WBCB (and their FM translator) were donated to a "Conservative think tank."
Lance has the details: Station Sales Week Of 12/27
Lance has the details: Station Sales Week Of 12/27
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WBCB Donated
- Thread starter atthestars
- Start date
Well, aside from that conservative loud-mouthed lady on Friday afternoons spewing nonsense, the station was a decent local station. A shame it was 'donated' to another conservative outlet to feed the masses of ill-informed Republicans across that part of lower Bucks county where the only thing lower than their income is their levels of good education and common sense. ( I say this based on the years of working with the public in Levittown while also living in Bucks. Co.)
The music was decent. The local info was good. The FM signal reached decently... audio processing could've been improved. RIP BCB!
The music was decent. The local info was good. The FM signal reached decently... audio processing could've been improved. RIP BCB!
I haven't noticed any significant on-air changes to the station. Maybe the ownership decided that now was the time to pass the torch to new owners?
the transaction recently concluded... perhaps changes go into effect after the new year? a conservative think tank isn't surely going to continue BAU.... they're going to want to shake things up... less music. more conservative propaganda. more satellite fed syndicated crap. maybe the local morning show continues. who knows? speculation at best...
Not sure about 'crap' and 'propaganda'. I think the term is conservative or right wing talk.
Here we go again. An AM station doing so well economically they'll stop the bleeding of red ink by passing the station over as a donation to the non-profit that will say yes to taking it. Everybody that doesn't like change considers the new operator to be what's wrong with the country in general yet these complainers would never pony up to take over such an operation. It's simply some people complain and some people act. Only those that act progress and that progress is what the complainers talk about.
Here we go again. An AM station doing so well economically they'll stop the bleeding of red ink by passing the station over as a donation to the non-profit that will say yes to taking it. Everybody that doesn't like change considers the new operator to be what's wrong with the country in general yet these complainers would never pony up to take over such an operation. It's simply some people complain and some people act. Only those that act progress and that progress is what the complainers talk about.
To you, the content you refer to is "crap". To others, it is entertaining... or it would not be sustainable. Please have a little respect for those who have an outlook or philosophy that is different from yours.
I'm entitled to my opinion of what I think it is... being that I'm someone who listens to this station regularly, I'm confident that it will turn to crap. Just saying.
They're programming what they think will make money. I've never heard of a think tank owning or running a station before, has anyone else?
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I wouldn't be surprised if they just saw the owner's name "Progressive Broadcasting Company" and thought it was a golden opportunity to flip a liberal outlet in a swing stage into a conservative one, not realizing it has nothing to do with the station's actual programming.
Nah. It was all planned. Don't know how Merrill Reese stands politically, but the other owner, Pasquale T. Deon Jr is a Republican heavyweight in Bucks County and former Chairman of the board of SEPTA until he retired earlier this year when the board flipped to Democrat control.
From way back in the 60s, I always wondered how the FCC allowed WBCB 1490 to come on the air less then 30 miles from WDAS 1480. WDAS was on the air over 30 years before WBCB, which was granted an omni signal whereas WDAS kept the highly direction SW daytime one.
Also, it's quite remarkable how far their 107.3 translator reaches to the north and west. I can pick it up quite well at the rooftop parking deck at the Willow Grove Mall and generally around Warminster with little interference.. They do succumb to the tropo from 107.3 in AC during the spring and summer though.
WDAS was and is highly directional to protect co-channel WZRC in New York.
WBCB took advantage of that hole in WDAS' pattern and found a spot where it could operate in full compliance with FCC spacing rules.
Plus they were originally only 250 watts, and then got the free upgrade to 1 kW along with all the other graveyard channel stations.
In the '90s, WBCB had a construction permit for experimental dual-transmitter synchronous operation, but apparently it was never built and the CP was dismissed in 2000.
You can have entertaining conservative talk. Limbaugh did it in the early days.
There's also enraging and distorting and ranting. That's the majority of the format now. I have plenty of highly conservative friends and they don't sit around consuming rage bait.
There's also enraging and distorting and ranting. That's the majority of the format now. I have plenty of highly conservative friends and they don't sit around consuming rage bait.
