WALE 990

[Dighton Rockhead]

WALE 990 Death Watch....

They should just open the door like a retail store and let anyone walk in off the street who wants to play Radio. Charge them $50 an hour to get on the air and talk about whatever they want. Have some intern run the board for free. There you go. At least it would make for some interesting programming until the day the tower falls over.

Interesting idea, but judging from the pathetically few spots that actually run over there...it seems highly unlikely they could even sell enough hours to keep the doors open....otherwise they would probably be doing it...LOL.

By the way....How much is the commercial rate for electricity these days, anyway?

Electricity, plus what I assume are property taxes or a lease on the transmitter site....plus lease or rent on the studio space....plus insurance and whatever other ongoing expenses has to mean only one thing......these guys must be bleeding $$$$$$. Hmmm....Wonder how much longer they want to keep on bleeding?

And the WALE 990 Death Watch continues......

 

[Skynet74]

I agree. They've got to be spending more money then they are making just to keep that transmitter powered up. This is the kind of operation which would be more profitable to shut down the transmitter and just make into an internet (only) station. According to the statistics below, Worldwide there are 1.6 BILLION people on the internet. I'm guessing that is slightly more people than their transmitter reaches. lol

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

 

[Jacko]

Perhaps in the next year or two, once the economy picks back up, one of the companies will buy the station cheap, shut it down for a while so that improvements to the towers and signal can be made, then re-launch it. Perhaps Entercom would do this, then move WEEI to 990 so that 103.7 can go back to playing some type of music. Oh wait, all the FM stations are becoming talk and sports stations. Nevermind...

Seriously, if 990 WALE is still putting out 50kw to basically the ocean, that's a lot of juice being wasted just on brokered "I can be a DJ/talk show host too!" programming. Can the signal pattern be altered to increase land coverage without interfering with other AM stations? FM is so much more cut-and-dry as far as signal patterns, AM is so bizarre to me.

Jacko

 

[necrat123]

Seriously, if 990 WALE is still putting out 50kw to basically the ocean, that's a lot of juice being wasted

Hmm, have you ever looked at what is between their towers and the ocean?? The pattern puts 50kW right into downtown Providence and the core metro area. While the station's signal is crap in every other direction, 50kW in the direction it's facing is a very plausable signal within the city limits and it's immediate burbs.
I know where I live across the bay, at 15kW, the signal is gangbusters.

 

[MissAM]

Yes, I agree that many people who have worked in radio for years may not have any marketable skills in the real world. I do think that there are some who still want to make it big. And what does that mean? Having people listen to you and think you're great... or even that you really suck...as long as they are listening... and really, who cares to live in the minds of others!
Anything that is not fun is not worth the energy. Perhaps the folks at WALE are just having fun!

 

[Skynet74]

Hmm, have you ever looked at what is between their towers and the ocean?? The pattern puts 50kW right into downtown Providence and the core metro area. While the station's signal is crap in every other direction, 50kW in the direction it's facing is a very plausable signal within the city limits and it's immediate burbs.
I know where I live across the bay, at 15kW, the signal is gangbusters.

Just took a nap and woke up from a funny dream. It was about WALE. No joke. I'm dreaming about WALE. So now might be a good time to shoot me. Anyway..... in the dream I turn on the Radio. Out comes a young sounding Howard Stern. In my dream it was realistic to think that he drove up here for a weekend show on WALE. Dreams are very strange things. The young sounding Howard was sounding sarcastic as usual when he says.........

"You're tuned into WALE. Do me a favor and tell all your friends to listen. It's very important. 200 WATT station. We don't want all those people in Pawtucket to miss out.

I started laughing in my dream and then I woke up. First thing I thought was 200 WATT station? Well if that's what Howard says, who are we to argue? lol

 

[VelvetR]

Hmm, have you ever looked at what is between their towers and the ocean?? The pattern puts 50kW right into downtown Providence and the core metro area. While the station's signal is crap in every other direction, 50kW in the direction it's facing is a very plausable signal within the city limits and it's immediate burbs.

