M
mcmannors
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satech said:
Maybe CBS privately gave Disney some money to shut off the IBOC on 640 so that 660 WFAN could return to their decent signal in south Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania?
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Maybe CBS privately gave Disney some money to shut off the IBOC on 640 so that 660 WFAN could return to their decent signal in south Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania?
Looking at the station's night pattern, can't they just move the array, at least the night array, a few miles south in Brooklyn or Staten Island and move that null to southern New Jersey? 1560 is actually a good frequency, as AM's go, for getting into urban jungles. Not a New Yorker, I would guess that 880 probably does better in Manhattan than co-located 660, but of course 660 goes farther.
660 and 880 has the same signal.ai4i said:
Because of lower freq, 660 goes a little further during the day but at night and more sensitive to the ionospheric shifts.
880 has slightly better building penetration. More stations on those freq's are changing things, not for the better.
Otherwise, both are killer!
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
A
ajaynejr
Guest
If WQEW moved its towers, it would be subject to the "ratchet rule" and have to redesign its coverage pattern to partially protect other 1560's such as KGOW in the middle of the country.ai4i said:
These other smaller 1560's would also make it not worthwhile for WQEW to buy out KNZR and downgrade the latter.
One of the smaller 1560's, WPAD, has a third, lower, power level used between sunset at NYC and sunset at Bakersfield, to protect WQEW!. Presumably to speed up its application, WPAD cleverly? designed around WQEW's extended daytime pattern hours so as to respect those 0.5 mv or whatever contours.
With that killer night signal WQEW puts out, it would be great to have a format that would be worth listening to! I still miss that wonderful standards format that graced that frequency from 1992 to 1998. I would imagine the average age of the WQEW listener went from 65 to 6.5 in a matter of days when they switched.
benale said:
What kid, or better yet what 30-something parent tunes into AM radio for their kids in 2013?
Look at Zoomer AM740, I think they're doing pretty well in Toronto pulling a 3.4 with their updated take on a standards format. Sure the audience is old but who else is going to listen to AM radio? Hire a local sales team like the good old days and forget about the agency buys. I'm sure 1560 could make money with it.
And yes WQEW used to have amazing audio for an AM station before its Disney days. Now it's the worst.
(I'm not suggesting any of this is likely to happen. The station is a brand vanity tool for Disney. I'm just agreeing with benale that "it would be great...").
DavidEduardo said:
Others included KFAX 1100 in SF and (then) KXA 770 in Seattle. Rules for them were similar to those for 1020 in LA. There were still more "daytimers" on IA channels that were, in fact, limited timers. Ames IA and Norman OK on 640 were examples. WNYC (AM) on 830 was another (plus it had an STA to stay on until 9:00PM Central Standard Time). WLIB (on 1190, a IB channel) stayed on with day power until Fort Wayne IN sunset. Those are the ones I can remember, but there may be still more.
One that I left out was the former WOSU 820 in Columbus OH. I'd be surprised, though, if that made the list complete. Most likely, there are still others that haven't been named (yet).
Adding to the discussion....
Although Not a daytimer, but along the same lines, are two Former Class 1-Bs.... on 1530: WCKY in Cincinnati can remain on non-directional DAY pattern with 50 KW until Sunset at KFBK, Sacramento. At that time, WCKY remains 50 KW, but switches to a pattern that sharply nulls its signal to the west of Cincinnati... This arrangement continues to this day.
I also believe daytimer, WEW-770 in St. Louis, MO has (had) "early" sign-on privileges linked with Sunrise time at WABC in New York.
Although Not a daytimer, but along the same lines, are two Former Class 1-Bs.... on 1530: WCKY in Cincinnati can remain on non-directional DAY pattern with 50 KW until Sunset at KFBK, Sacramento. At that time, WCKY remains 50 KW, but switches to a pattern that sharply nulls its signal to the west of Cincinnati... This arrangement continues to this day.
I also believe daytimer, WEW-770 in St. Louis, MO has (had) "early" sign-on privileges linked with Sunrise time at WABC in New York.
