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Extending the Reach

S

SirRoxalot

This came out a couple of weeks ago, but went unmentioned on this board:

Buffalo-based Catholic group purchases Boston AM

They ain't exactly Family Life, but Holy Family Communications is expanding beyond Buffalo and Rochester. It would seem that Boston might be a wise choice if the price wasn't too dear. I believe that there might be a few Catholics there, and apparently there's no 24/7 Catholic station in town.
 
SirRoxalot said:
This came out a couple of weeks ago, but went unmentioned on this board:

Buffalo-based Catholic group purchases Boston AM

They ain't exactly Family Life, but Holy Family Communications is expanding beyond Buffalo and Rochester. It would seem that Boston might be a wise choice if the price wasn't too dear. I believe that there might be a few Catholics there, and apparently there's no 24/7 Catholic station in town.
Click to expand...

I'm sure there are people who look at such station sales and wring their hands. I say...let the non-comm's take a crack at 'em.

Did you note the frequency of WBIX? 1060, a third-channel adjacency to the mighty 1030 WBZ.

Please indulge me here...but how did this frequency ever get licensed in the Boston DMA?

Ok that's rhetorical...isn't there a 1490 licensed to Batavia? And my home market has several short-spaced AMs...and a couple short-spaced FMs to boot. I know it's common.

My point is a lot of these stations never seem to be commercially viable. The Boston.com article quotes the well-respected Donna Halper stating "So many different formats have been tried on that station", and noted its "checkered past", which I'm inclined to think refers as much to its lack of viability as to previous owner Bradford Blight's shenanigans. So if a non-comm can make a go of it, I say have at it. I doubt they'll take enough listeners away from other stations to make any impact. And...however slight the impact will be in Boston...it's one less media outlet chasing an ever-shrinking pool of $$.
 
Not only a question of WBIX @ 1060 being short spaced with WBZ @ 1030, but with co-channel KYW @ 1060, down the pike in Philly.

The question about making money and viability may be moot, after all, they're doing the work of "a higher power." Seriously, would it surprise anybody if EWTN, which will supply a large part of the programming, is the station's major source of revenue.
 
JimPastrick said:
Not only a question of WBIX @ 1060 being short spaced with WBZ @ 1030, but with co-channel KYW @ 1060, down the pike in Philly.

The question about making money and viability may be moot, after all, they're doing the work of "a higher power." Seriously, would it surprise anybody if EWTN, which will supply a large part of the programming, is the station's major source of revenue.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you're right Jim.

And if that's the case, I say fantastic!

Again, I'm looking at a bigger picture based on my belief that there are too many stations on the air in most markets, thereby driving down unit rates and making it more difficult for any operators who want to do live, local and entertaining radio. (Not that I imagine CC/Cumulus/Citadel going down that path anytime soon but I think those operators are in difficulties largely of their own making)

I'd like to think some salesperson re-education might help mitigate the rate situation but if the Catholic Church or other non-profits bought up several hundred more signals nationwide...what would that hurt?

Here in Pittsburgh, St. Joseph Mission bought a couple tiny AMs and a FM that once housed a legendary Urban Contemporary. Much of the time the stations are either off the air or broadcasting dead carrier...I don't know enough about FCC rules to know how they get away with it but that's my understanding. Now that Urban/PPM issues are being addressed I imagine somebody in my home market will quit trying to be the 2nd/3rd/4th (insert format here) and go after the Urban hole. I don't think anyone misses whatever it was those AMs were doing prior.

Again I'm just postulating, but I can't imagine enough people ever switching from commercial radio to these Catholic stations to hurt the remaining commercial stations. I imagine the Catholic stations' listenership will be largely comprised of people who didn't use much - if any - radio before.
 
KYW shouldn't be an issue. Their pattern has a deep null toward the northeast (Boston). However, the third adjacency may be a killer (IBOC and all).
Click to expand...

IBOC isn't much of a problem on third-adjacent for AM or FM. First adjacent? Most definitely. In fact, by definition the IBOC carriers on AM are extending into the adjacent channels. And apparently that's a real problem for some AM stations during the day as well as night. And second adjacent is problematic for both AM and FM in areas where the signal is very strong. But third? Both on AM and FM, usually there are other factors that are more problematic...like other stations whose main frequency is on the third adjacent channels...than IBOC.

FWIW, WBIX and WBZ are hardly the only "short spaced" AM stations in Boston. There's quite a few that are on third or even second-adjacent channels to each other and they're co-existing relatively peacefully. Many with pretty wonky patterns, but co-existing nonetheless! ;D
 
I'm rooting for WBIX to install and start pounding HD. They should give WBZ a little taste of their own medicine. Call it "divine retribution...." ;)
 
I'm waiting for the day the FCC will recognize a lot of its recent technical mistakes. HD on AM is primary. If they wanted better sound on AM they should have just removed the 10 kHz rolloff mandate and let stations go back to what they did before the late 80s, modulate 125% positive modulation up to the frequency response limits of their transmitters (which in the case of most built in the last 60 years, is about 50 hZ to 14 or 15 kHz).

IBOC HD makes more sense on FM because a station's 200 kHz signal footprint has inherently more room for it, even with multiple program streams.

That's not the only mistake. The realignment of TV in the digital age is as bad a botch as the original 1946 allocation of the TV band, which left too many stations underpowered and short-spaced. Push every former VHF back to its old analog channel and let 'em run ERP equal to their old analog visual ERP (100 kW on 2-6, 316 kW on 7-13), re-align the UHF band to allow full power digital stations one or two channels apart in a market instead of six with max 4000 kW ERP, and you can accomodate every station in the country on the first 40 channels (2-41) with service areas as good as they ever had, while clearing the upper UHF band for broadband wireless internet.
 
Bob, DTV on VHF (particularly low-band VHF) is not the way to go. Impulse noise and tropo ducting have shown to be killers in that band. Personally I think VHF should have been abandoned completely and everyone moved up to UHF. Everyone would be on a level playing field and it would be simpler for the viewer who shouldn't have to combine VHF and UHF antennas in a mixed market.
 
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