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Globe: FM "Where The Listeners Are"

I'd been calling for them to move to FM even before Sports Hub debuted and once we heard WBZ-FM
was on the way--what, was it about 3 weeks or so? the news broke in advance and it wasn't like suddenly people heard sports on 98.5 without advance notice--that could have been Entercom's
opportunity to put WEEI on 93.7. Obviously Mike 93.7 was making them a little money and they
were shy to kill it off (it's possible Jason and Julie may have wanted EEI to go to FM but Entercom's
HQ in Penn. said no).

In the past, competitors to EEI like 890 WAMG (we got ESPN! and Felger!) and 1510 WWZN (Celtics!
Even Mikey Adams was there for a time, right?) were on the AM dial and just couldn't compete.
But take a powerful FM with Pats and Bruins rights and the money and expertise of CBS...EEI should
have known they would now have REAL competition. And with younger audiences especially preferring FM...

"Hello! I would like to know what is happening to WEEI in the evenings," was a sound clip
(middle aged to older woman?) they used to play. What was happening was signal fade due to
AM limitations. Look: AM can be pretty strong, by day especially, but FM has advantages. A well-
placed stick in the Boston area, no static at all, no interference, no fading at night (try picking
up WRKO or WEEI in metro west at night, or to the NW of Boston). Yeah, Entercom didn't exactly have a stick on the Pru or the Hancock or in Lexington. On FM, they had sticks in Peabody (WMKK/
WEEI-FM), Great Blue Hill (WKAF--ah, pretty close to Boston, but they had WAAF on there) and
then WAAF's stick out in Boylston or wherever the heck it is. Obviously someone like me who lives
just a few miles from Peabody (and drives by the stick on the way to work) would prefer getting
the EEI signal on 93.7 (The Rock Garden! Blue Suede Radio! Eagle 93.7! Star! Mike!) but people
on messageboards would say, oh, it doesn't reach the whole Boston area. You can't really pick it up
IN Boston. And so on.

But clearly 93.7 does reach quite a huge chunk of the area and for those who can't get it,
there's 103.7, 96.3, 1440 (Worc.), and yes they're still on 850, for now. It took CBS to beat them
to the punch. Now they HAD to switch.

In Cleveland, CBS put a sports talker on 92.3, which admittedly doesn't cover the whole area
but does pretty well--and in a few years, they may get rights to Indians, Browns, or Cavs--AND
can possibly switch to an even better signal on, ironically enough, 98.5. That can't be good
news for Craig Karmazin's WKNR 850 (ironic!)

And some will call for them to do something with WRKO too, maybe, but they have no other
options, unless they were to dump it on 97.7 (sacrifice WAAF simulcast? no way) or buy another
station (who and where?) And yes, stations like WRKO and WXKS AM are on HD radio-FM,
but again how many people own HD radios? Maybe RKO will stick with AM and its aging audience
until some day when they pull the plug, Howie goes elsewhere, the syndie shows drift to
WTKK or WXKS AM, and 680 can do ethnic or something.
 
Someone on the Globe's messageboard for the article mentioned they'd like to hear Talk 1200
on FM and I pointed out it's unlikely (unless they get an HD radio), since Kiss and Jam'n do well
with music. (Yeah, I guess if Greater decided to sell 96.9 to them--yeah, right--they could put it
there :) ) So for now Talk 1200 still has to deal with the limitations of AM. Also, I know LAUROJRM
has complained about having trouble picking up 93.7 on a Walkman in Boston. One comment
I saw (either on Globe board or facebook?) was from someone who had trouble picking up 98.5 (but 104.1 came in well)--but 93.7 came in very well for them, so there you go.