KR4BD said:
And doesn't the AM 770 daytimer (WTOR) in the farthest northwestern community in New York State (I've forgotten the name of the town) sign on at WABC sunrise and not at its own sunrise? Very interesting facility; and I think it now runs 10 kW-D. The three-tower modified-cardioid pattern is designed to protect WABC during critical hours and to put down a 5 mV/m daytime signal over most of metro Toronto. Coverage of any part of the US is minimal at best (though parts of northeastern Ohio may get a listenable signal). Programming is leased ethnic, probably focused on ethnic groups that the CRTC wouldn't consider important enough to get their own station.
WQEW's signal in the northwest Bronx is or was horrible last time I visited those parts almost 20 years ago. The station should co-locate (not the same as diplex--co-locate implies no shared towers) with WABC in Lodi. A three-tower pattern (maybe even a two-tower pattern) centered on the southeast would put down a very good signal in the five boroughs plus Westchester and Fairfield counties and parts of northern New Jersey. And since the pattern would reduce out-of-market nighttime skywave coverage, most of those 1560's to the west would be able to do away with their bizarre operating modes that apply only between New York sunset and Bakersfield sunset. The cost of developing the new site ought to raise WQEW's stick value enough to pay for designing and building the upgrade.
Dan, there isn't enough room in Lodi for any co-location. WABC barely has enough room with all of the surrounding buildings.
WQEW is a dog of a signal in NJ. At night it's all but gone. The other problem is that it has the WORST audio on any AM in NYC. Grossly undermodulated, flat, dull and lifeless.
WQEW is a dog of a signal in NJ. At night it's all but gone. The other problem is that it has the WORST audio on any AM in NYC. Grossly undermodulated, flat, dull and lifeless.
WNTIRadio said:
WABC is squeezed into a small area at the east side of the property, but according to the site plat I saw, most of the site to the west of the WABC complex is not built up at all. I'm guessing that the area of the entire site is more than five times as great as that of the portion that WABC occupies. Now, the large unoccupied area may be classified as wetlands and therefore would be unavailable for construction. Since I saw the site plat, I've wondered why so much of the land is unoccupied.
KR4BD said:
WTIC ended its post-sunset ND operation a year or two ago. A Michigan AM (WOAP, IIRC) had a CP to change CoL (to Lansing or someplace nearby), add night service (2.5 kW?) and increase D power to 50 kW. It was a complex array, probably six towers, as is common in Michigan and surrounding states. Here's how I remember the story: If I have it wrong, I hope someone will correct me. WOAP was going to have to sign off between Hartford sunset and Lansing sunset (WOAP would be located within WTIC's 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave) because protecting WTIC's ND skywave signal would be impossible for a station located within the Class A's protected skywave contour. (Or was it because protecting KRLD between Lansing sunset and Dallas TX sunset that was imposible? I don't think KRLD could have been the problem because it did not have to make any changes.) The FCC ruled that WTIC was completely unprotected when it operated ND post-sunset. CBS decided not to fight and WTIC now switches to its night pattern at Hartford sunset.
@Dan: 770 WTOR is licensed to Youngstown, NY with 13kw, highly directional away from most most of the population centers in Western New York (as it is known) and might as well be a Toronto station, for all intents and purposes.
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WTOR&service=AM&status=L&hours=D
WTOR has a 'local' (albeit daytime) signal in Toronto or GTMA (Greater Metropolitan Toronto Area) which has a population of 5 million+ and is quite diverse. WTOR is 95% brokered Asian ethnic programming and very likely bills more than some radio stations, particularly the AM teapots, in Western New York.
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WTOR&service=AM&status=L&hours=D
WTOR has a 'local' (albeit daytime) signal in Toronto or GTMA (Greater Metropolitan Toronto Area) which has a population of 5 million+ and is quite diverse. WTOR is 95% brokered Asian ethnic programming and very likely bills more than some radio stations, particularly the AM teapots, in Western New York.
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