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Stations That Pretend to be in Bigger Markets

S

ScottBurns

Can anyone think of FM stations, with rimshot signals, that pretend to be in different, larger markets than those in which they actually exist? Moreover, how is the reception of such stations in the bigger markets that such stations try to cover? Here are some examples:
1. Star 99.1/NYC - It is clearly not a New York City station, and its reception is weak in most of the five boroughs. The station's top of the hour ID also mentions that Star is a New York City station.
2. 107.3 WAAF/Boston - The station is much stronger in Worcester and Central Massachusetts than it is in Boston.
3. 94.5 WPST/Philadelphia - It used to identify much more with Philly, but in recent years, it has focused much more on the area of its signal strength - Central New Jersey
 
94.1 WWKR - They are licensed to Hart and try to cover Muskegon, but their signal is strongest over Mason and Oceana counties. Their offices are in Ludington.

105.3 WCXT (former) - They used to be licensed to Hart and tried to target Grand Rapids with a rhythmic CHR format in 1999. The only problem is their signal at the time was very weak in GR. Ironically, 105.3 moved 30 miles south in 2006 and now puts a good signal into Grand Rapids (and finished fifth in the most recent Arbitron ratings as a rhythmic-leaning CHR), and 94.1 is on the same tower 105.3 used before the move south.
 
94.7 WYUL licensed to Chateaugay, NY and serving the Malone, NY area. Yet they claim to be Montreal's Hit Music Station. Not sure how reception there, but there is much more population to target.
 
WMGH Tamaqua (which did an excellent job during the Superstorm) conveniently includes the larger Pottsville and Hazleton in as many of their positioners as possible.
Tamaqua is just outside of Luzerne County (where Hazleton is).
Pottsville, population 19000, is at the center of Schuylkill County. Hazleton's population is 25000.
Tamaqua is home to 7000. The name exists chiefly at ID time, and is suitably surrounded by association to larger places.

WJSE, COL Petersburg NJ, mentioned the COL as little as possible. At ID time they'd positively bury the name in an avalanche of 'Atlantic City!!!!!!!!!!!' imaging.
Their 102.7 tower is still in Atlantic City, but in recent times they've have changed their city of license to Ocean City.

Everybody's favorite case might be 'WHTZ Newark'. If their imaging were any closer to Manhattan they'd be getting their studio windows squeegeed by panhandlers.
 
KDUK 104.7 Florence, OR, serving Eugene area...Florence is a town on the OR coast 50 miles from Eugene; transmitter on a mountain about 27 miles inland.
 
Spunker88, is WYUL the station that identifies as "Hits FM"? If so, its coverage in Montreal is lacking (I have not been to Montreal since 2010, so I cannot verify). Interesting that YUL is the airport code for Montreal, however.
 
94.1 WLLD is licensed to Lakeland, Florida. They pretend to be a Tampa station.
They do have a good signal over much of Tampa but they do not put a good signal over the entire Tampa Bay market.
This happens in nearly every large market.
Can you blame them?
 
ScottBurns said:
Can anyone think of FM stations, with rimshot signals, that pretend to be in different, larger markets than those in which they actually exist? Moreover, how is the reception of such stations in the bigger markets that such stations try to cover? Here are some examples:.
2. 107.3 WAAF/Boston - The station is much stronger in Worcester and Central Massachusetts than it is in Boston.
Click to expand...

Entercom addressed that problem some years ago with the purchase of a class "A" signal licensed to Brockton MA at 97.7, and moved its stick to the top of Great Blue Hill, thus giving the glorified "repeater" a clear shot into Boston. WAAF 107.3 now exists as a simulcast with WKAF-97.7.
 
KOMO 97.7 Oakville, WA. Repeats KOMO News 1000 from SEATTLE. But the FM is 60+ mi from Seattle.

-crainbebo
 
The Birmingham market has WYDE-FM at 101.1 with 100 kW from 1345 feet HAAT in Cullman, which is about 35 miles north of the center of the city. Reception in town is acceptable for the talk format, except for some terrain shadowing issues in the over the mountain affluent parts of the metro. Because it's such a big signal, it's also practically a local in at least two other rated markets (Tuscaloosa and Huntsville). The ratings are nil in all three markets, though.

