Game 1 of NLDS Brewers/Phillies was heard on 2 stations in town

[rdcuffpa1]

Can anyone explain why 1440 AM was ahead of 120 AM by ~5 seconds and ahead of xm183 by ~ 10 seconds?

Simple. 1210 AM / WCAU broadcasts in HD and needs the delay in their regular analog signal to accommodate listeners whose radios switch in and out between the digital signal and the analog signal.

Same deal with XM -- you have all the analog-digital-download-analog conversion going on.

For example, neither WSAN / 1470 in Allentown and WEEU / 830 in Reading broadcast in HD, so they have no delay in their signal either.

As far as WYSP goes with the Eagles, they have the same situation. Since they broadcast in HD they delay their analog audio in order to accommodate their digital audio. I don't think they do it to sync up with TV audio (although that's a helpful feature).


Richard in Allentown, PA

 

[rdcuffpa1]

Local vs. ESPN radio - MLB playoffs

1210 WPHT and 950 ESPN WPEN-AM. I don't get why 950 is airing the ESPN radio broadcasts of the phillies playoff games that 1210 AM is airing? Instinctively, people in this area will tune to 1210 AM for the local broadcasts of the phils, not 950.

Same thing happened in Chicago -- WSCR / 670 is the station with local White Sox rights, WGN / 720 had Cubs local rights, and WMVP / 1000 is the ESPN station. When the ionosphere behaves itself, all three stations can be heard in the Philadelphia region.

Once the playoffs begin, local stations no longer have exclusive rights to air the games. Stations that choose to buy the ESPN audio can do so.

If the Phils make it to the World Series, you're in for a bigger surprise -- the only place you'll hear Messrs. Kalas / Wheeler / Franske / Anderson is WCAU / 1210. The other "Network" stations will be forced to take the ESPN feed.

Remember back in 1980? KYW was the flagship station at the time. During the World Series even *they* couldn't air the team's own broadcast -- KYW had to take the CBS Radio broadcast with Vin Scully and (I think) Jerry Coleman.

Richard in Allentown, PA

 

[hykos1045]

: that's a dumb rule.

JULIUS, there are more Brewers fans in the region than WPEN currently nets on their arbs. Their attempt to pick up a few listeners may have translated into a redundant broadcast but if redundancy harms their ratings, than why do they program against WIP, a station with three times their share??? How does that make sense either?

~Ghost of good music and niche formats all over the radio. I remember before we had to deal with two sports stations and 6 hip hop stations and 4 soft rockers.