Also note one comment: "This has nothing to do with programming. AM radio has far outlived its usefulness. The FM signal is simply better. When the sun sets, the AM signal simply stinks. It's like sticking with 8-track tapes when you can have better technology."
 
raccoonradio said:
Someone on the Globe's messageboard for the article mentioned they'd like to hear Talk 1200
on FM and I pointed out it's unlikely (unless they get an HD radio), since Kiss and Jam'n do well
with music. (Yeah, I guess if Greater decided to sell 96.9 to them--yeah, right--they could put it
there :) ) So for now Talk 1200 still has to deal with the limitations of AM. Also, I know LAUROJRM
has complained about having trouble picking up 93.7 on a Walkman in Boston. One comment
I saw (either on Globe board or facebook?) was from someone who had trouble picking up 98.5 (but 104.1 came in well)--but 93.7 came in very well for them, so there you go.

Also note one comment: "This has nothing to do with programming. AM radio has far outlived its usefulness. The FM signal is simply better. When the sun sets, the AM signal simply stinks. It's like sticking with 8-track tapes when you can have better technology."
Click to expand...

And yet everyone here seems to think WBZ will still be on 1030 khz after every other AM signal is carrying 100% generic satelllite feed, overmodulated leased ethnic, Jesus hucksters or colon-cleaner infomercials. Same on the New York City board, where nobody thinks WCBS or WINS will ever migrate to FM because those stations have a "legacy" on AM and because WEMP (lite news for women) is tanking. I can see the medium wave band abandoned in 20 years or less. OTA radio will be effectively limited to the markets the advertisers want to watch, DXers (or listeners looking for alternatives to their local format monopoly) be damned. Want more radio? Get a smart phone!
 
CTListener said:
DXers (or listeners looking for alternatives to their local format monopoly) be damned
Click to expand...

mp3s have been on the scene 15 years, and mainstream for 10, and phones with streaming ability for about 5, and MW didnt go away. maybe it will be profitable indefinitely into the future?
 
The big stations with plenty of power and good patterns seem to be hanging in there. WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee is the the number station in PPM nationwide for last month. The top billing stations of the year are frequently AM's or there are at least several in the top 10.

Want to help AM - get rid of the AM/FM button on car radios (or all radios) and make it one continuous band with a big skip between 1710khz and 88mhz. Then when the "scan" button is used it will land on AM stations with no additional effort.

For all the speculation that poor audio quality is AM's problem - I think the bigger problem is perception ("geezer radio", "nothing I want to listen to on AM", too lazy to switch bands, etc.) and programming. I hear plenty of audio that sounds worse yet is considered the wave of the future. As for programming, put "dollar a hollar" or 100% satellite fed talk with minimal or no localism on the best FM in town and you aren't going to be winning any ratings wars.

Signal patterns that don't reflect how metro area have grown are certainly an issue. At some point there may be an opportunity for the FCC to re-shuffle the band and clean up previous mistakes/help address signal pattern issues - but that probably won't happen until enough of the marginal stations hand in their licenses (and so far those marginal stations seem to be making it work to stay on the air).
 
let's just say
At my weekday job. In our office there is a Speaker. When we turn on that speaker (Radio), "Magic 106.7" is on
Whoever else has a speaker (Radio), say ??? Cardiology office, or Housekeeping office, "Magic 106.7 is on their speaker as well.
The stereo is somewhere in the hospital in some kind of Media Storage room. They have "Magic 106.7 set on that stereo, those Speakers someway are attached to that stereo.


So, whatever hospital employee want to listen to ???? say example (96 9 Boston Talks, ?? WZLX, Big City 101.3, or ?? WROR 105.7 -For examples) They have to wait till after work, or go outside with their walkman on their break


The listenners are there, but maybe not at the correct time to listen to the radio so the survey companies can count them in for listenning.
 
LAUROJRM said:
let's just say
At my weekday job. In our office there is a Speaker. When we turn on that speaker (Radio), "Magic 106.7" is on
Whoever else has a speaker (Radio), say ??? Cardiology office, or Housekeeping office, "Magic 106.7 is on their speaker as well.
The stereo is somewhere in the hospital in some kind of Media Storage room. They have "Magic 106.7 set on that stereo, those Speakers someway are attached to that stereo.


