WHOM

[rjoc]

When I was working there around 1989, WHOM had a PD named Michael Cruz. Good guy, but for a while he ran an ID which included the words: "....serving Maine, NH, Vermont, Massachusetts, and the Eastern Provinces of Canada." When I pointed out that the station's Canada coverage really included only a small slice of southern Quebec, he just smiled and said something like "yeah, I know, but it's an image thing." I always got a chuckle out of that.

Nick Seneca

Believe it or not, they come in quite well in SW Nova Scotia. I have heard them at the CAT Ferry Terminal in Yarmouth and they came in surprisingly well, keep in mind that the signal went straight across the Gulf of Maine !! I have also heard them at Saint Andrews New Brunswick, directly across the bay from Eastport Maine....but nowadays WSYY Millinocket also on 94.9 knocks out their coverage in Northern Maine.

 

[necrat123]

And in RI and Worcester county, their signal is obliterated by the 94.9 WTAG translator.

 

[ssetta]

And in RI and Worcester county, their signal is obliterated by the 94.9 WTAG translator.

I was just going to say that! I was sooo upset when that came on, were they not thinking? Anyway, I hope Cumulus doesn't plan to do anything with that signal.

 

[nd2023]

I heard WHOM in New Jersey during a tropo opening 2 weeks ago. It usually comes in when the Hartford stations come in strong

 

[Gregg]

When I lived in Schenectady NY, I could get WHOM 94.9, although I'd have to switch to mono for a clean signal. But that was about 25 years ago as it transitioned from Easy Listening to Soft AC. Now that there's a 95.1 in Whitehall NY, I'd guess that blocks WHOM in the Capital District.

WHOM used to be audible in the Montreal area, but about 15 years ago, when the CBC put its Radio-Canada Premiere Chaine station on FM and sold 690 CBF, it chose 95.1 for the outlet, blocking out 94.9 WHOM within 30 - 40 miles of Montreal.

Someone above mentioned another 94.9 in Millinocket ME and the WTAG FM translator in Worcester MA, also on 94.9. So WHOM keeps getting hemmed in on all sides.

It's Portland ratings may not be outstanding but it is still

(Can you imagine that it was only about 35 years ago that Channel 8 WMTW, when it was still on Mt. Washington, was not only the ABC station for the Portland market but also for the Burlington-Plattsburgh market? The Montreal TV Guide used to carry listings for 8, the closest ABC station to Montreal. Later when WVNY/WEZF-TV 22 signed on, then off for a few years, then back on again, Channel 8 was still the ABC station for Sherbrooke-area viewers. In fact, the clearest three TV signals in that part of Quebec and also Northern Vermont were Channels 7, 8 and 9... 7 and 9 from Sherbrooke and 8 from Mt. Washingon. Unfortunately, today 8's coverage is only a fraction of what it once was.)

Gregg
[email protected]

 

[necrat123]

When I lived in Schenectady NY, I could get WHOM 94.9, although I'd have to switch to mono for a clean signal. But that was about 25 years ago as it transitioned from Easy Listening to Soft AC. Now that there's a 95.1 in Whitehall NY, I'd guess that blocks WHOM in the Capital District.

The sound of life translator on 94.9 in Troy does more damage to WHOM than anything there. Plus when you're driving around the Albany area, the 94.9 FM out of Utica hammers it pretty hard too.

 

[vibe]

Travelled to Providence RI on rt 146 S; as a lark (and after reading the topic) put 94.9 on the radio, the WTAG translator/pest dominated into RI-about 5 mi S of the MA-RI line got both TAG and HOM. At the 146/I295 split 10 mi N of Prov one could get a listenable HOM for about 3-4 mi then both faded away between Lincoln RI and Providence.
There was no tropo present. Car radio was good but nothing exceptional.

 

[necrat123]

What is interesting is, to tune to 94.9 on the top of Mt Washington with WHOM off, as well as WPKQ.

I got the chance to do this a couple years ago, when they shut both stations down to do an annual maintenance schedule on the antennas. (Once a year, the antennas are shut down for about an hour so that they can be inspected).

On 94.9 I heard a Canadian signal up there mixing with the station from Maine on 94.9. Pretty much was all you could hear.
103.7 was Keene, NH, full HD and RDS.

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

Interesting you mention WKNE, Necrat (great site, btw) when I was driving back through Franconia Notch about 5 years ago, I was listening to WPKQ until I entered the notch (where it bends and turns and the weather can change in an instant) suddenly, WPKQ was gone and I had WKNE crystal clear for about 5 minutes. I must've been at the right angle where the mountain was blocking my L.O.S. of WPKQ but I had the height to snag WKNE (and a better angle too perhaps)

Once I made it through the notch.. or at least part of it, KNE was gone and PKQ came pounding in once again. If only I could remember exactly where I was...

 

[GlennO]

WHOM is also unavailable in the city of Keene itself, the most populated area of southwestern New Hampshire. That was not the case for anyone with an antenna pointing northeast until WKHP, a 100-watt LP-FM owned by Keene Foursquare Church d/b/a Harvest Christian Fellowship, signed on a few years ago right on top of WHOM at 94.9. In Keene itself, it is amazing how many local signals now serve that market compared to 30 years ago.

