WBIX-AM 1060 Off The Air

[Laurence Glavin]

There's total radio silence at the 1060 frequency today; WBIX is off-the-air. This offered me an opportunity to check out if the new WEPN facility in NJ that was featured recently on Scott's Tower Calendar helped even its daytime signal. On previous occasions when AM 1060 was silent, I could use my GE portable-that-isn't-a-superradio-but-gets -distant-stations-anyway (the radio I used to listen to "Let's Talk About Radio" on WJIB-AM 740) and pick up what was on 1050 in NYC at that time (WHN?). Nowadays, there's a new impediment: WBZ-AM 1030's IBOC hash. I had to take my radio outside in an area of my backyard where by turning the radio "sideways" to WBZ, but "headon" to WEPN, and I got a very usable signal from WEPN at noontime, at least as good as much closer WTIC-AM 1080 (when my radio is so configured, it's also "sideways" to WILD-AM 1090. I don't know if WBIX is silent until the new owners take over or they're doing the engineering for the transmitter change, or how long it will last. The WBIX web page is still up and indicating programming is continuing as usual.

 

[Bill_W]

If they're off tonight, I wonder if you'll be able to pick up KYW Newradio 1060 from Philly (traffic on the 2s here). I know I've heard 1210 in Philly at night in Maine.

 

[raccoonradio]

Nov 1 supposedly the start date but testing or broadcasting could begin well before that

Site still up, offering streaming of a sort
http://wbix.com/

 

[raccoonradio]

POPE AND CHANGE...

File under "Pope and Change". WBIX (WQOM?) now running the Rosary with occasional
signal tweaking. Starting a month and a half or so ahead of announced date? Received
on 128 in Danvers.

 

[4CX1000A]

I understand that the change of ownership took place yesterday afternoon.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Nov 1 supposedly the start date but testing or broadcasting could begin well before that
Site still up, offering streaming of a sort http://wbix.com/

I assumed that, when the FCC approved the transfer of control and the then-existing paid programs began announcing that they had been told that they had to find new homes by 9/15/2010, the new owners would be in charge and the new programs would begin on 9/16, notwithstanding the previous announcement of a November 1 start date. I believe WBIX left the air last night at 7:00PM (approximate September sunset in these parts) and I had expected the new programming to begin today (9/16) probably at 6:00AM. So far, at least, the station has been off the air, however. Maybe the folks who would name the station for the Queen of Martyrs and call it The Station of the Cross are SO conservative that their idea of stunting is dead air. But I would have expected an open carrier. Instead, we appear to have NO carrier. I had also wondered whether there was some repair work to be done at the night transmitter site, which had suffered a lightning hit a month or more ago and seemed to be operating at reduced power. AFAIK, the day site, about two miles away, was unaffected by the strike. If that is true, then one would think the station would be on the air at least until sunset--but it hasn't been.

The big beneficiary of WBIX's demise appears to be WBNW, where Stu Taylor, Frankie Boyer, and Tom O'Brien have migrated. Boyer will also be heard on WROL. WBNW's listening audience (such as it was) is the non-beneficiary. WBNW had arrived at what, in my opinion, was a very nice way of making a profit from a locally programmed station that didn't sound as if it was running brokered time (although it was actually doing just that). Now. a goodly portion of WBNW's days are filled with standard brokered fare and I expect infomercials for colon cleansers and the like will rapidly fill the afternoons. (There's a three-hour gap between the end of Boyer's program and the beginning of O'Brien's.) As bad as WBIX was (and it could be pretty bad), this seems to me to be a step backward for the Boston radio audience.

 

[raccoonradio]

As of a few minutes ago I heard them running the Rosary when I was on 128 in Danvers. We'll see if this is just signal testing or they're going ahead with programming; wonder if their site is up yet
(WBIX still up, and perhaps they are offering some of their biz programs via webstream)

Not sure how it's coming in where you are, Dan, but not bad on the 128 belt around Danvers, Peabody etc. ...early afternoon. But the Rosary was on a few min. ago

 

[DanStrassberg]

If they're off tonight, I wonder if you'll be able to pick up KYW Newradio 1060 from Philly (traffic on the 2s here). I know I've heard 1210 in Philly at night in Maine.

KYW would usually be audible here at night if WBIX (err... WQOM--as Raccoon just reported, it's on the air now) were off the air. However, you should infer nothing about reception of KYW here from WPHT's signal here. WPHT, a former class IA AM, runs 50 kW-U ND-U. KYW, a former IB, is directional with a fairly deep minimum to the northeast to protect WEPN. The signal in this direction is equivalent to about 1 kW ND. That pattern, with severely limited radiation to the northeast, is what made it possible to "drop in" the Natick Station onto KYW's frequency. WQOM protects KYW day and night. The night pattern has very severely suppressed radiation (equivalent to as little as 1W-ND, if that) over 240 degrees, give or take. The CH and D patterns protect KYW to a lesser extent.

 

[Deleted User]

what are they using as a legal ID?

 

[DanStrassberg]

what are they using as a legal ID?

WQOM Natick-Boston, with the T in Natick emphasized more than ANYONE who has spent any time around here would ever pronounce it. (At least it's not Nah-tick or Gnat-ick; both of those are mispronunciations I've heard from people who didn't know better.)

 

[DanStrassberg]

My take on WQOM's day signal is that it's not up to full strength--not even during critical hours. The night signal sounds the same as it did for the previous month or so, which was not up to normal either--something I attribute to the lightning damage to the Ashland night site.

