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WEEI Adding FM Simulcast Monday

raccoonradio said:
People sent text messages last night saying it was coming in fine in NH, MA (incl. Cape) on 93.7
One text was from someone in E. Longmeadow saying it sounded fine in FM. Maybe they were listening on
105.5 because isn't the 93.7 in that area WZMX in Hartford? Someone on the WEEI facebook said they tuned in to 93.7 in Hartford but got music instead. I explained why.

And...was this the first time the Sox were in the metro Boston area on FM? I say nay, nay.

WWEL 107.9
WPLM 99.1
(and as someone pointed out, for a time, WCGY 93.7!)

A few games also made their way onto WHDH-FM (94.5) in the late '60s or early '70s, IIRC.
 
I indeed do remember the Sox on WWEL. Same goes for when they were on 99.1. When I was Chief Engineer of the now departed 1370 in Wickford RI, we got permission form WPLM to do the games, and breaking away for our own local spots.We used an FM tuner feeding a console input.
 
Don't think that because 93.7 will be carrying Red Sox games that numerous suburban stations will lose their carriage. For years, the Red Sox have allowed their games to be broadcast on overlapping AM signals around New England.

The Sox are on 50,000 watt WTIC Hartford but got carried on 5000 watt WHYN 560, Springfield, only 30 miles away. Both stations at one time were in the top 10 in each other's market. Or how about having the Sox on 560 WGAN Portland and 25 miles to the south, WIDE 1400 Biddeford ME? At night in the summer, you could scan the AM radio dial in New Hampshire and hear the Red Sox on numerous stations, including 850 WHDH (or were they on WRKO then?) and 1080 WTIC.

As long as your sales area doesn't overlap much with an existing station carrying the Red Sox, they'll let you carry the games for the right price. No further questions asked about whether your signal overlaps.


Gregg
[email protected]
 
Certainly one could look at a map of, say, Vermont and wonder why they have stations 25-30 miles away
from each other carrying Sox. Good reason: at night when signals are tough to get! Thus, Sox on
WJOY 1230 Burl...WFAD 1490 Middlebury...WSYB 1380 Rutland (OK you'd expect that, a good 60 miles
from Burl) and the DEV AM/FM combo in Waterbury of course.
 
Wonder if WEEI will have one ESPN ALDS game on 850, and a 2nd on 93.7FM. Way Sox are going Tampa is on its way to the Wild Card.
 
There may be playoff situations where the game may air on AM (non-Sox) with talk on FM, or maybe even
talk on both AM and FM and the non-Sox game, in prime time, bumped to RKO. In the first round some
games may be at 4 pm; perhaps you'd find the game on AM while the reg sports talk is on FM (They
wouldn't bump THAT game to RKO and pre-empt Howie)

EEI may figure they'd rather run Big Show on the FM and those who want "Arizona v. Phila." would get it on AM.
 
It was said that WEEI was adding an FM simulcast but in some ways you wonder if in the end it means
WEEI's reg. programming would be based on 93.7 while the AM perhaps goes to ESPN 24/7 (though maybe spillover sports could air on 850; maybe AM or PM drive, etc.) Listen to WEEI and you'll hear the liners say "SportsRadio 93.7 WEEI and WEEI.com". No mention of 850, other than saying that the text number is
"850850".

One citation of the poss. of ESPN on 850 (and yes both AM and FM carry ESPN overnights and some wknd
slots) is K. Vahey saying he was talking to a good friend who worked at ESPN and supposedly it would happen "in the next month" (this was in late Sept.) I recall in '09 when WEEI picked up ESPN (again) Nov 1 was the start date, with some baseball playoffs before then. Maybe late Oct or Nov 1 could be a date
for 850 switching to ESPN full (or mostly full) time. With regards to playoff games, so far neither WEEI has
run an ALDS or NLDS game (and yes, it was expected the Sox would make playoffs but we had the
whole disaster thing). Maybe just as well: suppose they were to pick up the Yankees game on
Fri night. Not only was it stopped after 2 innings, to be finished the next day, but, er, there was a kinda big Boston sports story: the non-picking-up of Francona's contract, and both AM and FM were all over it.

I guess if you wanted Yankees or Phillies games you could try WCBS, WPOP, WPHT etc (or your TV if
you have TBS/TNT at home!) Some NLCS, ALCS games may wind up on WEEI, and World Series etc.

btw the past couple weeks Mon Night Football was on WRKO, but WEEI's sked page lists WEEI both AM
and FM as carrying MNF tonight. No idea if maybe RKO picks up the second game of the ALDS doubleheader. Do they think people would care?

There are so many variables here, including the Francona situation and Pats talk taking priority on
both AM and FM, but will 850 go all or mostly ESPN? What becomes of C's--does season happen?
 
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