WSRO Format Change

[nowradioguy]

My wife's Beetle has HD on both FM and AM. I can get AM 650 in my garage up here in Andover, just inside I-495. They were coming in well in Reading this morning, and along most of Rte. 28 heading north. I was amazed at the audio quality; on a par with analog FM.

For years I resented HD, especially on AM at night, since it made it impossible to pick up KYW or KDKA or even 1010 WINS, though WCBS AM would reach here in HD at night. But having heard what HD can sound like, I wish there were more AM receivers with HD, and more AM stations that would broadcast on HD only.

 

[Deleted User]

The problem is that there is no way to monetize to the point of profitability HD on FM, there is not enough market penetration of the radio (although Toyota is making it standard equipment) and there is certainly no way to do it on AM at the moment.

For the cost of the equipment and upkeep the powers that be don't want to be involved in AM HD, and I used to love WBZ-A in HD

The powers that be seem to think the investment in HD on FM is worth it, and with a 2,3,4 and sometimes 5 sub channel available for little to no outlay once they have bought into HD-1, they can just put the AM audio on a FM sub and save a ton of cash.

The radio in my daily driver in NH has no AM stations preset, I have WRKO and WBZ-A preset as a HD-2

AM Stereo never caught on ( I had a receiver in my 1992 Cougar), the expanded band is a joke, Translators are just life support for most stations, and with the land under towers being worth multiples of the value of most AM's, even a conversion of the whole AM band to digital would still not solve the problem of retaining or placing antenna farms.

And none of the above deals with streaming audio being the emerging preference of people under 34.

I don't even have a SXM receiver in my old man middle age crisis car here in Florida (2007 Mustang GT Ragtop w/ 11K miles on it) I am already paying for 3 subscriptions that give me streaming... one is tied to my amazon account, another on my phone, and the third on my wife's phone. I ripped out the factory radio (the CD changer died, a known issue) and put in a new double DIN head unit with Android Auto , Apple Carplay, bluetooth and hands free. When I plug my phone in I can stream SXM from the radio screen , changing channels, etc, or I can use Amazon Music, or any of the radio streaming platforms. Even on my motorcycles I can bluetooth or AUX input my phone and one of my GPS units has a couple of thousand MP3 music files on it.

 

[davideduardo]

The problem is that there is no way to monetize to the point of profitability HD on FM, there is not enough market penetration of the radio (although Toyota is making it standard equipment) and there is certainly no way to do it on AM at the moment.

The real issue is that HD began on terrestrial radio right about the time that the world of streaming opened up on the Internet and a better in-car experience was begun via Sirius and XM.

And HD never made it into widely available home radios, and the DAC power draw made it useless for portable radios.

For the cost of the equipment and upkeep the powers that be don't want to be involved in AM HD, and I used to love WBZ-A in HD

HD on AM required reduction of audio bandwidth to 5 kHz, making the signal most people listened to even less enjoyable.

The powers that be seem to think the investment in HD on FM is worth it, and with a 2,3,4 and sometimes 5 sub channel available for little to no outlay once they have bought into HD-1, they can just put the AM audio on a FM sub and save a ton of cash.

The profitable use of HD on FM is in two areas: allowing a "real" FM translator (which in some cases can have pretty decent coverage) or being something to lease to groups that want to do Farsi or Mandarin or Russian programming for a small audience group.

AM Stereo never caught on ( I had a receiver in my 1992 Cougar)

Because, thanks to Leonard Kahn, it was delayed for years until most music formats had left AM anyway.

, the expanded band is a joke, Translators are just life support for most stations, and with the land under towers being worth multiples of the value of most AM's, even a conversion of the whole AM band to digital would still not solve the problem of retaining or placing antenna farms.

Translators in many larger markets (look at Austin and Albuquerque for starters) are very successful and in smaller markets are sustaining hundreds and hundreds of AMs with signals that are just as good as what the AM covered. And Translators have made something near a thousand daytimers into fulltime stations.

And none of the above deals with streaming audio being the emerging preference of people under 34.

So? It does not matter to owners if listening is done online or via AM or FM or HD channels. Radio is not in the transmitter business. d

I don't even have a SXM receiver in my old man middle age crisis car here in Florida (2007 Mustang GT Ragtop w/ 11K miles on it) I am already paying for 3 subscriptions that give me streaming... one is tied to my amazon account, another on my phone, and the third on my wife's phone. I ripped out the factory radio (the CD changer died, a known issue) and put in a new double DIN head unit with Android Auto , Apple Carplay, bluetooth and hands free. When I plug my phone in I can stream SXM from the radio screen , changing channels, etc, or I can use Amazon Music, or any of the radio streaming platforms. Even on my motorcycles I can bluetooth or AUX input my phone and one of my GPS units has a couple of thousand MP3 music files on it.

Yet in many places, and for many people, terrestrial radio is just simpler. In my case, just driving to the nearest supermarket takes me through three zones where AT&T and Verizon drop out, and the whole route does not get T-Mobile to lock ever!

