KOOL Radio will be unavailable in Springfield from April 1st until May 1st. The Spanish Programming currently on 1270 will be sliding over to 1490 and their future FM Translator.
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W241cg 96.1
- Thread starter p2pmusic
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KOOL Radio will be unavailable in Springfield from April 1st until May 1st. The Spanish Programming currently on 1270 will be sliding over to 1490 and their future FM Translator.
The English-language preaching was on 96.1 this morning as well. I was driving through Windsor Locks at the time and 96.1 was a little "flaky"-sounding but still decent. Not bad for 250 watts from the Meriden/Southington line! Elevation is everything. I could also pick up 1490 at that location and noticed a different ethnic program in progress. Does Hope Valley have similar Sunday programming? I wonder if Red Wolf eventually will remove most of this programming from its little network and just go with a half-hour "public affairs" show to meet the minimum requirement. It looks like they're serious about making this classic hits FM simulcast work, and breaking format on Sundays isn't something serious commercial broadcasters do anymore, especially on FM.
WNTY 990/96.1 has Italian Programming Sundays from 8:30AM-1PM. It's been on WNTY since Columbus Day 1969 just a few weeks after they signed on the air. WACM runs The Healy's Irish Radio Show Sundays 10AM-Noon. It's been on WACM for years. The Healy's Irish Radio show also airs on Saturdays 9AM-11AM on all the stations. WNTY also has a Lutheran Church Mass 1PM-2PM on Sundays. It has aired on WNTY since WBIS went Spanish in '93. And then WNTY has their Polka Show 2PM-3PM on Sundays.
While the upgrades are going on in West Springfield for the month of April the Spanish Programming will be airing on both 1270 and 1490.
While the upgrades are going on in West Springfield for the month of April the Spanish Programming will be airing on both 1270 and 1490.
Oops, my mistake. The preaching I heard was on WACM. It might have been some sort of Easter special. 96.1 was indeed carrying WNTY's Italian show.
Why keep the oldies on AM and use the translator for the Spanish programming? Would the translator be strongest in areas with large Latino populations (parts of Springfield and Holyoke)? And also, why the one month lag, with Spanish on both 1270 and 1490. Why can't Spanish stay on 1270 and oldies on 1490 until the translator is ready?
You are not allowed to separately program an AM station and its FM translator. The exception is if the translator is really simulcasting another FM station's HD 2, 3 or 4 signal. Then the translator cannot air programming separately from that HD signal. Since Kool Radio is not using the HD signal of any full power FM stations, the programming on the translator has to be the same as the local AM station.
Question 2... Why are 1270 and 1490 simulcasting? I suppose because the Tropical programming offered in Springfield makes more money than Oldies. So as they transition, they're keeping Tropical music playing on both stations during the construction work. You don't want the Hispanic population to get lost during that time. And again, if the FM translator MUST rebroadcast an AM station, and you have only one working studio, then you have to suspend Oldies so that the Tropical format is uninterrupted on the translator.
Now we might ask, does it really take a month to do this work? And suppose the work gets done faster? Maybe if the work is finished sooner than expected, they can restore Oldies on 1270 before May 1?
Question 2... Why are 1270 and 1490 simulcasting? I suppose because the Tropical programming offered in Springfield makes more money than Oldies. So as they transition, they're keeping Tropical music playing on both stations during the construction work. You don't want the Hispanic population to get lost during that time. And again, if the FM translator MUST rebroadcast an AM station, and you have only one working studio, then you have to suspend Oldies so that the Tropical format is uninterrupted on the translator.
Now we might ask, does it really take a month to do this work? And suppose the work gets done faster? Maybe if the work is finished sooner than expected, they can restore Oldies on 1270 before May 1?
Both the oldies format and tropical format originate at WACM, so they must have more than one working studio -- unless the oldies will also be put on hiatus in Southington and Hope Valley for a month, which is not what the announcement seems to indicate.
Also the oldies ARE carried on the HD2 of a full-power FM, WBMW Pawcatuck.
The Tropical format originates at WSPR AM 1270 aka BOMBA 1270. (Redwolf Dropped the more than 20 year old Power 1270 branding sometime after they took over ownership of WSPR). The Oldies format originates at WACM. Maybe they have a production studio where the Oldies format will originate from unless they temporarily switch to the Southington studio. I didn't think to ask Ray Mills this when he told me about the upgrades.
The Oldies format is airing on WNTY 990/W241AG 96.1 Southington, WSKP 1180/104.3 Hope Valley RI, and WBMW 106.5 HD3 in Pawcatuck.
I was already excited because in May I was going up to the studios. Now I'm very super excited since everything will be brand new when I go up. I hope to get a lot of pictures which I will post on my Facebook Page and my Flickr Account.
