Rimshot Signals

Steve Green NEPA said:

I'm pretty sure that the pattern contours I linked were to WQHT 97.1, not WQXR. 'Hot 97' is often the only NYC station we can hear out this far west. (We have a rotor on the roof)

@BadJef: Lol -- the Rays are the third ball team I root for. That's the result of having spent the first half of the 2010 MLB season in The Villages with my Folks.
Mets, then Yankees, then the Rays. Sounds screwy and contradictory,but there it is.

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It is interesting that the New Yorkers have the same signal in origin - sans WQXR - but how different they are received as a result of drop-in translators and short-spacing.

And, thank you, for including my beloved Rays. My teams are the same, just not in the same order, and I include the Padres.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

I've always thought of the NYC rim shots as 96.7, 99.1, 92.7,93.5, 103.9, and WKJY. WSUS and the two 107.1s don't try to serve NYC, so I don't consider them rimshots. Plain and simple.

The transmitter for 92.7 FM is actually on the Queens-Nassau border, but it is directional toward Long Island. The transmitter for 103.9 is in the Bronx and is aimed at Harlem, the Bronx and lower Westchester. I wouldn't classify them as rimshooters.

BruceNYC said:

The transmitter for 92.7 FM is actually on the Queens-Nassau border, but it is directional toward Long Island. The transmitter for 103.9 is in the Bronx and is aimed at Harlem, the Bronx and lower Westchester. I wouldn't classify them as rimshooters.

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I agree about 103.9. It's a class A station but they broadcast from within the NYC city limits so I don't see why this would be a rimshot.

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@ David: A station that came to mind almost immediately is the now-defunct WERA 1590 from Plainfield NJ.

They were a 500-watt directional daytimer virtually in the shadow of neighboring WWRL's four towers in Secaucus. The Big RL sent no signal toward Plainfield (or to the northeast, for the matter of that).

As a result of this 'shoehorn', or 'rimshot' signal, WERA amounted to a local station in Staten Island -- louder than WWRL. In fact -- admittedly uninvestigated -- WERA may have put a more enjoyable signal into parts of Staten Island than WINS did.

WWRL shot all of its wattage SE, through Columbus Circle, down Flatbush Avenue and then out to preheat seafood in the Atlantic. On the other side of their signal they also had a huge null pulled in from Boston. That prevented them from being heard in some neighbourhoods of the populous East Bronx -- another NYC borough. That reciprocal signal void encouraged a broadcasting group to apply for a 1590 license in Port Chester NY. IIrc, the calls were WNJZ.
There were daytime reports of reception of WLNG 1600 -- 100 miles east of it all -- in that stretch between the Throgs Neck bridge and Port Chester.

'WNJZ' never made it to the air. Am just saying that if WERA in NJ could, and did, get a license thirty feet from WWRL .... and a new group pursued the same situation on WWRL's other side ..... well: which station was the rimshot? WERA? WNJZ/ WWRL?
Lol.

You are right, sir. Whether or not one considers WERA a 'rimshotter' is probably a moot matter of nomenclature now, though.

Wouldn't WAWZ in Zarephath, NJ be considered a rimshot of NYC? or WMGQ New Brunswick?

When I saw 'WAWZ', AM Rocks (showing my age) I instantly thought of the share-time 1380 facility, now long gone.
On an uneducated guess, I'd say they had their towers in Jersey.
Different directional pattern, of course, from that of WBNX.
So does WBNX (or whatever their letters are now). But WBNX put a roaring, splashy signal through our dens near JFK Airport while WAWZ 1380's signal was weak and/or undermodulated. Twilight catches with WAWZ * on the air * would be that thing from Vermont, WNRI Rhode Island, plus listenable stations on 1370 and 1390.

The share-time 1330 reception near JFK was similar. WEVD had their towers about just maybe four blocks and one East River away from Grand Central Station. WEVD's sticks (and WQXR's) were the closest ones to us.
But WPOW had their three towers in southwestern Staten Island. So when WPOW 1330 got the frequency for their allotted broadcast time, all sorts of swell things came in near JFK.
Especially near sunset. We'd hear WTSR 1330 from Tasley VA. And neighbouring WMID Atlantic City on 1340 was gangbusters, coming up the coast and at times splashing onto WPOW's programming.
IIrc, both WEVD and WPOW were licensed to New York City.

DavidEduardo said:

Not really. They are licensed inside the NYC MSA.

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So are we talking a rimshot signal to NYC or a rimshot signal to the metro? If that's the case, (metro,) any Philly station would be a rimshot to the metro. lol

AMRocks said:

So are we talking a rimshot signal to NYC or a rimshot signal to the metro? If that's the case, (metro,) any Philly station would be a rimshot to the metro. lol

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I'm guessing that there aren't any Philadelphia stations trying to make money from the New York metro.

. Long gone are the days when WNAR 1110 Norristown PA, WKDN 800 Camden, WEEZ 1590 Chester, WBCB 1490 Levittoen, et al, would themselves be looking for any spillover revenue subsidies from Philadelphia itself.

New York City is 90 miles and three markets removed from the priorities * any * Philadelphia station (AM or FM) who would think of looking past their market for $$. Since most of the Philly and NYC FM stations are slobbering over each other from just .2 mHz apart and thus are unlistenable in their big neighbours' major back yard, the only station worth looking at for recycling purposes would be WPHT 1210.
I doubt WPHT will be looking for advertising money from Dennison's Clothiers (or whatever they are now) in Union NJ to help the cash flow.