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WBAI Struggles

I have an even simpler solution for WBAI....Sell it to someone who will flip it to Alternative Rock.

Umm Pacifica would rather have a shutdown just to hold on to Occupy and Green Party in districts in Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland. I suggested selling KPFA and WBAI to Cumulus such as WBAI is WABC-FM and KPFA becomes KGO-FM or KNBR-FM. Look Pacifica has KPFB too.
 
Interesting comments.



OK, I'm at the table, so I'll keep playing.

Keep up the good work.

AM signals do not "go around" buildings. And they travel with the contours of land, like fog, while FM travels like a light beam... and is stopped by obstructions.

Interesting way to describe the AM signal, there is a local sky wave component though. As you know well, this increases to DX at night.





So what? Those areas are not in the New York MSA, and don't have help NYC stations in sales.
WBAI gets plenty of donations from New Jersey, about 50%. I was listening all night and this morning, they mentioned it on the air.


No, it would not. Because most people under 55 don't use AM, and sales is generated by 18-49 and 25 listenership (or some subset). Taking anything from FM to AM is not going to produce nice results.

The older demo has more money, young folks here are not doing so well. I noticed, at least in the over night, a lot of older music being played.



Increase height, decrease ERP. Less power, harder penetration. I personally specified the moving of a station from a 570 watt facility at greater height to 6 kw at conforming class A height, and the ratings trippled with the same format. At 570 watts, the signal looked good on paper, but it could not get good reception anywhere.

This is true but with the antenna aready at approx 900 Feet, the signal reaches as far as it will go anyway, 60 miles or so and weakens as energy is lost in air resistance (heating the air) and distance. The only things blocking the signal are buildings, water towers and the hills in Statan Island. I haven't seen yet the numbers, how much they would have to power down to use the WTC site. Perhaps we will find out more when other stations are moved there.


Wrong. Some AMs with huge signals and the premium programming get good ratings. Most have neither good signals nor good ratings. And all have the issue of aging listener bases, no matter what they program.

As I stated, as a last resort, AM would get more listeners than IBOC. If the FM failed, they could sell it and keep on the air this way. They would have some money leftover from the sale for new staff, studios and programming. 570 is a rough spot on the dial, 770 or 710 are optimal. Anything above or below has interference and static issues here. Being close to the City though, this shouldn't be a big problem. The signal should still be strong enough.


They are out of money everywhere. Pacifica HQ has no backup money, and the stations in SF, Houston, DC and LA as well as NY have made major cutbacks. They are not going to buy anything. They may have to sell something to keep the organization afloat, and they have two valuable commercial licenses, one of them being WBAI. But they also have a dysfunctional board of directors which is the root of the problems; your postings qualify you to be a star member of that board.
Thank you for the job recomendation.
Now that they got the money, I hear some programming slipping into the earlier format. It's their freedom though and if that's what works for them, then so be it. It was interesting though, hearing improved programing and listening to compliments from listeners. The did mention on air that they are now in the clear with paying the bills.
 
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Interesting way to describe the AM signal, there is a local sky wave component though. As you know well, this increases to DX at night.

There is no discernible skywave in the local service area of AMs; there is practically no daytime skywave of significance anyway. Skywave today is a pest for larger AMs when the fringe service areas are subject, at night, to cancellation of groundwave and skywave meeting out of phase. This generally does not occur to the major AMs in NYC inside the MSA, anyway. And for any of the regional channel stations, it is irrelevant.

WBAI gets plenty of donations from New Jersey, about 50%. I was listening all night and this morning, they mentioned it on the air.

Their problem is that they don't get "plenty" of donations and haven't for years. And, in case you haven't looked from the observation deck of the ESB, there are places in NJ that are closer than the northern and southern tips of Manhattan.

The older demo has more money, young folks here are not doing so well. I noticed, at least in the over night, a lot of older music being played.

We are talking about commercial stations (and WBAI is on a commercial channel) and advertisers essentially do not target anyone over 55 on radio.

This is true but with the antenna aready at approx 900 Feet, the signal reaches as far as it will go anyway,

Huh? The HAAT of the ESB master antenna is over 1300 feet, not 900. And at that height, it is the equivalent of a conforming B, 50 kw at 500 feet.

Unless grandfathered, a B can pick any height above 500 feet, but must lower ERP so that the service contours don't change. Most of us believe that, while some added height is good, you can get to a point of diminishing or negative return by having too much height and not enough power to get to radios through walls and trees and stuff. Mostly "stuff".

...and weakens as energy is lost in air resistance (heating the air) and distance.

Ah, the convection current FM signal effect. Droll.

(Or are you making a muddled explanation of inversion layers on FM?)

The only things blocking the signal are buildings, water towers and the hills in Statan Island.

And big trolls. They have a high resistance.

I haven't seen yet the numbers, how much they would have to power down to use the WTC site. Perhaps we will find out more when other stations are moved there.

I find it highly unlikely that any commercial station would move from the ESB to the WTC site. They would end up losing audience and penetration power in the MSA. Maybe WPAT will move, as it is on the ESB on a waiver as they are short-spaced

The did mention on air that they are now in the clear with paying the bills.

