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La Bomba 97.5 has moved to 97.1

MarcB said:
La Bomba 97.5, Connecticut's only FM Latino radio station (it relays 104.1 HD2) has officially moved to 97.1 FM. Yay! No more interference from that damn Long Island station. (Tho I still can't get the station here in Bristol's west end).

http://www.bomba971.com/
Click to expand...

Umm, that damn Long Island station would be WALK-FM, a very successful (and powerful) AC station licensed to Patchogue. I actually hear it quite a bit here in southern Connecticut. Arguably, it could almost be considered as a competitor to 99.9 and 107.9.

I hope that translator move doesn't impact my reception of Hot 97.
 
It's outside of WQHT-FM's protected service contour. Nothing will happen, most likely.

My one question: How will this affect WZBG-FM 97.3 of Litchfield?
 
Let Clear Channel get their hands on 97.1 and make that Rush Radio instead of moving 97.9 into Hartford. Leaves Springfield 97.9 and gives CC a place for their talk FM and blows up the La Bomba format.
 
Surprisingly their coverage seems worse around Hartford and W. Htfd on the new frequency. Any one else notice this?
 
Another post said it best, "If a tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Is there a bigger waste of anyone's time than a translator doing Spanish music? If you're pondering that, the answer is no, with maybe the exception of Facebook.
 
Bomba, with its 60 watts and WALK interference at 97.5 and limited HD-2 reach, racked up a higher cume in December than WDRC-AM and Spanish AM competitors WNEZ and WRYM while almost even with WLAT's 5000 watts at 910 AM. WPRX doesn't show. If there are now too many Spanish signals in Hartford, then time will tell and someone will blink. The decision makers didn't just impulsively do this to drive you crazy with a language you may not understand; 10% of the population does.

At 97.1, the signal can't really go much further west because WZBG 97.3 does cover Bristol and the Farmington Valley. It does reach Willimantic much better now with 100 watts at 97.1, and that has a big ratio of Hispanics. It also can be heard in Springfield, which has no Spanish language FM service. New Britain is still more distant from Bolton, but Bomba should be easier to pick up there without WALK. WQHT 97.1 is just something DXers may pull in less often and is not an issue beyond that.

Clear Channel would not move Rush Radio to a 97.1 signal that is not city grade in the western and southern suburbs of Hartford county. Voids for music intensive formats are better filled on FM than AM. That has been the case for some time, whether in English or Spanish.
 
Something to note on 97.1 being received in Willimantic:

I do a lot of Route 6 driving from Manchester to Providence. Because geographically Willimantic is in a hole and 97.1 is pretty high at Bolton Notch, Bomba is shooting right over Willimantic. It comes blasting into Columbia, and pretty well past Willi in Chaplin and Hampton when you're up on the hills, but as for the majority of the hispanic population in Willi, it's missing them.
 
A couple of notes:

1. Comparing La Bomba and WNEZ isn't fair. They target two different audiences. La Bomba targets younger Hispanic listeners. WNEZ targets older Hispanic listeners.

2. La Bomba isn't 100% Spanish speaking. It's bi-lingual. I listened during the 5PM hour during the 10 minute drive from work to my mom's condo. They were playing both Spanish and English Music including the latest Black Eyed Peas song - "The Time (Dirty Bit)" and Free-style music. The DJs were talking back and forth in both Spanish and English.

Here's something interesting. There was an ad in Spanish for a business on Park Street in Hartford and they pronounced it as Calle de Park. (Spanish for Park Street). When I tuned in later I heard an ad in Spanish for a Tax Preparation office on Park Street and they pronounced it as Park Street.
 
Downtown Willimantic (around Main & Valley Streets) is in a low area by the river, but much of the town (such as High & Mansfield Streets) is hilly. While there are rough spots for FM reception, 97.1 is an improvement over 97.5. The pickin's are slim there on AM & FM for any Spanish service, but Bomba is more of an option than it used to be for the "Thread City."

