WDEL Power Increase. Wilmington's New +3db Flame Thrower

[qtpieislit]

Rt 275 @ 5 Points (Lat: 38.745667 Lon: -75.173528), Type: Pole, Structure height: 15 m, Call Sign: WPQK925, Licensee ID: L00003405
Assigned Frequencies : 1.38000 MHz
Grant Date: 07/27/2005, Expiration Date: 08/22/2015, Cancelation Date: 07/12/2007, Certifier: Gene S Donaldson
Registrant: State Of Delaware, 800 Bay Rd, Dover, DE 19903, Phone: (302) 760-2303, Fax: (302) 760-4329

 

[Pilgrimway]

I searched the web and came across this letter to the International Radio Club of America. I deleted the person's name and address, but this person seems to have found the answer to the question of WTMC having 3 transmitters.

To: "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America"

Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 9:59 PM
Subject: [IRCA] WTMC-1380 Delaware Wackiness


> The Delaware Department of Transportation runs WTMC-1380 in Wilmington
> with a listed 520 watts day and 10 watts at night. It's basically a
> glorified TIS, running traffic and public safety ads all day. It puts a
> good signal into Central Delaware during the day. They also announce a
> transmitter on 1380 in Rehoboth Beach which is a true 10-watt TIS. I've
> not heard the Rehoboth station.
>
> Today, at lunch (I work just south of Dover, in Camden DE), I tuned into
> 1380 and heard two different signals from WTMC that were out of sync.
> There was a VERY strong version with another, much weaker version of
> WTMC's audio underneath. I was hearing two different WTMC audios. I
> immediately thought I had the Rehoboth TIS as the weaker station under the
> much stronger Wilmington transmitter, but I realized that the dominant
> signal was very strong, almost too strong for a 500-watt station at 40
> miles in Wilmington. I doubted I was hearing both the Wilmington and
> Rehoboth stations dueling it out on 1380.
>
> A quick check of the FCC database shows another Delaware DOT TIS on 1380
> in Dover, probably at the DelDOT yard in south Dover, WQSF238 with 10
> watts. Was DelDOT running another signal on 1380 from Dover? They aren't
> announcing it. They announce transmitters in Wilmington and Rehoboth
> Beach, but they do not mention any station in Dover. But I think DelDOT
> is running a third transmitter on 1380 as what I'm hearing is too strong
> to be the Wilmington station, and certainly way too strong to be the
> Rehoboth TIS. On the way home from work, I listened to 1380 through Dover
> and DelDOT was very strong but the signal was much weaker by the time I
> got to north Dover, showing that the dominant station I was listening to
> in the Dover area was low powered.
>
> I think now that DelDOT is running 3 stations on 1380. WTMC, the main
> station in Wilmington, the 10-watt TIS in Rehoboth, WPQK925 and a 10-watt
> TIS in Dover. If so, they are not running in sync, at least the Dover and
> Wilmington stations aren't.
>

Ummm... that was me. 8)

WTMC's situation seems even worse now with the Smyrna transmitter on 1380. Does anyone really even listen to WTMC anyway? If I want traffic, it's WDEL!

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Pilgramway, My Guess is, the only people who'd tune in are out of staters who are traveling through Delaware when they are sitting in traffic and see the over head signs on Rt1 or I-95 directing them to tune in to WTMC 1380. Of course WDEL also has had billboards up on I-95 and possibly Rt 1 promoting their Traffic Watch service. WILM also has traffic reports (but no billboards to promote it), the bigger problem with WILM's traffic report isn't the quality of the reports, but you have to listen to Hannity while waiting for the traffic reports. Besides having to listen to his angry carping voice, he isn't good about taking his spot breaks in a consistent manner so you could wait quite awhile before that traffic break. So, I'd agree with you, in the PM drive time, I get traffic data from WDEL. In the AM drive, it depends on which station I tuned in to that morning. Some mornings I pick WILM, other mornings, WDEL, and other mornings I pick WHYY-FM.