WBZC gets 3rd frequency

[Dancerev889]

Burlington County Colleges Radio Station Z88.9 WBZC Announces New Frequency
Released: 5/23/2007 12:18:34 PM

Burlington County College’s radio station, Z88.9 WBZC FM The Pulse of Burlington County, announces a new frequency! In addition to the station’s main frequency, 88.9 that reaches from Bordentown to Blackwood and a second frequency that reaches Burlington and Willingboro, listeners can now tune in to 100.7. The new frequency will provide a stronger signal in the County Seat including Mount Holly and Lumberton.

The station was able to accomplish their goal of a stronger frequency once a translator was installed on the roof of Virtua Hospital in Mount Holly last week. This frequency allows listeners in Burlington County to enjoy the station’s new format including fresh, high energy music such as dance, reggae and Latin as well as specialty shows.

With this modified music formulation and additional frequency, WBZC offers a stronger signal and experience for Burlington County. The station also recently marked its 11th year of operation by purchasing a high-definition transmitter and antenna with funds received through a federal grant. WBZC's membership consists of student and community volunteers and offers extensive training programs each semester. To learn more about this multi-dimension station, please visit our website at www.Z889.org or contact us at 609-894-9311, ext. 1189.





©Copyright 2005-2007. Burlington County College. 601 Pemberton-Browns Mills Road. Pemberton, NJ 08068. 609.894.9311 webmaster

 

[eatspaste]

listeners can now tune in to 100.7. The new frequency will provide a stronger signal in the County Seat including Mount Holly and Lumberton.

Except anytime there's a band opening, then you'll either get WLEV (which, according to radio-locator, put a fringe signal halfway into Burlington County before this thing went on the air) or WZXL like it was 20 feet away.

purchasing a high-definition transmitter and antenna with funds received through a federal grant.

Your tax dollars at work!!

 

[amfmsw]

I'm sorry, but I need to echo eats sentiments.

First of all, they should NOT be in the commercial band. Period.

Second, why in the name of God does a 50 - 100 watt station need a federal grant for HD radio. It is a total squandering of my, and my stations' hard earned, but quickly taken, tax dollars. Cut me a break. Hell, we can't afford all the upgrades, but we gotta subsidize this? For what, 20 listeners this signal will serve?

Do a beg-a-thon like the other non-coms. Sell the naming rights. And stay out of the commercial band.

 

[Dancerev889]

First off WBZC is a 10,000 watt radio station with two translators. One of them is on 100.7 and the other is 95.1. The station serves the community and MT Holly is the county seat. The station is also becoming part of the county's emergency management team. The transmitter upgrade was for our antenna and transmitter. I guess education and community service isnt a good thing to spend money on.

 

[raydofan]

First off WBZC is a 10,000 watt radio station with two translators.

And...? 10, 000 watts seems like a great amount of power to me. Why do we need AAA on 3 signals?

One of them is on 100.7 and the other is 95.1. The station serves the community and MT Holly is the county seat. The station is also becoming part of the county's emergency management team. The transmitter upgrade was for our antenna and transmitter. I guess education and community service isnt a good thing to spend money on.

So, what was done in terms of EM prior to WBZC which has been around for 12 years? What does that mean, anyway? Why does a training station need to be IBOC? This is a boondoggle.

Training people for what, by the way? Everything's VT'd!

 

[orange434]

it's a complete waste. mount holly and burlington are literally minutes from each other. on any decent radio i get 88.9 and 95.1 in the mount holly area. believe me, they'll get maybe 2 listeners out of this, and as someone said, lev or zxl will murder it in trop.

 

[Dancerev889]

We are not a triple A station. The station is going through many changes one of which is getting more students involved. Going IBOC will also increase the amount of programming we are going to be able to offer the the county. Local high school sports, county issues and events.

The station is getting involved with emergency management because the school is now apart of the counties plan.

We are already getting a good reaction from the new translator.

Hey if you all want to all complain thats fine,

Besides Mike Tearson's show which is taped, what other shows are Voice tracked?

 

[carnyfeet]

Besides Mike Tearson's show which is taped, what other shows are Voice tracked?

I think what he means is that there aren't enough jobs in the radio industry to go around due to automation doing the work of five or six DJs at each station. He's saying why pump more money into a student station to train them when there aren't any jobs to be had?

I think this to be an incredibly pessimistic viewpoint, but not without merit. As a former college GM, I witnessed maybe 95% of my staffs over the years have only enough interest in radio to do a two-hour weekly show just so they could use the station as their personal iPod. However, that other 5% that really wants to get involved and do this as a career have the potential to change the medium. So I guess all you can do is accept it as fact for the moment and try to stay optimistic.

 

[8638]

listeners can now tune in to 100.7. The new frequency will provide a stronger signal in the County Seat including Mount Holly and Lumberton.

