Strongest Signal in NEPA

[Tiger1983]

I pick both WKRZ and Magic 93 to be the strongest signal in the area.

Magic 93 can be heard in the Allentown area, coincidentally, I can even pick it up on my Walkman in the Quakertown(Bucks County) area with a good signal. Also in that area, the other S/W-B station I normally pick up is that of the KRZ simulcaster on 107.9 in the Poconos. However, the signal had some interference with the new WRNB 107.9 from Philly.

WMGS can be heard in the hills of Northwestern NJ via I-80.

I nominate that Magic 93 is the strongest NEPA radio signal.

 

[crmc]

Yes, it is most likely WMGS.Great tower spot, non-directional, on since the 40s so it has less interference than most. Then probably WGGY, but a different footprint than the Penobscot sticks being from Bald Mountain. Although 97.9 is also a " B " it is directional and had to compromise its signal to move to Penobscot to get with WMGS.More population but technically diminished somewhat.
However, WPEL 96.5 FM, Montrose might cover the most land. If my memory is correct, both Scranton and Binghamton are served with city-grade signal.
Am I correct?

 

[normhill007]

How about Warm in the day..Had Jerry from Philadelphia who used to call Ron contantly on Sportsline. Called me a number of times during midday. If I remember correctly, he lived somewhere south of King of Prussia. Also could hit New York on a good day. Listened all the way to the Lincoln Tunnel one day.

 

[masterg]

How about Warm in the day..Had Jerry from Philadelphia who used to call Ron contantly on Sportsline. Called me a number of times during midday. If I remember correctly, he lived somewhere south of King of Prussia. Also could hit New York on a good day. Listened all the way to the Lincoln Tunnel one day.

I used to get into Manhattan at least once a month in the early to mid 80s. Leaving Manhattan on a Monday morning, I'd have the 1130 AM button punched, there'd be William B. Williams on WNEW. Once in the tunnel, I'd punch up WARM. The very second I cleared the west portal of the Lincoln Tunnel, bang, there'd be The Mighty 590 clear as a bell. It was pretty cool to hear someone filling in for you within a few minutes drive of NYC. Also, my sister used to listen to WARM on her kitchen radio in Metuchen, NJ, regularly. Although anecdotal, I have no first-hand proof, a lot of people claimed WARM strongly hit several NJ shore points. I can say with certainty that when traveling to Philly, WARM was "listenable" to within 10-12 miles this side of downtown Philadelphia.

I know, all of that is ancient history.

When Susquehanna bought WYZZ in 1984(putting WMGS on the air in 1985), they did so because of its monster signal. It would also be a good guess that they didn't pay all that much for WYZZ, especially if they negotiated a price based on billing. I'd specualte that, if WYZZ had not been available, Susquehanna may never have launched MAGIC.

 

[dmer]

Y 106.5-WFFY

Reaches Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton, White Haven, Lewisburg, Williamsport, Sunbury, Selinsgrove and beyond. How many stations reach that many areas.

What's maddening about this station is how little they use their huge listening area to their advantage. They still consider themselves mostly a Bloomsburg/Selinsgrove station. Everyone talks about how stations should be more local, however Y 106.5 takes that to a very narrow extreme. This is clearly a station, with its large geographic area, that would do well to take a more regional approach. It seems like such a waste of a great signal.

 

[scmidlapp]

I agree 1,000%
I like the station and listen frequently---you can pick them up in Downtown Scranton!! It would drive me crazy to work there....how can those people be happy to be an also-ran???

 

[MACK184]

In terms of actual licensed power and sheer coverage size, the earlier poster who said WPEL in little Montrose is probably right. They are a full Class-C with an ERP of something like 114Kw with major signals over Scranton & Binghamton and pretty much everything in-between. They probably have about 64 listeners, but that signal can carry. In fact if you get into the right mountain tops, you can hear them below Hazleton.

 

[Tiger1983]

The strongest signal heard in parts of NEPA is WAAL, a classic rocker from Binghamton. I had the station on when I was in Mountain Top, about a mile past Crestwood High School. I'm amazed I can listen to the station with almost a good signal, even indoors with some interference by nearby signals, which it could be a little iffy because of its major FM transmitters only three miles away.

I think they are about 50,000kw.

