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WRCA sells out overnights

D

DanStrassberg

Pastor Bruce Wall, who has been doing a M-F 5:00AM to 6:00AM show for about the last month on leased-time WRCA 1330AM, has apparently tumbled for more of the same. I caught an announcement at the end of this morning's show in which he announced that (starting next week, I think) his program is expanding to six nights a week--every night except Wednesday from midnight to 6:00AM. It was not clear to me whether "except Wednesday" means that he won't be on on Wednesday AMs or Thursday AMs; many folks consider Thursday from midnight to 6:00AM to be Wednesday night.

That would seem to make a casualty of Danny Stiles excellent big-band-era (and beyond) music show, which was heard on WRCA on no predictable schedule except that it aired during the hours that will now be occupied by Pastor Wall's program. Shame to lose Stiles, although you can catch a stream of his old shows (the material is timeless) on his Web site, where, unlike WRCA, you don't need a crystal ball to figure out when Stiles will be on.
 
I remember having listened to Danny Stiles from time to time on NYC's 820-WNYC, and I treasure the fact that the gentleman has devoted so much of his life to preserving the rich musical heritage of "The Great American Songbook"

Too bad he doesn't have a slot of his own, and is only used as "filler" for unsold slots on WRCA.

Too bad......
 
Gotta agree with Dighton on Danny Stiles. Stiles knows his stuff. I remember listening to him on 1050 when it was WEVD, later on WNYC, and also on WHWH. The Vicar of Vintage, indeed!
 
Dighton Rockhead said:
I remember having listened to Danny Stiles from time to time on NYC's 820-WNYC, and I treasure the fact that the gentleman has devoted so much of his life to preserving the rich musical heritage of "The Great American Songbook"
Click to expand...

Danny Stiles on your Dial!

Danny is one of the hardest working men in radio. He devotes a lot of time to his work.

Danny's show appeared on WRCA gratis. He was a filler for unsold hours.

Too bad he never seemed to have a permanent home where LOTS of people could enjoy him and his music.
 
Ham said:
How many feet from the transmitter does WRCA's signal go at night?
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To the north, east, and southeast, approximately 50,000 feet. The 17-kW nighttime signal spreads out more than does the 25-kW day signal, which is more narrowly focused on the east-northeast. Only to the southwest is WRCA's night signal severely restricted (protects WWRV). I believe that WRCA's NIF is in the low 8 mV/m region, which is substantially lower than WXKS (AM)'s 13.<something>, albeit with three times as much night power from the same site. WRCA has a decent signal. Watt for watt, WRCA does at least as well as WXKS (AM) does.
 
I don't know about the official specifications, but it sounds like WRCA has a pretty serious nighttime null in the direction of its old transmitter, which was on the southwest side of Waltham. I even hear nighttime phasing issues closer in that direction in the Auburndale area of Newton, the opposite end of the city in which the transmitter is located. This is all northwest, or perhaps west-northwest, of the Oak Hill Newton transmitter.

It sounds to me like some areas of south-southwest Waltham west of Moody St., where there is some Hispanic population (especially in the Charles St./Felton St. area) that may have listened to WRCA's old transmitter booming in there from just across the Charles River, may not now be getting much of a nighttime signal from Oak Hill.
 
I'm sure there is a signal deficiency in parts of Waltham. There's gotta be a reason why the COL was changed from Waltham to Watertown.... because the new site does not cover Waltham with a city-grade signal at night.
 
JIBGUY said:
I'm sure there is a signal deficiency in parts of Waltham. There's gotta be a reason why the COL was changed from Waltham to Watertown.... because the new site does not cover Waltham with a city-grade signal at night.
Click to expand...

I'm sure they wouldn't have changed the CoL if the new NIF contour covered 80% of the population of Waltham. According to the V-Soft Zip-Signal Web site, in Arlington, near the Lexington line, where I live, we used to get about 25 mV/m day and night from the old 5 kW site at 780 South St. The towers there were top loaded and, IIRC, were electrically equivalent to about 166 degrees. What that means is that, in comparison with the new setup in Oak Hill, which uses 200' towers, the power increase was not the equivalent of the claimed 5X by day or 3.4X by night but something less, though still appreciable. I had expected that, after the move to the Newton site, which is farther away, WRCA would essentially disappear at night where I live, but it did not. In fact, according to Zip Signal, I still get something greater than 9 mV/m at night, which I believe to be slightly greater than NIF. In fact, though, the interference from WWRV, though not bad, is noticeable enough that I don't think I still get an NIF signal. Zip Signal also says that WRCA's signal where I live is a little stronger at night than during the daytime. I believe that; I am nearly due north of the mostly-east-facing patterns, which means that I am on the side of the patterns and the 17 kW-four-tower cardioid-ish night pattern is fatter than the 25-kW five-tower tear-drop-ish day pattern.

The station whose signal was creamed by the new setup where I live is the one of the three triplexed stations that did not move--WUNR. Its old 5-kW DA-1 signal was a cardioid from two 200+-degree towers, and the signal around here off the side of the pattern was better than 6 mV/m, a bit more than the NIF. The new signal is still supposed to exceed 5 mV/m here but I don't believe that it does. In fact, I doubt that it is half of the advertised value. I have the feeling that WUNR's new 20 kW, five-tower. tear-drop-ish pattern is significantly narrower than it was supposed to be--something that the FCC's new Method of Moments-based proof-of-performance procedure apparently would not reveal. WUNR's signal here is usable by day but, for all practical purposes, gone at night. Notwithstanding that WWRL, the main interferer on 1600 here, is supposed to send less signal in this direction than WWRV, the main interferer on 1330 here, WWRL seems to deliver a louder signal here at night than does WWRV.
 
2 things:
1. WRCA will find some time for Stiles, he has a relationship with management there and they will find some time for him.
2. - As someone who worked at WRCA for years and saw first hand the ups and downs on brokered time radio and in particular the religious typs who broker time there and how they would run out on a big bill or slowpay it's only a matter of time before they will need to find something else to fill the time with at leat partially if not full time, just a fact of the business and I saw it on ANY occassins.
 
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