WHO HAS BETTER SIGNAL, WXKS AM OR WRKO?

[CAPECRUSADER]

I was on the Cape and WXKS AM 1200 came in crappy....RKO was decent...how about the rest of the Bay State, or New England for that matter?

 

[raccoonradio]

Depends where you are and whether it's day or night..

coverage maps are at http://radio-locator.com/info/WXKS-AM but as usual not totally accurate
both are 50 kW, XKS from Newton, RKO from Burlington but RKO more effective since they're lower
on the dial

 

[aerie]

WRKO aims its signal from Burlington north northwest and south southeast so as to protect KNBR and WPTF, so it's very strong in NH and on the Cape. WXKS aims its signal pretty much at the ocean (passing Boston on the way from Newton).

 

[pqgeorge]

At my local vantage point in Easton, MA, during the daylight hours, WRKO and WXKS are pretty much at par with each other, signal-wise. But after sunset, WRKO wins hands down. 1200, once a totally Clear Channel with no other stations on the frequency through the United States, is now a mess with many stations fighting out for supremacy, courtesy of skywave propagation. Ironically, both WOAI in San Antonio (once the lone occupant of 1200 before the breakdown of the Clears) and WXKS are commonly owned by Clear Channel. Amazing.

 

[raccoonradio]

Last night in N. Reading for a time WXKS was fighting it out with ESPN Syracuse; I positioned my Walkman a certain way and it helped recep, and at times it seemed a bit clearer. WXKS signal, esp. at night, does beam
directly east--and I noted at 8 pm on Sat night, as I was on I-93 nr the Herald building it was quite strong even for night. Again, if you're within the 128 belt--quite a few listeners--it should be OK at night (but maybe slightly less than RKO), and to some extent it'll push northeast and southeast...

Again had CC had an FM available it would have been perfect for them, perhaps a half decent signal on FM
to cover most of the area. If CC owned 93.7, 98.5, 92.9, 101.7, etc. it would be good, but they don't. And
remember, if you are just outside of their coverage area or if the signal is shaky, many of the shows can be found on 610/NH, 580/Worc., 95.1/Cape, 920/Prov etc. But indeed when it comes to Rush, etc., while many of
his listeners will be able to get WXKS some of his former RKO listeners may need to try one of those
other stations instead

 

[DanStrassberg]

WRKO aims its signal from Burlington north northwest and south southeast so as to protect KNBR and WPTF, so it's very strong in NH and on the Cape. WXKS aims its signal pretty much at the ocean (passing Boston on the way from Newton).

Make that DUE north (zero degrees true) and south-southeast (150 degrees true).

WRKO has it all over WXKS (AM) for a bunch of reasons 1) lower frequency (just a little more than half of 1200). Since, with any realistic value of soil conductivity, an AM signal drops off inversely as the distance traveled in wavelengths raised to a power higher than 1, you can expect WRKO's signal to travel about four times as far as WXKS's before it drops to the same level. The wavelength at 680 is almost twice as long as the wavelength at 1200. And for the lousy conductivity in New England, the power higher than one is very roughly 2. Obviously, since WRKO is in Burlington and WXKS is in Newton (near W Roxbury), if you are south of the Boston metro, WXKS's signal won't have as far to go, which might put the two signals at par in some locations (check the V-Soft Zip signal Web site for signal strengths by Zip code). And if you are in W Roxbury itself, WXKS wins hands down (big whoop, as they say).

2) WRKO has taller, more efficient towers. And here, I am not talking about absolute height in feet; I am talking about height in electrical degrees. Two of WRKO's three towers are something like 112 degrees high; the center tower is 97 degrees. WXKS's towers are closer to 80 degrees. WRKO's efficiency should be at least the equivalent of 60 kW or so into 80-degree towers.

3) Burlington is a dynamite location compared with W Roxbury. If WRKO did not have to pull in its pattern so tightly to the west and south at night to protect KNBR and WPTF, there could be very few complaints about its coverage. The signal on Cape Cod is much better than WBZ's even though WBZ has what is generally agreed to be one of the best AM sites in the US. And remember, WXKS pulls in its night pattern to the south and west even more tightly than WRKO does.

4) I don't know WRKO's NIF (nighttime interference-free) contour value, but it is almost surely a good bit lower than WXKS's, which is officially about 13.5 mV/m. In fact, though, two co-channel stations that entered into WXKS's NIF calculation are gone--WAGE is dark (don't think it has yet been officially deleted, though) and WJGK, the station that was to be built on 1200 in Highland NY (Poughkeepsie) was never built and the permittee has surrendered the CP. Nevertheless, the big interferers to WXKS are still present. WTLA is probably the biggest, followed by CKGO--especially north of 128, WOAI, of course, and first-adjacent WPHT. First-adjacents are now included in NIF calculations.

 

[raccoonradio]

Re: other stations on 1200, last night just after 8 pm while in N. Reading I put on WXKS to hear a bit of the Jason Lewis show and the Syracuse ESPN station kept cutting in. There were references to Syracuse as well
as mentions of the FM frequencies they simulcast on

>>When ESPN Radio makes the switch to Galaxy, the sports talk programming will be heard on both the FM and AM bands. Galaxy plans on putting ESPN Radio on 97.7 FM and 1200 AM in the Syracuse market; and 100.1 FM and 1440 AM in the Oswego area.
http://blog.syracuse.com/sports/2009/12/espn_radio_on_the_move.html

In the past I had noted CFGO (Team 1200) Ottawa coming in as well.

>>The signal on Cape Cod is much better than WBZ's

As I found one weekend when staying at my Dad's in Osterville. Donna Halper was a guest on the Jordan
Rich show and I had a bit of difficulty getting a clear signal on WBZ

 

[Laurence Glavin]

Re: other stations on 1200, last night just after 8 pm while in N. Reading I put on WXKS to hear a bit of the Jason Lewis show and the Syracuse ESPN station kept cutting in. There were references to Syracuse as well
as mentions of the FM frequencies they simulcast on

>>When ESPN Radio makes the switch to Galaxy, the sports talk programming will be heard on both the FM and AM bands. Galaxy plans on putting ESPN Radio on 97.7 FM and 1200 AM in the Syracuse market; and 100.1 FM and 1440 AM in the Oswego area.
http://blog.syracuse.com/sports/2009/12/espn_radio_on_the_move.html

In the past I had noted CFGO (Team 1200) Ottawa coming in as well.

>>The signal on Cape Cod is much better than WBZ's

As I found one weekend when staying at my Dad's in Osterville. Donna Halper was a guest on the Jordan
Rich show and I had a bit of difficulty getting a clear signal on WBZ

A decade or longer ago, there was a point on the Mid-Cape Hwy where WBZ-AM would almost totally disappear, and before and after that point, the audio was very garbled ("shortwave-ish", if there is such a word). I think since then, WBZ has let out the signal a little bit, but the main reason it's directional at all is to boost the signal strength toward Greater Boston. (Recently, the Boston Radio Interest Group ran a thread on clear channel stations...the facility descriptor, not CCU...that used DAs for that reason. I recall that what is now WPHT-AM 1210 in Philadelphia once applied to install a DA-1, but it never happened.

 

[carmen]

audio was very garbled ("shortwave-ish", if there is such a word)

i couldnt achieve quieting on 1030 in brookline.
nulling the AC buzz crap from the T lines, and peoples appliances was doable on 680 and 850

considering WBZ's grounding and signal i found this odd, but my AM radios dont really rune below 1.8 mhz anyways so i could cAre less

 

[blackgold]

RUSH RADIO 1200 IS A LOSAH! ;D

 

[Exit32]

Driving from Burlington, Mass. to Nashua, NH on back roads yesterday, WXKS became unlistenable between Westford and Tyngsboro. I've driven this route many times, and WRKO was always rock solid into downtown Nashua.

I tried listening to Rush on AM 610, but that signal is too feeble in Tyngsboro and S. Nashua. So far, I'm very disappointed with WXKS, and its inability to serve areas where WRKO did well.

 

[Don Juan]

Driving from Burlington, Mass. to Nashua, NH on back roads yesterday, WXKS became unlistenable between Westford and Tyngsboro.

What time of day was this? What hour?

 

[MarcB]

WRKO. 1:30PM Stop & Shop Plaza Forestville (Bristol), Connecticut. WRKO 680 was listenable, but fuzzy. No sign of WXKS 1200.

 

[raccoonradio]

That isn't really the area they're trying to reach, of course. Again they are handicapped by dial position and having to protect some stations. They figure if they can get within the 128 belt, even at night, not bad though certainly some won't get the station. If you're in Bristol CT you can get those shows on stations in Hartford,
Springfield, New Haven, whatever, but this is your basic broadcasting-from-Newton-toward-Boston-and-
the-fishies signal.

OK, I exaggerate a bit but still quite a few people in Boston metro.

 

[BRNout]

Driving from Burlington, Mass. to Nashua, NH on back roads yesterday, WXKS became unlistenable between Westford and Tyngsboro. I've driven this route many times, and WRKO was always rock solid into downtown Nashua.

I tried listening to Rush on AM 610, but that signal is too feeble in Tyngsboro and S. Nashua. So far, I'm very disappointed with WXKS, and its inability to serve areas where WRKO did well.

Those are my old stomping grounds and I can tell you that WRKO comes in pretty well up to about Merrimack/Bedford, NH and then gradually weakens north of there. It also loses a lot of punch when you get west of Amherst, thanks to all that granite. Worse at night. Chelmsford and Westford are local grade signal zones for WRKO - day and night. Their signal is quite strong in SE NH day and night and on into southern ME.

That you had trouble with WXKS as close in as Westford and Tyngsboro doesn't bode well for Clear Channel because that's a part of the market where a decent amount of listeners for this programming live. And, WGIR is actually weaker than WRKO in Nashua and not strong enough to overcome interference from overhead wires, etc. once you cross the border into MA. It's not a viable alternative for most listeners in that area.

