pulse 87.7. Some JC/Hoboken listeners use the FMU webcast instead.

Its existing Saturday shows are already pretty successful and I'd say they fill a niche. Lots of niches. Michael Shelley plays lesser-known '60s and '70s pop and classic country (often with hilarious lyrics) and other such stuff, and interviews musicians of yesteryear. (He jokingly declares all of the songs to be #1 hits.) Rex plays... ummm... I don't know how to describe Rex's show. Suggestive garage R&B from the '40s through the '70s? I don't really dig Rex's show, but you can't deny that he's got serious style on the mic. (His day job is behind the scenes at WNYC, I think.) Terre T. plays all sorts of garage rock, DIY, punk, post-punk, etc. She might've played the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before anybody else. All of these shows segue together better than you might expect. Transpacific Sound Paradise with Rob Weisberg is a long-running, well-respected, smart, well-researched world music show, which often plays actual indigenous-sounding stuff, not just "AAA-style" world music that's remixed into oblivion and whitewashed for the western masses.

It's a seriously weird station and I love it but I don't know how dance music fits in. But if you want to hear some classic and underground hip-hop then check out Put the Needle on the Record with Billy Jam on Friday afternoons, or Coffee Break for Heroes and Villains on Wednesday nights.

Occasionally fill-in DJ Monica L. (formerly of Tommy Boy, I think) will appear and play a lot of forgotten classic disco and old-school stuff, but with unpredictable or avant-garde sounds sometimes mixed in, or who-knows-what else. Free-form forever! On Tuesday nights from 11 to 2, DJ Small Change plays some things you might classify as dance music, but it's very free-form and you don't really know what you'll hear next. Lounge, soul, funk, jazz, a little punk....

 

[JerseyDude]

Ike Hull,

WFMU comes in crystal clear on my home stereo here on Wayne Street in Downtown Jersey City. It's even crystal clear on my Sony Walkman.

Im am not sure how 91.1 FM comes in over in New York City.
Could someone in New York let me know?

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

Ike Hull,

WFMU comes in crystal clear on my home stereo here on Wayne Street in Downtown Jersey City. It's even crystal clear on my Sony Walkman.

Im am not sure how 91.1 FM comes in over in New York City.
Could someone in New York let me know?

No trace of it in Upper Manhattan. Or lower Mahattan. I live on one end and work on the other. For the record I'm talking about my household radios, not car radios.

 

[neo11]

Ike Hull,

WFMU comes in crystal clear on my home stereo here on Wayne Street in Downtown Jersey City. It's even crystal clear on my Sony Walkman.

Im am not sure how 91.1 FM comes in over in New York City.
Could someone in New York let me know?

91.1's signal isn't very good in Manhattan, except perhaps in parts of the West Side or the Village, where there aren't as many tall buildings. I think they manage to put in a good signal to parts of Brooklyn as well and have some listeners there. By car, the signal covers Brooklyn and Queens, but there's many spots where there's interference from what I believe is WSHU out of Connecticut and their strong signal.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

91.1's signal isn't very good in Manhattan, except perhaps in parts of the West Side or the Village, where there aren't as many tall buildings. I think they manage to put in a good signal to parts of Brooklyn as well and have some listeners there.

I have a girlfriend who lives in Brooklyn -- while helping her redo her hi fi, I was stringing up a wire for FM reception. She particularly wanted to see if I could point it so that the radio could pick up 91 FM. I managed to hang the wire in some way to get a comfortably listenable signal, albeit with a small amount of crackle in the background - you know the crackle you get when you're listening to a fringe FM stignal. Wasn't too objectionable and she did admit that the station didn't come in very well. :-\

 

[JustinCase]

KTU started to suck when music tastes changed around the turn of the millenium and it was torn between club/techno dance and hiphop sounds that were on the rise and its NYC roots in classic dance and latin freestyle. The blends have pissed off true dance fans since, but were a must as the marketability of new dance music had died. There is a reason Rhythmic CHR stations are all hip hop stations when you look in reporting mags, the format morphed when dance music all but died in America.

I think KTU is more dance than I'd have suspected it'd still be by this point. Dance is more than new music, and when I'm in the car thats about all I listen too (need my Cindy Vero on traffic da*nit) so my ipod is not an option... thats for walking and subway time!

As for Pulse 87... first I can't get past the name... pulse, to me that sounds like a return to the mid 90's and all the grunge rock stations that popped up with Green Day and the likes... and I know despite what people are saying that morning are gonna be hip hop and talk heavy... thats just star and buck wild... and I hate that worse than I hate classic dance....

 

[JayD]

Honestly, we dont know what the mornings will be... If my memory serves me correct, Star used to sometimes plays rock songs on hip hop stations cause hes a rock fan...

 

[JustinCase]

Honestly, we dont know what the mornings will be... If my memory serves me correct, Star used to sometimes plays rock songs on hip hop stations cause hes a rock fan...

Well that thought is even more underwhelming!