So, whatever hospital employee want to listen to ???? say example (96 9 Boston Talks, ?? WZLX, Big City 101.3, or ?? WROR 105.7 -For examples) They have to wait till after work, or go outside with their walkman on their break


The listenners are there, but maybe not at the correct time to listen to the radio so the survey companies can count them in for listenning.
Click to expand...
The people meters don't care what time it is. They record what you're listening to as long as they're turned on. The dominance of WMJX in the daytime is enhanced by the meters registering WMJX when being worn by people who are just stopping by a store or office who have no real awareness that they're listening to radio at all. Those completely passive listeners would never write down "Magic" or "WMJX" in a diary, but the meter will always record the fact that they are "listening."
 
raccoonradio said:
An idea of AM signal limitations: a few seconds of WRKO I just recorded, about 3:15 pm. Note the background noise, interference. Recorded in Beverly; sticks in Burlington.

http://raccoonradio.freehostia.com/Air/WRKONov10.mp3
Click to expand...

This is only partially "AM signal limitations" - it's also, as I've pointed out repeatedly, a function of two factors specific to you: you work in a big metal box that's essentially a Faraday cage, and you work practically within sight of the 93.7 stick. In that specific example, yes, 93.7 is far superior to 850, or 680, or pretty much any other signal, AM or FM, that you could name.

This is manifestly not the case for everyone in the Boston market.

During my last visit to town in September, I was staying with a friend in Framingham. 850 comes in just fine there, even at night (which was probably not the case when CKVL was still on the air in Montreal). 93.7 was nearly unusable on most radios. It's also nearly unusable on cheap radios under the "RF haze" that surrounds the Pru. (That's true, as Lauro keeps telling us, of any FM signal that doesn't transmit from the Pru.) In that area, AM does just fine. It's the non-Pru FM signals (90.9/94.5/98.5/102.5/103.3 from Newton/Needham; 93.7 and 99.5 from up north; 89.7 and 97.7 from Blue Hill) that have "signal limitations" in that densely-populated area.

Point is, there's no magic bullet for signal coverage in a market that's as big and quirky as Boston.

On AM, 1030 probably comes closest, but rising electrical noise levels make it tricky in the more outlying parts of the market to the north and west and 1060 wipes it out in parts of Ashland.

The Pru FMs (92.9/96.9/100.7/104.1/105.7/107.9) are probably as good as it gets for full-market FM coverage, but they have some problems around Newton and Needham where cheaper FM radios get overloaded by the transmitters there. (And Entercom has the particular disadvantage, unlike the other big operators in town, of not owning any FMs on either the Pru or Newton/Needham; it has to do the best it can with not-quite-full-market signals like 93.7 and 97.7.)

680 and 850 are good along a north-south axis, but fall apart very quickly at night going west, and in some cases even going east, as in Beverly. That was good enough once upon a time, but those times have changed...though the issues are much bigger and much more complex than just how they perform at one location on the North Shore.
 
Maybe it is time to re-allocate FM radio. The FCC did it with TV, is it radios turn now? Signals in each market are 600kHz apart. Could this be reduced to 400kHz, e.g. a 103.1MHz then 103.5MHz in the same market. If WPRO were not on the air in Providence, WXRV would move much closer to WBOS. Would there be too much interference between 92.5 and 92.9 if they were able to do it? The FCC allows stations between 88.1 and 91.9 to be more closely spaced, maybe move this to include the entire band. Digital radio receivers are much better now then they were in the in 1960s and 1970s. Their selectivity and rejection of adjacent signals is far superior then previous radios had. If FM the band were reallocated, FM radio in one market would contain more stations then there are today in each market overall with more formats and variety of stations available to the average listener.
 
