WSMA 90.5 Scituate, MA

[robotique]

I really do not like this station. Aside from religion being the opiate of the masses, how is a satellite-fed network of national programming appropriate for an educational band station with local responsibilities? Or am I incorrect in thinking that NCE stations on the reserved band have a geographic responsibility?

i could look this up, but i'm too lazy.

 

[mgpt6]

Since ,they came on unable to get WICN anywhere East of 128.

 

[DavidZ]

Since ,they came on unable to get WICN anywhere East of 128.

Actually WICN's signal seems worse even in some parts of Southern Worcester County where I live. They used to come in loud and clear throughout this area. I'm hoping their signal improves greatly when they move to Asnebumskit Hill in Paxton.

 

[aaronread]

WSMA's existence also prevents WZBC from moving to a more advantageous location...although the current management has repeatedly shown that they are not interested in maximizing their signal, even when it leads to rimshot stations like WSMA nibbling at the edges.

But I'm not bitter or anything. :

WSMA actually does have a local studio and staff. Or they did. I know because I went down there to visit and make sure they did. ;D It was a few weeks after they claimed to be on-air to avoid having the CP run out, and at the time of expiration they were totally not on the air, but they managed to get so quickly enough that despite some folks' best efforts, the granting of the license was not overturned.

The guy there wasn't exactly thrilled to see me...my name is known and not loved at WSMA since I fought them pretty hard on behalf of WZBC...but he wasn't nasty or anything. He was in the middle of assembling a fairly functional studio. Way more than just a satellator needed. So I wouldn't be surprised if they have quite a bit of local programming, at least by religious satellator standards.

Also FWIW, compared to a lot of the USA, the northeast has surprisingly little religious radio. I think a lot of local people really appreciate having the option of WSMA.

Anyways, there is the blanket concept that all radio stations are required to serve their city of license; this is true for all stations, not just NCE's. But exactly how that "serving your City Of License" is interpreted is incredibly vague, and intentionally so. The content does not have to be locally originated to fulfill the mandate of serving the COL. After all, stations like WBUR and WGBH serve a lot of national, satellite-fed programming from NPR and yet they are typically hailed as paragons of localism. What matters more is that listeners in your COL actually like your programming and find it educational and/or useful. I'm pretty sure there's audience that thinks WSMA does that.

 

[jlehmann]

I really do not like this station. Aside from religion being the opiate of the masses, how is a satellite-fed network of national programming appropriate for an educational band station with local responsibilities? Or am I incorrect in thinking that NCE stations on the reserved band have a geographic responsibility?

i could look this up, but i'm too lazy.

You should hear how the low end of the dial sounds during a good e skip opening to the south or midwest. They're EVERYWHERE. During some openings, K Love and Air 1 can be heard in 3 or 4 different spots on the dial. They've started taking over Northern New England, but fortunately we don't have too many of them around here.

 

[robotique]

aaron, do you wear a cape and a mask when you turn into radio superhero to defend the interests of NCE FM stations? ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D I did see your name in the FCC database as filing for reconsideration.


as far as WSMA's content goes, I do respect and understand that they provide something that this market area lacks on FM. On AM you still have 590 and 950 and I dont know if either of those play "contemporary christian" aka white people christian religious music.

and yes...everywhere else you go there are Air 1 translators with this format. I guess being in the Boston area 70% of my life i've been lucky enough to not have it on the radio dial. maybe my former coworker LaKiesha was right when she said one day.. "..BOSTON NEEDS JESUS!!!"

 

[aaronread]

aaron, do you wear a cape and a mask when you turn into radio superhero to defend the interests of NCE FM stations?

I do, but it's made of invoices to college radio stations. ;D Nah, I only got medieval on WSMA because it directly impacted a client of mine. I don't terribly care for religious radio because I don't terribly care for religion in general, but that's just me. Usually the only thing that really torques me off about godcasters are the Borg-like way some of them have sucked up every available spot on the dial.

And as many of you know, I don't reserve my wrath about that issue solely for godcasters. I've been annoyed with the Boston college radio scene for years about that same issue...dozens of little signals all saying they're unique when really they'll all playing the same crap. I suppose one could level that charge at Clear Channel, too...at least for the moment. Given their shrink rate, maybe that won't be true much longer! :

 

[robotique]

WZBC is definitely unique with its tendencies for experimental electronic, noise and minimalistic techno.
WERS has always leaned urban, along with metal and local rock
WMBR seems to have a decent mix
WMFO, WUML, WBIM, never had good enough signals for me to listen to long enough to know
WHRB generally had classical or rap and hardcore/punk
WRBB, WBRS *faint wind* *whistle*





infact aaron, i was a volunteer community dj at wbrs around 2003 when i think you were involved with the station still.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

I was on the Cape of cod a few weeks ago, and happened upon two "Godcasters" on 96.7 and 106.5. The former splatters all over WTKK as one drives over the Cape flyover; the 106.5 operation seems to be more powerful with non-directional antenna and can be heard for miles.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WSMA's existence also prevents WZBC from moving to a more advantageous location...

Wouldn't WRIU Kingston, RI also prevent them from gaining much ground to the south/southwest (if they were interested in doing so)?

WERS has always leaned urban, along with metal and local rock.

Have you listened to WERS lately? That programming is now only on nights and weekends. Their full-day weekday daytime format flipped a couple of years ago to a format called "Music for the Independent Mind". It's basically a AAA (adult album) format, and though it's student hosted like all WERS shows, it sounds to me like it's most likely consulted and playlisted.

WMFO, WUML, WBIM, never had good enough signals for me to listen to long enough to know

WUML actually has a very good signal for what it is, but it's not a Boston metro station. It can be heard quite well from everywhere north and northwest of Route 128 almost west to Worcester and north throughout most of southern NH, even into southeastern VT.

