What Wrong With WRKO's Signal?

[EWF]

WRKO sounds like it has been on low power all day. Sometimes is is impossible to hear with a great deal of interference. No mention of the problem on-air.

Tried several radios and car radio with same problem.

 

[raccoonradio]

> WRKO sounds like it has been on low power all day. Sometimes
> is is impossible to hear with a great deal of interference.
> No mention of the problem on-air.
>
> Tried several radios and car radio with same problem.
>
Have noticed same thing--my clock radio in bedroom had tough time picking up.<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[Shellanswerman]

> > WRKO sounds like it has been on low power all day.
> Sometimes
> > is is impossible to hear with a great deal of
> interference.
> > No mention of the problem on-air.
> >
> > Tried several radios and car radio with same problem.
> >
> Have noticed same thing--my clock radio in bedroom had tough
> time picking up.
>
I haven't noticed any signal-strength problems up here in the Merrimack Valley, but the audio is very distorted at present (5:30 pm Thursday, Dec. 15th).

 

[Neggy]

the live audio, Howie and Listo seemed distorted, but the stuff off the hard drives (promo's, ads, etc.)seemed fine

Sounds like a studio problem to me.

 

[spilot113]

> I haven't noticed any signal-strength problems up here in
> the Merrimack Valley, but the audio is very distorted at
> present (5:30 pm Thursday, Dec. 15th).

Since WRKO was originally a Lawrence station...it still pumps a pretty good signal over the Merrimack Valley. So good, in fact, that I am not sure if you would notice if they were at half-power, etc.

Could they be on a back-up transmitter?

Quite often, the audio chain going into a backup transmitter is different (read: older and junkier) than the primary setup. ;-)

 

[JustinT]

> Since WRKO was originally a Lawrence station...it still
> pumps a pretty good signal over the Merrimack Valley.

Not to go off topic, but your point got me thinking... What is the AM partner of 93.7 Lawrence? 800 or 680?

I'd thought that I'd read somewhere that 680 launched Lawrence's 93.7, and then shut it down. Many years later, another Lawrence station, WCCM, brought 93.7 back to life as WCCM-FM. Am I just making the early part of this up, or is this the history?

For the other Valley FMs, 92.5 was obviously WHAV-FM. And 99.5 was WLLH-FM before going AC as WSSH, right?

Thanks in advance.

 

[raccoonradio]

Yes, now that I think of it, it's more of a signal distortion problem.
Sounds like it's overmodulated...maybe they're waiting for a part to come in?

> I haven't noticed any signal-strength problems up here in
> the Merrimack Valley, but the audio is very distorted at
> present (5:30 pm Thursday, Dec. 15th).
>
<P ID="signature">______________
<img src="http://microfurry.250free.com/raccoonradio5ap.gif"></P>

 

[raccoonradio]

Yes 680 was paired with 93.7 before then later on you had WCCM 800 and
WCGY 93.7 linked... probably best to go to http://www.bostonradio.org
and look up station histories.

For example, from the page they have on WRKO: " WNAC's then owners, General Tire, purchased Lawrence's WLAW 680 and WLAW-FM 93.7 (from the Hildreth and Rogers Company) in 1953, moving the WNAC callsign and programming to 680."

> I'd thought that I'd read somewhere that 680 launched
> Lawrence's 93.7, and then shut it down. Many years later,
> another Lawrence station, WCCM, brought 93.7 back to life as
> WCCM-FM. Am I just making the early part of this up, or is
> this the history?

 

[Infidel]

> maybe they're waiting for a part to come in?

Yes, it's called a new transmitter!

 

[Ham]

Re: What Wrong With WRKO? Real bad audio & management that tolerates it.

> WRKO sounds like it has been on low power all day. Sometimes
> is is impossible to hear with a great deal of interference.
> No mention of the problem on-air.

As was already mentioned, it's an audio problem rather than a transmitter power problem. Thursday during Howie and the new Taste of Boston show (6-8PM time) when I tried to listen it was AWFUL. Something sounded overdriven, over modulated or impedance mis-matched. Maybe it was a poor backup audio path. It sounded bad to me this morning (Friday) 6-7 AM when I gave up trying to listen. Grunge audio. Usually stations maintain redundant systems like more than one studio, 2 transmitters, 2 audio chains and audio paths, emergency power and etc.

I have trouble accepting that a major Boston station could go that long with such a problem sound. I punched around to other AM'ers and the difference in sound quality was dramatic. Even a HAM radio Operator would be embarrassed to have such an audio signal. I expect that WRKO had their technical people working around the clock to get the problem fixed...or did they?

 

[Eli Polonsky]

> > maybe they're waiting for a part to come in?
>
> Yes, it's called a new transmitter!

Transmitter wouldn't likely cause audio distortion like that. It's got to be something in the studios, processing, STL, or somewhere else in the airchain feeding the transmitter.