Weather radio stations independent from NOAA weather radio

[oldradiotapes]

Some PBS TV affiliates used to carry NOAA weather radio on their SAP channel when it wasn't being used for TV programming.

Only Portland Broadcasting used to carry their Golden Hours radio reading service over their SAP (had previously been on their 67 kHz subcarriers) when not playing "described video" programming. OPB spun Golden Hours off in IIRC May 2008 because the new management considered it "subversive" as being representative of all of Oregon, it contradicted Metro's then-new "Portland First" city-state sovereignty ideological silliness and had to be suppressed. But then, OPB have always been sort of an anomaly anyways.

KPXG relayed KIG98 via SAP, then later the Salem NWS station whose call letters I forget. They may or may not still be simulcasting NOAA via ATSC. They weren't when I last checked it about 10-12 years ago.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I don't know if I'm remembering this correctly but a local station where I live that did a lot of different types of programming may have had NOAA radio during part of the noon hour.

 

[b-turner]

A station I heard in Illinois traveling had obviously taped one of the NOAA Weather Radio cycles and played back that hour's 2.5-3 minute loop at :15 and :45. They had 5 minutes of network news on the hour and a state and local summary on the half hour. They even had a couple of other features in the hour. They only played a couple of songs each quarter hour. Can't recall the station but I though running NOAA audio was pretty unique. That would have been about 2005, I think.

 

[Thisi]

There's a station that broadcasts NOAA weather radio at the top of each hour. I forgot the station.

 

[Route66Fan]

Some PBS TV affiliates used to carry NOAA weather radio on their SAP channel when it wasn't being used for TV programming.

Also, some PBS stations, like KMOS-TV, Ch. 6 in Sedalia\Warrensburg, MO would relay NOAA Weather Radio audio prior to signon.

 

[oldradiotapes]

Clarification/full disclosure: The scanner in the switchroom at work was not mine. It was an old PRO-2005 that one of the guys got at a car boot sale. I did, however, pull the new cable into there from the antenna. Basically the company telco guy told me, "well, if you know how to do it, then do it", so I did. The previous 40-something year old RG59 was in sorry condition (apparently the building had a rodent problem at one point) so it was in need of replacement. RG59 is almost worthless at broadcasting frequencies over long cable runs anyways, so how they managed to hang an SCA receiver off it is anybody's guess. An actual proper Muzak installer/engineer of the time would have probably known better than to ever set something like that up.

 

[oldradiotapes]

For years ODOT operated a fulltime simulcast of WXL95 on 1610 in Pendleton and had "FOR WEATHER INFO / TUNE RADIO TO / 1610 AM" signs along Interstate 84 at either end of town. As I was told, the transmitter was in or near the little building off I-84 westbound Exit 210; SE Kirk Avenue, across the interstate from the Red Lion hotel. The building has since been demolished and I don't know if it and the station were actually connected. It completely 0wned 1610 at the hotel! The aerial was just the bog-standard vertical-on-fencepole usually associated with TIS stations and could be seen from the interstate and the intersection of SE 3rd Drive and Nye Road. WXL95 may or may not have included 1610 in Pendleton in its on-air identification; I don't remember.

They may or may not still be relaying from a different site; last I was there in 2018 I didn't have a MW/FM radio with me; only police scanners, a FT60R and a UV5R Plus. I think the antenna was gone by then.

Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world! - Red Lion is the big C-shaped complex at SE Nye & 3rd.

 

[Kelly A]

Some PBS TV affiliates used to carry NOAA weather radio on their SAP channel when it wasn't being used for TV programming.

Couldn't imagine doing that today. So many viewers, especially elderly, accidentally switch their TV audio to SAP. If the programming includes descriptive audio or Spanish translation, I get lots of E-mails demanding to know why their favorite show is in Spanish. I've developed a form E-mail explaining how to switch out of SAP for various TV or cable boxes.

 

[oldradiotapes]

^-- "The more things change" and all that rot, right?

 

[dxsphere]

I wonder if KGJN-LP out of Grand Junction. At one time, it Rebroadcast NOAA, but I think now it's ran by the state of Colorado.

Colorado has a network of traveler's information stations on FM that rebroadcast NOAA. I encountered at least two in 2015 when I was in Colorado.

Many states including Oregon and Washington have TIS on the AM band that rebroadcast NOAA, though not all do.

There are at least three stations currently that rebroadcast NOAA on HD subchannels: 91.9 KDSU-HD3 Fargo, ND; 90.7 WTCC-HD2 Springfield, MA; and 88.3 KCCK-HD2 Cedar Rapids, IA (and translator 106.9 K295AC-HD3 Iowa City, IA). In addition, 102.7 KCYE Las Vegas once had NOAA on one of its HD subchannels.

With that said, aside from TIS, I don't know if there are any weather formatted radio stations independent from NOAA.