 

[necrat123]

Interesting you mention WKNE, Necrat (great site, btw) when I was driving back through Franconia Notch about 5 years ago, I was listening to WPKQ until I entered the notch (where it bends and turns and the weather can change in an instant) suddenly, WPKQ was gone and I had WKNE crystal clear for about 5 minutes. I must've been at the right angle where the mountain was blocking my L.O.S. of WPKQ but I had the height to snag WKNE (and a better angle too perhaps)

Once I made it through the notch.. or at least part of it, KNE was gone and PKQ came pounding in once again. If only I could remember exactly where I was...

Up on top of Mt. Philo in Vermont, (about 15 miles south of Burlington, near Charlotte), in the parking lot, 103.7 is WKNE and not WPKQ. I've been up there a couple of times, and it is always this way. As you drive down the hill, you lose WKNE for WPKQ. (It's also an amazing spot to hear the Albany FMs too up there).

 

[samw54]

Hi again folks. This story will probably sound to you like it was made up, but I swear this happened one day back in the summer of 1969. I was living in Shelburne Vermont at the time, and we were on the short drive home from the Shelburne Beach. My dad had WVMT 620 in Burlington on the car radio and they were broadcasting a New York Mets game. Suddenly it came time for the top of the hour ID and this is what I heard:

"Your home of the New York Mets, this is 710, WOR New York."

"This is WMTW FM 94.9 on your FM dial, Mount Washington New Hampshire with studios in Poland Springs Maine."

Then, the local announcer had just enough time to hurredly say, "This is WVMT Burlington" before the play by play started. Obviously the WVMT announcer must have been doing something else so the break for station identification snuk up on him. Furthermore, the announcer at WMTW FM had also missed the break and had let the WOR station ID air on 94.9 as well. So, the folks listening to WVMT got treated to three separate station IDs that day.

 

[samw54]

Hi again folks. Can any of you folks bring up the WHOM audio stream? All I get is the commercial before the audio stream starts but then it never switches to the live stream. What I'm wondering is, are they blocking the WHOM audio stream to Canada? Or is this happening to you folks in the states as well?

 

[CatCall]

I’m listening online from a computer in NH and the stream is working without any issues.

 

[samw54]

Yes, I'm really glad that someone mentioned WPKQ at 103.7 whose transmitter is also on top of Mount Washington. Of course, when the station was licensed to Berlin, they always made sure to emphasize that fact, and its call letters were even WZPK and their moniker was "The Peak." I wondered what their coverage was like as compared with WHOM, but I see from the FCC Database that their ERP is only 4.8 kW so they wouldn't have nearly the kind of coverage that WHOM does, but with 18 kW, WKNE despite its lack of hight is still rather impressive when you consider that it even horns in on WPKQ's coverage area around Franconia Notch. Those notches must be fascinating locations to DX from, because moving your car just a few feet can probably make all the difference in the world as to which station you hear on many frequencies in some cases.

Believe it or not and this really blew my mind at the time, back in the summer of 1971 when I was on vacation with my parents who had rented a cottage in Wareham which is not all that far from Cape Cod and the 104.9 transmitter of the old WOCB FM in West Yarmouth, one morning I woke up, and instead of hearing WOCB on my portable radio like I had expected, WMTW Mount Washington as it was known then was blasting in, almost like a loca station. Then I discovered that if I pointed the antenna in a different direction, I could hear WOCB FM as well. Wareham was a really fun place to DX from. I found I could listen to both WDRC FM in Hartford and WGAN FM, (now WBLM in Portland) both on 102.9. I could get both WPLM FM in Plymouth at 99.1 and WPLR in New Haven. Of course, back in 1971, the FM dial was a lot less crowded but it was still amazing the number of Maine radio stations that rolled into the Cape with no problem, and this was normal. This was no tropo.

 

[ThatGuyOnTheRadio]

Up on top of Mt. Philo in Vermont, (about 15 miles south of Burlington, near Charlotte), in the parking lot, 103.7 is WKNE and not WPKQ. I've been up there a couple of times, and it is always this way. As you drive down the hill, you lose WKNE for WPKQ. (It's also an amazing spot to hear the Albany FMs too up there).
[/quote]


Better line of site with WKNE, perhaps? I'm sure less obstruction too.

 

[necrat123]

Better line of site with WKNE, perhaps? I'm sure less obstruction too.

Yeah that is what I imagine.

I wondered what their coverage was like as compared with WHOM, but I see from the FCC Database that their ERP is only 4.8 kW

WPKQ's ERP is 21.5kW. The 4.8kW you saw on the FCC was for their aux license. On the FCC record, make sure you're looking at the actual license. Or better yet, go to www.fccinfo.com, their site is 10x better.

 

[samw54]

Necrat, thanks for the tip.

 

[Nick Gerard]

I've always wondered about the WHOM legal ID as "Mt. Washington." I thought that stations had to be licensed to a legal municipal entity of some sort like a city, town, township, or village. It would seem that Mt. Washington is the name of a physical feature - i.e. a mountain. Or is there a township or civic entity in New Hampshire known as Mt. Washington?

I'd really love to read an explanation - anyone know?

Nick Seneca

 

[wcozBoston]

There is a post office (zip code 03589) on the summit of Mt. Washington. This allows them to be licensed to the mountain. Mt. Washington is not in a town though, it is in Sargent's Purchase, NH, and unincorporated town. Check out this web site for more info and some great pictures of their antenna and transmitter.

http://www.necrat.us/whom.html

The last photo has the post office and zip code in it.