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WEEI network missed opportunity for Burl VT?

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

I know this relates to the Burlington VT market but I want to post it on the Boston board: WEEI's network has stations in NH, Maine, other parts of MA, and RI. Conn. is covered in part
by 105.5 out of the Springfield area and 103.7 out of Westerly; the Keene signal (93.5) does
reach into part of VT...

http://www.weei.com/weei/shows-schedules/network-stations

..but I wonder if they missed an opportunity to get into Burlington/Plattsburgh and the Champlain
Valley. As rocker WCPV 101.3 will be switching from rock to ESPN (and one local show) on 1/1/11,
the current ESPN affiliates in St Albans (1450), Middlebury (1490) and Burlington (1390) will pick
up Fox Sports instead. Wonder if WEEI was approached about those AMs picking up EEI shows?
Who knows. (Various stations up there do carry Sox, Pats, etc.)

Anyway the map of WEEI "affiliates" show a good part of New England is covered, but not all.
I wonder if I were in charge of those 3 AMs--would I rather go with Fox Sports or the more
provincial WEEI network?
 
And of course WEEI's network could use an FM within the 128 belt in the Boston area, too...one that doesn't fade away at sunset, one that can reach into our workplaces...93.7 for example :)
 
Racoon I feel your pain. I tried once to bring in my HD radio to pick up Mike -FM HD3 at work because 93.7 comes in strong at work.However, could not get the HD signal to lock in.
 
No I was just pointing out that I was a bit surprised that the AMs in NW Vermont didn't consider WEEI or vice versa...and pointing out putting at least the Sox game on , say, 93.7 would enable me to actually hear them live instead of taking a tape recorder, recording part of it, and hearing it back later. At least Sports Hub can be heard in these types of situations

And I do go up to the Champlain Valley once in awhile
 
raccoonradio said:
Not at work. I work nights. (And WBOQ doesn't come in on workroom floor). I do have XM in my car.
Click to expand...

That would seem to be a non-sequitur. Why should XM reception vary with the time of day? Are you trying to say that satellite reception is impossible or impractical in the workroom? If so, why? Metal roof over the workroom?
 
Let me describe the postal facility to you--I don't know how many square feet it is, but it is huge. Don't know the kind of roof, may be metal.

If you were in the breakroom near the front of the building, far from the machinery, you could pick up a lot of AM and FM signals. Even the HD2s and HD3s on that Insignia portable. But on the workroom floor (and it can be extremely loud with various machinery) you can pretty much count on WMKK 93.7 and WCRB 99.5 coming in, and maybe WBZ-FM 98.5
though you may lose it if you move around a bit. Ditto with WKLB, WODS, etc. WBOQ used to come in if you stood in a certain spot and held a portable up high, but that was about it.

WRKO comes in though I need to either put a small tape deck a distance from me and record it to hear back later, or I use a mini-FM transmitter to beam the signal to my sorting case (it works
on occasion). When there were baseball playoffs or the Sox themselves bumped to WRKO for some
reason it worked for me. Otherwise I had to put the mini-boombox tape deck in a separate room
and record it to hear back later. The mini FM transmitter wouldn't work in this case.

And even then WEEI wasn't always coming in clear. WCBS 880 with Yankees games or
WPHT 1210 with Phillies (who were in '08 and '09 World Series) came in better than Needham's
stick for WEEI. Though maybe it's the ferrite rod antenna in the small radio. I put it "on its end" and it came in better.

XM doesn't fade at night--but that's when most of the games are. My car is parked quite a distance away while I'm working, and yes I could pick up games in the breakroom (even on WEEI)
but not on the workroom floor.

The workroom...well, you would have to see it to believe me. Metal roof most likely. All kinds of
sorting machinery to sort mail, trays, and packages. Can get very loud at times. Interference
from machinery and our roof makes most radio listening impossible, though as you'd expect
from a building in N. Reading, the 93.7 and 99.5 signals DO manage to make it in. And no, I wouldn't expect Entercom to change Mike's profitable format just for people like me, but
it would be nice if they at least picked up the Sox games and then kept the rest of their
music. Of course if Entercom had another FM signal to spare they could move Mike there
and put WEEI and/or the Sox on 93.7, but who knows when or if that will happen.

The difference on the workroom floor:
The Red Sox could be in the World Series but I'd have a tough time picking it up; may have to
record and listen back to it later.

