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WDIS/1170

N

N1WVQ

I haven't heard them on in about a month & have instead heard a very faint WFPB on the frequency, even by 495 & 95. Can anyone verify if WDIS is broadcasting?
 
The coverage map on Radio Locator looks a lot better than the reality over the past few years. I assume from looking at the rusting transmitter site that lack of maintenance was a problem.

It would have to go pretty cheap for just the license.
 
spt87 said:
The coverage map on Radio Locator looks a lot better than the reality over the past few years. I assume from looking at the rusting transmitter site that lack of maintenance was a problem.
Click to expand...

The story I heard was that many years ago (15 years?... 20?) the towers were converted from conventional series fed to skirt fed (Folded Unipoles) to simplify the installation of communications antennas. The rent from those antennas covered the radio station's expenses. Problem was, the skirts were made of steel wire, which has too much resistance for the AM application. Copper-plated steel wire (it has a trade name that I can't recall) would have been OK had the plating been of the proper thickness. Solid copper wire would not have been strong enough and would also have been unnecessary because the skin effect (which confines the RF energy to the area near the outer surface of the wire) permits the use of plated steel wire. Anyhow, the result of using wire with excessive resistance was a significant loss in coverage. Al Grady (the owner) would not pay for replacing the steel wire with copper-plated steel wire. The station never should have been built in the first place. I wonder whether its demise will enable the co-channel station on Cape Cod to go ND.
 
For those prone to howl for a legitimate station to go Urban, THIS would be
the station to do it. Begin saving your pennies, now...
 
http://radio-locator.com/pats/WDIS_AM_LD.gif

WDIS: Interesting signal pattern. They're a daytimer though.
WCAS used to run funny little tapes when they'd sign off.
(and is it 1560 you mean should go urban...?)

And in Nahant (across the water) I used to pick up WJTO 730 who'd have a recording
saying they were going off, but tune to their sister station "Y-106" (WIGY-FM, now
religious?) for more music. When up in Maine some months ago I was driving around
and Mr Bittner came on explaining that JTO had to really cut its power as it was sunset,
and "for those who can't pick us up after the switchover, we invited you to tune in
tomorrow".
 
WLYNgm said:
For those prone to howl for a legitimate station to go Urban, THIS would be
the station to do it. Begin saving your pennies, now...
Click to expand...

Jeff, that station would fail with Urban...or anything else. There are relatively few Black people in 1170's coverage area, and it doesn't come close to reaching Boston.
I don't think anything would be a success on that stick. It's a standalone AM with a weak day signal, no night authority, no audience, and a neglected physical plant. It's a dog. Jesus could do AM drive and no one would care. Kill it. No one will notice.
 
The best idea was already mentioned -- sell the license to UMass, turn it off, and let the Orleans 1170 go ND and possibly increase power (still daytime only, most likely). That may be the only option.
 
Remembering them with crappy audio to gowithe poor signal. Dan,the name of what you're trying to remember is Copperweld.
 
The shame is that it is one of those tucked-away areas that has no real local radio service. The closest stations are WMRC Milford, which I don't think reaches the area, and WARL Attleboro which is directional the other way.

If they could just inch up the transmitter a bit further north to cover Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Dover.......
 
I'm sure the crew at WUMB would LOVE it if they could squeeze a few watts out at night on WFPB 1170. Even a relatively low-wattage night power might work relatively well in the fairly-saltwater-swampy Cape.

What's it protecting at night, anyways? WHAM? WWVA? Something else? You'd think given the geography that it wouldn't be too hard to make a DA that ensured nothing west of Falmouth heard WFPB...but the AM allocation rules have never made a hell of a lot of sense to me, either.

FWIW, I'm not sure they could easily go ND just because WDIS went away. There's still WCTF in Vernon, near Hartford, CT.

Also FWIW, one does wonder if the callsign "WDIS" is worth more than the facility is. I have to think the owners have been trying to cash in on that for a while now.
 
aaronread said:
What's it protecting at night, anyways? WHAM? WWVA? Something else? You'd think given the geography that it wouldn't be too hard to make a DA that ensured nothing west of Falmouth heard WFPB...but the AM allocation rules have never made a hell of a lot of sense to me, either.
Click to expand...

I believe it's WWVA. They seem to own 1170 on the eastern seaboard at night. There doesn't appear to be any other 1170 that stays on the air at night in the northeastern USA. Looks like a holdover from the AM nighttime clear channel era.
 
I would hate for WUMB to get ANY more frequencies. That being said, I believe Orleans came on first, circa 1970. I think they were directional then too. I don't know why. Maybe they wanted to feed the fishies or maybe they had to protect WKOX/1190? I know WCRI is on 1180 now so that may prove a little problematic.
 
WUMB already has enough frequencies, as it is. I think a station like WJIB would be perfect fit to be repeated on 1170. I believe that WDIS could go ND with 250 watts for the time being (like it did back in '78 when it first came to the air as WJMQ) until a new site could be had. Back in the day (1978), it wasn't bad at all, really. It sounded quite decent. Just a thought.
 
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