C
CCsux
Guest
I heard that it's on the market? Is this true? Anyway, why would someone want to buy a station with such a weak signal? -N
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P
PaulBWalkerJr
Guest
I wondered, if they went to say, 3 towers day with 20,000 Watts and 3 towers night with 1,000 Watts... 1.) Is that doable and 2.0 The signal would probably be a little better??
W
wc3434
Guest
Yes, It is.. 
;D
;D
A
AKLes
Guest
Gotta remember the history of 990.....
In 1959 when it was created the engineering showed that Providence had no really viable AM frequencies available and FM was a weak, struggling infant. 990 showed up as workable for a Providence COL in either of two ways: A rooftop 250-Watt daytimer if a rooftop could be found downtown. There was some small possibility of it being fulltime but, at 250-Watts, why bother when the coverage area would be essentially vacant at night. The other was the monster 6-tower array in the boondocks, dumping the signal into the ocean. It could have achieved pretty much the same coverage with 25-kW or 50-kW (The FCC was only licensing values like 250, 500, 1kW, 5kW, 10kW, 25kW and 50kW at that time so 20-kW might have worked but was not a recognized power level). The decision to go with the full 50-kW was based purely on marketing hype..."Rhode Island's First and Only 50-killowatt Radio Voice...hence "W L (roman numeral 50) K (kilo) W (Watts). Advertisers, especially agencies, were impressed by power and hadn't figured out what "directional" meant in terms of coverage. More, everybody else in the market was trageting the lower teens so there was appeal in reaching a 25+ audience that actually had some money to spend. It worked. For a time. Operating costs were so high that it was tough to make any money and then along came FM and more sophisticated time buyers. Beyond that, it's all just a downhill slide.
What I find interesting is that nobody has ever bought 990/Providence to put it out of its' misery and make it possible to power-up some other station; perhaps Groton's 980.
In 1959 when it was created the engineering showed that Providence had no really viable AM frequencies available and FM was a weak, struggling infant. 990 showed up as workable for a Providence COL in either of two ways: A rooftop 250-Watt daytimer if a rooftop could be found downtown. There was some small possibility of it being fulltime but, at 250-Watts, why bother when the coverage area would be essentially vacant at night. The other was the monster 6-tower array in the boondocks, dumping the signal into the ocean. It could have achieved pretty much the same coverage with 25-kW or 50-kW (The FCC was only licensing values like 250, 500, 1kW, 5kW, 10kW, 25kW and 50kW at that time so 20-kW might have worked but was not a recognized power level). The decision to go with the full 50-kW was based purely on marketing hype..."Rhode Island's First and Only 50-killowatt Radio Voice...hence "W L (roman numeral 50) K (kilo) W (Watts). Advertisers, especially agencies, were impressed by power and hadn't figured out what "directional" meant in terms of coverage. More, everybody else in the market was trageting the lower teens so there was appeal in reaching a 25+ audience that actually had some money to spend. It worked. For a time. Operating costs were so high that it was tough to make any money and then along came FM and more sophisticated time buyers. Beyond that, it's all just a downhill slide.
What I find interesting is that nobody has ever bought 990/Providence to put it out of its' misery and make it possible to power-up some other station; perhaps Groton's 980.
I found an interesting link about the infamous WALE Radio SCAM. Check it out.
http://www.wingtv.net/jackbloodbusted.html
http://www.wingtv.net/jackbloodbusted.html
I'd like to see whoever buys it keep the jazz format and dump the call letters. By rights, the WALE call should go back to the 1400 in Fall River. Better to bring back the WEAN callsign or even talk to Hall Communications about getting the original WLKW call back on 990.
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
I actually tuned in to 990 this afternoon while driving through RI. It's a simulcast of WAKX ("Jazz FM", 102.7) for the time being. I'm not one to question the audio of anyone's audio chain, but admittedly.... 990 sounds rather "audio challenged". The audio sounded like someone used a dial-up phone line (3000 Hz, and nothing further). I'm just wondering why they did not simply grab an FM receiver and feed it directly into the processor? If they did that, 990 could actually sound fairly decent. It would make sense since 102.7 has a very limited coverage area. 990 could really get a following with the 102.7 format if the audio sounded decent on 990. But I found it very hard to listen to, so I switched to a much weaker 102.7 signal for a while instead (rather tough as 102.5/WKLB's HD signal masks it out in some areas). I must say, Steve's format really sounds good!
73,
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
73,
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Peter,
From what Steve Conti tells me, the problem is at the 990 transmitter site. He's taking a mono feed off the WAKX console and then feeding that into the 990 console. Any degradation is either in the phone and/or STL link up to Burrillville. I'm told that the Nautel AMPFET 50 may have damage to amp modules,as the daytime signal sounds like it's nowhere near 50 kW. I'v heard too that the 6 tower antenna array may need work.All in all, quite a challenge...
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
From what Steve Conti tells me, the problem is at the 990 transmitter site. He's taking a mono feed off the WAKX console and then feeding that into the 990 console. Any degradation is either in the phone and/or STL link up to Burrillville. I'm told that the Nautel AMPFET 50 may have damage to amp modules,as the daytime signal sounds like it's nowhere near 50 kW. I'v heard too that the 6 tower antenna array may need work.All in all, quite a challenge...
Dave Gardiner
WVCH 740/WNWR 1540
Philadelphia
C
CCsux
Guest
has anyone heard that howie bart is trying to buy it? any truth? hope not..
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