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WCRB-FM Off-The-Air Between Owners

L

Laurence Glavin

Guest
On his blog, Rob Landry, the CE of WCRB during the Charles River/Nassau days , says that 99.5 will go off-the-air at midnight, and WGBH will start programming it at 5:00 am. He didn't specify whether 99.5 will power down at midnight, or just run an unmodulated carrier for several hours while 'GBH engineers make adjustments. If the former is the case, I'd like to try to pick up WBAI in NYC. In the past, when WUML-FM 91.5 was completely off-the-air, I could get a feeble signal from WNYE when it was transmitting from Brooklyn I believe, with 20,000 watts ERP. I haven't been able to try it since WNYE moved to the Times Square tower. Radio geeks are weird.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
On his blog, Rob Landry, the CE of WCRB during the Charles River/Nassau days , says that 99.5 will go off-the-air at midnight, and WGBH will start programming it at 5:00 am. He didn't specify whether 99.5 will power down at midnight, or just run an unmodulated carrier for several hours while 'GBH engineers make adjustments. If the former is the case, I'd like to try to pick up WBAI in NYC. In the past, when WUML-FM 91.5 was completely off-the-air, I could get a feeble signal from WNYE when it was transmitting from Brooklyn I believe, with 20,000 watts ERP. I haven't been able to try it since WNYE moved to the Times Square tower. Radio geeks are weird.
Click to expand...

Before WBUR fired up the IBOC blowtorch, I used to get WFUV/90.7 (in The Bronx) in Stereo at my apartment in Whitman, MA (25 miles south of Boston) almost all of the time. The use of a Stereo-Probe 9 antenna and with a few changes in the IF filters (110 kHz) and 'FUV was here 80% of the time. But no more. But this is what some people call "progress". (Hmmmmm.....)

So, tonight we say goodbye to 99.5 in Lowell as a commercial station. Gone will be the days of WLLH-FM ("NOW with 50,000 watts of power to serve you better", WSSH ("Stereo 99", "Boston's Wish"), WKLB ("Country 99.5") and of course WCRB. Let's hope that 'GBH does NOT forget the legacy of what the WCRB call-letters have stood for by branding it yet just another 'GBH entity. I wish them luck.
 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
So, tonight we say goodbye to 99.5 in Lowell as a commercial station. Gone will be the days of WLLH-FM ("NOW with 50,000 watts of power to serve you better", WSSH ("Stereo 99", "Boston's Wish"), WKLB ("Country 99.5") and of course WCRB. Let's hope that 'GBH does NOT forget the legacy of what the WCRB call-letters have stood for by branding it yet just another 'GBH entity. I wish them luck.
Click to expand...

Tonight, or Monday night/Tuesday morning? I thought WGBH takes over on December 1st.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
On his blog, Rob Landry, the CE of WCRB during the Charles River/Nassau days , says that 99.5 will go off-the-air at midnight, and WGBH will start programming it at 5:00 am.
Click to expand...

Link, please?
 
So, IF they were to drop the WCRB call-sign, WHO do you think would pick it up, if anyone?

It would probably end up in Maryland or Virginia, where crabbing is a big industry.
"CRAB-99.9 plays the hits!"

After all, there IS a WLOB in Lobsterland/Vacationland.
 
Wow, you can pick up WNYE just with WUML off the air? There's SO many stations around Boston on 91.5, and 91.3 and 91.7 for that matter.
 
WCRB is signing off Monday night, and the carrier will be shut off.

It may actually sign off early; there are no commercials scheduled after about 6:30 PM.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
On his blog, Rob Landry, the CE of WCRB during the Charles River/Nassau days , says that 99.5 will go off-the-air at midnight, and WGBH will start programming it at 5:00 am. He didn't specify whether 99.5 will power down at midnight, or just run an unmodulated carrier for several hours while 'GBH engineers make adjustments. If the former is the case, I'd like to try to pick up WBAI in NYC. In the past, when WUML-FM 91.5 was completely off-the-air, I could get a feeble signal from WNYE when it was transmitting from Brooklyn I believe, with 20,000 watts ERP. I haven't been able to try it since WNYE moved to the Times Square tower. Radio geeks are weird.
Click to expand...

With a good antenna you should be able to pull in WBAI as well as WRVE Schenectady-Albany. On 91.5, in addition to WNYE, WRPI-Troy, NY should also be audible. I used to be able to pull that one in regularly in the Fitchburg-Leominster area...
 