One possibility is that the station is already running during the day from its Ashland site but not with its CP 50 kW. The station ought to be able to run the lower power if it has received program test authority for its CP to increase to 50 kW from Ashland using its day pattern all day (including CH). I believe that the transmitter at the Ashland site is a 5 kW unit that is licensed to be operated at 2.5 kW at night. I'm guessing that, in addition to the transmitter, the phasor and ATUs and the 1060-kHz traps in the setup of co-located WAMG can handle 5 kW. These elements would have to be replaced in order to run the CP 50 kW, however.

 

[Wbzfm2010]

well wbixs web sight is gone it says unavailable

 

[raccoonradio]

Night time 1060 on the 128 belt from Reading to Peabody etc: Mixed stations with KYW, but one
station prob is WQOM as there was a woman talking and words like "your pastor" were being said.
But with the mixed stations, etc., not listenable at least not here, by night (2:30a)

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WBNW's listening audience (such as it was) is the non-beneficiary. WBNW had arrived at what, in my opinion, was a very nice way of making a profit from a locally programmed station that didn't sound as if it was running brokered time (although it was actually doing just that). Now. a goodly portion of WBNW's days are filled with standard brokered fare and I expect infomercials for colon cleansers and the like will rapidly fill the afternoons. (There's a three-hour gap between the end of Boyer's program and the beginning of O'Brien's.) As bad as WBIX was (and it could be pretty bad), this seems to me to be a step backward for the Boston radio audience.

WBNW has been running programming from the locally-based Money Matters Radio Network (simulcast with WPLM 1390 Plymouth and WESO 970 Southbridge) pretty much full time weekdays. Maybe they will continue that rather than infomercials during any gaps in the transplanted ex-WBIX programming.

 

[Uncle Kaimbridge]

what are they using as a legal ID?

WQOM Natick-Boston, with the T in Natick emphasized more than ANYONE who has spent any time around here would ever pronounce it. (At least it's not Nah-tick or Gnat-ick; both of those are mispronunciations I've heard from people who didn't know better.)

Yeah, but is it the official ID? I just checked the FCC DB and they still are listed everywhere as "WBIX".

 

[DanStrassberg]

WBNW has been running programming from the locally-based Money Matters Radio Network (simulcast with WPLM 1390 Plymouth and WESO 970 Southbridge) pretty much full time weekdays. Maybe they will continue that rather than infomercials during any gaps in the transplanted ex-WBIX programming.

Well, umm, the Money Matters Radio Network IS WBNW, WESO and WPLM (AM), although there may be other affiliates. Barry Armstrong owns the network plus WBNW and WESO. He LMAs WPLM (AM) either full-time or essentially full time. It's certainly possible that the Money Matters Boston Web feed is separate from any leased-time programs that the three stations carry, but I wouldn't bet on it. A lot of the programming on WBNW came from Bloomberg (largely a simulcast of WBBR New York) and Business Talk Radio Network out of Greenwich CT (WGCH), but in the slots that got replaced by the emigrees from WBIX, I think the replaced programming had been locally produced at the WBNW studios on Gould St in Needham. (They are in the offices of Armstrong's comany.)

Seems unlikely, though not impossible, that the Web feed would carry the locally originated programming but the network "O&Os" would carry something else (namely, the leased-time stuff). However, that seems unlikely to me unless there was some sort of contractual obligation to supply the locally originated programming to stations that Armstrong does not own or personally control.

 

[raccoonradio]

There have been times when a station still has the old call letters but informally uses the new ones.
I think when WEEI moved to 850 they still tech. had to use the WHDH calls (whispered or
said quickly)

>> http://bostonradio.org/stations/1912
The next morning (1994), WEEI's sports programming made its debut on 850 (although technically, the WHDH calls remained in place for several more days while the paperwork was completed).

btw an irony: all Catholic WQOM is licensed to Natick, hometown of Boston College legend
Doug Flutie--famed for the "Hail Mary" pass (and I think the address for the movie theaters
in Natick is "Flutie Pass")

 

[DToTheJ]

There's total radio silence at the 1060 frequency today; WBIX is off-the-air. This offered me an opportunity to check out if the new WEPN facility in NJ that was featured recently on Scott's Tower Calendar helped even its daytime signal. On previous occasions when AM 1060 was silent, I could use my GE portable-that-isn't-a-superradio-but-gets -distant-stations-anyway... and pick up what was on 1050 in NYC at that time (WHN?)...

1050 AM was WHN for most of its existence on the frequency (a few years as WMGM) up until 1997, when they were the first home of WFAN. Then they briefly became Spanish WUKQ and then WEVD (after switching with 97.9, which is still "La Mega" WSKQ to this day). WEVD was on 1050 for all of the 90's, until giving way to the current WEPN in 2001.

Interesting, the WBIX calls were also in new York on 105.1 FM during its ill-fated existence as "Big 105" (Danny Bonaduce mornings).

 

[MarcB]

Interesting, the WBIX calls were also in new York on 105.1 FM during its ill-fated existence as "Big 105" (Danny Bonaduce mornings).

-Thread Hijack-

Except for POWER which has been on the air for close to 10 years now, what station on 105.1 in NYC hasn't had an ill-fated existence in say the past 15-20 years? (Power's a good station and I also liked their predecessor - Jammin').

 

[raccoonradio]

WEVD calls may have been in honor of union leader/ socialist Eugene V. Debs

Theme song for WQOM? Mr Tom Lehrer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f72CTDe4-0