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Will Crawford fire up WDCD before Monday?

love all the 1540 chatter...

Fact is - the night signal, 50 kw... is absolutely KILLED once youre 15 miles from the transmitter, within the pattern.

15 miles north of their site, the station is pretty much overrun not by KXEL (audible, sure).. but by CHIN Toronto which just murders this signal anywhere north of the Mohawk after sunset. Back before Toronto was allowed to go 30kw nights - much of that being shot right toward Albany - WPTR had a respectable signal in the area even at night. Those days are long gone folks. WDCD or whatever it is now is really nothing more than a daytimer with night authorization. Awesome signal if you live in Colonie or Schenectady, sketchy everywhere else. The once 'giant' of the 'quad-cities', now neutered. But hey, i guess Toronto needed that 20th am station...
 
I don't know why the Crawfords are so enamored with AM IBOC. Crazy.

I wonder if any of the Co Channel or Adjacents would be benefitted by the stations absence.

Maybe someone would pay for it to go away.
 
IBOC has been gone from WDCD-1540 for some time, probably 3 or 4 years. Seems like it disappeared shortly after Crawford Jr took ownership of the station.
 
AMonFM said:
love all the 1540 chatter...

Fact is - the night signal, 50 kw... is absolutely KILLED once youre 15 miles from the transmitter, within the pattern.

15 miles north of their site, the station is pretty much overrun not by KXEL (audible, sure).. but by CHIN Toronto which just murders this signal anywhere north of the Mohawk after sunset. Back before Toronto was allowed to go 30kw nights - much of that being shot right toward Albany - WPTR had a respectable signal in the area even at night. Those days are long gone folks. WDCD or whatever it is now is really nothing more than a daytimer with night authorization. Awesome signal if you live in Colonie or Schenectady, sketchy everywhere else. The once 'giant' of the 'quad-cities', now neutered. But hey, i guess Toronto needed that 20th am station...
Click to expand...

Toronto does mess with it....No doubt about that....but it is usable almost to Saratoga at night....Toronto can be mostly nulled out until about that point....Looking at CHIN's night time coverage map....They should NOT really be audible here at night....BUT they are...
 
W2JUV_AL said:
IBOC has been gone from WDCD-1540 for some time, probably 3 or 4 years. Seems like it disappeared shortly after Crawford Jr took ownership of the station.
Click to expand...

I heard IBOC all over 1550 last week which I assumed was WDCD....Although I haven 't checked the preachers out since that time..Perhaps it was WQEW.....
 
Originally it was Italian programming although these days there is some Asian programming too. There's also a Toronto statation at 530 that broadcasts in Italian as well, called CIAO. You can sometimes pick it up since 530 isn't used in the U.S. CHIN means chin in Italian as well as English and ciao means goodbye.

CHIN's FM station is now mostly Asian, as the Italian-speaking population in Toronto gets smaller.
 
Time Traveler said:
Toronto does mess with it....No doubt about that....but it is usable almost to Saratoga at night....Toronto can be mostly nulled out until about that point....Looking at CHIN's night time coverage map....They should NOT really be audible here at night....BUT they are...
Click to expand...

If Radio-Locator's contour map is accurate http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=CHIN&service=AM&status=F&hours=N the 1540 CHIN night time null to the east-southeast should adequately protect 1540 Albany. As due diligence, a potential buyer would be wise to have the seller perform field strength measurements on CHIN.
 
JustPastBuffalo said:
Time Traveler said:
Toronto does mess with it....No doubt about that....but it is usable almost to Saratoga at night....Toronto can be mostly nulled out until about that point....Looking at CHIN's night time coverage map....They should NOT really be audible here at night....BUT they are...
Click to expand...

If Radio-Locator's contour map is accurate http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=CHIN&service=AM&status=F&hours=N the 1540 CHIN night time null to the east-southeast should adequately protect 1540 Albany. As due diligence, a potential buyer would be wise to have the seller perform field strength measurements on CHIN.
Click to expand...

Should protect it....But definitely doesn't....
 
I'm as much of a radio geek as anyone, but I was actually sorry to read of 1540 kHz.
returning to the air in time for license expiration. I was hoping it would head off to
the AM graveyard. And here's my rationale.