At the time the original engineering study was done to try to shoehorn another AM into Providence it was determined that there were two ways to get an acceptable signal into the city of license (Providence). One was the present location with 50 kW directional days and the other was 250 Watts (more would have been better but problematic) from a non-directional rooftop antenna downtown. The FCC was not smiling upon rooftop installations at the time.

 

[MarcB]

Hmm, have you ever looked at what is between their towers and the ocean?? The pattern puts 50kW right into downtown Providence and the core metro area. While the station's signal is crap in every other direction, 50kW in the direction it's facing is a very plausable signal within the city limits and it's immediate burbs.
I know where I live across the bay, at 15kW, the signal is gangbusters.

Just took a nap and woke up from a funny dream. It was about WALE. No joke. I'm dreaming about WALE. So now might be a good time to shoot me. Anyway..... in the dream I turn on the Radio. Out comes a young sounding Howard Stern. In my dream it was realistic to think that he drove up here for a weekend show on WALE. Dreams are very strange things. The young sounding Howard was sounding sarcastic as usual when he says.........

"You're tuned into WALE. Do me a favor and tell all your friends to listen. It's very important. 200 WATT station. We don't want all those people in Pawtucket to miss out.

I started laughing in my dream and then I woke up. First thing I thought was 200 WATT station? Well if that's what Howard says, who are we to argue? lol

Time to get the net and have you committed.

 

[MarcB]

I have to keep it hush hush for right now, but I have it on good authority that their sister station WARL is getting a new PM Drive Talk show in October.

And the new PM Drive Talk Show host on WALE's sister station WARL 1320 is *drumroll* Charlie Profit. Yep. He's back on WARL. Monday-Fridays 3PM-5PM. *Crickets Chirp* (Not a reference to Charlie's talent, just the lack of excitement of people on this board who thought I had a bigger name in mind). http://www.charlieprofit.com/

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

Hmm, have you ever looked at what is between their towers and the ocean?? The pattern puts 50kW right into downtown Providence and the core metro area. While the station's signal is crap in every other direction, 50kW in the direction it's facing is a very plausable signal within the city limits and it's immediate burbs.
I know where I live across the bay, at 15kW, the signal is gangbusters.

15KW? You must be making a reference to an estimate one of the engineering types made elsewhere on the internet as to how much power 990 may actually be running these days from that sad-sack of a transmitter.

Don't forget, however, that an intact and functioning ground system (something 990 doesn't have these days).... counts for roughly 50% of an AM station's signal. So......What we are actually hearing is more like 7.5KW.

Still....not too shabby when you consider the transmitter site is almost 20 miles outside Providence. The real future of that signal, IMHO has GOT to be a drop in power (5KW?...10KW?)....a less complicated directional pattern (3 or 4 towers)....and to move-in closer to Providence. Sorry....but Greenville has GOT to go as COL.

THEN....maybe....just maybe....the place might have a chance.

 

[Skynet74]

Maybe we'll get a Blizzard this winter and the tower will topple over in the wind. Anybody have a picture of this thing? Does it look as bad as it sounds?

 

[necrat123]

15KW? You must be making a reference to an estimate one of the engineering types made elsewhere on the internet as to how much power 990 may actually be running these days from that sad-sack of a transmitter.

Don't forget, however, that an intact and functioning ground system (something 990 doesn't have these days).... counts for roughly 50% of an AM station's signal. So......What we are actually hearing is more like 7.5KW.

I heard 15kW from an employee of Nautel. Who is even doing engineering for them now a days? What happened to the grounding system there? It's been a few years since I went out there... At least the tower paint is holding up well... hizzah for small miracles, eh?

 

[VelvetR]

Still....not too shabby when you consider the transmitter site is almost 20 miles outside Providence. The real future of that signal, IMHO has GOT to be a drop in power (5KW?...10KW?)....a less complicated directional pattern (3 or 4 towers)....and to move-in closer to Providence. Sorry....but Greenville has GOT to go as COL.

THEN....maybe....just maybe....the place might have a chance.

