So 94.7 Springfield used to reach New Haven with enough punch to actually get an audience there? I'm 20 miles north of New Haven and WMAS is marginal at best on my car radio. WHYN-FM (93.1) and WAQY (102.1) are much stronger. When did WHVY/WMAS's pattern change to what it is now, pre-implementation of the WNSH plan?
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WNSH
- Thread starter djl
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So 94.7 Springfield used to reach New Haven with enough punch to actually get an audience there? I'm 20 miles north of New Haven and WMAS is marginal at best on my car radio. WHYN-FM (93.1) and WAQY (102.1) are much stronger. When did WHVY/WMAS's pattern change to what it is now, pre-implementation of the WNSH plan?
I was thinking the same thing. It's really irrelevant where a signal reaches nowadays
Since the move is contingent on WMAS's antenna change, we have to remember that this is December and riggers won't work in bad weather... and any work being done by the good crews is in the area of the tv shuffle.
What we know is some preliminary work was done on the WOR tower a few months ago. Don't know anything about WMAS.
The man who knows the answers to a lot of these questions is Scott Fybush.
WHVY's wide coverage seems quite remarkable considering its ERP at the time (1 kW; 180 feet HAAT).
I am completely confused right now. What is or was WHVY? A current AOR that had something to do with WMAS in the distant past? A past call sign of WMAS attached to a low-power station on another frequency? WMAS-FM's call sign before it went adult contemporary? An online-only station devoted to the memory of 1KW pipsqueak WHVY? And if it was WMAS-FM in a previous incarnation, how were people in New Haven listening to it if it was only running 1 KW on FM? Helllllllp!
Or does your question have to do with WNSH?
That clears up the WHVY issue, but how about that 1-kilowatt thing? Was that hyperbole, a way to describe the actual reach of a more powerful signal handicapped by low HAAT? Or was WMAS-FM running lower power in its WHVY years?
@ CTListener and Kemosabe .....
When I worked there previously was long before today's 2525. My understanding at the time was that the FM was 50,000, or at least the equivalent of.
WMAS *AM* was across the hall. They were C&W at the time and ran 1000 watts on the usual class IV 1450. They were the moneymaker of the two. Their PD John Diamond liked the way I read the news on the FM when the time came each hour for me to roll my eyes and do that, and he asked if I would do a a few afternoon-drive casts on the AM side. 'Yeah, why not?' I never used an 'air name'* when I did news on the AM.
The *FM* was WHVY, originally an 'underground / heavy-hippie' station. As so many other stations were becoming, they were an emerging AoR station, a few years' before the term was coined. Indeed, 'Heavy-FM' (a term they curiously phased out as they became the more pop-progressive AoR) might've been -- probably was -- 'WMAS-FM' at one point. The PD who hired me was Gene Crusciel (said 'croo-SHELL) who lived in Connecticut**.
A few years after I left the building, WMAS AM, at 1450, turned into what might've become the first Music Of Your Life station, or certainly at least one of the first. I believe that Al Ham, the format inventor, was from Connecticut.
Both the AM and the FM shared the same tower, way across the parking lot, near the Connecticut River.
* * * * * * *
** Gene, the WHVY 94.7 PD, suggested I use a different air name on Heavy-FM. He said that whatever wild name I'd used before wasn't 'heavy ; it was too rah-rah'. He, the owner of s somewhat proud French Canadian moniker, reminded me that Springfield was of heavily French-Canadian ancestry. So I dredged some ancient French immediate-family name of mine and he approved. 'Beautiful. Use that'. So I did.
One day, a gal listener called, identified herself as Nancy, and asked if we were related, lol.
Well, Nancy is my sister's name. Nancy and I and the listener both spelled and pronounced that surname the same way.
* * * * * * *
But WHVY *did* have listeners and callers (and for me, one blind date) in that New Haven market survey area
When I worked there previously was long before today's 2525. My understanding at the time was that the FM was 50,000, or at least the equivalent of.
WMAS *AM* was across the hall. They were C&W at the time and ran 1000 watts on the usual class IV 1450. They were the moneymaker of the two. Their PD John Diamond liked the way I read the news on the FM when the time came each hour for me to roll my eyes and do that, and he asked if I would do a a few afternoon-drive casts on the AM side. 'Yeah, why not?' I never used an 'air name'* when I did news on the AM.
The *FM* was WHVY, originally an 'underground / heavy-hippie' station. As so many other stations were becoming, they were an emerging AoR station, a few years' before the term was coined. Indeed, 'Heavy-FM' (a term they curiously phased out as they became the more pop-progressive AoR) might've been -- probably was -- 'WMAS-FM' at one point. The PD who hired me was Gene Crusciel (said 'croo-SHELL) who lived in Connecticut**.
