W279BQ-103.7 On-Air (Where?); New Pirate On 94.9?

[Uncle Kaimbridge]

The translator from Gloucester, W279BQ-103.7, was noted for the first time last night at 7:50pm——though it is passing WSMA-90.5 Scituate, not WRYP-90.1 Wellfleet, as expected.
As for where it's xmt-ing from,

Cummings Center, Beverly: Lic.
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FX1332585.html

or

Highland Ave. (c.Hawthorne Sq. Mall), Salem: CP
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FX1351441.html

there didn't seem to be any spike in strength as I was coming home past the Cummings Center, so I strongly suspect it is Highland Ave. location (unless its the formerly planned Beverly Farms spot at Hart & Hale St.s?).
Also, when I left Beverly Depot this morning, there seemed to be a Jazz station mixed in, both on 103.7 AND 90.5, **BUT** the 103.7 signal seemed to be independent of W279BQ (i.e., it didn't seem like 'BQ was passing both signals)!
Also this morning, noted a fairly strong signal on 94.9 playing EZ-listening type instrumental music, here in Beverly: I don't believe it was W235AV out in Tatnuck. It appeared gone by noon or 1-ish.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Also, when I left Beverly Depot this morning, there seemed to be a Jazz station mixed in, both on 103.7 AND 90.5, **BUT** the 103.7 signal seemed to be independent of W279BQ (i.e., it didn't seem like 'BQ was passing both signals)!

WICN Worcester plays jazz on 90.5, and their signal has been going farther east since a transmitter move to Asnebumskit earlier this year. I'm getting them, spotty, here in Somerville. That and perhaps a little "ducting" could bring them to the North Shore, but that doesn't explain jazz on 103.7.

Also this morning, noted a fairly strong signal on 94.9 playing EZ-listening type instrumental music, here in Beverly: I don't believe it was W235AV out in Tatnuck. It appeared gone by noon or 1-ish.

Maybe a little troppo increasing the signal of the mighty WHOM Mt. Washington? They come in most everywhere in central New England wherever W235AV Tatnuck doesn't cover them up. They are soft AC, but you may have caught an instrumental track.

 

[jlehmann]

It seems like the north shore is a hotbed for easy listening pirates, so I'd guess that's probably what you heard. Like most ACs, there is nothing soft about WHOM anymore.

 

[raccoonradio]

3:30 am--using the Insignia HD portable
103.7 has either WEEI-FM Westerly or WPKQ N. Conway //WOKQ depending on how you hold the radio or shake the wire...?
also getting 101.9 Cape Cod, 103.9 Cape Cod etc
(location: Beverly between downtown & Endicott Col)

 

[raccoonradio]

...but at 7 am, on same radio, I do get that 103.7 rel. station now! (along with more Cape Cod like 92.1, 95.1...)

 

[Uncle Kaimbridge]

Also, when I left Beverly Depot this morning, there seemed to be a Jazz station mixed in, both on 103.7 AND 90.5, **BUT** the 103.7 signal seemed to be independent of W279BQ (i.e., it didn't seem like 'BQ was passing both signals)!

WICN Worcester plays jazz on 90.5, and their signal has been going farther east since a transmitter move to Asnebumskit earlier this year. I'm getting them, spotty, here in Somerville. That and perhaps a little "ducting" could bring them to the North Shore, but that doesn't explain jazz on 103.7.

No, the jazz was also 103.7//90.5, so it was probably WICN (I didn't stay on it for an ID, as my time was divided between that and 94.9).
It just seemed bizarre and mysterious the way the two 90.5s were mixing at times with the RI and NH signals, and when I moved, W279BQ came in clear with just WSMA (no sign of WICN, or whatever it was) so, as I said before, I don't think it was 'BQ passing both signals.

Also this morning, noted a fairly strong signal on 94.9 playing EZ-listening type instrumental music, here in Beverly: I don't believe it was W235AV out in Tatnuck. It appeared gone by noon or 1-ish.

Maybe a little troppo increasing the signal of the mighty WHOM Mt. Washington? They come in most everywhere in central New England wherever W235AV Tatnuck doesn't cover them up. They are soft AC, but you may have caught an instrumental track.

No, no, no, 'HOM is a fulltimer here——this was over them (with them occasionally popping through as I was driving). The music was (home brew with a synthesizer?) instrumentals of mostly 70's pop hits (though they did a——rowdy——instrumental of Bon Jovi's "Dead Or Alive", followed by one of John Denver's "Country Roads"!).
I wondered maybe if it was either the former 87.9 Boxford pirate, or maybe just a new local neighborhood, 3-4 block type, bedroom turntable setup.
Anyways, no sign of them last night or this morning.

 

[raccoonradio]

Drove from Dane St Beach Beverly area over to Salem (the 99, Bridge St.) and the new 103.7 was strong with occasional drift

From NERW, last January:
>>There's another translator on the move out of Gloucester: Horizon Broadcast Fellowship's W279BQ (103.7) relocated from Cape Ann to Swampscott last year, and now it's applying for another move south, this time to a site on Route 107 between Salem and Lynn, where the relay of WSMA (90.5) will run 27 watts.

