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WCAP

Z

ZRXOA 5248

With WRKO having neutered Howie ...there is so much dead air from someone hitting the dump button I think of Pig Vomit from Howard Sterns " Private Parts" book/movie, and Severin just tooting his own horn, I have started listening to WCAP on the ride north in the afternoon. Not bad radio if you live in the Merrimack valley, very local in it's focus, and as you all know I love local radio.. (WATD is my fav example of local radio and how it should be done)

What they do in the morning, before 6 AM when they go local with Dean " formerly of the Boston Herald" Johnson, Jack "I started at WJUL" Baldwin, and Teddy Panos is simulcast the WCVB TV news. Now I am a little tired of WBZ 1030 and the 4 minute news cycle that takes 10 minutes, and I am really liking the WCAP/WCVB thing. the breaks are timed almost to perfection and if the timing is a little off it is usually covered by WCAP's use of the News Center 5 bumper music that is so layered the transitions are hardly noticeable. The sound quality is pretty good too. ONce in a while they come in a few seconds late but it's usually into banter between the anchors and or JC Monihan the weather babe.

Here is my only gripe... the WCAP night pattern like everyone else around here it seems, is pointed at fishing boats on Georges Bank. I am assuming that they are protecting a station on 980 in bleeping Ontario Canada running 7500 watts. I am no more than 7 miles from the WCAP stick , but in the null and I have trouble picking them up but I can hear what I assume is KCRU some 400 miles away stepping on them.

Broadcast radio started right here in Marshfield MA, down in the Brant Rock section, the antenna base is still there in the middle of a trailer park. Marconi did his thing on Cape Cod. We have to broadcast to the fishes? Let the rest of the country listen to us, we were here first!



OK rant over. I like what Clark Schmidt and company is doing with WCAP. If you are ever North of Boston give it a listen.
 
I'm liking the revitalized WCAP, especially "The Beatles and Before" when I can tune it in. Smidt and Poulten are doing a great job up there in Lowell.
 
WCAP also protects the 980 in Troy, NY(WTRY years ago, now WOFX). Not sure if they have to give 1st adjacent to 970 or990.
 
I missed the NY station when I was searching Radio-Locator.com looking for the closest 980 signal that they would be protecting. I know when the Cohens went off in search of a license they had to shoehorn themselves into a space to get the CP. 980 in the Lowell area was the only place that fit the engineering criteria for the FCC to grant the application.

I am picking up oldies under the WCVB audio, and the canadian station does do oldies so I am assuming it is them I am hearing and not the Troy NY sports signal. Some morning I'll try to be in the null at 5 AM and get a legal ID. Most mornings at 5 I am just passing 495 on 93 south and getting out of the null. I get the Canadian stations really well up here, especially 740.
 
ZRXOA 5248 said:
I missed the NY station when I was searching Radio-Locator.com looking for the closest 980 signal that they would be protecting. I know when the Cohens went off in search of a license they had to shoehorn themselves into a space to get the CP. 980 in the Lowell area was the only place that fit the engineering criteria for the FCC to grant the application.

I am picking up oldies under the WCVB audio, and the canadian station does do oldies so I am assuming it is them I am hearing and not the Troy NY sports signal. Some morning I'll try to be in the null at 5 AM and get a legal ID. Most mornings at 5 I am just passing 495 on 93 south and getting out of the null. I get the Canadian stations really well up here, especially 740.
Click to expand...

WOFX is certainly the main interfering signal to WCAP at night. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it were so strong that everything else dropped out of the 50% NIF calculation, if not the 25%. Nevertheless, the main Canadian signal that WCAP must protect is the former CBV in Quebec City. Quebec City is due north of Lowell. CBV, which used to run 50 kW-U DA-2, went dark a number of years ago, but as is Canadian custom, the allocation remains internationally notified and hence must be protected. Another station in Quebec City was CJRP, which was on 1060 and ran 50 kW-D/10 kW-N DA-2. This, too, is still notified to the US. It's hard to figure out what is going on up there with these two frequencies, but I distinctly recall reading a few years ago that Industrie Canada had granted a new 1060 in the Quebec City area (10 kW-UDA-2). Now it appears that that CP may have moved to 980. For sure, 980 would be a better choice because WBIX with 22 kW CH likely causes more CH interference in the vicinity of Quebec City than WCAP does with 5 kW, although the distance is such that WBIX's half-wave towers could limit high-angle radiation enough that the effect is less than the 22/5 WBIX/WCAP power ratio suggests. Both WCAP and WBIX are directional toward Quebec City by day.
 
Good point about the dark signals, who knows what was going on back in the early 50's when they were trying to find a frequency and location that would work for them without interfering with another frequency (first adjacent) or station sharing the 980. I understand it was one of the Cohen brothers who did the engineering legwork to get the CP. Maurice Cohen went into some depth about how they got on the air and the Cohen brothers history in radio on day 98 of the new 980 WCAP's ownership in the afternoon drive show.
 
CKGM

When it was built in the mid 1970s, CKGM in Montreal and WTRY in Troy, NY were the limiting factors for the WCAP nighttime signal. CKGM has since moved to 990, so I have no idea whether they matter any more. WCAP's nightime signal basically points right at Boston-and they come in quite well in the northern suburbs at night. Daytime they basically aim at Concord, NH-they can not really go any further towards Boston then they did at 1 kw Non-d due to a 980 daytime only station in New London, CT.
 
The WCAP daytime pattern is almost non directional, it has a slight pull in to the SW to prevent first adjacent channel overlap with WESO on 970 in Southbridge.
I did monitor points and slight array adjustmemnts with Maurice Cohen many
times during the early 90's
 
Once upon a time...WCAP 980 was just a 1000 watt daytimer. I know...because I worked there in the 70s!

Not signing off until 8:30PM in June was great....but things were somewhat disconcerting in December when sign-off occurred at 4pm!

You've never heard so many before Christmas ads crammed into a 10-hour broadcast day! ::)

argytunes
 
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