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Family Stations Will Sell 94.7FM WFME Newark

I'm surprised by all the posts speculating that WBLS will be sold alone, and then flipped to a totally different format.
All indications have been that the creditors in control of owner Inner City Radio intend to sell WBLS/WLIB together with all the other stations in the group. In fact they they may purchase Inner CIty's assets themselves, unless another buyer is willing to pay over $180 million for them. In addition, the current legacy urban A/C format on WBLS gets solid ratings, and drastic changes to it could lead to a major outcry, and bad publicity.
It would be quite a shock if WBLS sounds significantly different at this time next year.
 
Saying that WEEI-FM in Boston does not have a full market signal is a bit disingenuous, I was involved in the move from the old Andover site to Peabody. The distance from the site is just under 10 miles to the Boston Common, The distance to the Newton-Needham antenna farm is about 9. WEEI-FM is a full B with 50 KW @ 500' versus the higher antenna height and lower ERP's of the stations located at the antenna farm. The WEEI-FM signal does have one weak spot which involves the range of hills to the east when driving south on I-93 in the Melrose-Medford area. As you cross Route 60 it is resolved, I am not talking a major
problem as there plenty of signal, just a bit of multipath. The downtown signal is not much different than those of the antenna farm fighting the RF overload from the Prudential Tower. The northeast location my be at a slight disadvantage to the to the west and southwest due to location on the opposite side from Newton but it is still very potent density wise with a transmitter power output near 30 KW into a 4 bay antenna.
 
The location of 94.7's stick and where to locate it is a major issue regarding the sale of WFME. If it's going commercial, a Manhattan stick or the possibility of one is a must. A commercial operator can't make a profit with a NJ based stick. Just MHO! :)
 
Forget the commercial qualification, I garantee you that WBGO's support has and will forever more be much greater than they ever were before their recent move to 4TS.
 
Saying that WEEI-FM in Boston does not have a full market signal is a bit disingenuous, I was involved in the move from the old Andover site to Peabody. The distance from the site is just under 10 miles to the Boston Common, The distance to the Newton-Needham antenna farm is about 9. WEEI-FM is a full B with 50 KW @ 500' versus the higher antenna height and lower ERP's of the stations located at the antenna farm. The WEEI-FM signal does have one weak spot which involves the range of hills to the east when driving south on I-93 in the Melrose-Medford area. As you cross Route 60 it is resolved, I am not talking a major
problem as there plenty of signal, just a bit of multipath. The downtown signal is not much different than those of the antenna farm fighting the RF overload from the Prudential Tower. The northeast location my be at a slight disadvantage to the to the west and southwest due to location on the opposite side from Newton but it is still very potent density wise with a transmitter power output near 30 KW into a 4 bay antenna.
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The reason I was saying that was to point out that WFME is not at such a huge disadvantage as some think it is. I've lived in NJ and worked in the area my whole life. The WFME signal is quite strong in 90% of NYC. It's a little farther out than WEEI is (I'm in Boston most weekends and know the site well) but it does get out quite well with 37kW, or 23.5kW if they decide to move it to the taller tower next door.

Of course WEEI is a full market signal, with a slight bias to the northern areas. Just as WFME is a 90% market signal with a bias to the west.
 
WNTIRadio said:
The reason I was saying that was to point out that WFME is not at such a huge disadvantage as some think it is. I've lived in NJ and worked in the area my whole life. The WFME signal is quite strong in 90% of NYC.
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In NYC, the in-car is much less than any other rated market... around 25% of listening. So at home and at work make up around 75% of listening. It's been pretty well documented by Arbitron listening location analysis that 95% of all such listening happens inside the 64 dbu contour, and 80% inside the 70 dbu contour.

Neither Nassau nor Suffolk have a 64 dbu from WFME. Essentially none of Westchester has a 70, and only a fraction has a 64 dbu. None of the tidbit of CT has a 60 or a 70, and Monmouth has no 70 dbu although it does have a portion in the 64.

WFME also has severe problems in Manhattan, Queens, etc. due to shadowing by buildings and lack of building penetration the farther from the river you get.
 
WNTIRadio said:
The reason I was saying that was to point out that WFME is not at such a huge disadvantage as some think it is. I've lived in NJ and worked in the area my whole life. The WFME signal is quite strong in 90% of NYC. It's a little farther out than WEEI is (I'm in Boston most weekends and know the site well) but it does get out quite well with 37kW, or 23.5kW if they decide to move it to the taller tower next door.
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I looked at WFME's app for an STA to operate from a taller tower a mere 31m (less than 102') from the existing tower. I forget the dBu values of the two contours mapped in the application, but the STA contour is everywhere just barely inside the licensed contour. If the two contours exactly coincided, the HAAT of the electrical center of the antenna in the STA operation would be roughly 25% higher than the HAAT of the electrical center of the licensed antenna. Is that, in fact, the case? I certainly can understand why the owner of the towers (I'm assuming that there is one owner for both towers), would prefer to maintain one tower instead of two. It does, however, seem rather absurd that a station that moves less than 102' in the horizontal plane should have to take any sort of hit in coverage. Could it be that, if the results of the tests from the (slightly) taller tower are favorable, the FCC will allow WFME enough more power from the taller tower that it could exactly maintain its existing contours? Not sure how much more than 23.5 kW the ERP could be, but I doubt that it would be much.
 
DanStrassberg said:
WNTIRadio said:
The reason I was saying that was to point out that WFME is not at such a huge disadvantage as some think it is. I've lived in NJ and worked in the area my whole life. The WFME signal is quite strong in 90% of NYC. It's a little farther out than WEEI is (I'm in Boston most weekends and know the site well) but it does get out quite well with 37kW, or 23.5kW if they decide to move it to the taller tower next door.
Click to expand...

I looked at WFME's app for an STA to operate from a taller tower a mere 31m (less than 102') from the existing tower. I forget the dBu values of the two contours mapped in the application, but the STA contour is everywhere just barely inside the licensed contour. If the two contours exactly coincided, the HAAT of the electrical center of the antenna in the STA operation would be roughly 25% higher than the HAAT of the electrical center of the licensed antenna. Is that, in fact, the case? I certainly can understand why the owner of the towers (I'm assuming that there is one owner for both towers), would prefer to maintain one tower instead of two. It does, however, seem rather absurd that a station that moves less than 102' in the horizontal plane should have to take any sort of hit in coverage. Could it be that, if the results of the tests from the (slightly) taller tower are favorable, the FCC will allow WFME enough more power from the taller tower that it could exactly maintain its existing contours? Not sure how much more than 23.5 kW the ERP could be, but I doubt that it would be much.
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The 277 foot tower next to Family Stations' 186 foot tower is owned by Mountaintop Communications (A third tower at the site is owned by American Tower.) The Mountaintop Communications tower also has backup facilities for Emmis (WQHT and now Merlin-owned WEMP.)

The difference in signal is going to be seriously negligable. The whole hope is that by getting the antenna above any adjacent structure, the pattern won't be augmented by the neighboring steel, hopefully producing a more "omnidirectional" pattern and improving reception in some areas in its real-world deployment.
 
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