An FCC check of the site also says 27w
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=W279BQ

>> Effective Radiated Power (ERP): 0.027 0.027 kW ERP

 

[fccman]

I know the Boxford pirate now lives in Ipswich and I don't remember him playing that type of music. Anyone else know him?

 

[chrisradioanimal]

Could there have been troopo or E-skip? As far as I know the 87.9 station is now online only.

 

[raccoonradio]

Licensed to...Salem?

The signal is prob emanating from around Highland Ave in Salem. It sure WASN'T Hale and Hart streets in Beverly. I listened for awhile and found that it comes in well on 128 from Beverly to Lynnfield and maybe it should come in best in Salem, Peabody, Beverly, Danvers, Swampscott,
Lynn, etc.

and they ID-ed as "WSMA Scituate (90.5), simulcast on W279BQ Salem"

 

[Uncle Kaimbridge]

Licensed to...Salem?
The signal is prob emanating from around Highland Ave in Salem. It sure WASN'T Hale and Hart streets in Beverly. I listened for awhile and found that it comes in well on 128 from Beverly to Lynnfield and maybe it should come in best in Salem, Peabody, Beverly, Danvers, Swampscott, Lynn, etc. and they ID-ed as "WSMA Scituate (90.5), simulcast on W279BQ Salem"

In terms of COL, the license and CP both identify Gloucester as the "principal community to be served" (which appears far fetched for either case, though the original 'Farms location would have been fine).
They were granted a license on 15 September 2009,

http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1332585.pdf

which, after adjusting the coordinates from NAD-27 to NAD-83 (why they haven't just converted to the modern '83 datum——which GPS, Google Maps and just about everyone else uses——is beyond logic),

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/asrn-wit...0&ns=N&dlon=70&mlon=53&slon=13.00&ew=W&nad=27

locates the transmitter/antenna in the middle of the Cummings Center parking lot on Rt.62 (Elliott St.) in Beverly:

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=42.5572531&lon=-70.8863962&z=17&m=h

No sign of anything there, now!
The subsequent construction permit was granted on 28 April 2010,

http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1351441.pdf

with the NAD-27->83 adjusted coordinates,

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/asrn-wit...0&ns=N&dlon=70&mlon=55&slon=31.00&ew=W&nad=27

identifying the rooftop of a building just south of the Hawthorne Square Mall on Rt.107 (Highland Ave, between Traders Way and Greenledge St) as the transmitting site:

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=42.5017503&lon=-70.9247303&z=18&m=h

So it would certainly seem reasonable to change the COL to
Salem (especially since they lost WESX!).

 

[raccoonradio]

And in some parts of Beverly it was "fighting" with WPKQ N. Conway NH (// country WOKQ Dover NH)

 

[chrisradioanimal]

It's been confirmed the station on 94.9 is NOT the former 87.9 pirate.

 

[Uncle Kaimbridge]

Also, when I left Beverly Depot this morning, there seemed to be a Jazz station mixed in, both on 103.7 AND 90.5, **BUT** the 103.7 signal seemed to be independent of W279BQ (i.e., it didn't seem like 'BQ was passing both signals)!

WICN Worcester plays jazz on 90.5, and their signal has been going farther east since a transmitter move to Asnebumskit earlier this year. I'm getting them, spotty, here in Somerville. That and perhaps a little "ducting" could bring them to the North Shore, but that doesn't explain jazz on 103.7.

No, the jazz was also 103.7//90.5, so it was probably WICN (I didn't stay on it for an ID, as my time was divided between that and 94.9).
It just seemed bizarre and mysterious the way the two 90.5s were mixing at times with the RI and NH signals, and when I moved, W279BQ came in clear with just WSMA (no sign of WICN, or whatever it was) so, as I said before, I don't think it was 'BQ passing both signals.

I just checked at 5pm for the 'BQ ID (and, yes, they did ID it as "Salem", not Gloucester) and WICN was mixed in and——this time, anyway——it was coming from 'BQ's xmtr.

 

[Jimmy128]

Not that I care for the programming, but I'm impressed just how far a 27 watt station can carry.
With it's transmitter on Highland Ave., Salem, I can get W279BQ in Peabody, Danvers, Beverly, Lynn, Swampscott.
I didn't think that 27 watts would travel so far.

 

[RedWingCJS278]

I pick up this station from time to time here in Stoneham. Usually, if I get anything at all, it's WEEI from Rhode Island, sometimes the country station from New Hampshire.

 

[robotique]

i think its hilarious that CSN is trying to edge their way into Boston via 90.5 in Scituate and 103.7 in Salem

 

[mgpt6]

They lost parts of Boston when WICN moved their transmter ; and lost just north of Boston.

 

[Jimmy128]

I think that the 103.7 Salem transmitter is a waste with what they are using it for. It would be great (dream on) if WICN used it as a translator.

 

[Jimmy128]

I put on 103.7 today driving in Salem and W279BQ isn't on. I'm getting a combination of WPKQ and WEEI-FM. I wonder what up?