It seems like most stations these days don't settle for rimshotting a major market in the south, they pay millions and move into the city as close as possible. To me, just about any rimshot would qualify as a station pretending to be in a bigger market, even in some cases where they're actually in the market itself. But I dunno if that's what the OP is asking for or not.
 
In our area, WBT-FM 99.3 out of Chester, SC. Serves as a FM relay for WBT, but has a better signal on unpopulated parts of I-26 between I-385 and the suburbs of Columbia than in Charlotte itself.

93.1 WZMJ was a rimshot of Columbia from the west side of the market for probably 20 years until a local owner bought it last year.

WGZO 103.1 tries to serve the GA side of the Savannah market with a classic hits format, but barely covers the city of Savannah, instead focusing on Beaufort County, even though their sister signal at 98.3 is one of the most powerful in the Southeast with the same format.
 
spunker88 said:
94.7 WYUL licensed to Chateaugay, NY and serving the Malone, NY area. Yet they claim to be Montreal's Hit Music Station. Not sure how reception there, but there is much more population to target.
Click to expand...

This station was always interesting to me. They seem to have sales and promo staff located in Montreal. A station targeting an adjacent market rather than its own isn't new, but targeting another country is weird. Although now that I think about it I guess it isn't as you have Tijuana stations that are in English that target San Diego.

I guess it makes since for them to target both the revenue and the listenership that anglophone Montreal and suburban Montreal have to offer. Franklin County NY might as well be rural Nebraska in terms of population. BTW the WYUL is on purpose.
 
I am not sure that the Cuidad Juarez and Tijuana comparisons are valid. In both cases, the stations' towers are located a city away, often only a couple of miles. Having been to both San Diego and El Paso, I can attest that those Mexican stations have excellent reception in their respective American markets. WYUL's tower, however, is much farther away, and the station's reception is weak in many areas of Montreal.
 
ScottBurns said:
I am not sure that the Cuidad Juarez and Tijuana comparisons are valid. In both cases, the stations' towers are located a city away, often only a couple of miles. Having been to both San Diego and El Paso, I can attest that those Mexican stations have excellent reception in their respective American markets. WYUL's tower, however, is much farther away, and the station's reception is weak in many areas of Montreal.
Click to expand...
And in Tijuana, the Mexicans can run more power and can be spaced closer to each other
 
WLKK FM 107.7 Weathersfield NY, attempts to serve Buffalo NY
WYSL AM 1040 Avon, NY, attempts to serve Rochester, NY
Numerous stations in Provo and Ogden Utah attempt to serve Salt Lake City, UT
 
Don't know if they still ID as such, but 100 kW WEGX (92.9) in Dillon, South Carolina, used to ID as serving three radio markets when they said, "Eagle 92.9 is WEGX Dillon-Florence-Myrtle Beach-Fayetteville".
 
WYUL has a very go0d signal in Montreal, despite the distance. There might be some spots with signal issues but you show me a city that doesn't have signal issues on FM. Even here in Ottawa, there isn't a single FM that doesn't have problems in some part of the city. It's the nature of the beast.

THat being said, I've never had a problem hearing them when I'm there, and they even come in here in Ottawa during the summer months quite well on the G8.
 
ftballfan said:
Then there is at least one English station in Ciudad Juarez that targets El Paso.
Click to expand...

There are a half dozen stations in Cd. Juárez that target El Paso. Similar things can be seen in all the border markets where there are stations in Mexico that serve audiences on the US side.

But border markets are really big metros divided by political distinction. In many senses, it's no different than stations in Dallas serving Ft Worth.
 
Y 101 in Smiths Falls Ontario says it's Ottawa's Country station. It's at least an hour away, if not more and it's signal doesn't cover the whole metro. Basically if you live in the south side, west or southwest part of the city you have a strong signal, get towards downtown and it gets eaten up pretty bad. In the east, it's very very spotty. Across the river, it's barely there at all except in the western part of the Gatineau region. Somehow they manage to have ok ratings despite such a crappy signal in the city.
 
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