 

[ChrisKing]

My wife's Beetle has HD on both FM and AM. I can get AM 650 in my garage up here in Andover, just inside I-495. They were coming in well in Reading this morning, and along most of Rte. 28 heading north. I was amazed at the audio quality; on a par with analog FM.

For years I resented HD, especially on AM at night, since it made it impossible to pick up KYW or KDKA or even 1010 WINS, though WCBS AM would reach here in HD at night. But having heard what HD can sound like, I wish there were more AM receivers with HD, and more AM stations that would broadcast on HD only.

However, the beauty of "all-digital AM HD" is that it has no digital energy in the adjacent channels. It is all contained in the +-10 kHz channel assigned to the station, so interference to 2nd and 3rd adjacent stations is non-existent. Hybrid HD for AM was an interference-generator for the big guys to use to squash the little guys in the daytime, and nightime skywave listening for the entire country.

All-digital AM HD is a good neighbor.

The big problem is, many car dealers are delivering new cars with the AM HD turned off, to reduced complaints from the car-buyers. I know, I just bought a Ford Escape plug-in hybrid yesterday, and I had to surf the dashboard menu to turn on AM HD. The car salesman was __amazed__ at how great WSRO sounds.

 

[kevtronics]

I was unaware of car radios which let you disable HD on AM or FM individually. On my VW's radio it is a global setting for both AM and FM. And I know some auto manufacturers have radio set to disable both HD Radio and RDS by factory default. If the owner wants these features (which they probably don't even know exist) they need to go in to the menu and turn them on.

Plus, due to chip shortages, some new vehicles are being made without HD Radio, even though it is supposed to be standard equipment on them.

 

[nowradioguy]

HD on AM required reduction of audio bandwidth to 5 kHz, making the signal most people listened to even less enjoyable.

When iHeart acquired WBZ-AM in 2017, they turned off the HD, but the station's analog audio bandwidth is worse than it ever was, and I've been a 'BZ listener since the early 1960s. iHeart should at least restore the 'BZ-AM's bandwidth to what it was pre-HD.

Because, thanks to Leonard Kahn, it was delayed for years until most music formats had left AM anyway.

Unfortunate, because the audio quality of AM stereo was not to be dismissed lightly.

Translators in many larger markets (look at Austin and Albuquerque for starters) are very successful and in smaller markets are sustaining hundreds and hundreds of AMs with signals that are just as good as what the AM covered. And Translators have made something near a thousand daytimers into fulltime stations.

Maybe I don't get the whole translator thing, but here in the north of Boston area, the translators for the local low-power AM daytimers do not cover the same geographic area as the AMs do.

Yet in many places, and for many people, terrestrial radio is just simpler. In my case, just driving to the nearest supermarket takes me through three zones where AT&T and Verizon drop out, and the whole route does not get T-Mobile to lock ever!

T-Mobile is also unfortunate.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Maybe I don't get the whole translator thing, but here in the north of Boston area, the translators for the local low-power AM daytimers do not cover the same geographic area as the AMs do.

Theyre not going to...... 250 Watts at a few hundred feet vs a 1kw or more on AM? no match, common sense should tell you that

 

[Deleted User]

Paul it isn't the signal area overlapping, it is the AM stick may be 18 miles away from where the translator is...

WUBG out of Methuen MA has their stick on Chandler Rd in Andover, which is north of the intersection of 93 and 495, and the translator is on the old WFNX ( Ch 4 or 7 before that?) behind the old Malden Hospital.

 

[nowradioguy]

Paul it isn't the signal area overlapping, it is the AM stick may be 18 miles away from where the translator is...

WUBG out of Methuen MA has their stick on Chandler Rd in Andover, which is north of the intersection of 93 and 495, and the translator is on the old WFNX ( Ch 4 or 7 before that?) behind the old Malden Hospital.

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Thank you, MRBI, for making this clear. The maps indicate that I live in the fringe of this so-called "translator". WhyTF didn't they put the "translator" antenna - which I understand can be a simple Yagi side-mounted on a mast - on the AM tower in Andover?

Exactly WHAT is it that a "translator" translates? Or is it a way to reach areas the parent AM signal could never go?

Apparently my lack of "common sense" prevents me from understanding this. If there's a height restriction for a "translator" antenna, then putting even 10 KW into it won't get the signal out very far. Transmitting antenna height is critical to an FM signal's reach. Best example: FM signals transmitted from the Empire State Building use only a few kilowatts to cover portions of the Tri-State area.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Thank you, MRBI, for making this clear. The maps indicate that I live in the fringe of this so-called "translator". WhyTF didn't they put the "translator" antenna - which I understand can be a simple Yagi side-mounted on a mast - on the AM tower in Andover?

Exactly WHAT is it that a "translator" translates? Or is it a way to reach areas the parent AM signal could never go?

Apparently my lack of "common sense" prevents me from understanding this. If there's a height restriction for a "translator" antenna, then putting even 10 KW into it won't get the signal out very far. Transmitting antenna height is critical to an FM signal's reach. Best example: FM signals transmitted from the Empire State Building use only a few kilowatts to cover portions of the Tri-State area.