 

[ThomasCarten]

I think they are about 50,000kw.

Get that in the Guiness Book fast.

 

[kfitz]

It's important to remember that FM station's signals are a combination of power and height (above average terrain; HAAT). WMGS is 5.2 kilowatts but is 420 meters HAAT. Measuring popcount; the population within a designated contour, WMGS is number one in NEPA followed buy WBSX (surprisingly), WKRZ, and WGGY. WPEL-FM is 57 kilowatts at 140 meters HAAT.....I always thought it was more than this....does cover Binghamton, Scranton, and most of Wilkes-Barre....it still has a smaller popcount than the big four in NEPA. WPEL-FM mistakely calls themselves 114 kilowatts; they are adding their horizonatal and vertical power together; they really are 57 kilowatts which is equivalent to 50 kilowatts at 150 meters (Class B FM) (I always thought they were a C1 equivalent.....they are not, I actually looked it up). One station that is a C1 eq. is WKSB in Williamsport. They are 53 kilowatts at 387 meters HAAT.....this is near full C1 and by far the most powerfull FM in northern PA (a Class C1 FM is 100 kilowatts at 300 meters HAAT). C1's have existed in the US only since the early 1980's....Canada's had them much longer. Shamrock's KMYZ-FM in Tulsa was one of the first Class C1's in the US. The most powerfull Class of FM station is the Class C which is 100 kilowatts at 600 meters HAAT. The nearest Full Class C to NEPA is on the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada or in Watertown, NY. There are many Class C's in the FCC's Zone II which is north of the 44 degree latitude, south of about the Virginia-North Carolina Border or west of the Mississippi (but not in California south of about Chico). These Classes of stations were established in 1964, there are some pre-1964 grandfathered FM stations sprinkled around the Northeast that are greater than 50 kilowatts at 150 meters. By the way, America's most powerfull FM is WOOD-FM in Grand Rapids, Michigan with 265 kilowatts at 247 meters HAAT.

KF

 

[theengineer]

OK, now we're really veering off of the subject -- before we make the claim about WOOD there are several other stations that can share a piece of it:

KVYB, Santa Barbara, CA 105 KW, 905 Meters (Alot more than a C)
WSLQ, Roanoake, VA 150 KW, 604 Meters (more than a C)

Of these, KYVB probably has the largest coverage of any station (square miles) in the US due to it's extreme height .. if the tech lists and web sites are correct.

Closer to home in addition to WKSB some others are running more than 50 KW:

WFGI, Johnstown, 57 KW @ 323 Meters
WXDX, Pittsburgh, 72 KW @ 131 Meters
WQXK, Salem, OH, 88 KW @ 136 Meters

I'm sure I've missed a few others.

 

[kfitz]

Very interesting....WYYY and WNTQ in Syracuse each operate with more than 90 kw; I forgot to mention these. The most powerful FM that I knew of in the west was Pacifica's LA FM (KPFK?). It's over 100kw on Mt. Wilson (lots of HAAT there). One of our NEPA engineers was Chief there. For their transmitter they ran two CSI T-25F's running together. These are very large grounded grid boxes. I've got one T-25F still on the air at WMTT. When I mentioned WOOD I carefully picked my words.....most powerful FM (most ERP). I'm sure there are numerous stations with great HAAT over 600m that still have close to 100kw. I love talking mega ERP here in Class A land!

Kevin

 

[KSB]

And how about WMC-FM in Memphis at 290kW at 277m HAAT? Maybe that doesn't count, though, since they're "only" 96kW vertical. It seemed to me there was a station somewhere in the US still broadcasting at 320kW ERP. I'll have to see if I can find that. Possibly that was an old ERP of WOOD-FM.

As far as NEPA stations, from the vantage point of Lebanon/western Berks counties 92.9 seems to be the strongest followed by 97.9. 92.9 regularly makes it into northern Lancaster Co. 106.5 is also quite strong because the transmitter is significantly closer than the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre stations, though it suffers from co-channel interference from WWMX in Baltimore and 1st-adjacent from Hershey's WMHX (106.7). 98.5 and 101.3 don't make it at all with those frequencies having co-channel interference from the locals here. And, of course, none of the class A's make it this far south, although the old 103.1 sometimes did when it was in Freeland.