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WPHX sold
- Thread starter LA_Guy
- Start date
encarta95 said:It is WPHX-FM - the AM is silent and seems unlikely to return from the dead.
Hey, if they throw the AM in, they might as well fire it up and maybe extend the coverage of WXEX to York County. The 1000 watts of 1220 do quite well if the xmtr were fixed and ready to go. Hey, it can't hurt! They ought to fix it up and get it going again. I would. The oldies format of 'XEX would be perfect for the area.
I'm curious what type of transmitter they have for that AM stick (1220). The Phoenix basically let that AM wither on the vine. They never really put any effort into it. After all, "it's JUST the AM". They really only wanted the FM. It sounds like they just let the AM's "finals" die. Betcha it could be resurrected in a few hours work. Well, who knows?LA_Guy said:Correct. It is WPHX-FM that was sold. The AM is silent and has to go back on by July to keep its license. It also has 220 watts at night.
The FM (92.1) signal is pretty good. It covers most of Southern Maine including all of York County and well into Carroll and Stratford Counties in New Hampshire. It also did well into Massachusetts for a time. During the WCDQ days ("Mt. Rialto"), I was able to get 'CDQ in Brockton, MA, just using a 5 element Yagi antenna. A million bucks for a Class A signal outside of a major market seems a little pricey. But, who knows? Maybe they have some ideas......
newsbot said:Bob Perry mentioned on the Northern New England board a while back that the transmitter was beyond repair due to lack of available parts and had to be replaced. Maybe Mindich will pony up the dough for a new one before the license is deleted.
Maybe. At one time the AM was WSME/1220. It was a nice little daytimer and covered the area rather well. Sanford and Springvale seem to be a couple of nice little towns that could benefit with a good local voice. Maybe something is in the works. We shall see.
You and me both!N1WVQ said:I hate seeing any station go dark so I hope 1220 is resurrected!
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:The FM (92.1) signal is pretty good. It covers most of Southern Maine including all of York County and well into Carroll and Stratford Counties in New Hampshire. It also did well into Massachusetts for a time. During the WCDQ days ("Mt. Rialto"), I was able to get 'CDQ in Brockton, MA, just using a 5 element Yagi antenna. A million bucks for a Class A signal outside of a major market seems a little pricey. But, who knows? Maybe they have some ideas......
I believe that since Phoenix purchased WPHX and WFEX, they made some engineering changes that upgraded WFEX's Manchester/Concord-area signal at the expense of WPHX. There's also been the addition of W221CH.
The big problem with WPHX is its location between markets. Phoenix Media tried partnering WPHX with the Portland Phoenix, but the signal barely gets to Portland and doesn't touch the northern half of the market (further, they were going head-to-head with WCYY/WCYI). More recently, I believe it's being marketed as serving New Hampshire, but the signal realistically only covers half of the Seacoast market. Heck, WSKX has a better signal in Portsmouth than WPHX, and that station is co-channeling with WHRB.
At least as I see it, the perfect niche is York County - the only place it covers perfectly, and an area deprived of local radio since WCDQ, WIDE-AM, and WQEZ have faded away.
Not sure what "upgrades" they made to WFEX, it's been the same height and power for quite sometime unless they re-positioned the antenna bays to throw more RF towards Manchester.
N
necrat123
Guest
ThatGuyOnTheRadio said:Not sure what "upgrades" they made to WFEX, it's been the same height and power for quite sometime unless they re-positioned the antenna bays to throw more RF towards Manchester.
WPHX's antenna was replaced in 1998. (If memory serves me, didn't part of their tower collapse in the 98 ice storm?)
WFEX's antenna was moved to a new tower in 1999 on top of the same hill.
So both stations have new antennas, which could be considered upgrades.
LA_Guy said:Correct. It is WPHX-FM that was sold. The AM is silent and has to go back on by July to keep its license. It also has 220 watts at night.
I think it's a few watts more than 220 at night--233 or 234. The night RMS ID field is less than 1% lower than the FCC's magic 140.85 mV/m to keep Class D status, which means no protection from co-channel interference but no requirement to cover 80% of the CoL population with an NIF signal or better. My guess is that the NIF requirement couldn't be met without causing prohibited interference to one or more co-channel Class Bs (doesn't matter that the co-channel Canadian Bs are dark). I looked at several other 1220 ex-daytimers around NY and New England and some are Ds (like Sanford and Providence) but others are Bs (including WQUN and WGNY). If the AM license is pulled because the station remains silent for more than a year, it's possible that the license could be moved to a new CoL. I don't know how many square miles Sanford covers, but a more geographically compact community might work as the CoL of a real Class B that would run 250W at night on 1220 in Maine.
Sounds like it would be easy to get it back on with a purchase of a new 1kw transimtter.... $15k would take care of that.... so it's really likely that there are other problems too. If it were just a transmitter issue, it would be singing, and also much more valuable than the current value-being-dead.
JIBGUY said:Sounds like it would be easy to get it back on with a purchase of a new 1kw transimtter.... $15k would take care of that.... so it's really likely that there are other problems too. If it were just a transmitter issue, it would be singing, and also much more valuable than the current value-being-dead.
I'll betcha, with a few semi-compatible parts and whatnot, they could get the station back on the air with at least partial power to cover for the license. Or get a partial power (250-1000 watts) loaner for the time being. Just put a mixing board on-line, get a computer for MP3 files (with Zararadio) with music and there you have it. Simple. As long as you've got your EAS and what not, you're ready to go. I think it would be worth saving.
xmtrdr said:WPHX AM still owned by the Boston Pheonix, has returned to the air as of June 6, 2011 at full power. 1KW Days 238W nights. It is simulcasting WPHX FM for now.
That is good news. It's a nice little signal and could benefit the Greater Sanford/Springvale area. I hate to see any local station go down the tubes. It's good to hear that 1220 in Sanford is back on the air!
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