DX Test from FL tonight ; late word .....

[Steve Green NEPA]

Tell me if you've heard this one before.
Not the station, or the joke, but BOTH intros, hi.
From a DXing buddy :

Les Rayburn 12:44am #26834 WBOB 600 kHz MAINTENANCE TEST— Saturday Midnight to 3 AM Eastern Time (0400-0700 UTC) Late word arrives via Paul Walker, a broadcaster and member of the Courtesy Program Committee, that WBOB 600 kHz in Jacksonville, FL will be doing some maintenance testing in about 24 hours, starting at Midnight, Saturday morning May 14 until 0300 Eastern Time. No word on what programming will consist of, nor do we have any QSL information. However, this is a great chance to log this station. There is also a possibility of another maintenance test from the station starting at Midnight on Sunday morning and running until 0300 Monday morning. But no decision has been made yet. More details as we receive them. Please circulate this news widely on social media, email lists, etc.

 

[radioman148]

Tell me if you've heard this one before.
Not the station, or the joke, but BOTH intros, hi.
From a DXing buddy :

Les Rayburn 12:44am #26834 WBOB 600 kHz MAINTENANCE TEST— Saturday Midnight to 3 AM Eastern Time (0400-0700 UTC) Late word arrives via Paul Walker, a broadcaster and member of the Courtesy Program Committee, that WBOB 600 kHz in Jacksonville, FL will be doing some maintenance testing in about 24 hours, starting at Midnight, Saturday morning May 14 until 0300 Eastern Time. No word on what programming will consist of, nor do we have any QSL information. However, this is a great chance to log this station. There is also a possibility of another maintenance test from the station starting at Midnight on Sunday morning and running until 0300 Monday morning. But no decision has been made yet. More details as we receive them. Please circulate this news widely on social media, email lists, etc.

They're back. Caught them last time they did this. Hopefully anyone who wants them gets to hear them.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Nice test here, some of it taped, from WBOB 600.

I had to null out CKAT's country from North Bay, and heard oldies plus other music.

The Oldies -- 'Down On The Corner' , 'Dock of the Bay', et al, were from WICC Bridgeport CT. A liner of theirs went something like 'the music is back'.

After a brief rest at 12:27 I came back with ..... with a cup of tea. Yeah, that's it. Tea ...... and some guy was IDing WBOB quite clearly and chatting about reception and problems ffrom a Country station. His accent sounded Southern to me. Was this Rayburn, hi ?

Thank you Les, the CPC et al for the fun. That's two newies for me here, at that end of the dial previously known as just 1000 eggs frying. Batteries in the GE SR 2 help greatly !

 

[ZantennaG1]

I couldn't recieve it here in Cheyenne (KCOL dominated the frequency, and there wasn't really any morse code or anything that would've propagated further. I did pull up the Raleigh, North Carolina SDR and WBOB came in clear there, and they was talking about their signal whilst playing folk music. I'm definitely grateful for the opportunity! I don't recall hearing them on the Edinburgh SDR.

 

[wildthangjim]

From Houston, TX:

I listened starting 0049 CDT until 0120, but did not hear the test (still need to review the tape). Lots of interference from KTBB, KROD and others. Despite not hearing WBOB, it still had a positive outcome - I was able to hear WVOG playing gospel music //stream. It's listed at 31 watts at night and is station #350 heard since I moved back to Houston.

Something popped up on 600 for a couple of minutes with oldies - heard "Never Been to Spain" at 0055, but faded before I heard any announcements. Anyone know if WBOB was playing oldies at that point?

I read elsewhere that WBOB will be testing again tonight starting midnight EDT Sunday morning, so will give it another go.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

If word is accurate and they test again tonight, perhaps they'll throw in some code and tone-sweeps and maybe some Little Richard or Dave Clark Five songs......second-tier Oldies charters that won't get played on conventional Oldies stations but are more-than-identifiable to many DXers ?
(It may be just my hearing, but up this way the 800-cycle code IDs are more vivid (if that's the word) than the 1000-cycle ones.)

'Word' again is that Nielson Audio is planning to count overnights to be included for ratings purposes via their PPM methodology. Jacksonville, at #46, is a PPM market. And since WBOB doesns't show up at all in the latest J'ville ratings, perhaps this is a trial run ? Can WBOB and other stations program commercial-free during the permitted TEST period on daytime power any time they want? Forever ?

 

[MarioMania]

So They just played Music on the Test?

I thought it would be just test tones & sweeps

That wasn't a Test, Just Music Playing for 3 Hours

 

[davideduardo]

'Word' again is that Nielson Audio is planning to count overnights to be included for ratings purposes via their PPM methodology.

Overnights, as I posted in detail in another thread, have been included in diary markets since at least 1990 and in PPM markets since the very beginning.

 

[davideduardo]

Can WBOB and other stations program commercial-free during the permitted TEST period on daytime power any time they want? Forever ?