Meanwhile the Bruins and Patriots (who have some night games) do come in because CBS
has them on an FM station which comes in; slightly fuzzy, but it comes in. And Entercom
sticks with a static-filled, interference-influenced, and directional AM signal.
 
Racoon I'm so sick of hearing about your reception woes I'm willing to come up there and help you fix it. Can you get premission? We would need to easily get on the roof, put an antenna up and bring a cable into your desk? Otherwise you need to find a new job.... : )
 
Tell Entercom in either Bala Cynwyd PA or on Guest St. :) And it isn't a desk it's a sorting case. It's OK,. I can still hear the games tape delayed (literally) or during my break but I'm actually performing a public service here--given the snow and the cold any talk of baseball/Red Sox will make us
realize we are getting closer every day to "pitchers and catchers"! :)
 
yea leave raccoon alone hes providing the public a good service at least hes not like some people on here with their agendas!! hes just stating a fact i have the same problem because of the lights i would like to listen to the celts ad redsox when i work nights!!! so i feel his pain so im glad when the bruins and pats are on!!!!
 
As Howie would put it, Pats and B's are on a real radio station...one that you can actually pick up at work, or near power lines, or during a thunderstorm; one that doesn't have to change direction at sunset, one that is in stereo... (yes, I know, it's talk but Pats game etc. sound better in stereo)
 
raccoonradio said:
Let me describe the postal facility to you--I don't know how many square feet it is, but it is huge. Don't know the kind of roof, may be metal.
Click to expand...

Lengthy description and you are probably right that you could not receive the XM broadcasts in the workroom. But if you said that you had actually tried to set up an XM receiver for that purpose, I missed that part. Remember, your experiment doesn't have to be done with an actual transmission of a Red Sox game. In the absence of information to the contrary, I have to assume that if you can receive ANY XM channel satisfactorily, you will almost certainly be able to receive any other XM channel equally well. So it appears that what you need to do is to actually set up an XM receiver in the workroom and then figure out what you need to do to get the audio to your ears loud enough and clear enough for you to hear the content. May well involve more equipment than just the XM receiver. I can see your refusing to purchase another receiver just to conduct an experiment, but can't you bring in the receiver from your car and if not, can't you find someone who will lend you a suitable XM receiver so that you can conduct the experiment? Until/unless you've done that, I think the best thing for you to do would be to just shut up about this subject.
 
It probably would involve some kind of "home" or portable XM receiver and I'm not sure if using a mini FM transmitter would help or not. Probably, not. It would involve most likely putting it nr edge of building and various mini FM transmitters would have trouble broadcasting that signal. Again had games stayed on WRKO I would have no problem but WEEI can't be picked up at all on workroom floor (and yes I did try the HD portable; even on WMKK's "nearby" HD3 signal, it would at best come in for 1 split second then go away. In breakroom, it would work (the HD) but I'm talking during work itself. Heck, regular WEEI can come in at breakroom. I know I mention it a lot but I'm not the only one; at least one other person on this messageboard has similar complaints and there are more than a few people who have trouble with WEEI's signal. My only real solution is prob. to tape parts of games in the room where WEEI can be picked up (a big storage room for janitors, equipment, etc nr edge of building)

But apparently they reach the vast majority of people and are content with what they have.
Should ratings really nose dive maybe Entercom would consider a FM. At this time when many
news/talk and sports stations are migrating to FM, Entercom's shortage of an available signal
(since "Mike" does well in ratings) within the 128 belt is why it hasn't happened here. WEEI's
ratings prob will stay half decent so maybe they will stay with AM, as it is.
 
But you keep on bitching about a situation that you haven't proven exists! Until you demonstrate that you can't find a convenient way to receive XM in the work room, nobody can tell whether or not you are begging for somebody to solve a problem that really exists. If you conducted the experiment I described in my previous posting, you might find that you have wasted a lot of your own energy and time (and a lot of other people's energy and time) trying to do something that has already been done or that you can do fairly easily. After a while, your constant bitching becomes damned tedious for those who have followed the umpty-ump threads in which you have introduced this subject over and over and over and over. Conduct the experiment I described and until you have some results (positive or negative) to report, I strongly suggest that you PUT A LID ON THIS TOPIC!!!
 
1) The topic is WEEI's reach (or lack thereof) to Burlington, VT terrestrially. XM has nothing to do with the topic as suggested by the Coon.

2) WEEI does not exist in Burlington because I'm told it's cost prohibitive. Of course, "cost" is what you make it. Burlington radio owners are also of mediocre intelligence at best, so that factors into it as well.
 
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