WHY would you want the translator on a short AM tower.. when you can get it much higher up somewhere else?

No height restriction, just a power restriction.

Translatorscan be located within X distance form the station.. its 25 miles.... i think

 

[CTListener]

Exactly WHAT is it that a "translator" translates? Or is it a way to reach areas the parent AM signal could never go?

In amateur radio, the term is "repeater." Why that more accurate word is not part of broadcasting jargon, I have no idea.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

In amateur radio, the term is "repeater." Why that more accurate word is not part of broadcasting jargon, I have no idea.

Thats what we call our other FM signals here at KSKO in Alaska. We refer to them as repeaters, as thats what our listeners understand.. in their minds, its repeating KSKO programming in their village.

The difference is, our repeaters could have studios and originate programming but they have neither

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Thank you, MRBI, for making this clear. The maps indicate that I live in the fringe of this so-called "translator". WhyTF didn't they put the "translator" antenna - which I understand can be a simple Yagi side-mounted on a mast - on the AM tower in Andover?

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess they were trying to get the FM signal into the Boston metro, not the Merrimack Valley home base of the parent AM.

Translator availabilities being limited in the city, the closest they could get was 105.3, which had to be located north of Boston at the Medford/Malden line, and be directionally aimed away from the City of Boston due to first adjacent 105.1 in Providence and second adjacent 105.7 in Boston.

But it does cover PART of the Boston metro. The immediate Mystic Valley suburbs north of Route 16, west and north almost to Route 128/95, and the lower North Shore.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess they were trying to get the FM signal into the Boston metro, not the Merrimack Valley home base of the parent AM.

Translator availabilities being limited in the city, the closest they could get was 105.3, which had to be located north of Boston at the Medford/Malden line, and be directionally aimed away from the City of Boston due to first adjacent 105.1 in Providence and second adjacent 105.7 in Boston.

But it does cover PART of the Boston metro. The immediate Mystic Valley suburbs north of Route 16, the west and north suburbs almost to Route 128/95, and the lower North Shore.

 

[Deleted User]

If the purpose of these low power FM's squeezed in on the first adjacents was to save AM's by giving them a better sounding signal on FM, why are they allowed to be used to expand the coverage area.

Lawrence and Methuen have nothing to do with Boston or even the North Shore,

Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill... all former mill towns on the Merrimack river have their own distinct identity... Lawrence for example is the Fentanyl distribution point for Northeast MA, all of NH and all of Maine. In my post radio career, my work took me there. I worked in the worst areas of Boston, the inner city, where gunfire was a frequent event... I never worried about my safety there.... when I had to go to Lawrence I would call my secretary and tell her where I was and how long I expected to be there... and if she didn't hear from me by a certain time she was to call the Police. I'm not kidding I am dead serious.

If you ever wanted to visit the Dominican Republic without the nice weather or pesky air travel, visit Lawrence.

Methuen has the most corrupt Police Department in the state, if not the country. Just ask the Feds investigating the former Chief.

But back to my original thought, Translators should have to cover most of the area of the local AM signal. In this case it covers the bottom 25% leaving the AM's City of License and the entire area north of it uncovered.

If the folks at MRBI had any brains, they would have applied for that frequency as a translator for WLYN AM and made the case that it covered most of its daytime coverage and would give them nightime coverage where there 76 watt night power does not.

 

[CTListener]

If you ever wanted to visit the Dominican Republic without the nice weather or pesky air travel, visit Lawrence.

Or the beaches. At least you'll be close to some baseball.

 

[raccoonradio]

>>Lawrence and Methuen have nothing to do with Boston

WEEI-FM 93.7 Lawrence MA...serving the Merrimack Valley with the best of sports talk (antenna in Peabody, studios in Boston...)
Though as Wikipedia puts it, "WEEI-FM (93.7 FM) – branded SportsRadio 93.7 WEEI-FM – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Lawrence, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. "

Of course this is a much bigger signal and full power. Remember the days of the Rock Garden?
"Ninety-four...WCGY..."

 

[davideduardo]

Lawrence and Methuen have nothing to do with Boston or even the North Shore,

The city of Lawrence and its county are part of the Boston Metro Survey Area, or, simply, "radio market".

Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill... all former mill towns on the Merrimack river have their own distinct identity..

And all are part of the Boston market

 

[davideduardo]

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess they were trying to get the FM signal into the Boston metro, not the Merrimack Valley home base of the parent AM.

The Boston radio metro is made up of Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, Worcester in MA and Hillsoborough in NH.

But it does cover PART of the Boston metro. The immediate Mystic Valley suburbs north of Route 16, west and north almost to Route 128/95, and the lower North Shore.

All of Essex County is in the Boston market.

 

[inorm99]

QUOTE="SomeRadioGuy, post: 6458481, member: 94643"]
y'all are over thinking this.. its filler till someone else leases the station
[/QUOTE]

y'all are over thinking this.. its filler till someone else leases the station

Really? If it's not Jazz or classical, then what do You think the permanent format will be, or has to be?
Probably a clone of what ever crap is already there