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WPEN-AM IBOC Off
- Thread starter rtetro
- Start date
and what it should still be like!
Thanks, 2816! I'd love to break out the Moet & Chandon, but Greater Media is a major IBOC Kool-Aid Konsumer, so I wouldn't count out HD on WPEN - at least yet.
In all likelihood it's another in the endless parade of glitches, firmware updates or other widely assorted dorking-around-with-HD-issues which plague each and every perpetrator of IBOC.
Clear Channel has been edging towards the HD-AM exits for over a year now, albeit while trying mightily to look like they aren't, but GM and CBS have execs aboard who are heavily, personally and professionally invested in HD. We're talking major-league face-saving here. Other than Smyth, Mason and their deadwood minions, everyone else with an ounce of common sense has seen the disaster of HD-AM for the embarassment it is.
In all likelihood it's another in the endless parade of glitches, firmware updates or other widely assorted dorking-around-with-HD-issues which plague each and every perpetrator of IBOC.
Clear Channel has been edging towards the HD-AM exits for over a year now, albeit while trying mightily to look like they aren't, but GM and CBS have execs aboard who are heavily, personally and professionally invested in HD. We're talking major-league face-saving here. Other than Smyth, Mason and their deadwood minions, everyone else with an ounce of common sense has seen the disaster of HD-AM for the embarassment it is.
Technically, there is a reason for CBS to run HD on their FMs.
In many markets, CBS owns TV stations as well as radio stations. FCC puts more restrictive limits on the radio stations you can own in a market when you own one or two TV stations.
Of course, in Philly, CBS owns both Channels 3 and 57. The FCC, under current rules, will not allow CBS to own more than the 3 AMs and 2 FMs it already has. In theory, I think, it could swap one of the AMs for an FM if it were able to and wanted to.
If you look around the country, many broadcasters ... including CBS in markets such as San Francisco and Las Vegas ... are moving their AM news, talk and sports formats to FM simulcasts. Why? Demographics. People under 45 hardly listen to AM radio.
Until CBS decides that simulcasting one of its AMs on one of its FMs will make more money than the current FM formats, putting the AMs on FM HD channels is the best they can do.
Just for discussion purposes, let's say CBS decides it can make more money by dumping WYSP's format and replacing it with a simulcast of one of their AMs. That still leaves two of their AM stations without an FM partner.
Here's a far-out idea (admittedly): CBS could buy 94.5 WPST. It's considered a Trenton station, yet it has a great signal where 1060's is the weakest: Bucks County and Northeast Philadelphia. It may even be a better listen in Center City where 1060's signal suffers because of tall buildings.
Wasn't Nassau taken over recently by creditors? Wouldn't they like the money?
I know, crazy, will never happen. Still ...
In many markets, CBS owns TV stations as well as radio stations. FCC puts more restrictive limits on the radio stations you can own in a market when you own one or two TV stations.
Of course, in Philly, CBS owns both Channels 3 and 57. The FCC, under current rules, will not allow CBS to own more than the 3 AMs and 2 FMs it already has. In theory, I think, it could swap one of the AMs for an FM if it were able to and wanted to.
If you look around the country, many broadcasters ... including CBS in markets such as San Francisco and Las Vegas ... are moving their AM news, talk and sports formats to FM simulcasts. Why? Demographics. People under 45 hardly listen to AM radio.
Until CBS decides that simulcasting one of its AMs on one of its FMs will make more money than the current FM formats, putting the AMs on FM HD channels is the best they can do.
Just for discussion purposes, let's say CBS decides it can make more money by dumping WYSP's format and replacing it with a simulcast of one of their AMs. That still leaves two of their AM stations without an FM partner.
Here's a far-out idea (admittedly): CBS could buy 94.5 WPST. It's considered a Trenton station, yet it has a great signal where 1060's is the weakest: Bucks County and Northeast Philadelphia. It may even be a better listen in Center City where 1060's signal suffers because of tall buildings.
Wasn't Nassau taken over recently by creditors? Wouldn't they like the money?
I know, crazy, will never happen. Still ...
Yeah, but putting CBS AM news/talk on an HD sub as a means of getting an "FM outlet" for their spoken-word programming is a fool's errand. Nobody has HD radios - almost literally - and there is no prospect that receiver penetration is going to improve, in the near term or ever. They might as well add their AMs as SCA services for all the audience they attract. (Hey, they'd be on FM...) 