Except anytime there's a band opening, then you'll either get WLEV (which, according to radio-locator, put a fringe signal halfway into Burlington County before this thing went on the air) or WZXL like it was 20 feet away.

purchasing a high-definition transmitter and antenna with funds received through a federal grant.

Your tax dollars at work!!

So, we now have a non-com station with two translators, both of which eliminate reception of commerical stations on the frequencies (WZZO and WLEV both put decent signal into much of Burlington County). Seems like a waste of tax dollars to me too. Stream the signal for those outside its reception range, and stop cluttering up the airwaves with translators.

 

[raydofan]

Besides Mike Tearson's show which is taped, what other shows are Voice tracked?

I think what he means is that there aren't enough jobs in the radio industry to go around due to automation doing the work of five or six DJs at each station. He's saying why pump more money into a student station to train them when there aren't any jobs to be had?

I think this to be an incredibly pessimistic viewpoint, but not without merit. As a former college GM, I witnessed maybe 95% of my staffs over the years have only enough interest in radio to do a two-hour weekly show just so they could use the station as their personal iPod. However, that other 5% that really wants to get involved and do this as a career have the potential to change the medium. So I guess all you can do is accept it as fact for the moment and try to stay optimistic.

Bingo on the first part. It is realistic to asses the current landscape and to provide something else besides the pipe dream of being famous-or even perfunctory-in this field.

Everyone walking around has the 'potential' to change radio. It's getting over the hurdle of the rock-headed suits bent on using consultants to establish any foothold. When this college turns out someone with that fortitude, it'll be too late for radio in general. My opinion.

 

[Dancerev889]

listeners can now tune in to 100.7. The new frequency will provide a stronger signal in the County Seat including Mount Holly and Lumberton.

Except anytime there's a band opening, then you'll either get WLEV (which, according to radio-locator, put a fringe signal halfway into Burlington County before this thing went on the air) or WZXL like it was 20 feet away.

purchasing a high-definition transmitter and antenna with funds received through a federal grant.

Your tax dollars at work!!

So, we now have a non-com station with two translators, both of which eliminate reception of commerical stations on the frequencies (WZZO and WLEV both put decent signal into much of Burlington County). Seems like a waste of tax dollars to me too. Stream the signal for those outside its reception range, and stop cluttering up the airwaves with translators.

So what, we applied for the licenses and got them. Every station had the opportunity to apply for them.

How is this a waste of tax dollars? We promote county events and services?

I guess you havent been watching the SoundExchange situation. We have shut our stream down because of this situation.

Why dont you start complaining about WRTI who has translators and Mercer County College's station that has translator in the mid-west.

 

[BRUSSTAR]

Why dont you start complaining about WRTI who has translators and Mercer County College's station that has translator in the mid-west.

When representatives of those stations come on here boasting of new dial-cluttering translators, we shall.

 

[Those RRRRs]

When representatives of those stations come on here boasting of new dial-cluttering translators, we shall.

What's interesting about this argument is the fact that about the only place that one can hear 95.1 WBZC is when he is driving on The Burlington Bristol Bridge. After less than a mile into PA or NJ, (depending on which way one is driving) WBZC is gone, and WZZO is back.

Unless you're the bridge commissioner up above or a catfish down below, it's nearly impossible to listen to WBZC on 95.1 for any length of time.

I have a feeling that a similar scenario will take place with 100.7. Since WBZC is a dance station, maybe the doctors at Virtua will be able to do 'The Funky Chicken' while they're performing open heart surgery. That'll probably be the only possible extent of the 100.7 listenership.

 

[amfmsw]

Hey Dancer, excuse me, but I think Mt. Holly is covered for emergency service:

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WWJZ&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WIFI&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

There's no need for college non-coms in the commercial FM band. There's no need for our tax dollars to hurt our own industry.
This is crap. Go soak the Radio-TV-Film students for more tuition if you want these toys. Hell. I support a zero percent loan to you, buy for god sakes, pay it back. The dial is crapped up enough. Get away from the taxpayer trough.

You want need for Emergency Service Coverage? watch Carol Ericson's story on KYW-TV tonight about how many will be killed in trying to leave the South Jersey Shore.

 

[papaul1967]

of those 10,000 watts on the main frequency at 88.9 what is the power of the IBOC signal? theres no way they would even consider IBOC on those translators we would be talking about IBOC coverage in feet.

 

[eatspaste]

First off WBZC is a 10,000 watt radio station with two translators. One of them is on 100.7 and the other is 95.1. The station serves the community and MT Holly is the county seat. The station is also becoming part of the county's emergency management team. The transmitter upgrade was for our antenna and transmitter. I guess education and community service isnt a good thing to spend money on.

Mt. Holly has a monster 50kw AM signal - shouldn't that be the starting point for Burlington County's emergency management system? (I know it's Radio Disney and no one listens to it - I'll save you that argument).

