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Things I never got about WINS and WCBS...

I

ITC Delta

Guest
Why do they do sports at the same time as each other at :15 and :45? Has research ever shown that listeners listen to them both and go back and forth when the other is in spots, or is that not the case?

Why doesn't WCBS have any gating on their mic, you hear what probably id a "down arrow" button being clicked all the time (especially in middays)?

Is this market really filled with enough people who have an extra car to donate to charity, to facilitate one a stopset? Any thoughts?????
 
I dont know if this is just a problem with my car radio, but WCBS signal is almost unlistenable in NJ along Route 3 and 80. Almost no reception at all outside the city to the WNW direction.

WINS is somewhat better. I can pick them up east of Parsippany.

WBBR has an excellent signal all the way out to where I live in Netcong, NJ. So that's where I get all my traffic/weather info in the morning. No need to go back and forth because of the bad reception.
 
cartman1964 said:
WBBR has an excellent signal all the way out to where I live in Netcong, NJ. So that's where I get all my traffic/weather info in the morning. No need to go back and forth because of the bad reception.
Click to expand...
Aside from WOR and WABC, WBBR has the best 50 kW daytime signal in NJ. WFAN and WCBS are over on the other side of the city and are simply weaker due to distance. WINS is highly directional, and their nulls sound horrible. In fact, WINS's directional array is the reason why they can't "upgrade" to IBOC.

Thankfully, WBBR, which doesn't care much about ratings, doesn't care much about IBOC either. Their full 10 kHz bandwidth analog audio is the best in the city. However, their directional nighttime signal is very lousy in NJ, a total opposite of their rock-solid daytime signal.
 
ITC Delta said:
Why do they do sports at the same time as each other at :15 and :45? Has research ever shown that listeners listen to them both and go back and forth when the other is in spots, or is that not the case?

Why doesn't WCBS have any gating on their mic, you hear what probably id a "down arrow" button being clicked all the time (especially in middays)?

Is this market really filled with enough people who have an extra car to donate to charity, to facilitate one a stopset? Any thoughts?????
Click to expand...

Maybe they don't want people switching back and forth.

If/when I do switch back and forth, it's for traffic (1's and 8's) usually because I'm heading for a bridge, tunnel or the Cross Bronx.

I've wondered about those donate your old car spots. I've suspected they are PIs.
 
All I know about the donate car spots is that when I wanted to do just that a couple of years ago I had to make about 10 calls before I found an agency that would take it. Others said it was too old...did they think I was going to give a way a new car!!
 
Why sports at :15 and :45 on 1010 and 880

It's been in the format clock from when they went all-news in the 60's.

When WFAN was in the Giants pregame show last Sunday, I punched up 1010 WINS to get a sports update before kickoff.
 
I am wondering about those donate a car spots too, we are bombarded with them here in Chicago too. It is like you said one in
almost every commercial break. Does anyone know a person who has actually donated a car to them? They have to be making
less on donated cars than they are spending on the ads.
 
To amplify Kevin's point about WBBR: put 50 kW inoto a nondirectional half-wave tower with a decent ground system, and you will get out! At WVCH, we need to drop to 6 watts at night from 1 kW daytime because of CHWO. 50 kW into a half-wave high tower at 740 gives a monster signal....
 
Kevin Tekel said:
Aside from WOR and WABC, WBBR has the best 50 kW daytime signal in NJ.
Click to expand...

I know it isn't 50kW, but I am curious where you would put WMCA's signal in relation to these other stations.
 
Julius Leonard Marx said:
I've wondered about those donate your old car spots. I've suspected they are PIs.
Click to expand...

I don't think there are any "PI" spots on WCBS or WINS during the last quarter of the year.

The reason there are so many of these spots may have to do with the fact that people are more inclined to make charitable contributions at the end of the year.
 
War Of Attrition said:
I know it isn't 50kW, but I am curious where you would put WMCA's signal in relation to these other stations.
Click to expand...

Well, the low dial position helps AM 57's 5kw signal. I've gotten good reception pretty much everywhere that I've been in the NYC Metro.
 
They had enough juice to give WABC a run for their money during the music days!
 
Just a note but I like WINS better than WCBS. I know I have said that before here, and its because I like how WINS has a faster delivery as well as the atmosphere created by the teletype sound. Also I enjoy the morning reporters such as John Montone and Alice Stockton-Rossini whose unique reporting styles make the news so much more interesting to listen to in the mornings.
 
Bobby Cann said:
They had enough juice to give WABC a run for their money during the music days!
Click to expand...

The geographic area of the market was significantly smaller then. The residual man made noise level was lower then.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Bobby Cann said:
They had enough juice to give WABC a run for their money during the music days!
Click to expand...

The geographic area of the market was significantly smaller then. The residual man made noise level was lower then.
Click to expand...

The market was the same size but the people were less spread out, a greater percentage lived in or closer to the city. There was less noise. And stations way down at the low end of the band, although on regional channels, do get a lot more bang for the kilowatt. However, as I recall, WMCA went with top 40 sooner but when WABC committed to the format, MCA was pretty much blown out of the water and eventually flipped.
 
Julius Leonard Marx said:
DavidEduardo said:
The geographic area of the market was significantly smaller then. The residual man made noise level was lower then.
Click to expand...

The market was the same size but the people were less spread out, a greater percentage lived in or closer to the city. There was less noise. And stations way down at the low end of the band, although on regional channels, do get a lot more bang for the kilowatt. However, as I recall, WMCA went with top 40 sooner but when WABC committed to the format, MCA was pretty much blown out of the water and eventually flipped.
Click to expand...

The NY radio ratings survey area in Hooper and Pulse was geographically much, much smaller than the 20-county Arbitron MSA of today. It was essentially Manhattan and the boroughs and inlying NJ and LI, determined by phone exchanges, if I recall correctly. I believe that the MSA when Arbitron started in 1967 in NY was also considerably smaller than it is today.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Julius Leonard Marx said:
DavidEduardo said:
The geographic area of the market was significantly smaller then. The residual man made noise level was lower then.
Click to expand...

The market was the same size but the people were less spread out, a greater percentage lived in or closer to the city. There was less noise. And stations way down at the low end of the band, although on regional channels, do get a lot more bang for the kilowatt. However, as I recall, WMCA went with top 40 sooner but when WABC committed to the format, MCA was pretty much blown out of the water and eventually flipped.
Click to expand...

The NY radio ratings survey area in Hooper and Pulse was geographically much, much smaller than the 20-county Arbitron MSA of today. It was essentially Manhattan and the boroughs and inlying NJ and LI, determined by phone exchanges, if I recall correctly. I believe that the MSA when Arbitron started in 1967 in NY was also considerably smaller than it is today.
Click to expand...

As I think about it, you may be right. It seems the New York market back then did not include those counties which are also part of other markets now.
 
Keith321 said:
Julius Leonard Marx said:
I've wondered about those donate your old car spots. I've suspected they are PIs.
Click to expand...
... The reason there are so many of these spots may have to do with the fact that people are more inclined to make charitable contributions at the end of the year.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I donated a pair a while ago and received a nice tax write-off for them, but my accountant says the tax law has changed since then.
 
Julius Leonard Marx said:
As I think about it, you may be right. It seems the New York market back then did not include those counties which are also part of other markets now.
Click to expand...

The NY market today does not include any counties shared with another market.

In the Pulse and Hooper days, most of the Jersey counties were not included in the metro that are now, and only western Nassau county was in... none of SW ct was in the survery area, either,
 
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