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Hartford-Springfield, MA Stations

B

bowserb

Is it possible for a station to position themselves like 97.9 country in Enfield and cover both the Springfield/Hartford area but be in both Designated Market Areas (DMA) wouldnt that be an easier way to gain revenue. Have all signals in the area go halfway say in Enfield or Longmeadow, MA and combine it to one larger market, where a larger audience could be targeted plus more listeners? For example, 94.7 in Springfield is pretty clear all the way down to Middletown, CT.

Couldnt that station move a few more miles south to cover the hartford area better and combine the markets? I mean stations like 96.5 TIC already are the main station in the springfield area for top-40 (if thats what they are calling that stuff on there nowadays) and 100.5 soft rock is a large station up there, not to mention 106.9

If the FCC could let that happen I think it would be great, now on the other hand places like Waterbury and Norwich might be a little more left out, but Waterbury already gets alot from the Bridgeport/Stamford area. And Norwich relies heavily on the New London Area. Thoughts on this? Also I know the radio market in Hartford is about #50 in the DMA list, and Springfield's is #82 to my most recent knowledge, anyone know what spot this market would move to if they were to combine? My guess is maybe low 40's upper 30's?

Thoughts on this idea?
 
Hey Bowserb,
Let's see if I can give you some insight. Stations in Hartford and Springfield have always crossed paths. Drop the DMA. You have to look at the Metro, the TSA, (Total survey audience,) and the TSL, (Time spent listening.) I was on the air at WACKY 102 FM (WAQY,) which is now, I thing, Album Oriented Rock before going to WDRC FM for 10 years. When I worked at WACKY doing afternoon drive, I beat WTIC FM in their own book. The Arbitron rating system is broken down to a station's TSA. It hurt em, but that's the way it has always worked.

As far as moving a station, the FCC doesn't want to hear that. It just can't work. The only thing a station can do is buy a translator. It's a lot of red tape but gets your signal to places you never reached before. In the Hartford Springfield area, you don't see many of them because the land is flat. FM stands for Frequency Modulation. The signal travels in a straight line. Go north and the signal will run into a mountain and quit. AM is Amplitude Modulation. AM signals travel from the ground to the stratosphere and bounce back up and down and travel further at night. That's why you can pick up far away stations on AM but only regionally on FM.

By the way, I believe the Hartford Market is about 37, not 50. At least it was when I was on the air at DRC FM from 1980 to 1990. I hope i filled you in with something you may have not been familiar with. Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Regards,

Ken Gilbert
Albany Broadcasting
 
how about the 40 degree radio wave bounce on fm?
I have never understood why southern fairfield county cannot get any hartford fm's about 40 miles away. Is it because of the terrain (Long Island sound is flat) or neighboring interference? These are my only two guesses...
I know that I can get hartford stations better in northern MA 60 to 80 miles away in comparison to Fairfield county CT
Lastly, I do know that in some occations on the western side of CT just north of stamford to as far as new haven, I will occationally get 94.1 WYSP, 93.3 WMMR and WCCC 106.9 will instead be the religious station from NJ/PA instead.

ken gilbert said:
As far as moving a station, the FCC doesn't want to hear that. It just can't work. The only thing a station can do is buy a translator. It's a lot of red tape but gets your signal to places you never reached before. In the Hartford Springfield area, you don't see many of them because the land is flat. FM stands for Frequency Modulation. The signal travels in a straight line. Go north and the signal will run into a mountain and quit.
Click to expand...
 
Hey, I know that some of the Hartford TV stations are also part of the Springfield market, such as WTIC Fox 61. I know that WFSB USED to be their CBS affiliate, but I think they have their own now. But do cable systems in these areas still carry both Springfield and Hartford?

And I wonder if that's why the Springfield/Hartford area is mostly on UHF.
 
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