By the way, not only does WRKO have to protect KNBR and WPTF, but CFTR (Talk 680) Toronto as well. So they're hemmed in to the west-southwest, south-southwest and northwest. It's no wonder that they drop off of your radio at night like a lead ingot when you drive from Westford (where they are fine) to Boxborough (where they're almost gone).

 

[fybush]

By the way, not only does WRKO have to protect KNBR and WPTF, but CFTR (Talk 680) Toronto as well. So they're hemmed in to the west-southwest, south-southwest and northwest. It's no wonder that they drop off of your radio at night like a lead ingot when you drive from Westford (where they are fine) to Boxborough (where they're almost gone).

Er, no, not exactly. CHFI/CFTR didn't arrive on 680 until the late sixties, three decades after WLAW/WNAC/WRKO built the Burlington facility and put its present pattern in place. CFTR protects WRKO, not the other way around; it just happens to fall into a convenient null that already exists between WRKO and KNBR. (That's how WINR in Binghamton, KFEQ in Missouri and other fulltime 680s were able to get on the air, too; likewise, WCBM Baltimore sits in the null between WRKO and WPTF.)

If WRKO sought to move its transmitter site, it would have to provide some pretty minimal protection to CFTR, but only on Canadian soil.

 

[Exit32]

Driving from Burlington, Mass. to Nashua, NH on back roads yesterday, WXKS became unlistenable between Westford and Tyngsboro.

What time of day was this? What hour?

I was driving through Westford center around 12:30 p.m. yesterday and arrived in S. Nashua approximately 12:50 p.m., so it was definitely WXKS's daytime signal that was failing me. My car has a decent AM receiver with a mast-style external antenna. WXKS was overwhelmed by noise from overhead power and utility lines somewhere between Westford and Tyngsboro.

Today, around 4:00 p.m. I was driving from Lexington, through Concord and Carlisle, and into Westford. In Lexington, WXKS was loud and clear. In Concord, the signal became borderline listenable. By the time I crossed from Concord into Carlisle, WXKS was so bad, I had to switch to Howie Carr on WRKO.

 

[BRNout]

How was WXKS' signal in Nashua? Let's just say that your description of events doesn't sound encouraging for Rush fans up that way....

 

[DanStrassberg]

Today, around 4:00 p.m. I was driving from Lexington, through Concord and Carlisle, and into Westford. In Lexington, WXKS was loud and clear. In Concord, the signal became borderline listenable. By the time I crossed from Concord into Carlisle, WXKS was so bad, I had to switch to Howie Carr on WRKO.

Interesting observation: At an azimuth of 255 degrees true with respect to the electrical center of the WRKO and WXKS arrays, you are right behind the day pattern of each station. Along that radial, the two day patterns produce virtually identical inverse-distance fields: 910 mV/m @ 1km for WRKO and 919 mV/m @ 1 km for WXKS. Those values are equivalent to ~10 kW ND from an antenna only slightly more efficient than the Class B minimum. In WRKO's case, however, the signal increases slightly in intensity as you move to either side of the 255-degree radial, whereas in WXKS's case, the field drops off slightly.

As you travel northward from the WXKS site to get to Concord and Carlisle, you move to areas where the signal strength drops off. But I would not be surprised at all to learn that the conductivity along WRKO's 255-degree radial is better than that along WXKS's 255-degree radial. The most important effect is the frequency ratio, however. 1200/680=1.76. If the conductivities were equal, going 1 mile further from WXKS would cause the signal to drop off the same as going 1.76 miles further from WRKO. And since 1.76^2 ~ 3, if the patterns were identical, WRKO's 2 mV/m contour (just for example) would enclose an area something like three times as great as WXKS's 2 mV/m contour. If my analysis is correct, that difference is pretty amazing! It's why I said for years that CCU would never give up WRKO's coverage advantage. Other economic factors ultimately proved me wrong, and I don't suppose that CCU will ever regret its decision to put Limbaugh on a significantly inferior Boston signal, but it could happen..

 

[raccoonradio]

There should be more than a few horror stories. From the Rush Radio 1200 Facebook page one
listener writes: "reception peters out north of Chelmsford...1200 pretty much unlistenable...have to settle for 61 WGIR for Rush." At least he can get WGIR, while the person who posted above had trouble. If CC could find a way to cover those areas by buying an FM or AM somewhere along the way, etc., there would be no
problem. And I doubt they'd spend the money (even to buy time on an existing station) for that.
Are people supposed to wait for the time when Wifi/Net radio in cars becomes standard, in which case people could hear him that way?

CC moved the tower and boosted the power and figured they could cover most people in Boston metro (...MOST) and hey, those who can't get it can try an out of town signal but that isn't always the case.
Oh, some can get it on WGIR...but 'GIR has to protect the 610 in Conn. IIRC, hence the problem to
the SW of Manchester...?

1200 may be better for some. "radix" on Free Republic says: "I had the day off today. Played station 1200 at noon. The reception in my neck of the woods was infinitely superior to what I was getting from WRKO.
What a pleasant surprise."