I would not believe anything that WBAI said about its own finances.
 
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FWIW, 101.9 went through the trouble and cost of moving back to Empire after building out a nice new facility at WTC. They realized it put them at a disadvantage to the other FMs and got back on the master at Empire.
 
Sky wave propagation with AM signal.



There is no discernible skywave in the local service area of AMs; there is practically no daytime skywave of significance anyway. Skywave today is a pest for larger AMs when the fringe service areas are subject, at night, to cancellation of groundwave and skywave meeting out of phase. This generally does not occur to the major AMs in NYC inside the MSA, anyway. And for any of the regional channel stations, it is irrelevant.

The AM skywave component is there and may be an advantage reaching between buildings as it is being received from a different angle. It would be difficult to study or measure this wave but you may see it on oscilloscope being slightly out of phase with the main signal due to it taking different path to the receiver. Think of 80 meters short wave during the day, it has a low altitude ionospheric skip and probably would not reach farther than the line of sight wave. I don't know if the human ear could discern this as a slight echo, I remember WABC AM in the music days using echo in their audio processor, perhaps to make the station sound big. I recall many years ago, some experimental compact AM broadcast antennas that use the sky wave component for radio wave propagation. This might work for a small AM but not efficient enough for a 50 KW.




We are talking about commercial stations (and WBAI is on a commercial channel) and advertisers essentially do not target anyone over 55 on radio.

WBAI is noncommercial format, supported by donations and by selling program related materials. Most of their listeners are over age 35. Also, few young people bother with radio anymore. Times have changed. All radio stations will need to adapt to this reality.




Ah, the convection current FM signal effect. Droll.

(Or are you making a muddled explanation of inversion layers on FM?)

Tropospheric ducting messes up the WABI signal here and a dance music station comes in. I think it's in Delaware. During temperature inversion and high solar activity, magnetic storming, I also see ground clutter on the weather radar. This happens mostly during the change of season.


And big trolls. They have a high resistance.

Yes, trolls are very common. More trolls means your station is getting very big. Trolls don't waste time on the smaller stations.
Also a few pesky gremlins, they are very fast and elusive. Takes an experienced engineeer to catch them.


I would not believe anything that WBAI said about its own finances.

I can't vouch for WBAI either way. They mentioned money is owed to staff let go, contracts have been broken and creditors are waiting to get paid. Best I can do is share what I hear on the air. They said they are doing well now and that they will be able to pay the bills. I think in a fund raiser, they would claim they needed more money, not less. They should be back to normal programming in a few days.
 
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That's another station that fades out in the far reaches of New Jersey. Thank you for the feedback. Perhaps in the future, new technology will correct this problem. (Like web radio. LOL) No really, people need to invent new stuff for this.
 
The AM skywave component is there and may be an advantage reaching between buildings as it is being received from a different angle. It would be difficult to study or measure this wave but you may see it on oscilloscope being slightly out of phase with the main signal due to it taking different path to the receiver. Think of 80 meters short wave during the day, it has a low altitude ionospheric skip and probably would not reach farther than the line of sight wave. .

Is this all your own material?

If it is, you should be writing scripts for The Simpsons.
 
That's another station that fades out in the far reaches of New Jersey. Thank you for the feedback. Perhaps in the future, new technology will correct this problem. (Like web radio. LOL) No really, people need to invent new stuff for this.

This will all be made possible when Congress repeals those pesky Laws of Physics.
 
It's kinda hard to be the anti-austerity champion when you're practicing.......austerity.
 
Hi everyone the problem with WBAI is they lost focus on providing equal opportunity to radical ideas. Sort of like crossfire but even more controversial. They should have seen the writing on the wall years ago far left wing ideas are not successful unless you have controversy.

When was the last time you heard anyone on WBAI in favor of stop and frisk?
 
How long are they going to keep bailing this thing out? Until there's an eviction notice on their transmitter???
 
How long are they going to keep bailing this thing out? Until there's an eviction notice on their transmitter???

Forget about this let Pacifica management play the Ted Cruz/Palin Card of the Occupy Side. I know that Democracy Now and the Old Free Speech News gets their investigative stories from these services such as Project Censored, Counterspin, indymedia and The Real News. As long as Democracy Now reconsiders how they negotiate with Pacifica they might have to cut ties to them. Forget this thread its all rehash from the last issue of Pacifica. Well Free Speech Radio News got in Trouble because they were too dependent on Pacifica funding eventhough they were on budget they were shutdown. End this thread.
 
Another WBAI thread pissedoff workers on FB

https://www.facebook.com/POWWBAI

Two arbitration meetings this coming week. One for late fees when the network decided not to pay staff for a month before they got rapped on the knuckles by the Labor feds and the other for that ever present severance which everyone loves to mention but not actually pay out despite going over their supposed goal in the last drive and getting money from the CPB and on and on. Lots of talk about money but where the hell is it?

Both meetings are supposed to be deferred by a consent award agreeing to meet severance in three months - no consent award so far, and no word on the arbitration meetings. guess they are all too busy fighting between themselves over what laid off means...
 
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