It's not 1973, the heyday of WPTR (on 1540) is long gone, AM is not what it once
was, and we're in a continually stagnant economy and station values are down, possibly
for good. Even 15 to 20 years ago, this station didn't adequately cover all of Albany
County (what with WPTR's pattern), so who cares if it reached Rutland, Newfoundland or
Greenland? That doesn't compute to higher ratings. And as a listener, hearing shows on
vitamins or colon-cleansing makes me bolt to my XM radio.

Sadly, I never felt 1540 made a comeback on the AM dial as WGY did, a signal that covers
the entire market properly. Even 20 to 25 years ago, I'd argue that WGY, WTRY (now WOFX),
WQBK (now WGDJ) or WABY (now WAMC-AM) were all doing better than 1540.
 
Crawford has run 1540 into the ground in a little more than the decade they've owned it; a colossal failure to manage and make a major signal and heritage station a listener destination.
Take your pick, the horrible audio, periods of dead air, a total lack of station promotion when they had the "legends" format, going "dark" and claiming that they couldn't "find" a viable format, then coming back at ultra low power and not even legally identifying the station.
It all adds up to a cry for someone who cares about radio, who will put their heart and soul and financial resources into making the station work. There is no reason that a station with this kind of coverage couldn't succeed if managed properly. Sure, there is more competition for listener's ears, and certainly, the physical plant (e.g. ground system) needs attention, but listeners and not just radio geeks, will respond when a broadcaster puts out a quality format and demonstates that they "care" about their audience and listeners.
Crawford obviously showed us all that they don't care.
 
Listeners may respond but that's almost irrelevant. It's advertisers that matter, and many won't consider AM radio no matter the format.
 
Regarding CHIN interference; that station is supposed to protect 1540 in Albany. Like many US AM stations, who knows if the antenna pattern is in tolerance or they are switching power/pattern at the correct times or at all. They are daytime 50 KW with two towers, night time 30 KW with six towers. It may take somebody with a field strength meter to make some measurements, then call CHIN and ask if they are switching at night.

And, for the record, Crawford put a lot of money into the WDCD facility over the years, new transmitter, new phasor, refurbed building, new studios, etc. Only over the last couple of years have they let things go because of general economic conditions and their format problems. Albany is already saturated with religious stations and it is not that religious of a town.

About the programming, if they put something good on that people want to hear, they will listen. Just look at other AMs in the Albany market, WROW, WGY, WABY, WGJD, etc. They all have listeners and advertisers. A good, unique format will attract an audience
 
jry said:
I don't know why the Crawfords are so enamored with AM IBOC. Crazy.

I wonder if any of the Co Channel or Adjacents would be benefitted by the stations absence.

Maybe someone would pay for it to go away.
Click to expand...

The only station around here that even remotely benefits is 1570 Amsterdam. They've had good coverage inAlbany with 1540 off. And WVTL's FM doesn't reach this far. But I'm sure 1570 doesn't give 2 hoots if they get into Albany or not.
 
PaulT said:
Regarding CHIN interference... who knows if the antenna pattern is in tolerance or they are switching power/pattern at the correct times or at all...It may take somebody with a field strength meter to make some measurements, then call CHIN and ask if they are switching at night.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing. Not changing to night pattern seems to be an ongoing problem with Canadian stations. I could tell you horror stories of interference problems caused by this practice. I've personally been to Canada four times since 1995 chasing monitor points of Candian stations. And the biggest problem in getting these resolved is that US and Canadian regulators don't communicate very well. Filing an international complaint is a frustrating proposition, even when you have the numbers on paper to show that it's happening.
 
With some interesting on-air, the station could be memorable, profitable and a tribute to radio. Sadly, those of advanced age and lacking imagination and testicles dunno any better.
 
cs1366 said:
With some interesting on-air, the station could be memorable, profitable and a tribute to radio. Sadly, those of advanced age and lacking imagination and testicles dunno any better.
Click to expand...

And, how do you propose that it would be profitable? Listener donations? Brokered time? It certainly won't attract advertisers.
 
cs1366 said:
With some interesting on-air, the station could be memorable, profitable and a tribute to radio. Sadly, those of advanced age and lacking imagination and testicles dunno any better.
Click to expand...

Advanced age? Are you referring to Crawford Jr.?
 
cs1366 said:
With some interesting on-air, the station could be memorable, profitable and a tribute to radio. Sadly, those of advanced age and lacking imagination and testicles dunno any better.
Click to expand...

So what would you propose to put on the station ?
 
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