Channel Surf said:
Laurence Glavin said:
On his blog, Rob Landry, the CE of WCRB during the Charles River/Nassau days , says that 99.5 will go off-the-air at midnight, and WGBH will start programming it at 5:00 am. He didn't specify whether 99.5 will power down at midnight, or just run an unmodulated carrier for several hours while 'GBH engineers make adjustments. If the former is the case, I'd like to try to pick up WBAI in NYC. In the past, when WUML-FM 91.5 was completely off-the-air, I could get a feeble signal from WNYE when it was transmitting from Brooklyn I believe, with 20,000 watts ERP. I haven't been able to try it since WNYE moved to the Times Square tower. Radio geeks are weird.
Click to expand...

With a good antenna you should be able to pull in WBAI as well as WRVE Schenectady-Albany. On 91.5, in addition to WNYE, WRPI-Troy, NY should also be audible. I used to be able to pull that one in regularly in the Fitchburg-Leominster area...
Click to expand...

I've actually gotten both WRVE (formerly WGFM) and WBAI on many occasions here in the South of Boston area. I also have received WJBR from Wilmington, Delaware on occasion as well. Since 99.5 in Lowell is a little further than the Needham towers, I was able to notch out that frequency with the use of two stacked 5-element Yagis. Before 99.7 in Rhode Island fired up, 99.7 was a super frequency for Meteor scatter, E-skip and some Tropo scatter as well. 99.5 was not factor. Today, of course, with 99.5 on a taller tower and with IBOC and that pesky 99.7 in Wakefield-Peacedale, RI on the air, it's now ancient history.
 
There are some 99.5s in northern New England--not sure if they'll come in dep. on where you are. I think NHPR has a 99.5 in Jackson and Vt Public Radio has one as well (just checked nhpr.org and vpr.net to confirm...
yes, there's a 99.5 in Jackson NH and VPR has _low power translators_ in Middlebury and Newbury. Doubt
many could pick these up, but who knows.

During that off air period poss. one may get the 99.3 from Block Island RI?
Wonder if I would be able to pick up the 99.7 from Wakefield/Peace Dale RI up on North Shore during the period... (WEAN, //WPRO)
 
I've also already heard WJBR, WBAI, and WRVE with Lowell on the air. In addition to those, I've also gotten WEVJ Jackson, NH (finding them in some odd direction like southeast), and WJCX Pittsfield, ME. The only station I'm expecting to get for the first time is W258BH which is located on the WCIB tower in Falmouth, despite being licensed to Sandwich. W258BH is another translator for 90.1 WRYP Wellfleet.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
So, tonight we say goodbye to 99.5 in Lowell as a commercial station. Gone will be the days of WLLH-FM ("NOW with 50,000 watts of power to serve you better", WSSH ("Stereo 99", "Boston's Wish"), WKLB ("Country 99.5") and of course WCRB. Let's hope that 'GBH does NOT forget the legacy of what the WCRB call-letters have stood for by branding it yet just another 'GBH entity. I wish them luck.
Click to expand...

Don't forget 99.5's time as Smooth Jazz WOAZ "The Oasis" after WSSH and before WKLB.
 
They've been off the air since about 11:50pm. I heard what I believe to be 99.5 WYCD in Detroit for about 2 seconds just before midnight. I looked up the Taylor Swift song I heard and this station was playing it. Probably meteor scatter. I've been listening to the white noise for a while now, waiting to see what else might pop in/out.
 
When they went off, the analog carrier actually went away before the HD. As soon as it went off, I started hearing WEVJ Jackson, NH. I swung the beam around to the SE, and W258BH was/is very strong. WBAI and WRVE have faded up at times, as well as numerous unidentified meteor scatter bursts.
 
I tuned in around 11:48 and may have just missed the shutoff. Then on way home from work (Reading to Beverly etc.) I was picking up some country station on 99.3 and maybe a little talk on 99.7 (WEAN?)

Doing a search on radio-locator I found country stations at 99.3 in Potsdam NY, Gatesville NC, etc
But didn't really catch an ID
 
Who knows could have been WLZX 99.3 from Northampton; one song I heard, barely, was All Summer Long by Kid Rock which could fit into either a rock or country format. Then the other song may have sounded like a female country singer but maybe it was another crossover artist?
 
jlehmann said:
When they went off, the analog carrier actually went away before the HD.
Click to expand...

If that happened only very briefly, it may have been the short delay in digital processing in your HD receiver as compared to analog.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
If that happened only very briefly, it may have been the short delay in digital processing in your HD receiver as compared to analog.
Click to expand...

I think it was about 30 seconds longer that it stayed on, so I think that's longer than the digital buffer. I have seen cases of analogs going off, and HDs staying on in the past, so it isn't impossible.
 
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