That was recorded at home actually, third floor, and the interference wasn't from the computer being near the receiver, it was other stations in the background etc. Common on mid
to late afternoon this time of yr, and adjusting of the rectangular-AM antenna does help a bit,
but it still posed problems today.

WRKO was better on 128 in Peabody a bit later but of course I was driving closer to their sticks. WRKO,
WEEI (AM), and WXKS (AM) all have trouble in places like the Rt 22/128 interchange with interference.

The work problem indeed has to do with type of building, hence the joy we sports fans at work had
when they started to // on 93.7.

>>but fall apart very quickly at night going west, and in some cases even going east, as in Beverly.

Good point; I used to record Howie for a tape trader and would run into problems here, as it started to get dark. Also very good point about 93.7's problems in Framingham area, etc. and we'll see if Entercom
could somehow (unlikely but who knows) buy a diff. FM in town. And if not for the need to // WAAF,
WKAF 97.7 might help. Here in Bev. I can't quite get 107.3 but 97.7 is OK.

As are websites, phone apps, and the like.
 
wcozBoston said:
...If FM the band were reallocated, FM radio in one market would contain more stations then there are today in each market overall with more formats and variety of stations available to the average listener.
Click to expand...
Isn't that the same argument they used in support of the Telecom Act of '96? By owning more stations there would be more variety.
 
Scott Fybush said:
On AM, 1030 probably comes closest, but rising electrical noise levels make it tricky in the more outlying parts of the market to the north and west and 1060 wipes it out in parts of Ashland.
Click to expand...

Probably not Ashland because, even during the day, when 1060 transmits from Ashland with 50 kW into 200+-degree towers, 1060 is directionalized to the east and most of Ashland lies to the west of the 890/1060 site on Sewell St. Now, the affluent and sparsely populated town of Dover has got to be another story entirely. Dover lies immediately to the east of the Sewell St site and my guess is that, on all but highly selective AM receivers, 1060 must decimate 1030 during the daytime. Probably not so much at night, when 1060's signal strength to the east drops by a factor of four or so.

A few nights ago, 1060 failed to change pattern/power at sunset and was running 50 kW with the day pattern all night. I sent an e-mail and the problem was corrected the next night. Still, here in Arlington, that 50 kW signal sure was impressive at night! It is not as strong as WBZ here, but I could not tell from listening. There was not a shred of KYW. I doubt whether 1060 could ever be granted any sort of nighttime power increase--especially an increase to 50 kW, but if such an increase were ever granted and built, 1060 would be in contention with 680 and 850 for second-best full-time AM signal in the market.
 
wcozBoston said:
Maybe it is time to re-allocate FM radio. The FCC did it with TV, is it radios turn now? Signals in each market are 600kHz apart. Could this be reduced to 400kHz, e.g. a 103.1MHz then 103.5MHz in the same market.
Click to expand...

Since it's unlikely that 76-88 Mhz. will ever become part of the FM band, the re-packing scheme you propose might be the only practical way to accomodate at least a limited number of "refugees" fleeing the AM band.

It's so sad to sit by and watch the AM band die such a slow, agonizing death.
 
The problem with the lack of good, full-market FM signals in Boston seems fairly obvious. Scott Fybush, jump in here if you disagree.

Way back when, signals were allocated in big cities at 800 khz (not 600) intervals (still largely true) beginning in one of four patterns. This is where Boston got shafted.

Starting in the commercial band:

92.3, 93.1, 93.9....107.5 yielded potentially 20 class b or c stations. NY, Chicago, LA, Detroit, Houston follow this pattern, mostly.
92.5, 93.3, 94.1....107.7 also yielded up to 20 potential class b or c stations. Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco follow this pattern, mostly.

On the other hand, the two other patterns yielded a handful or more of class a signals. It would not matter now, but 101.7, for example is a traditional class a signal. Many have been upgraded, but where they are short-spaced, as in the northeast, no way.