A few years after I left the building, WMAS AM, at 1450, turned into what might've become the first Music Of Your Life station, or certainly at least one of the first. I believe that Al Ham, the format inventor, was from Connecticut.
Both the AM and the FM shared the same tower, way across the parking lot, near the Connecticut River.
* * * * * * *
** Gene, the WHVY 94.7 PD, suggested I use a different air name on Heavy-FM. He said that whatever wild name I'd used before wasn't 'heavy ; it was too rah-rah'. He, the owner of s somewhat proud French Canadian moniker, reminded me that Springfield was of heavily French-Canadian ancestry. So I dredged some ancient French immediate-family name of mine and he approved. 'Beautiful. Use that'. So I did.
One day, a gal listener called, identified herself as Nancy, and asked if we were related, lol.
Well, Nancy is my sister's name. Nancy and I and the listener both spelled and pronounced that surname the same way.
* * * * * * *
But WHVY *did* have listeners and callers (and for me, one blind date) in that New Haven market survey area
To the 50,000-watt FM or the 1,000-watt AM? Or was there no way to tell from the diaries? Guessing the FM, by listeners with good receivers in optimal locations. The AM would be way down in the mud, wouldn't it?
@ CT Listener:
Wow, are you up early, son,
Those listeners, whether in the New Haven book or the Worcestor Mass. book, positively, were to the FM side of the hall. The AM station (they were C&W) had to've a no-show anywhere outside of immediate tower sight. 'WMAS 1450' was a sheer local signal.
As to 'diaries' : I think Arbitron only 'did' two books for the Springfield market back then -- spring and fall.
I still think that WNSH eventually, inevitably, is going to be putting a better signal into Connecticut than Heavy FM.
Wow, are you up early, son,
Those listeners, whether in the New Haven book or the Worcestor Mass. book, positively, were to the FM side of the hall. The AM station (they were C&W) had to've a no-show anywhere outside of immediate tower sight. 'WMAS 1450' was a sheer local signal.
As to 'diaries' : I think Arbitron only 'did' two books for the Springfield market back then -- spring and fall.
I still think that WNSH eventually, inevitably, is going to be putting a better signal into Connecticut than Heavy FM.
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In an article dated January 23, 1980, The Morning Union opened with the following: "WMAS-FM, a 1,000-watt Springfield radio station …" It mentioned power again a few paragraphs later: "The station has also applied for an increase to 50,000 watts." If the reportage is accurate, WHVY operated with 1 kW.
Full article: https://www.springfieldradio.com/newspaper/New 04302017/WMAS Changes format-raids WHYN Staff 23 Jan 1980.pdf
Steve, I always learn something interesting from your posts. The following page contains a couple of mementos that may interest you: https://www.springfieldradio.com/wmas.html.
However, page B-100 of the 1971 Broadcast Yearbook (page 98 of the PDF linked below), located on David's history site lists WMAS-FM as 50kW, so it's likely that the paper confused the AM power with the FM. Maybe the AM was looking at a power increase at the time.
https://www.americanradiohistory.co...ion-B-Radio-Broadcasting-Yearbook-1971-11.pdf
class c graveyarders on 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490 were intially 250W full time then 1kw day 250 night and 1kw full time.. theyre limited to 1000 watts 24/7 as an absolute max
On further research, the 1980 newspaper article may be correct about the CP for 50kW. Here's what a perusal of the Broadcast Yearbooks yields for WMAS-FM:
- 1955 1.35kW (no height info)
- 1968 1.35kW 175ft HAAT
- 1969 1.35kW
- 1970 50kW 175ft
- 1971 50kW
- 1972 1.35kW (WHVY)
- 1973 1.35kW 175ft CP: 10kW 170ft (WHVY)
- 1974 10kW 170ft (WHVY)
- 1975 10kW 170ft
- 1976 22kW 170ft
- 1980 22kW 170ft CP: 50kW 195ft
- 1982 22kW 170ft CP: 50kW 195ft
- 1985 22kW 170ft CP: 50kW 195ft
- 1990 50kW 170ft CP: 195ft
- 1995 50kW 194ft
- 2019 50kW 180ft
So if the later Yearbook listings are accurate, the 1970-71 listings were likely in error, and WMAS-FM didn't get to 50kW until the late 80s, and added 24 ft HAAT in the early 90s.
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Tonight, WNSH 94.7 is running automated local programming, instead of Nash Nights Live. As it is a holiday, and NNL is still listed on the station's website, it is unclear whether the syndicated show has been dropped.
Also, the station has a spot stating that every Monday, they will be commercial free for the entire day, after 9 AM. Is that a good strategy?
Also, the station has a spot stating that every Monday, they will be commercial free for the entire day, after 9 AM. Is that a good strategy?
What does "the entire day" mean? Until midnight? Until the start of the next day's morning drive show? Or just no ads until the afternoon drive show starts -- in other words, a weaselly way of saying "the entire workday"?
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