WROL simulcasts WTTT/plus Irish music

[raccoonradio]

As has been noted on Boston Radio Watch and elsewhere, Salem's WROL AM 950 has been simulcasting
their WTTT AM 1150 from 6 pm to 6 am (conservative talk: Hewitt, Medved, Mike Reagan, and Dr.
Laura). Both stations don't have the strongest signal but I guess WROL, with a stick just off the marsh
road in Saugus nr. Revere line, IIRC, can reach Boston better after dark.

in addition they have a lot of Irish music on Saturdays and also during the week; today they were
running some Irish Christmas music. radio-locator.com says they're pushing 90 watts at night or
(I was picking them up in N. Reading at night, at least) though they're trying to
go 5kW around the clock

http://www.wrolradio.com/

Oh and they're the home of the Red Sox too. In Spanish.

website needs to be updated to reflect recent changes. If you like Irish music I understand WTKK-HD2
is also running it

 

[Eli Polonsky]

As has been noted on Boston Radio Watch and elsewhere, Salem's WROL AM 950 has been simulcasting their WTTT AM 1150 from 6 pm to 6 am (conservative talk: Hewitt, Medved, Mike Reagan, and Dr. Laura). Both stations don't have the strongest signal but I guess WROL, with a stick just off the marsh road in Saugus nr. Revere line, IIRC, can reach Boston better after dark.

1150 comes in fairly well in Boston because their directional night signal is beamed southeast toward the city from their Lexington site. 950, even with just 90 watts night power, also hits Boston well from their close proximity up the salt water coast in Saugus.

However, the directional 1150 night signal does not go up the North Shore well at all. WROL even with only 90 watts at night can cover the North Shore, especially along the coast, a lot better than nulled-out 1150. I'd think the North Shore would be the area they're using 950 for to fill-in the 1150 coverage at night, as well as giving Boston listeners two signal choices.

The two of them are actually very complementary in coverage. 1150 at night covers the west and south suburbs within 128 well (but not farther west or south), the immediate Boston metro, and the immediate inland north and northwest Boston suburbs. 950 gets the coastal North Shore, where 1150 doesn't make it at night.

Neither one goes inland north/northwest much beyond Route 128 at night. That's why Mega used to simulcast on 1400 in Lowell with 1150, which doesn't go up that way at all at night.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

If you were picking up WROL in North Reading, chances are they didn't power down at sunset...something of which they've been guilty under this and previous ownership. There's a chance WROL will be audible for many more miles than usual these days because there's a solar storm a-brewing.

 

[raccoonradio]

>>There's a chance WROL will be audible for many more miles than usual these days because there's a solar storm a-brewing

Yes--and as a matter of fact about 3:30 tonight I was on Rt 128 in Peabody area and noticed the following coming in surprisingly well:
WTTT 1150
WXKS 1430
WKOX 1200
WTSN 1270 (Dover NH)
WROL 950
WNBP 1450

 

[DanStrassberg]

The two of them are actually very complementary in coverage. 1150 at night covers the west and south suburbs within 128 well (but not farther west or south), the immediate Boston metro, and the immediate inland north and northwest Boston suburbs. 950 gets the coastal North Shore, where 1150 doesn't make it at night.

Neither one goes inland north/northwest much beyond Route 128 at night.

Meanwhile, has anyone heard anything about the status of WROL's application to change its CoL to Revere and increase its night power to 5 kW by adding two towers at its Saugust site? At least six months ago, I had heard that the grant of a CP was only weeks away. Did the neighbors complain about the new towers (which were to be a few feet shorter than the existing tower, suggesting that they might not even have required illumination)? Did Salem (the company that owns WROL--not the City of Salem MA) ask the FCC not to grant the CP right away to allow time for negotiating with the neighbors?

The 5 kW directional signal, though plenty strong, would, on paper, not have been interference-free in Boston. According to the application, WROL's NIF contour (37 mV/m--which is quite strong) would have just missed landfall in South Boston. The 5 kW directional signal, if built, would be huge (but, almost certainly, also not interference free) on Cape Cod--especially in Provincetown. Perfect for giving Dr Laura a podium for trying to, umm, straighten out the folks there.