• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WRKO xmtr work / DX opp

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

WRKO facebook:"Sometimes even a 50,000-watt flamethrower needs a little T.L.C. WRKO will be doing some repairs to our transmitter, and you won’t be able to listen to AM 680 from 11 pm Thursday Night 2-28 until around 4 am Friday 3-1. However, you can still hear Mike Siegel and Coast to Coast at WRKO.com, on the iHeart Radio App, and on your smart speaker by saying “Play WRKO on iHeart Radio.” We thank our listeners for understanding."
////\\/\\
(Any DXers out there may check it out to see what comes in)
 
raccoonradio said:
io App, and on your smart speaker by saying “Play WRKO on iHeart Radio.” We thank our listeners for understanding."
////\\/\\
(Any DXers out there may check it out to see what comes in)
Click to expand...

Hmmmm maybe CFTR Ottawa

WCBM Baltimore, but their signal seems to be very tight at night
 
raccoonradio said:
WRKO facebook:"Sometimes even a 50,000-watt flamethrower needs a little T.L.C. WRKO will be doing some repairs to our transmitter, and you won’t be able to listen to AM 680 from 11 pm Thursday Night 2-28 until around 4 am Friday 3-1. However, you can still hear Mike Siegel and Coast to Coast at WRKO.com, on the iHeart Radio App, and on your smart speaker by saying “Play WRKO on iHeart Radio.” We thank our listeners for understanding."
////\\/\\
(Any DXers out there may check it out to see what comes in)
Click to expand...

The flamethrower has technical problems with the phasor, etc., and today was granted an STA to operate at night with out-of-tolerance parameters at reduced power. This might leave a few DX'ing holes in the nighttime pattern for a while.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...ext=25&appn=101801192&formid=911&fac_num=1902
 
Another opportunity tonight Mar 26 from 11 pm to 4 am as WRKO switches off for transmitter maintenance.All programs will still run on the iHeart stream/app.
 
raccoonradio said:
Another opportunity tonight Mar 26 from 11 pm to 4 am as WRKO switches off for transmitter maintenance.All programs will still run on the iHeart stream/app.
Click to expand...

They pulled the switch at about 11:05 PM, and unless I missed it somehow - with no announcement - the wonders of automation...

680 was very quiet just west of Boston - no channel from 530 to 1700 was as quiet. A credit to the engineers at the directional 680's on elsewhere. There were 3 or 4 signals close to the noise level. The only one I could pick out for certain was CFTR Toronto.
 
"The only one I could pick out for certain was CFTR Toronto. "
----------------------
I agree with that though an hour later I think I was getting Baltimore with an iD "Talk 6-Eighty"again not all that much above noise level.
 
Given how well or "OK" they do, it would be foolish to shut off AM and do HD only.Only some have HD radios--many more listen online and even given the ratings there are many still listening on AM. They sell ads even to an older demo.
 
raccoonradio said:
Given how well or "OK" they do, it would be foolish to shut off AM and do HD only.Only some have HD radios--many more listen online and even given the ratings there are many still listening on AM. They sell ads even to an older demo.
Click to expand...

There are some stations that no one would notice if they stopped analog broadcasting.

1150AM, 1090AM, etc.

These would be good candidates to "try something a little different".
 
QED said:
"The only one I could pick out for certain was CFTR Toronto. "
----------------------
I agree with that though an hour later I think I was getting Baltimore with an iD "Talk 6-Eighty"again not all that much above noise level.
Click to expand...
I checked now and then until after midnight but it didn't seem to change much, so I gave up. CFTR could be confirmed by mentions of the 400-series highways.
 
WRKO facebook says again tonight, Apr 2, turning off for transmitter work 11pm to 4 am. DX opportunity.Again they fail to mention the HD2 of 100.7 as an alternative.
 
raccoonradio said:
WRKO facebook says again tonight, Apr 2, turning off for transmitter work 11pm to 4 am. DX opportunity.Again they fail to mention the HD2 of 100.7 as an alternative.
Click to expand...

Well, let's see if conditions tonight are different than last week.

They will probably just kill the power with no announcement as before - a missed chance to mention HD2 / 100.7
 
raccoonradio said:
WRKO facebook says again tonight, Apr 2, turning off for transmitter work 11pm to 4 am. DX opportunity.Again they fail to mention the HD2 of 100.7 as an alternative.
Click to expand...

I could be a whole lot wrong here, but:

- One would think iHeart would be doing all it can to boost awareness of the WRKO brand, especially given its poor showing in the ratings. To be fair, they do plug 100.7 HD-2 several times an hour during Barry Armstrong's program, and I like to think they do the same during Kuhner's, VB's, and Howie's broadcasts.

Then, again,

- One might think iHeart has little regard for certain of its over-the-air properties, and they would rather people listen via the iHeart Radio app. But if this were true, why are they spending money to fix 'RKO's 3-tower antenna system? Perhaps they want/need to keep the operation going now that they've acquired it, and/or because the FCC is chomping on them to maintain compliance.
 
Before RKO started "fixing" the transmitter the reception over nite was clear as a bell, no static, no fading in and out....now that they "fixed" the transmitter, the reception is terrible...I listen directly from a radio. Last nite the transmitter was shut off at 11...I turned the radio on.....I think it was around 12:45am and RKO was back up and running. I didn't listen for very long but, the 10 or 15 minutes I did listen, the reception was clear....I listened again around 3am for about 5 minutes and it was still clear, at 5:30am it was fading in and out.
 
nowradioguy said:
I could be a whole lot wrong here, but:

- One would think iHeart would be doing all it can to boost awareness of the WRKO brand, especially given its poor showing in the ratings. To be fair, they do plug 100.7 HD-2 several times an hour during Barry Armstrong's program, and I like to think they do the same during Kuhner's, VB's, and Howie's broadcasts.

Then, again,

- One might think iHeart has little regard for certain of its over-the-air properties, and they would rather people listen via the iHeart Radio app. But if this were true, why are they spending money to fix 'RKO's 3-tower antenna system? Perhaps they want/need to keep the operation going now that they've acquired it, and/or because the FCC is chomping on them to maintain compliance.
Click to expand...


There are parts of the transmission system for which most AM stations have no backup and those are the phaser, antenna tuning units and the towers themselves as well as related coaxial cable, switches and the like. All of these need maintenance, and all of them can deteriorate or become defective. So going off the air for one or more nights of maintenance is nothing unusual. A very few stations have an auxiliary antenna or an auxiliary transmitter site (although these are quite common with FMs).

The FCC generally would not even know about that sort of thing unless the station found a need to operate under an STA with parameters at variance, which requires a filing.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom