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Mobile-area sports talker WNSP drops ESPN Radio for Sporting News Radio

N

Nate Wesley

Tuesday's Press-Register talked about a programming shakeup at sports talker WNSP 105.5 (Bay Minette) that took place today, Wednesday June 1st: The station is dropping all ESPN Radio programming for Sporting News Radio, while adding a new local midday show called "Sidelines", hosted by Randy Burgan.

According to general manager Tim Camp, the station's previous ESPN contract expired with management deciding not to re-sign. The old contract was a barter arrangement, and a new contract would have called for programming fees.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/05/wnsp_dropping_espn_programming.html
 
Could this have something to do with 107.3-HD2 (can't remember the calls, it should be WOWW, but changed to WYCL, now it's something else) running an ESPN feed for a couple months last year? Is it possible Clear Channel Mobile/Pensacola is getting into the sports/talk radio business?
 
poledo said:
Could this have something to do with 107.3-HD2 (can't remember the calls, it should be WOWW, but changed to WYCL, now it's something else) running an ESPN feed for a couple months last year?  Is it possible Clear Channel Mobile/Pensacola is getting into the sports/talk radio business?
Click to expand...

The current call letters are WRGV-FM. The call letters for radio and TV stations in Mobile and other areas near by are listed at the Alabama Broadcast Media Page.

http://www.almediapage.info
 
WRGV is still running ESPN on the HD-2. Well, in theory. It's silent now, and it does come and go but lately it's been pretty solid.

The PAD data is constantly messed up on WRGV-HD, too. The ESPN feed almost always shows some stuck song title/artist from the main channel, and for a while the HD-1 said "Wrgv-Hd2 Espn Radio" instead of song titles.

I'd be curious to know if it's costing the station a lot to run ESPN, seeing as how no one can hear it. WRGV has the worst HD signal in the market and I don't think it decodes consistently in P'cola at all. It's spotty even in Baldwin County and I can usually see the two tall towers up near Elsanor when driving around the area.
 
I've noticed that KSJ, The Rocket and TK plus their HD-2 channels have been sending out bad data for song titles, etc... for quite a while. It's been so long since my radio locked into the HD signal on 107.3 that I assumed they had shut off HD... I've forgotten how to change my tuner from "dx seek" to "manual" so I rarely hit on 107.3's analog signal, especially with the summer tropo kickin' in. I haven't driven north or west of the Pensacola city limits in a long time, so my reception reports are mostly based on the signal in Pensacola and eastbound along Hwy 98 and I-10.

Since I have no way to turn HD off on my car radio and I don't care enough to go buy another radio I've found myself listening to Cumulus Fort Walton stations most of the time because of the bad HD signals on Clear Channel Mobile/Pensacola stations. If CC shut down the HD signal on The Rocket I'd probably listen to it 75% of the time I have my radio on... now I just listen for a few minutes and seek to another station when the signal drops, that's far less than 5% of the time I spend listending to the radio.

This may be a stupid novice question, but since I doubt I'll find the answer on Google I'll ask it anyway... Would it be possible for Clear Channel to run their HD signals off a transmitter/tower closer to Mobile or Pensacola or do they have to transmit the HD signal from the same antennas they use for the analog signal? I would assume 1000 watts HD from 92 Zew's tower and/or Magic 106.1's tower would cover the city/population centers very well.

Mario-500 said:
The call letters for radio and TV stations in Mobile and other areas near by are listed at the Alabama Broadcast Media Page.

http://www.almediapage.info
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Cool web site, I'll have to spend some more time checking it out. How did that guy find out all that information?
 
poledo said:
Cool web site, I'll have to spend some more time checking it out. How did that guy find out all that information?
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*blush* That's my site and most all the history has come from corresponding with folks on here who were around to watch it all happen. :)

I don't know if the HD signals can originate from so far away from the analog source, but I suppose it is possible. It'd probably create more interference to the analog than would be acceptable. There is such a thing now as using a different antenna on the same tower… for example an AUX antenna at the same site. And there's talk of HD fill-in boosters to help the signal around terrain blockage, but I don't know if it's ever been publicly trialled.

Of course moving the HD to ZEW and Magic's sites would put people like me (in Foley) in the no man's land. HD works good here. It still cuts out sometimes while moving, even when I can see the broadcast towers. If you've been up AL-59 before you know there's places where all three tall towers are visible at once, but I guess the RF overload causes the little Insignia to drop out.

Also, the only HD I ever listen to really is… The Rocket. The HD-2 is the only way I can hear WNTM clearly day or night. The HD-1 cuts out consistently even when sitting still. I dunno if it's a bug in the radio or on their end, but it's very annoying. The signal never drops according to the meter on the radio, but the audio blends in and out. It's only on The Rocket, not KSJ or Lite Mix or the others. The HD-2 never cuts out.
 