The Oldies format is airing on WNTY 990/W241AG 96.1 Southington, WSKP 1180/104.3 Hope Valley RI, and WBMW 106.5 HD3 in Pawcatuck.
I was already excited because in May I was going up to the studios. Now I'm very super excited since everything will be brand new when I go up. I hope to get a lot of pictures which I will post on my Facebook Page and my Flickr Account.
I visited WACM/WSPR last October, just hours before the Red Wolf purchased was announced. 
WACM's on-air studio is in a former sales or secretarial office, about midway down the hall on the left. WSPR's on-air studio is in the old WTXL production room at the end of the hall on the right. I didn't see the production room, but I believe it is in the original WTXL on-air studio next to the left parking lot.
WACM's on-air studio is in a former sales or secretarial office, about midway down the hall on the left. WSPR's on-air studio is in the old WTXL production room at the end of the hall on the right. I didn't see the production room, but I believe it is in the original WTXL on-air studio next to the left parking lot.
990 and 96.1 were silent for a half hour or so today around 10 a.m. That darn Cox Internet connection again?
Monday 990 was off the air, but 96.1 was still on. I know 990 was back on the air on Tuesday for a few hours, but I think they went off again. Yesterday when I got out of the shower just before 10AM I found 990 and 96.1 were off the air and heard them come back on at 11:30AM. I would've reported it to my connection at the station, but I had errands to run. If they hadn't come on at 11:30 right before I got home I would've reported it.
At 11:30AM I heard what sounded like a loud thump (like maybe they had a microphone on in the studio and someone hit the counter) and then the legal ID played. "Kool Radio is WNTY Southington, WSKP Hope Valley, and WBMW HD3 Pawcatuck." Into music. The station cut out several more times during the next half hour.
At 11:30AM I heard what sounded like a loud thump (like maybe they had a microphone on in the studio and someone hit the counter) and then the legal ID played. "Kool Radio is WNTY Southington, WSKP Hope Valley, and WBMW HD3 Pawcatuck." Into music. The station cut out several more times during the next half hour.
They'd probably sound better if they were actually broadcasting from Old Turnpike Road rather than from a closet in West Springfield. The internet feed that gets the programming from West Springfield to Southington started failing (again) at about 10 minutes to 5PM today. I'm not surprised nothing changed technically after Red Wolf took over. After all their 98.5 BOMBA translator in Meriden often runs dead air for days at a time. (And that goes back to when the Meriden Translator was on 99.5)
There is definitely something screwy with their computer system. It's almost as if they're using more than one. At Noon last Wednesday the song cut-off in the middle and a commercial aired for the Chef Irvine Event they were sponsoring. Then it went back to the song in progress. And when they do the legal for the translators the last part always gets stepped on. W241CG Southington. W282CB Hope Valley.
There is definitely something screwy with their computer system. It's almost as if they're using more than one. At Noon last Wednesday the song cut-off in the middle and a commercial aired for the Chef Irvine Event they were sponsoring. Then it went back to the song in progress. And when they do the legal for the translators the last part always gets stepped on. W241CG Southington. W282CB Hope Valley.
I'm also hearing one channel only on certain songs. The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and Steam's "(Na Na Hey Hey) Kiss Him Goodbye" sound really bad. You hear nothing but Michael on the Jacksons' hit and most of the instrumentation is missing on the Steam song. Kind of makes me nostalgic for WDRC-FM's early/mid 2000s audio, when we were speculating that the call letters might stand for We Don't Really Care.
990/96.1 went silent just after 9AM while a newscast from Teresa Berry and Shawn Murphy from sister station Soft Rock 106.5 WBMW was airing. I'm currently listening online.
To CTListener another song that they play where you can only hear one channel is "Bus Stop." DRC-FM had the same problem when they plaayed "Bus Stop".
To KML-224 are you sure 96.1 is in Mono? I could've sworn on the two car radios I've had 96.1 on, it either said ST or STEREO. Both car radios are the stock radios in a Honda Civic - a 2006 model belonging to my co-worker "G" and a 2010 model belonging to my Mom. Now you're going to make me want to check when my Mom and I got out later provided that 96.1 is back on the air by then.
To CTListener another song that they play where you can only hear one channel is "Bus Stop." DRC-FM had the same problem when they plaayed "Bus Stop".
To KML-224 are you sure 96.1 is in Mono? I could've sworn on the two car radios I've had 96.1 on, it either said ST or STEREO. Both car radios are the stock radios in a Honda Civic - a 2006 model belonging to my co-worker "G" and a 2010 model belonging to my Mom. Now you're going to make me want to check when my Mom and I got out later provided that 96.1 is back on the air by then.
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