Education and community service is an excellent thing. However, like someone else said, I don't believe non-comms should be able to clog-up an already overcrowded FM band with low-wattage, directional translators that can't possibly go more than a couple miles without being beaten-up by a full power station on the same frequency.

So what, we applied for the licenses and got them. Every station had the opportunity to apply for them.

No, not exactly. Commercial FM stations couldn't apply for them unless they already put a solid signal over the same area that the translator would cover. LPFM's couldn't apply for them because 95.1 and 100.7 in Burlington County don't even come close to meeting spacing requirements. However, if you want to put a translator somewhere, those tough spacing requirements magically disappear and you can do whatever you want (96.9, 97.1, and 107.3 in Philadelphia as examples).

And, to an extent, stations that get construction permits for translators usually do so because the general public knows nothing about filing objections and interference complaints. You don't exactly open-up the Courier Post and see an article about the FCC opening a window for objections ("what's that?") for a proposed translator ("what's that?") that will rebroadcast another FM station ("which station is that?").

Why dont you start complaining about WRTI who has translators and Mercer County College's station that has translator in the mid-west.

Gladly. Look, there are countless non-commercial stations that do a wonderful job with programming and serving the public (WXPN, WYRS, WGLS-FM, etc.). Then there are the non-comms that continually abuse the translator system (i.e. KAWZ/Twin Falls, ID, can be heard on over 400 translators). Until the FCC applies the same rules to LPFM's as it does to translators, then I think they should prohibit the licensing of new dial-cloggers. As it is now, there's nothing stopping a 1-watt directional class-A FM non-comm from being heard on hundreds of 250-watt translators across the country.

The issue that I have with WBZC's translators is that 100.7 and 95.1 are home to 4 50kw FM signals on either side of the city of Philadelphia (WLEV/WZXL and WZZO/WAYV). Those FM stations are short-spaced themselves and yet the FCC allowed WBZC to shoehorn translators in on those frequencies.

Mercer County College's station that has translator in the mid-west.

And Mercer Co. College's 107.9 in Chatsworth is still on the air - with WRNB/Pennsauken on the same channel one county over!

 

[Beejus]

(i.e. KAWZ/Twin Falls, ID, can be heard on over 400 translators).

OK. I don't mean to threadjack, but with 400 translators... would that mean they have to to a legal ID for all 400 once in a while? Wouldn't that take up... literally, the whole hour?

 

[raydofan]

(i.e. KAWZ/Twin Falls, ID, can be heard on over 400 translators).

OK. I don't mean to threadjack, but with 400 translators... would that mean they have to to a legal ID for all 400 once in a while? Wouldn't that take up... literally, the whole hour?

I think the technology exists to trigger the ID locally from each.

 

[8638]

listeners can now tune in to 100.7. The new frequency will provide a stronger signal in the County Seat including Mount Holly and Lumberton.

Except anytime there's a band opening, then you'll either get WLEV (which, according to radio-locator, put a fringe signal halfway into Burlington County before this thing went on the air) or WZXL like it was 20 feet away.

purchasing a high-definition transmitter and antenna with funds received through a federal grant.

Your tax dollars at work!!

So, we now have a non-com station with two translators, both of which eliminate reception of commerical stations on the frequencies (WZZO and WLEV both put decent signal into much of Burlington County). Seems like a waste of tax dollars to me too. Stream the signal for those outside its reception range, and stop cluttering up the airwaves with translators.

So what, we applied for the licenses and got them. Every station had the opportunity to apply for them.

How is this a waste of tax dollars? We promote county events and services?

I guess you havent been watching the SoundExchange situation. We have shut our stream down because of this situation.

Why dont you start complaining about WRTI who has translators and Mercer County College's station that has translator in the mid-west.

Hmmm...where do I start? 1. Your lack of knowledge of geography (Colorado is the WEST, not the Mid-West). 2. Your attitude. So what???? And, as stated further down the thread, not every station had the opportunity to apply for them. 3. Yes, it is a waste of tax dollars. Each of these facilities was paid for by, ahem, the taxpayers. As a taxpayer, I don't mind funding a college station, but I do NOT want to fund its translators, which impact on commercial radio stations. 4. As for WRTI and WWFM, they do begathons regularly, so they are not impacting on my tax dollars. And, they are providing service to places where their main signals don't reach.

It's great that BCC has a station, where radio people can cut their teeth. But one frequency is enough.

 

[MikeD]

Brett,

I'll agree that WBZC does need a Mount Holly translator. In "town" neither 88.9 or or 95.1 come in clear. The downtown campus of BCC does need a station with a stronger signal to connect with the Pemberton & Mount Laurel campuses. However, WLEV often comes in like a local in Mount Holly. Wasn't there a better frequency to jump onto? 93.5, 94.9, 95.3, and 102.3 are all dead signals and would have worked, or even a co-channel with a New York frequency (92.3 or 101.9)? It seems like 100.7 and for that matter 95.1 were poorly chosen choices.