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WBZC 88.9 dead air for over a week
- Thread starter radiodx10
- Start date
I visited South Jersey over the weekend and, as you say, found dead air on 88.9 (and 95.1) on Friday, and heard fully processed audio on Saturday afternoon, so someone must have come out to Chatsworth and fixed the issue. It doesn't appear that 95.1 (W236AF Burlington - antenna on the Burlington-Bristol Bridge) was part of the BZC sale, but the signal is on and the 95.1 coverage is better than I remember it pre-Word FM. Perhaps atmospheric.
Yeah, I do feel it's a shame a signal as decent as WBZC is wasted on yet another christian rock station. However, I'm glad they were able to sell it to keep 88.9 on air in some capacity. Is the translator really making waves though? Like the 100.7 translator in Philly (WKVP 106.9), I just haven't the slightest idea who's making these translators presets on their car receiver or home radio. Limited coverage, weaker building penetration, sometimes they completely go off air (95.3 in collingswood, NJ).
The 95.1 translator was installed by then-Burlington County College to fill in poor reception in Burlington City. The WBZC signal was designed to cover as much of Burlington County as possible, but in order to protect co-channel WBYO in Sellersville and adjacent WWFM in Trenton, the signal isn't strong in Burlington City. So the county allowed the college to build W236AF on top of the Burlington Bristol Bridge in 1997, with the signal aimed into NJ toward Burlington City.
Yeah, WBZC was a case of an institution making the investment to start a station from scratch in 1993 after WXPN created an opening by switching frequencies. Burlington County College (now Rowan College at Burlington County) built out full studios, STL and transmitter facilities, added two translators in 1998 and 2002, updated the entire operation to digital in 2002 and then closed the campus the station was located at around 2014 and decided not to move the station infrastructure to the new campus. I don't know at whose whim these decisions were made, but they surrendered a considerable investment, likely to save the relocation and future operating costs. Perhaps student involvement had waned by 2015.
The WBZC Operations Manager now runs the RCBC webstream, but the station's website is minimal and the Facebook page is updated only sporadically. We all know how it usually works out when a station loses its terrestrial FM presence and relies solely on a webstream. You go from a 1-in-40 choice to a 1-in-25,000.
The WBZC Operations Manager now runs the RCBC webstream, but the station's website is minimal and the Facebook page is updated only sporadically. We all know how it usually works out when a station loses its terrestrial FM presence and relies solely on a webstream. You go from a 1-in-40 choice to a 1-in-25,000.
That's how the college justified it, but at the same time they had also cut back on their academic program in that area.
At one time, it was a very robust academic program that has some notable alums.
At BCC? I was aware the communications program was altered, but not of the alums.
To be clear, "downhill" is your subjective opinion. After Brett Holcomb departed, Jason Varga, a longtime station member, took over the operations position and moved the format to jam bands and AAA based on student participation. Jason currently runs the RCBC stream. So while you may not prefer the current format to the dance stuff, the station is still professionally run. The, in my opinion, regrettable loss of the FM signal was a political and likely budget decision by Rowan College at Burlington County, as I discuss above.
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