The Greenville COL is what made nighttime operation possible at all. No, the laws of physics haven't changed since 1959. If the COL were to again become Providence (that would be magic as then Greenville would become "unserved"), you'd be back to 50kW daytime directional OR the need for a rooftop antenna in downtown Providence - something that could not be gotten past The FCC. And that's to say nothing of the Luddite concerns that a downtown transmitter would make all the children glow in the dark.

 

[DG02816]

This reply is for Jacko, who's wondering why WALE has such a pattern.
The facility is indeed shoehorned in between 2 stations on 980 it has to offer first adjacent protection from interference to, WSUB Groton and WCAP Lowell. When it went on, it also had to send no more than 250 watts toward the Canadian border(990 is a Canadian clear channel). It also has to give co channel protection to the 990 in Hartford and the 990 here in Philly. I remember reading here that 5 kW is the most it can run at night as any more would be interfering with cochannel WPRA Mayaguez PR......

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

The Greenville COL is what made nighttime operation possible at all. No, the laws of physics haven't changed since 1959.

Nobody here is trying to repeal the laws of physics...least of all me. What I am saying is that...as presently constituted...990's technical set-up makes very little sense, and, in my view, hinders its ability to effectively compete in the marketplace.

Working within the laws of physics (and the need to protect its co-channel and adjacent channel neighbors)....It makes a LOT more sense to have 990 "down-size", and operate as a 5KW facility on a diplex from the WRNI 1290 site. That 5KW at night would actually serve the market (as opposed to having it peter out before even reaching the Providence city limits).

As for the "Greenville COL" issue?....I'm sure there must be any number of ways around that (either legal, technical, or both). At this point...THAT should be the LEAST of 990's worries.

 

[Jacko]

I didn't realize that Greenville was such a booming place that it needed a radio station to be licensed to it. As far as the antenna pattern is concerned, if the facilities were maintained properly, perhaps 990 would be a more viable signal to metro Providence. I do understand that the pattern right now does put out a good signal to much of the urban/suburban area of Rhode Island, especially along the bay. I remember being a URI student 10 years ago, and driving down the line (Rt. 108) from Kingston to Narragansett, 990 came in quite clearly. As I said, AM signal patterns still boggle my mind, but I know that more towers equals a sharper directional pattern, however the suggestions I've read, from reducing power and eliminating some towers to moving the transmitter closer to Providence all seem like plausible solutions, not to mention a properly maintained facility. And isn't Greenville really a section of Smithfield?

Jacko

 

[DG02816]

This one's for Dighton:

While a diplex at 5 kW from North Providence might work, the pattern would need to be kept nearly the same to satisfy the conditions I wrote of in my earlier post. You'd be further from Lowell but closer to Groton, Hartford, and Philly.......Not sure that could be sufficiently done with 3 or 4 towers.

 

[earwig]

Ok this whole WALE thing has gotten crazy. There is never more than one car at the station, there is no programming except for the
spanish weekend fiesta and the signal is as crappy as ever so they are obviously just buying time....tax write off anyone?
Can not think of what else it could be. Please try not to have any more dreams about this unless you have been looking at their website and are dreaming about the Donovan girl! I think that website is as much a facade as the station but it has kept us talking about it for over a few months now! Has any of that talent shown up at any other stations? Steve Bianchi, Big John Bina or the JOJO guy?

 

[Dighton Rockhead]

Apparently, atmospheric conditions are promoting more cross-talk than usual on the 990 frequency. Either that, or WALE's night signal is worse than usual tonight.

Anyway.... at about 11:15 tonight....with lots of cross-talk from Rochester NY's Christian station on 990......Amy Grant begins singing the Born-Again song "El-Shaddai". WALE immediately counters with the theme from the movie "The Exorcist"......LOL......LOL.

Folks...this stuff is just too crazy to make up...and PRICELESS!!

Besides, without WALE to kick around....we would all die from BOREDOM in this snooze-fest of a market!!

 

[Skynet74]

Everyone enjoys a good train wreck. You are right. Nothing wrong with talking about stuff which at least keeps the market interesting. I could read this stuff all day. It's great.