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ESPN Running Unlicensed FM in Bristol?

MarcB

MarcB

Um, is ESPN running an unlicensed FM station in Bristol? I was sitting in my car in my parents driveway in Southington less than 2 Miles from the ESPN Campus and I was picking up the raw-feed of ESPN Radio on 98.1 FM. And I was able to listen all the way back to my place in Bristol about 2.5 miles from the ESPN Campus. I heard this as an ID at about 2:15 "When driving around the ESPN Parking Lot tune into 98.1 Campus Radio."

Now I see on Ibiquity's website they have this station listed. It's listed City Bristol, Frequency 98.1, Call sign ESPN-HD, Format Sports Network, Owner Sports Radio LLC. They also have listed 98.1-2 ESPN HD-2 Experimental and 98.1-3 ESPN HD-3 Experimental. http://tinyurl.com/5j866f

Anyway the only licensed operations on 98.1 in CT are WKZE-FM in Salisbury and WQAQ in Hamden.

Can someone find out how many watts this thing is pumping out?
 
MarcB said:
Um, is ESPN running an unlicensed FM station in Bristol? I was sitting in my car in my parents driveway in Southington less than 2 Miles from the ESPN Campus and I was picking up the raw-feed of ESPN Radio on 98.1 FM. And I was able to listen all the way back to my place in Bristol about 2.5 miles from the ESPN Campus. I heard this as an ID at about 2:15 "When driving around the ESPN Parking Lot tune into 98.1 Campus Radio."

Now I see on Ibiquity's website they have this station listed. It's listed City Bristol, Frequency 98.1, Call sign ESPN-HD, Format Sports Network, Owner Sports Radio LLC. They also have listed 98.1-2 ESPN HD-2 Experimental and 98.1-3 ESPN HD-3 Experimental. http://tinyurl.com/5j866f

Anyway the only licensed operations on 98.1 in CT are WKZE-FM in Salisbury and WQAQ in Hamden.

Can someone find out how many watts this thing is pumping out?
Click to expand...

Sounds like it's pushing 5 Watts from a decent antenna on the roof somewhere..
 
The station is actually licensed as an experimental station. I know this as fact as a friend of mine is one of the ESPN engineers who put it on. They are also running HD on it too, and if I recall correctly I think it's 80 watts.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
The station is actually licensed as an experimental station. I know this as fact as a friend of mine is one of the ESPN engineers who put it on. They are also running HD on it too, and if I recall correctly I think it's 80 watts.
Click to expand...

How come it doesn't show up in the FCC Database like other experimental stations do?
 
I had some info that I found when the station first went on, but i tossed the emails thinking it wasn't any big deal. If I find the info I'll share it with you.

So far, I have been able to confirm that they are indeed running three HD channels:

http://tinyurl.com/espn-ct
 
Last week, we have a 'K' call sign in Long Island, and now we have 'ESPN' call letters?

Does 'E' stand for experimental?
 
DToTheJ said:
Bill DeFelice said:
So far, I have been able to confirm that they are indeed running three HD channels:

http://tinyurl.com/espn-ct
Click to expand...

I just went to that link and didn't see anything about 98.1, but an HD station in NH on 95.7 FM.
Click to expand...

For some reason, it shows Manchester NH under CT.... next to the drop down menu, where it says COnnecticut, go to the one next to it where it says "Show All Cities/Markets".. select Bristol, CT/
 
As you all might remember or not ESPN did a lot of testing on the WEBE HD2 and 3 a great number of months back.
By them starting up this low power outlet they are now able to test and tweak there product at there location, that's what it is all about.
 
I wasn't aware of that, Ed. Of course, not owning any HD-capable hardware sort of leaves me at a disadvantage when it comes to any programming on HD. I usually have to borrow some gear to grab a listen to anything up on HD.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
I wasn't aware of that, Ed. Of course, not owning any HD-capable hardware sort of leaves me at a disadvantage when it comes to any programming on HD. I usually have to borrow some gear to grab a listen to anything up on HD.
Click to expand...
Yes, WX4ESPN is licensed by the FCC as an experimental station. We are running Analog, HD1, HD2 & HD3. HD1 with the analog is the mainstream of ESPN Radio. HD2 is ESPN Deportes and HD3 is a test of audio from our O&O affiliates around the country and subject to change anytime. We will be conducting a number of tests with the HD and RDS. The signal is directional to the south to protect other 98.1's as well as 1st adjacent such as 97.9 in Enfield, CT.
 
Ed B said:
As you all might remember or not ESPN did a lot of testing on the WEBE HD2 and 3 a great number of months back.
By them starting up this low power outlet they are now able to test and tweak there product at there location, that's what it is all about.
Click to expand...

So in other words, they put their right foot in 107.9; they put their right foot out of 107.9; they put their right foot in 98.1 and they shake it all about; and they are now doing the hokey pokey on campus radio?

Ed B said:
that's what it is all about.
Click to expand...

Okay. ;D
 
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