WCCM-AM 1110 Signon Signoff Times In January

[Laurence Glavin]

WCCM-AM 1110 COL Salem, NH is apparently signing on at the specified local sunrise of 7:15 in January, as opposed to a consistent 6:00 am signon in November and December. However, it stays ON-the-air for a full hour after local sunset, that is 5:30 pm. One odd thing: as I was monitoring the frequency before 7:00 am, instead of getting WBT in Charlotte, I picked up WPMZ-1110 COL East Providence, RI, AND it identified itself as being in East Providence during its station ID, not East Providence, -Providence. I don't know what time WPMZ signed on.

 

[HD_Ready]

oh my

 

[DanStrassberg]

WCCM-AM 1110 COL Salem, NH is apparently signing on at the specified local sunrise of 7:15 in January, as opposed to a consistent 6:00 am signon in November and December. However, it stays ON-the-air for a full hour after local sunset, that is 5:30 pm. One odd thing: as I was monitoring the frequency before 7:00 am, instead of getting WBT in Charlotte, I picked up WPMZ-1110 COL East Providence, RI, AND it identified itself as being in East Providence during its station ID, not East Providence, -Providence. I don't know what time WPMZ signed on.

WCCM must have a PSSA that allows it to stay on the air at reduced power from Salem NH sunset to Charlotte NC sunset. According to the FCC's AM Query page, Charlotte sunset in January occurs at 5:30PM EST. The reason that nearly all Class D AMs located east of the dominant co-channel Class A can obtain authority to operate at minimal power between their own local sunset and the Class A's local sunset is that, during the period between the Class D and Class A sunsets, the FCC assumes that daytime conditions exist at the Class A's QTH whereas nighttime conditions exist at the Class D's QTH. IOW, the Class A's service area during the period of interest is its daytime (groundwave) coverage area, which often lies hundreds of miles outside the Class D's very weak skywave contour. After the Class A's sunset, however, the Class A's relevant skywave contour may completely envelop the Class D's transmitter site. That is the case with WBT, WCCM, and WPMZ as well as with WBAL and WILD. There are many other examples.

 

[raccoonradio]

By the way WCCM (and yes, those call letters made sense when they were on the 800--Roman numerals
for 800) is apparently ID-ing that they are also on "102.9 FM-HD2". Costa-Eagle owns WNNW 800
Lawrence, also on 102.9, Spanish; WHAV 1490 Haverhill (also Spanish/ethnic I think), WCCM on 1110
Salem NH (and the 102.9 HD2) and WNSH 1570 Beverly which apparently is calling itself Viva these days.

But again how many people have HD radios now?
The WCCM website doesn't mention the HD 2 simulcast but I did hear it as part of a legal ID.
http://www.1110wccmam.com/default.asp?pid=12409

Viva 1570's site...gee, when did the orig. John Hancock bldg and the higher Hancock tower move to
Beverly? Well Beverly may be their COL but by day the 30kW signal isn't bad...along the coast. I
picked it up just outside of Manchester NH; also on the coast of ME, Cape Cod, etc.

http://viva1570.com/
"Pura Variedad Musical"
The not-necessarily-accurate WNSH signal range: http://radio-locator.com/pats/WNSH_AM_LD.gif

 

[raccoonradio]

Look up W275BH (102.9) in radio-locator and see the signal range of their current output and a CP
(97w now, 250w proposed). Click on the co-ordinates of the antenna and you'll see it's in the
Lawrence/N. Andover area near the junction of I-93 and I-495.

The website for Power 800/102.9 seems to give more play (bigger icon, centrally placed) to the FM broadcast.. http://www.power800am.com

 

[DanStrassberg]

By the way WCCM (and yes, those call letters made sense when they were on the 800--Roman numerals
for 800)

Not the REAL Roman numerals for 800! Only the Roman numerals for 800 among people who think they can make up their own Roman numeral rules. The correct Roman numerals for 800 are DCCC, which fits in four-character call signs only in Germany (I think). AFAIK, German calls begin with D for Deutschland. OTOH, if German calls must have a prescribed second letter (like Canada: CF, CH, CI, CJ, CK; CM is Cuba), what are the chances that the prescribed letter is C?

 

[Laurence Glavin]

I get the impression that the people who put WCCM on the air used the formulation that smaller Roman Numerals to the left of the largest one were subtractive, so two 'C's to the left of an 'M' indicated 1,000 minus 200 = 800. If they tried to contrive call leters for a station operating at one-thousand, 110, they could try WMCX, already in use on the FM band outside of market in NJ. Shared call-letters out of market have occurred before but I don't think Costa-Eagle cares to try it. And the Roman Numerals for Eleven-Ten, XI X, also signify 19, and are used now by a TV station in Cincinnati, OH on real or virtual channel 19. (The first use of WXIX I believe was in Milwaukee, WI). When WCCM moved to 1490, they could have tried WXMD: subtract 10 from 1000 five hundred, but at that time there was an FM station in, you guessed it, Maryland using those calls. In Boston of course, virtual channel 56 still uses the calls WLVI-TV while broadcasting on channel 41.

 

[KML0224]

A 102.9 translator in the Merrimack River valley? I wonder what the distance is between WDRC-FM 102.9 of Hartford (transmitter to the south-southwest in Meriden) and WBLM-FM 102.9 of Portland, ME (100,000 watts)?

 

[jlehmann]

If this is true that 102.9 is running a HD2, I wonder if it's the first of it's kind in the country? I remember hearing about a translator running HD somewhere else (I forget where) but I believe that was just running the same feed as the main (FM) station, possibly with their HD2, I'm not sure. But for this to be running 2 different AM stations on a FM translator... it just might be one of a kind.

I also have to wonder if it's legal for 102.9 to be translating 1110 in any way. I don't think that 102.9 falls within 1110's primary contour, as I thought was required.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

If this is true that 102.9 is running a HD2, I wonder if it's the first of it's kind in the country? I remember hearing about a translator running HD somewhere else (I forget where) but I believe that was just running the same feed as the main (FM) station, possibly with their HD2, I'm not sure. But for this to be running 2 different AM stations on a FM translator... it just might be one of a kind.

I also have to wonder if it's legal for 102.9 to be translating 1110 in any way. I don't think that 102.9 falls within 1110's primary contour, as I thought was required.

I don't know if the radio-locator.com contours should be taken as gospel (come to think of it, the GOSPEL shouldn't be taken as gospel), but the red outline bisects Lawrence just short of the WNNW tower . However, if you drive by that tower, WCCM-AM 1110 comes in like a local...because it is.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

It apppears that WCCM does have a PSSA, and a PSRA only during April:

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/corrp_list.pl?Facility_id=13998

 

[JIBGUY]

It is unknown whether those 2007-issued PSRA and PSSA figures are legally-legit, because there were so many complaints about the wattages from many AM stations, the FCC said they would re-do them all, and never did. So, if the 2007 values are not legal, then the previous-issued ones are still. And those are nowhere on the FCC site. For all we know, 1110 might have 50 watts from 6 AM to local sunrise, in all months. - Those 2007 values for WJIB-740 gives WJIB PSSA at 250 watts for two HOURS after Cambridge sunset, but WJIB has not used such, as it is unclear as to whether the 2007 values are in force or not.