On my drive on I-95 all the way through the broadest area of Philly (on my way to a gig at a third station, lol) I was able to take WBCB well into the city off a 'shrug' Dodge Dart car radio. Then it would get napalmed by WDAS 1480's southeast bullhorn. Thing is, once out of that WDAS laser, WBCB would be there again -- on the OTHER side of the 1480 pattern. Weaker, of course. But still readable.
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Anyone know if WBCB ever showed up in the Philadelphia or Trenton (Mercer County) ratings books? I ask because when far off WCOJ Coatesville was way more a full-service station they'd be a regular 0.4 in the PHL market. If WBCB was a no-show in their years of welcoming mass local audiences back THEN, and if this gift is to become a niched notch of an audience now, ratings are definitely not the issue.
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My wife grew up in the Magnolia (?) Hill section of Levittown. She said they'd get WBCB on their telephone. And WBCB used to put a wicked spur/harmonic/image on 580 on many local radios. Two times 455 = 910. If you subtract 910 from 1490 ......
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Though we can be certain that 2025 'Republican think tank' plus 2025 owner Pasquale Deon probably aren't likely to be broadcasting or preaching traditional GOP conservatism as we grew up to know it, there's always that possibility, slim as it may be. And the coverage area is filled with people who have their own proclivities and tastes; their owm tuning buttons, volume controls and on-off switches. Just like we here on this forum have. Until things take more shape, both hobbyists and radio people plus the suburbanites have little choice but to regard the change as anything more than the peanut whistle and its FM extension speaker it's become.
* * * * * * *
Anyone know if WBCB ever showed up in the Philadelphia or Trenton (Mercer County) ratings books? I ask because when far off WCOJ Coatesville was way more a full-service station they'd be a regular 0.4 in the PHL market. If WBCB was a no-show in their years of welcoming mass local audiences back THEN, and if this gift is to become a niched notch of an audience now, ratings are definitely not the issue.
* * * * * * *
My wife grew up in the Magnolia (?) Hill section of Levittown. She said they'd get WBCB on their telephone. And WBCB used to put a wicked spur/harmonic/image on 580 on many local radios. Two times 455 = 910. If you subtract 910 from 1490 ......
* * * * * * *
Though we can be certain that 2025 'Republican think tank' plus 2025 owner Pasquale Deon probably aren't likely to be broadcasting or preaching traditional GOP conservatism as we grew up to know it, there's always that possibility, slim as it may be. And the coverage area is filled with people who have their own proclivities and tastes; their owm tuning buttons, volume controls and on-off switches. Just like we here on this forum have. Until things take more shape, both hobbyists and radio people plus the suburbanites have little choice but to regard the change as anything more than the peanut whistle and its FM extension speaker it's become.
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Well, THAT solves a 50-year-old mystery: why the kitchen radio would pull in a weakish WRCP 1540 about midway between WIP and WNBC.
Yeah, it's the radio, Dee. The older ones and that 455 kHz IF stage did that. Various designs could affect sets, like those inexpensive sprawling Home Stereo consoles and Stromberg Carlsons. Quality control at the factory, subsequent crashes off shelves, spills, salt & batteries: none of them were of any help or consequence.
As you can deduce, only stations of past AM dials between 1450 and 1600 could behave like that. People here with a newer X-band omni nearby them might have some stories to spin.
Oddly, another 1490 station put a somewhat listenable 'signal' on 580 on some radios a few of us as teens would have while we cleaned up a house in the Catskills every Easter Week. I say 'oddly' because WKNY Kingston wasn't a few blocks away. Their stick had to be a good 8-10 miles northeast of us. But there they were on 580.
There are so many stations on both 1450 and 1490 that the minus-910 kHz stuff must've been rampant nationwide, especially in places like Atlantic City, Norfolk, Fort Bragg, and so forth.
As you can deduce, only stations of past AM dials between 1450 and 1600 could behave like that. People here with a newer X-band omni nearby them might have some stories to spin.
Oddly, another 1490 station put a somewhat listenable 'signal' on 580 on some radios a few of us as teens would have while we cleaned up a house in the Catskills every Easter Week. I say 'oddly' because WKNY Kingston wasn't a few blocks away. Their stick had to be a good 8-10 miles northeast of us. But there they were on 580.
There are so many stations on both 1450 and 1490 that the minus-910 kHz stuff must've been rampant nationwide, especially in places like Atlantic City, Norfolk, Fort Bragg, and so forth.
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