I mentioned the ratings cume only to show how a new low-powered signal has already gained a place in the pack, not to analyze detailed demographics that most of us never see and don't come into play until you get into the top tier (WTIC, WRCH, WWYZ etc.) in the rankings.

As for the bilingual label, Bomba does have some English but the music and content are overwhelmingly Spanish.

And Hot 93.7 changing format? Don't hold your breath.
 
WILI-AM offers a popular salsa Spanish music program every Sunday from 10am-1pm (or whenever UC/Red Sox start) year-round to help serve the Hispanic population in town. "La Bomba" is not really well-known in Willimantic, as the previous poster said, the signal is not good where much of the Hispanic population resides.

I can vouch for the fact, however, that the 97.1 signal outdoes the 97.5 signal in the Springfield area dramatically....at least an 8 to 10 dbu increase.
 
It's also important to note that the real measure of success for any station is advertising dollars. A station pulling a 20 share that can't sell ads isn't a successful station. There's definitely a market for this station, and I think it'll be a profitable venture. The more powerful signal will help as well. What other programming holes are there on the FM dial in Hartford? The only two I can think of are FM talk and AAA, and you wouldn't expect 'MRQ to run two rock formats.

If there's one thing Fuller's good at, it's not cannibalizing his own audience. All four CT stations have very different demos.

And not to nitpick on Glenn, but having lived in Willi I can attest to the fact that the majority of the hispanic population is in the valley. Downtown, Windham Heights, etc. The hills to the North are mostly ECSU property, and the hills to the south are Lebanon.
 
Never really claimed 97.1 now has a solid city grade signal over Willimantic, just a better one than they had at 97.5. WILI AM & FM do a fine job of serving their community and may not stand to lose any listenership or revenue from this, but with 97.1's tower 13 miles away from a town at least 30% Hispanic/Latino I'd be surprised if Bomba doesn't try to sell advertising there and make some headway. I don't have my money on any horse in this race, so it's all radio geek academic to me. Don't be surprised to see a billboard or two there.
 
Format Hole? Hmm.... the Otaku's would love a J-Pop station, but I don't think that will ever happen, nor should it as it's a declining trend now.
 
This station is ripping it into way into Massachusetts... no more listening to Z-97 from Rutland VT in Central MA!
 
Time to actually comment on reception and the loss of WQHT.

La Bomba is getting out much better than before in all areas I've monitored it, however, this is having an effect on pulling in Hot 97 in many areas I had pulled it in consistently before. WQHT is gone from much of Meriden/Wallingford and there is no trace of them in Middletown anymore.

WALK is clear as a bell as it was long before the translator started up. All in all, I'm never against new stations/translators going on the air, just poor allocations and this seems like it is on either frequency.

My suggestion and I know this isn't how things work when it comes to these things, but how about a take out two problems with one stone approach, there are a couple of pirates in Hartford on some frequencies that might actually be better, I'm thinking 101.5 or 103.3 (I forget if either of these channels is future LPFM or not). It would force the pirate to find another spot or shut down. They seem a little short spaced, but not really much worse than now and the two pirates actually prove that either one of these channels is actually workable - at the right location and wattage, on-channel stations and adjacent stations don't seems to have interference from them or maybe I missed something somewhere.
 
DJKraze said:
WALK is clear as a bell as it was long before the translator started up. All in all, I'm never against new stations/translators going on the air, just poor allocations and this seems like it is on either frequency.
Click to expand...

WQHT's protected contour ends somewhere around Stamford... I wouldn't call the translator on 97.1 a poor allocation simply because it impairs the ability to DX a far-off station. The "public interest" (whatever that may be) is theoretically better served by local stations than massive flame throwers... that's why clear channels were axed and WLW never got to hang on to their 500kw signal.

Also, 101.5 would have prohibited overlap with third-adjacent WAQY's protected contour, and 103.3 is second-adjacent to WDRC-FM, that would be big time prohibited overlap.
 
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