Herald: Rush Radio's ratings 4 times higher than Spanish

[BRNout]

CC should consider putting the 1200 programming also on WXKS-FM HD3 to cover some of the areas that lose the signal at night. Where I live, both WWZN and WXKS disappear almost completely at sunset. Now that's fairness!

This is almost a no-brainer! I don't know why they didn't do this from the start. Hannity dissapears at 4:15 in the Winter (sunset) in a lot of places....and would extend the reach of C2C AM.

Agreed that it is a no-brainer. However, I disagree about how much the reach of Rush Radio would be extended by an HD-3 simulcast. It's been my experience that most HD radios don't have great range and that HD-2's have less range than HD-1s and HD-3s have a little less range than HD-2s. Not to mention that the useful service area of an HD-2 or 3 signal is far less than the range that some of you claim because you receive the signal on a very sensitive home receiver. In the car or with a portable, you get drop-outs (to silence) that are basically intolerable when you don't have nearly perfect signal. So the range is far more limited than some of the spot observations that I see here would imply.

Thanks to their tx being on the Pru, the areas where WXKS-FM HD-3 would actually come in dependably are already served by the night signal of WXKS 1200. Those western and northwestern suburbs that don't get 1200 at night probably won't do much better with the HD-3 signal - even after a power upgrade. Because of the tendency of the digital signal to drop out. Your range is maybe 20-25 miles over level terrain for dependable reception in a car, a little less with the Insignia portable. Of course, you don't have level terrain out in the western/northwestern suburbs.

Clear Channel would do somewhat better putting the feed on the HD-2 or HD-3 of WJMN because their tx is still in Needham and the HD signal would do better to the west.

One other note: by the time you parse the signal down to an HD-3, the digital artifacts make it a bit fatiguing to listen to. Don't get me wrong, they should do it anyway. But it won't really solve any of the reception problems in the outer parts of the market to put it on Kiss 108's feed. Jamn's would be better.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Thanks to their tx being on the Pru, the areas where WXKS-FM HD-3 would actually come in dependably are already served by the night signal of WXKS 1200. Those western and northwestern suburbs that don't get 1200 at night probably won't do much better with the HD-3 signal - even after a power upgrade. Clear Channel would do somewhat better putting the feed on the HD-2 or HD-3 of WJMN because their tx is still in Needham and the HD signal would do better to the west.

I can't argue with the idea that, assuming that the HAAT-adjusted HD power of a Newton-based HD-3 signal was equal to that of a Pru-based HD-3 signal, the Newton-based signal would cover the western and northwestern suburbs better than would the Pru-based signal. However, a Pru-based signal with a 20-mile coverage radius would reach close to a million people who live outside of WXKS (AM)'s NIF contour. To the southwest of the 750 Sawmill Brook Parkway site, WXKS's nighttime signal is equivalent to a little less than 100W ND. (At 229 degrees true, the inverse-distance field @ 1 km is 94.42 mV/m.) With an NIF of ~13.5 mV/m, the 1200 night signal reaches, for all practical purposes, only about 1 mile in that direction.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WNHW is licensed to Belmont, NH. Saga's WMLL is licensed to Bedford.
(Back to lurk mode)

and co-channel WNHW Bedford (Concord), NH.

I meant Belmont, just substituted a different name of the same length and same first two letters (due to fatigue).

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

CC should consider putting the 1200 programming also on WXKS-FM HD3 to cover some of the areas that lose the signal at night. Where I live, both WWZN and WXKS disappear almost completely at sunset. Now that's fairness!

This is almost a no-brainer! I don't know why they didn't do this from the start. Hannity dissapears at 4:15 in the Winter (sunset) in a lot of places....and would extend the reach of C2C AM.

Sure it would. For the seven people who actually own HD radios.

 

[raccoonradio]

I'm one of them, at least in the case of the portable one. (And I know of at least one station that uses them
as EAS relayers) For $40 on sale I got a pretty decent FM portable that does have a few of those "extra stations"
all those ads boast of--how much money got sunk into that campaign anyway? Now if they can make HD standard in
car stereos, etc., and convince people who might want something different on their portable or "at home"
(component system) radios, they may do OK but what are the odds...maybe someday.

A friend in Calif. bought the same radio I did and did get those extra stations, etc...but when he's moving, like walking or listening on a bus, he keeps losing the signal. Hey radio stations: "it's time to upgrade" (recently discarded HD slogan?) your HD signals! Though as has been noted, it's expensive!

btw if you're listening to Red Sox, Celts, etc. on WMKK-HD 3 (WEEI; the display just says WMKK-HD 3 but doesn't
say WEEI) be aware that the digital processing delays the signal of course. As I did say, I could pick up that station
well in the _breakroom_ at work. But for the heck of it I had it on 104.9 (which also comes in well in breakroom) and heard the end of an inning, and Joe C. went into the ad break. Put on the HD 3 and about half a minute later,
heard same thing. Thus, if you're AT the game, listening to the HD won't help you much! (I will say that at least
when I caught a NH Fisher Cats game up in Manchester, WGIR had NO delay, so the action you saw on the diamond
was synchronized on the broadcast!)

 

[DanStrassberg]

Put on the HD 3 and about half a minute later, heard same thing. Thus, if you're AT the game, listening to the HD won't help you much! (I will say that at least when I caught a NH Fisher Cats game up in Manchester, WGIR had NO delay, so the action you saw on the diamond was synchronized on the broadcast!)

Just think of it as an audio (not quite) instant replay :'( AKA deja entendu.

 

[Don Juan]

CC should consider putting the 1200 programming also on WXKS-FM HD3 to cover some of the areas that lose the signal at night. Where I live, both WWZN and WXKS disappear almost completely at sunset. Now that's fairness!

This is almost a no-brainer! I don't know why they didn't do this from the start. Hannity dissapears at 4:15 in the Winter (sunset) in a lot of places....and would extend the reach of C2C AM.

Sure it would. For the seven people who actually own HD radios.

No, for anyone that wants to listen to C2C AM outside of 128.....and anyone who wants to listen to listen to the dozen or other HD2 channels.

If there's no content, there's no need for the radios. Content comes first.