"On The Media" Sunday, July 6

[Laurence Glavin]

I'm currently in the Berkshires of Western Mass, using a visitors terminal at the Pitssfield liberry; out here, WNNZ-AM 640 runs NPR's "On the Media" Saturday mornings, so I just heard this weekend's show. Usually, on a holiday weekend, it's all repeat material, but the first 35 minutes seems to have been new. There's an interview with the author of the Rush Limbaugh piece in the NY Times magazine...and then a repeat of a very entertaining piece on Mexican "border-blaster" radio from early in the 20th Century. It originally aired last November, but if you missed it and are near a radio Sunday at 10:00 am, it's on NHPR; on Sunday afternoon, on WBUR at 2:00. Just so you'll know. By the way, WROW-AM in Albany is coming like gangbusters day and night here in Western Mass...I'm not aware of any CP they had. At one point, on route 22 not far from Alford, Mass it was better than WGY! (I attended a chamber music concert in Norfolk, CT and wanted news and talk for the drive back to where I was staying). Also, AM 1020 in Sharon, CT is a clone of an NPR station in that town.)

 

[DanStrassberg]

I'm currently in the Berkshires of Western Mass, <snip> By the way, WROW-AM in Albany is coming like gangbusters day and night here in Western Mass...I'm not aware of any CP they had.

Decades ago, when WROW had to move from its original Glenmont site to make way for the New York Thruway, they built towers that were substantially taller than the original 300-footers. The 5-kW daytime signal, which was already a killer from the mid-Hudson valley to Lake Champlain and the Adirondack foothills, got even better. The night signal, which was rather incredible for 1 kW, could not be improved, however, because of a Canadian station almost due north of Albany. WROW nominally runs 1 kW at night, but if you look at the day and night pattern RMS values, you will see that the night value is consistent with a power of only about 850W. The rest must go into a limiting resistor. Anyhow, depending on where in the Berkshires you are, WROW could be as many as 19 miles closer to you than WGY is, which could at least partially explain what appears to you to be a superior daytime signal. I would not expect the night signal to be better than WGY's, however. Besides the lower power, WROW's night pattern is much more restricted to the east than is the day pattern to protect WEZE and to the southwest to protect WARM.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

I'm currently in the Berkshires of Western Mass, <snip> By the way, WROW-AM in Albany is coming like gangbusters day and night here in Western Mass...I'm not aware of any CP they had.

Decades ago, when WROW had to move from its original Glenmont site to make way for the New York Thruway, they built towers that were substantially taller than the original 300-footers. The 5-kW daytime signal, which was already a killer from the mid-Hudson valley to Lake Champlain and the Adirondack foothills, got even better. The night signal, which was rather incredible for 1 kW, could not be improved, however, because of a Canadian station almost due north of Albany. WROW nominally runs 1 kW at night, but if you look at the day and night pattern RMS values, you will see that the night value is consistent with a power of only about 850W. The rest must go into a limiting resistor. Anyhow, depending on where in the Berkshires you are, WROW could be as many as 19 miles closer to you than WGY is, which could at least partially explain what appears to you to be a superior daytime signal. I would not expect the night signal to be better than WGY's, however. Besides the lower power, WROW's night pattern is much more restricted to the east than is the day pattern to protect WEZE and to the southwest to protect WARM.

Yes, I'm aware of all that which is why I was so amazed at the quality of signal I got. I almost have to wonder why I tuned to 590 because I never expected it to come in so well. I don't suspect they were failing to observe the rules...the station is NOT owned by Salem! I may try it again over at Tenglewood tonight (Saturday).

 

[DanStrassberg]

Yes, I'm aware of all that which is why I was so amazed at the quality of signal I got. I almost have to wonder why I tuned to 590 because I never expected it to come in so well. I don't suspect they were failing to observe the rules...the station is NOT owned by Salem! I may try it again over at Tenglewood tonight (Saturday).

Over half a century ago, when I was in college in Troy NY, a Capital District station with a great signal in North Adams, Pittsfield, and Bennington was WTRY 980 (now WOFX). In those days, WTRY ran DA-1. The pattern WOFX now uses only at night was used day and night back then. That pattern, from a site north of Route 7 in Niskayuna--between Troy and Schenectady--throws a major lobe to the east to cover Albany and Troy and a smaller but significant lobe to the west to cover Schenectady. WTRY always got a lot of listener mail from western Mass and southern Vermont. In the '60s, IIRC, WTRY became ND days to cover Mechanicville and Saratoga (which are part of the Capital District market; AFAIK, the Berkshires are not). The change may have become possible when CKGM moved from 980 to 990. (BTW, WCAP remained a 1-kW daytimer until the mid '70s.) I'm sure that you can still pick up 980 in the Berkshires during the day but the daytime signal is less than half of the night signal (equivalent to less than 1/4 the power). I would expect WOFX to be considerably stronger in the Berkshires at night than WROW.