The only way for AM-on-FM to work is with good old analog FM, the robust and proven 70-year old system that sounds great and everyone likes.
Hey CBS: why not retransmit your AMs in CW? You'll get more audience!!
The only way for AM-on-FM to work is with good old analog FM, the robust and proven 70-year old system that sounds great and everyone likes.
Hey CBS: why not retransmit your AMs in CW? You'll get more audience!!
radiophiler said:
Irishfl didn't say there's no reason to run it on FMs. What he said was that, because they're all run on FMs, there's no reason for the actual AM stations to still have HD on.
I agree with that. I don't think the HD signal of 610 reaches any further than the HD signal of WYSP-HD3.
Is it still off today Monday 5/30/2011 Memorial day? If so, could this have something to do with the CP for a daytime power increase (to 43 kW)? Unless it has been tolled, the CP expires a week from today (Monday, 6/6/2011) at 3:00AM local time. Since no tower construction is involved, the only basis I can think of for tolling would be failure of a supplier to deliver the necessary equipment. If the CP expires and GM is still interested in the upgrade, they will have to reapply for the CP. It's been done before.
Larry turned their IBOC off because it malfunctioned and was all over my station (WURD). It was also dumping a huge spur on 890.
Larry is a real good guy, engineer and broadcaster. He cares. One call and 2 minutes later it was off.
WPEN is a good neighbor.
WPEN was doing field measurements on the power increase two weeks ago. They will likely apply for a license to cover this week.
Larry is a real good guy, engineer and broadcaster. He cares. One call and 2 minutes later it was off.
WPEN is a good neighbor.
WPEN was doing field measurements on the power increase two weeks ago. They will likely apply for a license to cover this week.
LA_Guy said:
Do you know whether WPEN is implementing the 43 kW by using the two existing 25 kW solid-state transmitters (main and alt-main) operating in tandem and driving the phasor via a passive combiner? This seems like an appropriate way to go because the 43 kW would be ideal for the two 25 kW transmitters; the difference between 2*25 kW and 43 kW should be just right to cover the losses in the combining network. The transmitters are only a couple of years old and ought to be matched well enough to pull this off. If either transmitter were taken out of service for maintenance, they could still run 25 kW with the other one. The coverage difference between 25 kW and 43 kW is surprisingly small. Also, the cost of the combiner should be low compared with the cost of even one 50 kW transmitter--even when you consider what they could get as a trade-in for the 25 kW unit they would be replacing.
LA_Guy said:
I've been following WPEN's long list of applications at the FCC's AM Query page. (If you enter only the call sign and click on AM station, you get a list of applications--both granted and not granted--filed over quite an extended period--more than a decade in this case.) I can find no sign of anything new related to the CP for 43 kW-D, which was granted 6/6/2008 and apparently expired two days ago (6/6/2011).
LA_Guy said:
Took a bit longer than you thought but it appears that the application for a license to cover was tendered for filing on June 6--the day that the CP would have expired had the application for license not been tendered for filing. The app for a license was accepted for filing by the FCC eleven days later, on 6/17. Lord knows how long it will take the Commission to actually act on the the application and not just shuffle it from one pile of paper to another. The next move should be the grant of the license to cover, but I don't know how much of a sure thing that is. However, if I'm not mistaken, with the application accepted for filing, WPEN may be eligible for program-test authority. If so, all of you folks down in Center City and points east can provide reception reports and speculate on whether you can really hear the difference between 25 kW-D and 43 kW-D.
From Fybush.com
fybush.com/nerw.html#pa
Another Philadelphia AM signal is reaching out just a little stronger: Greater Media's WPEN (950) is on the air with its daytime power increase, taking the signal from 25 kW to 43 kW from its original transmitter site on 77th Street; the separate 21 kW nighttime operation out in East Norriton (at the same site used during the day by WWDB) remains unchanged.
.......Ask the residence on N. 77th St. if they notice any difference. ...Like on their toasters.
fybush.com/nerw.html#pa
Another Philadelphia AM signal is reaching out just a little stronger: Greater Media's WPEN (950) is on the air with its daytime power increase, taking the signal from 25 kW to 43 kW from its original transmitter site on 77th Street; the separate 21 kW nighttime operation out in East Norriton (at the same site used during the day by WWDB) remains unchanged.
.......Ask the residence on N. 77th St. if they notice any difference. ...Like on their toasters.
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