WRCK Remsen

[Voicetrack of Reason]

What's going on with WRCK? I see the FM translator has been deleted for being silent for more than a year. Is there something wrong with the AM side?

Been a long time since I've been up there.

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

WRCK had told the FCC back in January that they lost their programming source, and so were going silent until they got another. Listening yesterday and this morning, they are back on the air. But, they haven’t yet notified the Commission.
They are simulcasting Utica’s 1550 WUSP, with the slogan “99.5 The Heat”, which refers to WUSP’s translator.
The 94.1 translator for WRCK was W231DZ, now deleted by the Commission as of February, because according to their records, the station was dark for over a year, and efforts to reach them to find out if operations had resumed went unanswered.
As a sidebar, the WRCK license renewal from 2022 is still pending due to an objection from “Up Music Radio”, and the FCC is either awaiting or evaluating a response from the station.

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

Well this station is a real train WReCK. No station ID 7pm this evening, although there was one for WUSP AM and its 99.5 translator. Decent music after 7:00, but then at 7:12, WRCK just dumped carrier, and it’s gone. Being a daytimer, I doubt it will be back this evening. Could be their lamp timer was never adjusted ahead for daylight saving time. Their May sign off time is 8:15 DST.
I’m not close enough to hear the translator on 94.1. But then again, it shouldn’t be on anyway.
Maybe someone closer can report.

 

[fybush]

From a distance, based on FCC filings, my understanding is that the space on the tower where the 94.1 translator was, is now used by an unrelated LPTV. So there's nothing left to broadcast 94.1 even if the license hadn't been deleted.

(And as the consultant who did the application to put 94.1 on Smith Hill, I'm sad to see it gone! It was a pretty darned good signal.)

 

[Voicetrack of Reason]

Are the AUX facilities for 93.5 at the 1480 site still licensed?

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

Are the AUX facilities for 93.5 at the 1480 site still licensed?

Checking the FCCdata.org site, their “tower payload” shows nothing else at that location besides WRCK.

BTW, WRCK is hammering a nice signal into the Poland, NY SDR this afternoon. To check it out, use the link:
Poland, NY SDR radio
then enter 1480
There’s no audio today, just the RF. Still listed as a “silent station” with the FCC.

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

I was just looking at the Wikipedia listing for WUSP/WRCK 1550 in Utica.

WUSP article on Wikipedia

WRCK gets mentioned there because it simulcasts 1550.
The article claims that the WRCK translator, W231DZ came back on the air, along with WRCK, in March of 2024.

My listening post is too far away to DX the 94.1 FM translator signal, whose license the FCC canceled earlier this year. Amusingly, the certified letter the Commission sent to notify licensee Phoenix Radio of the W231DZ cancellation in April, was returned to the FCC in early May, marked by the USPS as unclaimed.

Is there anyone within earshot of this signal who can confirm whether or not 94.1 is on the air?

As for 1480 WRCK, they are still on the air more or less. The 1480 transmitter pops on an hour earlier than it should in the morning, and pops off an hour earlier than it needs to in the evenings, as if whatever they use for timing hasn’t made the transition to DST. And no ID is given at sign on or sign off.
The FCC lists 1480 as silent, per an STA granted in January this year. But that permission would have expired in late June.

 

[Voicetrack of Reason]

What a mess.

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

The FCC lists 1480 as silent, per an STA granted in January this year. But that permission would have expired in late June.

I have to correct myself. WRCK’s silent STA will expire at the end of THIS month.
Today they are almost silent, with some jazz programming this Sunday afternoon, but they’re barely modulating. And there’s hum too, which isn’t helping. At 2:15 PM local time there was a long list of station IDs read, which included WRCK, so they seem to know they are on the air.

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

WRCK has been missing from the airwaves the past several days. Ironically they’d been on and off sporadically the past couple of months, all the while having a STA to remain silent. As of earlier this week, that January 25, 2024 STA has expired, and nothing indicates they’ve filed for an extension. There’s also nothing online about their overdue license renewal, which has been in the Commission’s hands for a couple of years now. The renewal was challenged and there isn’t much of a paper trail.
It may be time to tell the fat lady to start warming up.

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

Meanwhile, co-owned simulcast (and most importantly, primary station for translator W238CA at 95.5 FM) 1550 WUSP continues chugging along, sounding really weak for a kilowatt. But wait, they’d been operating under an STA for 20 watts, using a low power (no kidding!) transmitter for several years. Although the latest extension for that expired on 12/30/23, I suspect they may still be running micropower.
Scott Fybush did a nice “Site of the Week” feature on Utica in 2018, which included some discussion about the WRCK-WUSP pair and their translators, along with pictures. Even then, 1550’s Gates One was out of commission, and they were using their small LPB PSSA (at 3 watts) transmitter for a flea power day signal as well.

Site of the Week: Utica, NY

These days for AMs, it’s all about the translator, isn’t it? 😁

 

[Easily Amused]

I have to correct myself. WRCK’s silent STA will expire at the end of THIS month.
Today they are almost silent, with some jazz programming this Sunday afternoon, but they’re barely modulating. And there’s hum too, which isn’t helping. At 2:15 PM local time there was a long list of station IDs read, which included WRCK, so they seem to know they are on the air.

Hum, too? I wonder why. 🤔
.
.
.
.
It doesn't know the words. 😁😇

 

[Voicetrack of Reason]

Just curious, does WRCK have pre-sunrise authority? Or is it one of those unfortunate daytimers that's only on from 8:00 to 4:15 in December?

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

Just curious, does WRCK have pre-sunrise authority? Or is it one of those unfortunate daytimers that's only on from 8:00 to 4:15 in December?

Checking the History Cards for the station:
the answer is. . .
Yes. See page 5, about midway down. Issued in 1969, it was for 500 watts.
And their license specifies worst case for the short days of winter, 7:30A-4:30P standard time in December.
And 7:30A-4:45P in January.

 

[Voicetrack of Reason]

We had a daytime only AM station that could sign on under PSA, providing that sunrise had occurred at the location of the primary station on the frequency. Usually, we signed on at 6AM, and left the air at local sunset. 1480 is kind of an interesting frequency. I wonder what station(s) would complain if WRCK signed on at 6AM, Eastern?

 

[Ex-RadioTV]

We had a daytime only AM station that could sign on under PSA, providing that sunrise had occurred at the location of the primary station on the frequency. Usually, we signed on at 6AM, and left the air at local sunset. 1480 is kind of an interesting frequency. I wonder what station(s) would complain if WRCK signed on at 6AM, Eastern?

1480 (which as of right now has risen like the Phoenix again and is back on the air. WRCK, that is) is a regional (class III) frequency, which under the old PSA rules had to respect international agreements as to interference to co-channel stations. The only 1480 in Canada used to be in Drummondville, Quebec, CHRD, but it moved to FM more than 25 years ago. And Mexico wouldn’t be an issue for a NY station.
When you start talking about daytimers on class I or II frequencies, then things were more complicated.
What frequency was your daytimer on?