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ESPN 890/1440

M

Mickey37

Guest
So I'm driving home in the late innings of Friday's Yankees game, and while 890 came in decently enough on the upper deck of 93, WCBS 880 came in even better.

Got up north of route 128 in the Woburn/Reading stretch, and ESPN was starting to break up on 890. 440 didn't even come in. I got off the highway a few exits later, and 890 was gone, 1440 didn't come in at all even though the transmitter was less than 10 miles away, and over on 880, I listen to Jon Sterling's incessant drivel. And the Yankees game.

Why doesn't ESPN 890/1440 just shut down at night completely? 1440, at the very least?
 
ESPN 890 has been better than it used to be and once in awhile I can get 1400 at work...(work in
N. Reading, nights). Tonight I found 1410 out of Hartford (Yanks network) came in very well as
I heard theeeeeeeeeeee Yankees lose! Then it was off to 680 for the Sox (Joe C.: "There's a LONG
DRIVE!!! WAY BACK! DEEP INTO THE NIGHT! A WALK-OFF 3 RUN HOMER FOR MANNY AND THE SOX
WIN! MANNY HIT A BOMB!")

You said 1440 but I assume you mean 1400--allegedly has xmtrs in both Lowell and Lawrence
 
Mickey37 said:
Got up north of route 128 in the Woburn/Reading stretch, and ESPN was starting to break up on 890. 440 didn't even come in. I got off the highway a few exits later, and 890 was gone, 1440 didn't come in at all even though the transmitter was less than 10 miles away. Why doesn't ESPN 890/1440 just shut down at night completely? 1440, at the very least?
Click to expand...

You had the wrong frequency for Lowell. WLLH/ESPN Lowell is 1400, not 1440.

1440 is WVEI Worcester, the WEEI simulcast.
 
Mickey37 said:
Why doesn't ESPN 890/1440 just shut down at night completely? 1440, at the very least?
Click to expand...

As Eli Polonski has already pointed out, if you were trying to pick up ESPN from Lowell or Lawrence, it would have helped to be tuned to the right frequency--1400, not 1440. There may be an ESPN affiliate on 1440 somewhere--but not in this area. However, one of WLLH 1400's two transmitters (Lowell, I think) has been off the air for an extended period because of major vandalism at the site. Maybe a month ago, I read in a post here from Chris Hall the Chief Engineer, that a new transmitter was on order and would be delivered shortly. Is it on the air yet? I don't know. But if only the Lawrence transmitter was on and you were listening at night in Lowell or west of Lowell, the signal would not have been very good. 1400 is a "graveyard" channel populated by hundreds of stations in the US; at night, the interference from all of those stations creates quite a jumble.
 
Noticed the other night that the Yankees were on 1430...of course what I was picking up was not
the Everett-licensed WXKS (still Rumba) at my workplace, but WENE out of Endicott, NY (Binghampton area,
and I note from their site it's also owned by Clear Channel).
Just like how the other CC AM in this area, WKOX 1200, has been known to be over-ridden
by a sports station from Ottawa.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Mickey37 said:
Got up north of route 128 in the Woburn/Reading stretch, and ESPN was starting to break up on 890. 440 didn't even come in. I got off the highway a few exits later, and 890 was gone, 1440 didn't come in at all even though the transmitter was less than 10 miles away. Why doesn't ESPN 890/1440 just shut down at night completely? 1440, at the very least?
Click to expand...

You had the wrong frequency for Lowell. WLLH/ESPN Lowell is 1400, not 1440.

1440 is WVEI Worcester, the WEEI simulcast.
Click to expand...
For the record, as of Saturday, Oct 6th, WLLH-AM's Lawrence transmitter is still off-the-air.
 
Speaking of 890, am I hearing things, or did they not air the entire Cubs-Diamondbacks game on Thursday night? Also, did they dump out of the Yankees game for the Sox game on Friday night?
 
Yes I was listening on Thu night and it sounded like they went to regular ESPN (talk and sports updates)
right in the middle of the game.
What happened? Board op error or just deciding to duck out of the game to do reg. ESPN stuff?

I don't know if they dumped out of the Yankees-Indians game to go to the Sox game, as I was
listening to the former game on WCBS.
 
Mickey37 said:
So I'm driving home in the late innings of Friday's Yankees game, and while 890 came in decently enough on the upper deck of 93, WCBS 880 came in even better.

Got up north of route 128 in the Woburn/Reading stretch, and ESPN was starting to break up on 890. 440 didn't even come in. I got off the highway a few exits later, and 890 was gone, 1440 didn't come in at all even though the transmitter was less than 10 miles away, and over on 880, I listen to Jon Sterling's incessant drivel. And the Yankees game.