I agree with your observation that 99.9 and 94.9 have much better HD signals than 96.1 and 101.5. I love Foggy Mountain on 94.9-HD2 but I don't care for smooth jazz. WNTM should be the most popular HD-2 in the market, so it seems that clear channel would put it on the strongest frequency... and since they don't want to keep me from listening to Foggy Mountain, that means they should move WNTM to 99.9 HD-2.

That AL Media Page website is pretty cool! All the info no one really needs to know in one convenient location. I'm going to go read some more and start a thread about historical "Bad Moves on the Mobile Radio Dial."

(hope I'm not coming across as a jackass Zach)
 
Not at all. Before I focused on Alabama media stuff the page was called "The Cutting Edge of Nothing Significant", so I certainly don't take anything too seriously.

What with WNTM being on an HD-2 and ESPN allegedly being on another, the market seems ripe for someone to put these formats on a translator or two so they can get some real exposure. Yet that hasn't happened yet. Alabama as a whole has been something of a leader in the AM or HD-2 getting on a translator bandwagon but not Mobile or Pensacola.

Another strong HD performer from the CC stable is 92.9. They don't run an HD-2 channel on it and it sounds really good. Too bad the format is the opposite of what I like.

I'd be interested to know your experiences with 104.1's HD. It seems the best overall. I've actually gotten it to decode while sitting still in Navarre, Atmore and Pascagoula near I-10, and had it go in and out up I-65 all the way to exit 69. It's by far the one with the biggest reach. The sound quality's not too shabby, either.
 
Yeah, 104.1 and 100.7 have the best HD signals from Baldwin County over here in Pensacola. I've only listened for short periods because neither carries a format that I care for and neither carries an HD-2.
Also... up a little late Zach? "Another strong HD performer from the CC stable is 92.9." WBLX is Cumulus' pride and joy, but even with their bigger analog signal, their HD signal isn't as good as 100.7 and 104.1.
The best HD signal in NWFL is WUWF (no surprise since you can see the strobies on their tower from downtown Pensacola), but now that the -2 is all classical I have no use for the Pensacola NPR station. I wonder if the University of Alabama will invest into upgrading WHIL with an HD signal? Eh, doesn't matter, there's no way I'd be able to pull a WHIL-HD in over here from the current Spanish Fort tower and they're too close to 91.1 in FWB to move closer or upgrade the signal in my direction.
 
poledo said:
Yeah, 104.1 and 100.7 have the best HD signals from Baldwin County over here in Pensacola. I've only listened for short periods because neither carries a format that I care for and neither carries an HD-2.
Also... up a little late Zach? "Another strong HD performer from the CC stable is 92.9." WBLX is Cumulus' pride and joy, but even with their bigger analog signal, their HD signal isn't as good as 100.7 and 104.1.
The best HD signal in NWFL is WUWF (no surprise since you can see the strobies on their tower from downtown Pensacola), but now that the -2 is all classical I have no use for the Pensacola NPR station. I wonder if the University of Alabama will invest into upgrading WHIL with an HD signal? Eh, doesn't matter, there's no way I'd be able to pull a WHIL-HD in over here from the current Spanish Fort tower and they're too close to 91.1 in FWB to move closer or upgrade the signal in my direction.
Click to expand...

I'm a night owl.

WUWF is definitely a strong performer in Pensacola. I think they might be running 6% on the HD side because it will often decode inside my home in Foley. That's a pretty big hop. Unfortunately there's a bug in their encoder that causes certain radios to have issues. Of my two identical Insignia portables, one will decode WUWF but drops to silence on the HD-1 during dropouts. The other won't decode or lock at all. So WUWF is out of contention for me.

Is the HD-2 all classical now? They ditched eXponential radio? That sucks.

I e-mailed APR about their plans for WHIL regarding programming and/or HD (since WUAL is in HD in Tuscaloosa) and never heard back from them. WHIL's classical-heavy programming is not something I enjoy so I don't listen to public radio anymore unless I'm somewhere where I can get MPB from Biloxi. (Whose HD will decode in Fairhope if you're by the bay.) And I will listen to WUWF if the signal is strong enough but the analog is really fuzzy in most of Baldwin County.

I'd like WHIL to go HD and pick up APR's lineup, but the main channel would overlap WUWF some. WUAL's HD-2 is eXponential radio with some jazz and blues programming and HD-3 is BBC World Service.
 
I was just listening to TK's HD2 yesterday morning. They were playing White Stripes and several other bands I didn't recognize... the RDS was stuck saying "Stone Temple Pilots" as it has been for several weeks (I think... time zips by so fast). Foggy Mountain and WNTM were also on but 99.9 HD and 107.3 HD were not popping at all.
 
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