The rules specifically mention "test" for Midnight to 6 AM. That would mean an engineer would have to be there. And, if there was an inquiry, some kind of documentation would be required.

And the overnight ratings are not averaged into the standard dayparts used in sales.

 

[wildthangjim]

From Houston, TX:

Something popped up on 600 for a couple of minutes with oldies - heard "Never Been to Spain" at 0055, but faded before I heard any announcements. Anyone know if WBOB was playing oldies at that point?

Update: Checked my tape against the recording posted on Youtube by DXCentral and confirmed the songs I heard were from WBOB.

 

[gr8oldies]

I heard the previous test of WBOB, couldn't stay up last night

 

[radioman148]

I heard the previous test of WBOB, couldn't stay up last night

Same here.

 

[tomservo]

I'm listening back to my recording made starting at 0445 UTC (11:45 pm Central, Friday night to Saturday morning) and had the station in and out quite strongly, taking turns with WREC out of Memphis. When it's in, it's dominant and the only station audible. My location is the Alabama gulf coast. WBOB does tend to come in around sunset from what I remember of DXing in the past.

Times in UTC.

0445 - Crimson and Clover - Tommy James and the Shondells
0449 -Spinning Wheel - Blood, Sweat and Tears (false start, host comes on to talk about the mess-up)
0449 - You Make Me So Very Happy - BS&T
0452 - Time Passages - Al Stewart
0456 - Time Won't Let Me - The Outsiders
0458 - Theme From "A Summer Place" - Percy Faith
0503 - Baby I'm-A Want You - Bread (after talk about a high quality phono preamp!)
0506 - Moon River
0508 - WBOB Testing ID
0509 - Reflections of My Life - Marmalade?
*** Song stopped just partway in, they played Seasons In The Sun, then stopped it to play Herb Alpert's A Taste of Honey
0513 - Discussion of the processing chain, nothing is newer than 1984. A mention they're test again Sunday morning (tonight) if they finish work on their tower system
0515 - Harden My Heart - Quarterflash via turntable… even over AM, in mono, with just 7.5 kHz audio bandwidth, it sounds really great!
0517 - Classical Gas - Mason Williams
0518 - another blooper, song interrupted for part of what sounded like talk radio, then silence
0519 - The Star Spangled Banner - Sandi Patty
0524 - [email protected] address mentioned
0526 - Oh, Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison (remake/re-recording version)
0528 - I Will Be Here For You - Michael W. Smith
0530 - Engineers working on nighttime towers, broadcasting from the separate daytime towers, walking in the field while on the air, broadcasting from "behind the Walmart" lol
0533 - California Dreaming - The Mamas and The Papas
0534 - dumped out of that for House of the Rising Sun - The Animals
0534 - dumped out of that for Who'll Stop The Rain - CCR
0535 - dumped out of that for Superstar - The Carpenters
0537 - Take A Chance On Me - ABBA
0538 - Don't Shut Me Down - ABBA
0541 - I Still Have Faith In You - ABBA
~0545 - more ABBA, couldn't ID due to WREC with Coast to Coast AM
0547 - The Air That I Breathe - The Hollies on turntable
0551 - Sail Away - Enya
0552 - All Right Now - Free
0553 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
0556 - Never Been To Spain - Three Dog Night
0557 - Thank You For The Music - ABBA
0600 - We Shall Behold Him - Sandi Patty
It appears the station signed or returned to night power after this.

Edit to add: I just went back to live radio and as of midnight Central (1 am Eastern) it appears they are indeed testing again tonight.

0505 UTC / 12:05 AM Central - Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell

 

[TXPH97]

From DFW, Texas

I’m hearing the WBOB test this morning under KTBB. Sweep tones at 11:22, 43, and 47pm CDT. Wichita Lineman at 12:08am and Smokey Mtn Rain at 12:15am.

 

[tomservo]

From tonight…

0505ish - Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell
0509 - The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
0514 - Rocky Mountain Rain - Ronnie Milsap
0517 - The Last Farewell - Roger Whittaker
… (several ABBA songs)
0525 - remarks about wrapping up the work
0528 - more ABBA
0543 - this seems to be about the end of the music, and return to regular programming

This test was on the single stick with 20 kW, apparently. At least here in Alabama it was staying in longer and steadier than last night. Last night with the two tower day operation at 50 kW it boomed in at times but also faded out regularly with WREC taking over. Very interesting how the lower power actually did better for me at this particular spot.

 

[schmave]

I'd have tried had I seen this in time! I did catch WBOB here in Pickerington, Ohio during its last test. Weak but there.

 

[wildthangjim]

From west Houston, I checked again last night starting at 11:00pm CDT. Heard nothing but a jumble of signals until 11:06, then a very clear "WBOB Jacksonville, testing" ID and Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Like Tomservo, I think last night's signal here was better overall (with 20 kw ND) than it was the previous night, less susceptible to fades. It helped that KTBB et al seemed weaker.