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WCHE 1520- Should they go to 5kw?

A

atrainradio

Guest
WCHE is a great station, and plays a lot of good tunes. I think that they should consider a raise in watts, so they can clearly cover philly. I know they'd gotta power down because the buffalo 50kw will blast in at night. But I don't think there's a lot stopping WCHE from going 5kW, just so that they can cover philly. They gotta make sure they protect WNWR on 1540 of course as well.

Who agrees?
 
To be clear, I'm NOT ripping anyone or complaining about anything, but may I ask what tunes you're hearing?
WCHE is primarily a talk station that fills in occasionally with 50s 60s and 70s songs.

They have 2 or three really unique shows that feature music. Each on a different day of the week or weekend, But there is no current
line-up that features any block of programming that features music. Especially curated music. Oldies are un-tagged and on automation
so you never know and are never told what is playing or has played.

Having said all that, I'd much rather see them go with an FM translator if there's something available, or clean-up their stream online and boost its bit-rate
from the extremely low quality they have been running to something that would allow for better sounding music on the rare occasions they do play music.

As a WCHE alumn, I'd love to hear them get out further and clearer. Talk, music, or a combo.
 
AM RADIO is on its death bed preparing to enter the graveyard.
 
atrainradio said:
WCHE is a great station, and plays a lot of good tunes. I think that they should consider a raise in watts, so they can clearly cover philly. I know they'd gotta power down because the buffalo 50kw will blast in at night. But I don't think there's a lot stopping WCHE from going 5kW, just so that they can cover philly. They gotta make sure they protect WNWR on 1540 of course as well.

Who agrees?
Click to expand...

WCHE went on the air, IIRC, in 1963. If it could have raised power it would have done it long ago. Now, the Brunswick MD station has 17 kw on 1520, and, although dark, must be protected. Similarly, the adjacent channels of 1510 and 1530 must be protected as well.

WCHE is directional already, with a null towards downtown Philadelphia. Any increase in power would likely send a better signal SW and NE from Chester, not into the core of the market.
 
Here at work in West Goshen, it's coming in loud and clear with swap shop. That's the great programming? Back to Preston & Steve on WMMR. I think the transmitter is right down the street from me off the West Chester Bypass.
 
Yeah well the last 3 or 4 time I have heard WCHE, it was playing music. And when they do have talk, it is usually nicer than the same BS you get on most other talk stations around.
 
Long ago, there had been another nearby 1520 station, a daytimer called WVOB from Bel Air MD. Word was that they and WCHE got stomped in their coverage areas near sunset by WKBW. Of course, that would be even more ghastly during winter.
(Up on Long Island, the closest xmtr to the DXing den was 1520 WTHE, which underwent the same fate from KB.)

Plus, if they're doing okay with what they've got -- in their own provinciality -- why would they want to reach Philly? And as David Eduardo said, any power increase or directional changes would have been done long ago.

The old WPEN 950 can testify about the wisdom of adding all those towers and increasing the power. It seems the more they did to upgrade, the worse the ratings got. WCHE is even more perilous, being that high up on the crowded part of the dial.

Nothing personal, A-Train. I've enjoyed the distant stations myself for decades. But any further shoehorning of AM station signals in the crowded northeast isn't in the cards. Quite recently, in fact, a 1510 station two counties' north OF NYC went dark. Your Grundig and Tecson will have to do the job vis-a-vis. Consider yourself fortunate that WCHE is still on the air for you to enjoy, hi.
 
Bill_W said:
Here at work in West Goshen, it's coming in loud and clear with swap shop. That's the great programming? Back to Preston & Steve on WMMR. I think the transmitter is right down the street from me off the West Chester Bypass.
Click to expand...

If you think Preston and Steve is "great", I'm sorry to have to question your judgment.
 
Very true Steve, and yeah I am fine using the Grundig to pull it in. Glad they are still are anyway.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Long ago, there had been another nearby 1520 station, a daytimer called WVOB from Bel Air MD. Word was that they and WCHE got stomped in their coverage areas near sunset by WKBW. Of course, that would be even more ghastly during winter.
(Up on Long Island, the closest xmtr to the DXing den was 1520 WTHE, which underwent the same fate from KB.)
Click to expand...

I remember Bel Air's 1520 as WHRF. I started a thread on it on the Maryland board...

http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?685737-Remembering-1520-WHRF-Bel-Air

ixnay
 
In winter, it's not only Buffalo beating them up during Critical Hours. They-and Buffalo!-get clobbered by a couple of Trans-Atlantic signals. A 2000 kW monster in NW Saudi Arabia and a 500 kW station inChina,both on the 9 kHz channel of 1521 kHz, bury them both at times. At night, the 1 kHz howl is sometimes so loud Buffalo is unlistenable.
 
DG02816 said:
In winter, it's not only Buffalo beating them up during Critical Hours. They-and Buffalo!-get clobbered by a couple of Trans-Atlantic signals. A 2000 kW monster in NW Saudi Arabia and a 500 kW station inChina,both on the 9 kHz channel of 1521 kHz, bury them both at times. At night, the 1 kHz howl is sometimes so loud Buffalo is unlistenable.
Click to expand...

You exaggerate.

I don't think the Chinese station has been reported in the NY / PA area, even by the most experienced of DXers. While the Saudi station is occasionally heard by skilled DXers, it is relatively rare and only hearable when just the right darkness path and reception conditions exist from Saudi Arabia to the NY / PA area.

The Chinese station would be considered a polar or trans-Pacific reception, not trans-Atlantic, and the darkness path would not likely affect the daytime only reception of the Chester station.
 
ATrain, If you like the tunes, more power to you. I'm sure WCHE would be interested to know what time you were listening. Was it specialty programming like Sundays at 1pm for Wang's World (he knows it's a funny name)? Could it have been a Thursday at 4pm for Nicole Zell and SoundStage?

That would be useful info.

I've noticed they get out a bit stronger than before lately. I think they have a different engineer working for them now. I could be wrong.
I've heard them in Pennsauken over the air with my car radio. Not too shabby for them at 10:00am.
 
wcradio2 said:
I've noticed they get out a bit stronger than before lately. I think they have a different engineer working for them now. I could be wrong.
I've heard them in Pennsauken over the air with my car radio. Not too shabby for them at 10:00am.
Click to expand...

I've noticed that their signal is MUCH stronger now than when I worked there in 2009. I wish the signal was that strong when I was on the air, maybe I would have had more listeners. I don't know what they're doing but I can tune in WCHE on 620AM on three different radios in my house.

As far as the "good tunes" they're playing, all I ever hear when they play music in automation is the same old predictable hits like "Bad Moon Rising" by CCR.
 
I think the engineer they are using now has made the over the air signal much better. I believe it's the gent who helped with the power-up and the whole second antenna fiasco. If so, good for him. I'm glad someone finally got it sounding good technically.
 
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