92.1, 92.9, 93.7, 94.5...107.3 is the Boston pattern, mostly, and yielded in the old days only 13 class a signals. It is also mostly the pattern for Pittsburgh Phoenix, Atlanta, and Buffalo. It is filled with frequencies that would, in the old days been exclusively class a: 92.1, 95.3, 97.7, 99.3, 100.1, 100.9, 101.7, 104.9. Boston obviously deviates where it has a 99.5 and a 100.7 instead of a 99.3 and 100.9, but nevertheless, it is stuck with 97.7 as a class a, not because the frequency is restricted any longer, but because it is too short-spaced to upgrade to a class b, or b1, etc.

The last pattern, 92.7, 93.5, 94.3...107.1 is not often seen in large cities, and has an even greater number of what used to be exclusively class a frequencies. All of the ones mentioned in the previous sentence used to be.

Thanks to Vane A. Jones and those station guides he used to write for making this obvious.

I think this odd pattern is a big part of the problem in Boston. Even with the disadvantaged allocation pattern, some frequencies along it ended up far from the city: 96.1, 107.3 in Worcester and others in odd or multiple allocations in the area: lower power 95.3 for Harvard, two 104.9s, without others allocations to make up for it in the immediate area.
 
observer2 said:
92.1, 92.9, 93.7, 94.5...107.3 is the Boston pattern, mostly, and yielded in the old days only 13 class a signals. It is also mostly the pattern for Pittsburgh Phoenix, Atlanta, and Buffalo. It is filled with frequencies that would, in the old days been exclusively class a: 92.1, 95.3, 97.7, 99.3, 100.1, 100.9, 101.7, 104.9.
Click to expand...

Phoenix doesn't really have a "pattern." It's pre-1980 Class C channels are 91.5, 92.3, 93.3, 94.5, 95.5, 96.9, 97.9, 98.7, 99.9, 100.7, 101.5, 102.5, 104.7, and 107.9. I'm only counting the original allocations for sticks located on South Mountain, not suburban, rimshot, or translator stations that came later and doubled the FM count in this market.
 
On my recent trip to Portland ME I noticed that (even though EEI has affiliates at 95.9 and 95.5)
WEEI 93.7 comes in well along the coast, even up to Wells ME. First Red Sox game they did,
the text messages were flying in from NH and Maine about how well it was coming in. And yes,
93.7 does do well in many areas of Boston--though as Scott mentioned NOT so well in a few,
hence their poss. keeping 850 as is. And if you're in certain areas, various affiliates can help out...

(Of course many Boston _AM_ stations did come in across the water, including WBZ---killer signal--,
WEEI (AM), WRKO...even WNTN, WNSH, WQOM, and WXKS AM...)
 
Somebody mentioned Phoenix, AZ: during the misbegotten John McCain presidential campaign, there was talk about his wife's immense fortune that came from the family's Anheuser-Busch distributorship in the Depression years (the 1930s, not the current depression). He was able to get so rich because the Phoenix metropolitan population and even outlying markets doubled and quadrupled in size over the years as air-conditioning became widespread. (The US Congress used to shut down in the summer months because Washington, DC was both hot and humid, while Phoenix experienced DRY heat. Yeah, tell me about it. I did my Air Force basic training in San Antonio, TX during June, July, August and early September). Anyway, since Phoenix was a minor market, it didn't get a blowtorch 50K AM signal like Salt Lake's KSL or LA's KFI, so the City and environs had to wait a while for FMs to take over. I was later stationed near Seattle, where KOMO-AM 1000 and KING-AM 1090 had pretty good coverage in a north-south axis, but were hard to pick up in Spokane for example where I also lived for a while. (I mentioned to Scott when he was on WBZ-AM discussing WBZ's early years that I actually picked up WBZ on an ordinary radio late on a Sunday night Pacific time in Spokane , very early morning here in the East.) Speaking of Scott: Cougar Mountain is a bit more southeast of Seattle, not east. Bellevue and Kirkland are east of Seattle.
 
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