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W242AA 96.3

The unofficial story is that there was a well-off listener to WGBH-FM who lived on the back side of Beacon Hill and couldn't reliably get the 89.7FM signal. He/she complained about it to the engineering department, they explained the problem, he/she offered a lot of money if they could find a solution, and viola! That's how 96.3 came to be. It's actually not uncommon.

There's a bit of more official history (not much) on the BostonRadio.org profile page:
http://www.bostonradio.org/stations/72093.html

I do kinda wish 96.3 would go away...it'd be a nice frequency for WRBB to be on. :)
 
webcastboy said:
The unofficial story is that there was a well-off listener to WGBH-FM who lived on the back side of Beacon Hill and couldn't reliably get the 89.7FM signal. He/she complained about it to the engineering department, they explained the problem, he/she offered a lot of money if they could find a solution, and viola! That's how 96.3 came to be. It's actually not uncommon.
Click to expand...

This well-heeled individual was supposedly getting "multipath distortion" because Beacon Hill was blocking the primary WGBH signal from Blue Hill, and there were reflections of it from surrounding buildings, etc... WGBH pays MIT college station WMBR some rent for the tower space for the repeater, so as they say, "everybody wins".

I have a friend who lived on the back side (north face) of Beacon Hill, and without cable, it was impossible to watch any of the Boston TV stations which transmit from 128 Newton/Needham. Over a regular rabbit-ear antenna, each channel appeared as hundreds of superimposed "ghosts". New Hampshire stations came in very well, though. Channel 11 (PBS) from Durham was like a local.

webcastboy said:
I do kinda wish 96.3 would go away...it'd be a nice frequency for WRBB to be on. :)
Click to expand...

I don't think that would be permitted. 96.3 was not originally a frequency that was considered open or available for anything in the area due to third-adjacent 96.9 Boston (and perhaps first-adjacent WSRS 96.1 Worcester). WGBH was originally first authorized to put the repeater on 97.7, but complaints from the old co-channel WCAV Brockton forced them off that frequency after a short time, and they had to explore other options.

I understand that the repeater was only allowed to go on 96.3 pending agreement from Greater Media due to their third-adjacent 96.9. The agreement was approved for 96.3, but only for the WGBH repeater which transmits with just five watts in a highly directional easterly pattern aimed at Beacon Hill. In other directions, it can't be heard clearly beyond a mile or so in East Cambridge, and directly across the Charles River in the immediate Back Bay. (I do barely get it two miles away here in Somerville, but very weak and noisy).

The directional five-watt WGBH repeater doesn't even cover clearly (if at all) at Northeastern University, where WRBB is located. WRBB would want, and have, to put more power and a modified pattern on 96.3 than that of the current WGBH repeater. Even ten watts non-directional would be a significant increase over what's currently there, and I don't know if either the FCC or Greater Media would agree to that on a frequency that was not even originally considered available.
 
It would be permitted because there's ample precedent for Class D stations getting third-adjacent protections waived when the 100dBu contour of the Class D is largely (or entirely) confined to campus grounds. Locally, WBRS is a prime example on 100.1FM with two 3rd adjacents: WZLX 100.7 and WKLB on 99.5.

With Northeastern, of course, you'd have to move 96.3 over to their campus (which I'd do anyways) and even then their campus is so small it'd be a tight fit, but I think WTKK wouldn't mind. Even Greater Media does occasionally have a soft spot for college radio...and it's not like 17 watts ERP less than a quarter-mile from 96.9's site on the Pru is going to interfere with 96.9!! I'm 99.9% sure that Longley-Rice interference plots would bear that one out.

The only real concern is to make sure 96.3 stays directional enough to the east to protect 96.1 WSRS out of Worcester, whose 60dbu contour goes a lot further east than you'd think (inside Rt.128 in Newton, actually).

Come to think of it...if multipath is the real reason for 96.3's existenance, then 96.3 should go away and the listeners in question should just purchase HD Radio-equipped tuners, which all but eliminate multipath interference problems.
 
I have seen examples where "someone" discovers that a translator would fit in an area and even though one isn't really needed the station in question will build it just so no one else can. But that is more in the Commercial band than the Non-Com band where they seem to play nice with each other a lot more than the Commercial boys. (For the most part.)
 
Was not there some guy around Buzzard's Bay on Cape Cod that had a low power station which re-transmitted the Lawrence 93.7?

I have no idea if he is still on, but it was a strange setup. Any info on this?
 
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