Why doesn't ESPN 890/1440 just shut down at night completely? 1440, at the very least?
Click to expand...

890/1440 had better ratings with Spanish programming. The signal was a non-issue.
 
In some ways 890's signal hasn't been too bad for me lately (listening to NLCS games--via a mini-FM
transmitter at the edge of my workplace, or on the way home--the ballgame was still on at 2:30 am!)
Though in the lunchroom of my workplace I found WLS was cutting in (and similarly, trying to pick
up WEPN 1050 in NYC was compromised there by CHUM on the same freq)

Even 1400 (the sister station) wasn't too bad (at my workplace, in N. Reading). Allegedly they have xmtrs in both Lowell
and Lawrence but it's been said the Lawrence one is off.

WAMG did show up in the 12 plus with ESPN a little while back; not sure if ratings were better with
Spanish. They do have Felger & other local shows, and a TV ad campaign.
 
SonicAl said:
coming home from Boston last weekend, it was barely coming in and we couldn't listen to the NLDS game
Click to expand...

Where were you driving? At night, 890 has essentially zero signal west of its transmitter site in Ashland. Once you get east of Route 126, the signal improves a lot in a real hurry!
 
DanStrassberg said:
SonicAl said:
coming home from Boston last weekend, it was barely coming in and we couldn't listen to the NLDS game
Click to expand...

Where were you driving? At night, 890 has essentially zero signal west of its transmitter site in Ashland. Once you get east of Route 126, the signal improves a lot in a real hurry!
Click to expand...

Somerville to the Tobin, up Rt. 1 and to Peabody. We tried a few times. No luck. Very faint.
 
SonicAl said:
DanStrassberg said:
SonicAl said:
coming home from Boston last weekend, it was barely coming in and we couldn't listen to the NLDS game
Click to expand...

Where were you driving? At night, 890 has essentially zero signal west of its transmitter site in Ashland. Once you get east of Route 126, the signal improves a lot in a real hurry!
Click to expand...

Somerville to the Tobin, up Rt. 1 and to Peabody. We tried a few times. No luck. Very faint.
Click to expand...

If you were tuned to 890, your radio has a problem. The night signal in Somerville is no killer but faintness should not be a problem. WLS can be, however. Peabody is something else again; Ashland is a long way away. On the North Shore, I would expect the signal to be pretty rough.
 
DanStrassberg said:
SonicAl said:
DanStrassberg said:
SonicAl said:
coming home from Boston last weekend, it was barely coming in and we couldn't listen to the NLDS game
Click to expand...

Where were you driving? At night, 890 has essentially zero signal west of its transmitter site in Ashland. Once you get east of Route 126, the signal improves a lot in a real hurry!
Click to expand...

Somerville to the Tobin, up Rt. 1 and to Peabody. We tried a few times. No luck. Very faint.
Click to expand...

If you were tuned to 890, your radio has a problem. The night signal in Somerville is no killer but faintness should not be a problem. WLS can be, however. Peabody is something else again; Ashland is a long way away. On the North Shore, I would expect the signal to be pretty rough.
Click to expand...

If his car has a "windshield" antenna (one of those little wire grids installed into the windshield) rather than a mast antenna, those can be directional, and heading northward on Route 1 would've put his windshield roughly perpendicular to the direction facing Ashland.

I live in Somerville and get 890 OK by day. It's a bit noisy at night and WLS can sometimes be heard in the background.
 
raccoonradio said:
In some ways 890's signal hasn't been too bad for me lately (listening to NLCS games--via a mini-FM
transmitter at the edge of my workplace, or on the way home--the ballgame was still on at 2:30 am!)
Though in the lunchroom of my workplace I found WLS was cutting in (and similarly, trying to pick
up WEPN 1050 in NYC was compromised there by CHUM on the same freq)

Even 1400 (the sister station) wasn't too bad (at my workplace, in N. Reading). Allegedly they have xmtrs in both Lowell
and Lawrence but it's been said the Lawrence one is off.

WAMG did show up in the 12 plus with ESPN a little while back; not sure if ratings were better with
Spanish. They do have Felger & other local shows, and a TV ad campaign.
Click to expand...

Are you kidding? WAMG did much better ratings with Spanish. Mega's ratings were in the ranks with other lower rated stations like WFNX, WILD, WXRV, and WBOS. But they still had ratings.

ESPN doesn't come close to Mega.
 
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