 

[aaronread]

Wouldn't WRIU Kingston, RI also prevent them from gaining much ground to the south/southwest (if they were interested in doing so)?

Don't know why I didn't reply to this sooner...

It's been a while since I've looked at this, and the landscape (WICN and WSMA) has changed somewhat. But back in 2004 or so, WRIU did limit WZBC somewhat but not as much as you'd think. The key here is that there's two ways WZBC could improve their signal: either they move north or north east to take advantage of a big "hole" around 90.3 north of Boston, or they move downtown to maximize downtown coverage.

In both cases, the real limiting factor is WSMA. In fact, I'm not sure it's physically possible for WZBC to move downtown anymore. Assuming they could find a place to put a tower that won't cost an arm, leg and firstborn child (unlikely) the interfering contours from WSMA reach pretty far north from their transmitter site in Manomet. Moving north to Medford...or maybe Zion Hill or the old WTTT site by Rt.2 in Lexington...would allow for a killer omni signal and big power boost. It'd boost WZBC's already-decent range from just being "inside Rt.128" to being all of the north shore. Catch is, it doesn't really put more actual signal over the core listening audiences in Boston and Cambridge proper...and with WSMA's signal there now, it probably would get a little worse. Especially for in-home listening (as opposed to in-car) which is, AFAIK, most of WZBC's audience.

I remember that at the time WZBC couldn't move west to the Newton/Needham towers because of WICN but I'm not sure if that's still true now that WICN moved. Still, you'd have issues with WSMA's interfering signal over the downtown area; anything but a move to downtown will exacerbate that. And a move downtown would be both difficult and fiendishly expensive.

BTW, in all these cases, WZBC would not gain anything southward because of WRIU and WSMA, but WRIU is far enough away that it's pretty easy to deal with...either through transmitter location or a directional antenna.

Of course, a big problem with any of these scenarios is that it'd result in substantially less signal on-campus and that's important, politically. You can't have a student radio station that the students can't hear on their radios...and BC has a lot of thick-walled steel-and-concrete dorms. They need to be inside that 100dBu contour just to hear the station. Unless WZBC were to radically change its mission and format, there's little reason for them to move from their current location. It has free rent, the xmitter facility itself is pretty good (especially since they added A/C a few years back), it has fairly decent signal coverage over the market (it's not as good as it could be, but it's certainly not bad or anything), and it covers campus excellently.

 

[mgpt6]

Is increase in ERP north directional from BC current site have any real improvement heading north toward to new hampshire? Also, I think BC bought that apartment complex at 2000 Coomwealth Ave. for additonal dorms. Is that higher than current antenna site on BC Chestnut Hill campus; and close enought to still give very strong coverage on campus? Medford, Zion Hill and downtown would not provide that

 

[4CX1000A]

WHRB generally had classical or rap and hardcore/punk

Weekdays, it's jazz from 5 AM - 1 PM; classical from then until 10 PM; after that, rock.

WHRB is now the only classical alternative to WCRB.

 

[aaronread]

WHRB is now the only classical alternative to WCRB.

Heavens, you mean there's only TWO stations in a city playing classical music? What is the world coming to?!?? :

Is increase in ERP north directional from BC current site have any real improvement heading north toward to new hampshire?

I'd have to run a Spectrum Study to be sure, but speaking anecdotally I think the answer is no. You could put a DA at the current site and jack the ERP in a nice 90 degree arc from about 350 to 080. But the existing site's relatively low height is gonna negate any improvement in ERP when you go as far away as NH. It'd probably improve things out to Rt.128 or so, and all the communities closer in, but that's about it. Plus it would quite possibly introduce RF exposure issues at the dorm in question. Right now there's a four-bay half-wave-spaced array up there that does a marvelous job reducing downward radiation...but even so, the ERP is only 1000 watts. The more you increase that ERP, the more you have to start using really expensive antenna arrays to keep the downward RF below the exposure limits. And eventually you'll hit a wall that says either "no more ERP" or "increase the height of the tower"; the latter of which will NEVER happen at Chestnut Hill.

Frankly, given all the hassles, I wouldn't recommend WZBC try to increase ERP at their current location. Not unless they're trying to do something radically different in the mission of the station...and even then, I'd suggest a different site first.

Also, I think BC bought that apartment complex at 2000 Coomwealth Ave. for additonal dorms. Is that higher than current antenna site on BC Chestnut Hill campus; and close enought to still give very strong coverage on campus?

The ground elevation AMSL at 2000 Commonwealth Ave is 46m - the current site's ground elevation AMSL is 76m. IIRC 2000 Comm Ave is only 16 or 17 stories, whereas the current site has a 50ft tower on top of a three story dorm...so unless you put a big tower on 2000 Comm Ave (which is extremely questionable from zoning and structural integrity concerns) then you're unlikely to see an increase in height. Plus I'm sure the zoning fight would be epic, and nearby residents would scream bloody murder, too. Non-skyscraper buildings, especially when residential, rarely make good broadcast locations...they're usually just not designed for it.

 

[carmen]

WZBC could improve their signal..a big "hole" around 90.3 north of Boston

they could do a lot better, considering 146.76 from rhode island makes it up to new hampshire, and Hot87 is audible in 3 states
yet WZBC fades out near the blue hill on a car radio

i guess they dont care, which is cool. BC is the "slacker" university

 

[mgpt6]

Carmen, Blue Hills has always caused a shadow for ZBC signal in Canton/Milton. Plus you have WGBH at 89.7 pumping out 98kw analog and about 1 kw IBOC fro atop Blue Hills.