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Severin Off To A Bad Start

L

Laurence Glavin

Guest
Now he says that he listened to AM 1200 while working at "the other station", on which he constantly railed against AM radio! And how well does WXKS-AM come in in Rowley, or Manchestah-bythe Sea, or wherever he lives anyway?
 
Oops...my first comment was overwritten by my second. I originally wrote that he made a grammatical error during his VERY FIRST comment. He welcomed his usual "best and brightest" to the broadcast, and then said "talk radio is more fun when you and ME are doing the talking". Duh. It should be "when you and I are doing the talking".
 
How is WXKS-AM like unto WWZN? The breaks feature ALL PSAs.
 
Actually I'm one town away from him and it comes in fine. He's in Manchester-by-the-Money and I'm in Beverly.
Most of the early calls were welcome back--he threw out stuff about the prez race but when people only get a minute or two with him, they don't get to do much more than
"welcome back, I missed you, I never even knew this station existed". That could be
true but i wonder if there were set up calls--relatives of Clr Chnl employees told to
call in to make it busy.

I can't really compare it to what things were like when 1200 was Air America because Boston's Prog Talk 1200 didn't have any daily local shows. WXKS now has two.

Not everyone is happy. Some on facebook lament the loss of Hannity, even if he is
tape delayed till 6 (and you can get him on 610 or 920 if you try). I will say this:
not nec. a fan of Severin but I like his voice better than raspy Col. Hunt or
I'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'm Michael Graham

Clear Channel doesn't need a sugar daddy (what's his name, Jeff Santos, George Soros,
someone like that) to fund airing of their shows like what WWZN has.
 
A radio geek will make the effort to receive a difficult signal. I've been trying to get a WXEX-AM 1540 station ID because somebody said that they're simulcasting on 92.1. I can't get anything on 92.1 except WFEX on Pack Monadnock. I've tweaked the antenna towards Maine but no luck. WXEX-AM so far has just said "WXEX 1540" no COL or reference to 92.1. Also I've been monitoring the signal from WAMG-AM 890 which seems to be stronger due north. Once in a while, I listen to WILD-AM to see if the volume level is equal to an AM with the same signal strength where I live, like WWDJ-AM 1150 from Lexington. A "civilian" wouldn't bother. If the signal doesn't jump out at them, they pass it by.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
A radio geek will make the effort to receive a difficult signal. I've been trying to get a WXEX-AM 1540 station ID because somebody said that they're simulcasting on 92.1. I can't get anything on 92.1 except WFEX on Pack Monadnock. I've tweaked the antenna towards Maine but no luck. WXEX-AM so far has just said "WXEX 1540" no COL or reference to 92.1. Also I've been monitoring the signal from WAMG-AM 890 which seems to be stronger due north. Once in a while, I listen to WILD-AM to see if the volume level is equal to an AM with the same signal strength where I live, like WWDJ-AM 1150 from Lexington. A "civilian" wouldn't bother. If the signal doesn't jump out at them, they pass it by.
Click to expand...

Which is why the anti-Ibiquity HD brigade's caterwauling about adjacent-channel obliteration is so laughable. The stations being stomped on aren't targeting the market in which the stomping is going on, so the advertisers don't care, and no one but radio geeks is even trying to listen to marginal adjacent-channel signals in the first place.
 
MRBIboredop said:
and WBZ's hash interfering with local signals at night is?
Click to expand...

Is what? Interfering with KDKA in the Pittsburgh metro? With WHO in the Des Moines metro? I wouldn't think the hash is bothering anyone the local advertisers in either market want to reach.
 
CTListener said:
Which is why the anti-Ibiquity HD brigade's caterwauling about adjacent-channel obliteration is so laughable. The stations being stomped on aren't targeting the market in which the stomping is going on, so the advertisers don't care, and no one but radio geeks is even trying to listen to marginal adjacent-channel signals in the first place.
Click to expand...

Not true. If there's a unique-formatted station in a market, it will get listened-to on the fringes. Not stumbled upon by the majority of people but for those many who did, still will listen. Take 740 in Cambrdige for example. A large amount of people listen to it in its fringe area, in cars along I-495 where reception on the highway is good. If 760 in Worcester were to go with I-Bloc, then that would wipe out 740 on I-495 between Boxford and Milford. And if 730 in Maine were to go with I-Bloc, then 740 would be wiped on I-95 north of Ipswich area, and on I-495 east of Haverhill. - I-Bloc is a turkey, a loser, soon to be dead on AM (and iffy on FM). Done, dead, buried. Get used to it.
 
....and the many people who work in the immediate Boston metro area who would like to hear 740 all the way home to Shrewsbury (probably receiving 760 I-Bloc if they had it) and other nearby points on I-90/Mass Pike.
 
CTListener said:
MRBIboredop said:
and WBZ's hash interfering with local signals at night is?
Click to expand...

Is what? Interfering with KDKA in the Pittsburgh metro? With WHO in the Des Moines metro? I wouldn't think the hash is bothering anyone the local advertisers in either market want to reach.
Click to expand...

WBZ's HD sidebands *are* interfering with KDKA and WHO, within their NIF contours. What all the various types of natural and man-made interference (not to mention the FCC's abandonment of any pretense of enforcing Part 15 regs) couldn't quite accomplish (namely, the destruction of the AM band), HD is sure to finish unless it is stopped NOW. Why a company like CBS allows this self-interference to continue is unfathomable.
 
I love that Talk 1200 is simulcast on WXKS-FM HD 2. I'm most likely in a total minority, but it has given me incentive to actually use my HD Radio.
 
CTListener said:
Laurence Glavin said:
A radio geek will make the effort to receive a difficult signal. I've been trying to get a WXEX-AM 1540 station ID because somebody said that they're simulcasting on 92.1. I can't get anything on 92.1 except WFEX on Pack Monadnock. I've tweaked the antenna towards Maine but no luck. WXEX-AM so far has just said "WXEX 1540" no COL or reference to 92.1. Also I've been monitoring the signal from WAMG-AM 890 which seems to be stronger due north. Once in a while, I listen to WILD-AM to see if the volume level is equal to an AM with the same signal strength where I live, like WWDJ-AM 1150 from Lexington. A "civilian" wouldn't bother. If the signal doesn't jump out at them, they pass it by.
Click to expand...

Which is why the anti-Ibiquity HD brigade's caterwauling about adjacent-channel obliteration is so laughable. The stations being stomped on aren't targeting the market in which the stomping is going on, so the advertisers don't care, and no one but radio geeks is even trying to listen to marginal adjacent-channel signals in the first place.
Click to expand...

In most markets, people ARE abandoning the AM dial outright. It's an aging and decaying band. Plus for the 99.9999% of people that don't have an HD receiver, those stations that employ the iBiquity standard sound like total crap.

It's REALITY. I know it sucks for the iBiquity folks.
 
1200 signal not bad in some areas but still subject to interference, as I noted going from
Rt 22 (Beverly) onto 128. High tension wires. Same thing happens in that spot to RKO.
Maybe in the olde days there was less interference-producing technology, maybe less
of the high tension wires, etc., and it would be easier to get a good signal on 68-RKO
(Johnny Dark! Dale Dorman! The Big 68!) But now...
 
raccoonradio said:
1200 signal not bad in some areas but still subject to interference, as I noted going from
Rt 22 (Beverly) onto 128.
Click to expand...

I haven't driven to the North Shore to check this out, but on paper at least, on most nights, you ought to be able to pick up WXKS (AM) at night in, say, Beverly. There will, however, be co-channel interference, especially from CFGO and WTLA. There will also be IBOC hash from first-adjacent WPHT. As designed, WXKS's NIF was ~13.5 mV/m, with the three stations I just mentioned the major contributors. (WOAI even showed up, but I think it was below the calculation's exclusion threshold. I believe that if WOAI were the only contributor, WXKS's NIF would be in the neighborhood of 7 mV/m.) Now, however, the NIF value should be a bit lower than 13.5 mV/m because WAGE in northern VA (Leesburg), which was among the top five contributors, has decamped from 1200 and moved to 1190. WAGE may now be operating daytime only. If so, I don't know whether the station has dropped its plan to go full-time on 1190.
 
dumber than a box of hair said:
CTListener said:
MRBIboredop said:
and WBZ's hash interfering with local signals at night is?
Click to expand...

Is what? Interfering with KDKA in the Pittsburgh metro? With WHO in the Des Moines metro? I wouldn't think the hash is bothering anyone the local advertisers in either market want to reach.
Click to expand...

WBZ's HD sidebands *are* interfering with KDKA and WHO, within their NIF contours. What all the various types of natural and man-made interference (not to mention the FCC's abandonment of any pretense of enforcing Part 15 regs) couldn't quite accomplish (namely, the destruction of the AM band), HD is sure to finish unless it is stopped NOW. Why a company like CBS allows this self-interference to continue is unfathomable.
Click to expand...
Maybe because they don't care about the outer fringes of the countours, but rather cutting down listening options. WTIC's IBOC splatter wipes out WBAL, which is good for WTIC when the Red Sox play the Orioles -- listeners who want to get away from the whining and shilling that dominate the Red Sox broadcasts can't go 10 khz up the dial for a more professional approach. This protects WTIC's advertisers and the beancounters are happy. Isn't the purpose of radio, especially big corporate radio, in 2011 simply to make as much money as possible as cheaply as possible?

I'm not a shill for Ibiquity. They've completely botched HD and it deserves to die a quick, natural death. I just find the most strident objections to HD seem to come from DXers and other radio geeks, who don't matter to the CBSes and Clear Channels of the world, not the average listener in the targeted metro or from the advertisers. Am I wrong about this?
 
WXKS (AM) does come in at night in Beverly, half decently; though I notice late at night near my workplace in North Reading (and I do work nights) it can be shaky, fading in and out.

http://radio-locator.com/info/WXKS-AM
Shows patterns (again not totally accurate) including their construction permits for day and
night/direction patterns.
Some people on Facebook were saying, as one would expect "1200 should improve its signal".
I pointed out they've done what they could and probably can't do much more due to other
stations on or near their frequency. Some people actually asked "1200, is that AM?" When some
people said they couldn't pick up 1200 well in southern NH or in RI, I suggested they contact CC
and ask them to put the show on WGIR and/or WHJJ. People listening on a Walkman or in buildings are going to have trouble but at least one person said they were at work but listened online. And then there are all these I Heart Radio phone apps, and HD radio. For me in Beverly, the 107.9 HD2
(WXKS) comes in fine, as does the WBZ-FM HD3 (with WBZ AM). The HD2 of WKAF 97.7, with
WEEI, comes in half decently while I can't pick up WAAF's HD2 (WEEI) or HD3 (WRKO) at all. In fact WAAF itself barely comes in around here.
 
CTListener said:
I just find the most strident objections to HD seem to come from DXers and other radio geeks, who don't matter to the CBSes and Clear Channels of the world, not the average listener in the targeted metro or from the advertisers. Am I wrong about this?
Click to expand...

Yes, I think so. Most of the people on this board ARE radio geeks and employees in radio, and even a few station owners. The general public is NOT here. We have no idea how many of the general public try an I-Bloc'd AM station, give up, and go somewhere else.
 
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