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WHO HAS BETTER SIGNAL, WXKS AM OR WRKO?

Tired Of It All said:
Here we are eleven years later and RKO's signal is still crappy, SMH.
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Tired,

From what you describe of WRKO's night time signal in your area, it may not be the fault of the antenna pattern or any RF (radio frequency) problem, but COULD be the result of sloppy control of audio levels. These, as you know, are controlled by that smooth operating automation whiz box at iHeart Central in Medford. Remember, no one is monitoring what's going out over the air, except for us schmucks, er, listeners.
 
Tired Of It All said:
Well aren't you charming. I'm not an engineer, etc. I have no idea how to improve it, that's why I reposted this thread from 2010, I figure you so-called know it all geniuses must have an answer and I can see you don't...NEXT......
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It CAN'T be improved, you are too close to Canada so there is a treaty in force that has most every station in the market in the market broadcasting to the fishes at night

Look at the predicted patterns.... they are there to protect Canadian Stations, stations as far west as the Rockies and to the Gulf of Mexico /Mexico/Cuba/etc

First Adjacents on 670 and 690, First Harmonic on 1360 ( try listening to WLYN AM in Burlington, you get WRKO, trust me on that I worked at WLYN) etc etc etc are the reasons why they can't upgrade.

If iHrt had unlimited funds (they don't they are always in near bankruptcy status) they could buy every station on 670, 680 and 690 east of the Rockies and from north to south and take them dark, then they would have to re-open treaty negotiations that go back longer than I have been alive, which would probably take an act of Congress and the co-operation of a dozen nations to loosen the treaty non interference requirements. Oh ya they would need to get the FCC to allow a change in facilities. Moving it is out of the question, Getting the land for a 3 tower array inside 128 would cost millions, if you could get zoning approved

Look at WJIB AM on 740, when they go off at sunset you get a Canadian AM (CFZM) blowing in here like they ara a local station. AM signals can go much further than their predicted patterns

General Tire, RKO General, American Radio Systems, iHrt.... they have RF guys that run circles around me, and in the period of time from 1937 until now, not much has changed WRT their night signal, because it can't be done under the current laws regulations and rules
 
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Exactly they can only do what they can.
HD radios--some affordable portables, and some cars have them included. Also the iHeart app.
WRKO has problems in various spots including high tension wires.
I too have picked up WRKO booming in on the 1360 harmonic in Burlington.

WJIB reduces power to a few watts, as does WJTO in Maine. Once I was up there and heard Bittner make an announcement
saying that they were about to reduce power, and most listeners would lose the station.
WJIB 250 watts/ 5 watts night
WJTO 1000 watts/ 6 watts night
 
MRBIboredop said:
It CAN'T be improved, you are too close to Canada so there is a treaty in force that has most every station in the market in the market broadcasting to the fishes at night
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I am not sure if the doubtful poster understands how very low power on AM at night can interfere with other stations hundreds or even a thousand or more miles away.

Back when some AM channels were clear after midnight, there were plenty of cases of listeners hearing a 250 watt Hawaiian station on 830 in the northeastern United States. Or a 10 kw station on 1000 kHz when WCFL and KOMO were off late Sunday night. Or the sign-on of LR3 from Buenos Aires at 4 AM Monday morning on 950 when no US station was on the air on that frequency.

Those are just a few illustrations of how even a small amount of power can travel great distances on AM. And why stations that "share" frequencies must protect the other stations hundreds of miles from their city of license or the dial would be full of stations chewing each other up right in their primary coverage areas.

There are just 117 AM channels including the X-Band, and nearly 5 thousand AM stations. For the most part, they share channels with each other, and there is nothing that can be done to change the laws of physics that affect propagation.

As you say, "it CAN'T be improved".
 
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Interesting--my HD portable is in the car and maybe I'll scan through to see if there are other changes; K-Love had been
on ZLX HD3 before... As we've read the 96.3 FM translator for WCRB is soon going to K-Love (sold to EMF)
 
raccoonradio said:
Interesting--my HD portable is in the car and maybe I'll scan through to see if there are other changes; K-Love had been
on ZLX HD3 before... As we've read the 96.3 FM translator for WCRB is soon going to K-Love (sold to EMF)
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Actually the 96.3 translator (with a CP for 97.3 and upgrade to 25 watts) is being sold to Costa-Eagle, who have been leasing(?) 1570 AM/105.3 FM to EMF (K-Love), the translator is not being sold to EMF itself (not like WAAF, now WKVB, that was actually bought by EMF).
 
This has to be the most confusing and convoluted thread I've read on this Forum for as long as I can remember. Must be my age, because I can't keep track of which uninteresting fare is on which frequencies. Sheesh, or it is SMH?
 
MRBIboredop said:
It CAN'T be improved, you are too close to Canada so there is a treaty in force that has most every station in the market in the market broadcasting to the fishes at night
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That is the key country to most protection in New England. And keep in mind that for the Canadian pure and shared clear channels, usually US stations have to protect not just the station but the Canadian border anywhere in case they move the Canadian station's location as is their right.
MRBIboredop said:
If iHrt had unlimited funds (they don't they are always in near bankruptcy status) they could buy every station on 670, 680 and 690 east of the Rockies and from north to south and take them dark, then they would have to re-open treaty negotiations that go back longer than I have been alive, which would probably take an act of Congress and the co-operation of a dozen nations to loosen the treaty non interference requirements. Oh ya they would need to get the FCC to allow a change in facilities. Moving it is out of the question, Getting the land for a 3 tower array inside 128 would cost millions, if you could get zoning approved
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NARBA exists only in theory any more, with nation to nation agreements superseding a lot of it. But the US has agreements now with only Canada, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Mexico. Cuba abrogated, Jamaica dropped out decades ago, Haiti never joined, and the rest of the hemisphere does not coordinate. (The situation is more complicated legally, but this sort of sums it up)
MRBIboredop said:
General Tire, RKO General, American Radio Systems, iHrt.... they have RF guys that run circles around me, and in the period of time from 1937 until now, not much has changed WRT their night signal, because it can't be done under the current laws regulations and rules
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The only hope for some AM stations is that as more and more AMs go off permanently, protections of them may allow less tight patterns.
 
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raccoonradio said:

W242AA-FM: Radio Station Not Found

radio-locator.com radio-locator.com

Info on 96.3/ CP for 97.3. Eastgate Apt bldg Cambridge. 60 Wadsworth St nr Kemdall Sq T
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The new location in the translator CP is no longer the Eastgate building, which is now beginning to be demolished in stages.

It’s proposed in the CP to be moved to a new tall MIT building just several feet west of Eastgate on Main St. at the site of the former MIT/Kendall Square T entrance, which has been moved across the street.
MIT radio station WMBR has already moved their transmitter to a new tower and antenna on this new building. It is slightly taller than Eastgate is (soon was).
Though WMBR’s coverage area was not supposed to have any marked improvement “on paper”, some listeners have been reporting a slight improvement in WMBR’s reception, probably due to their new antenna being a more efficient design and maybe also the approximately nine feet increase in height.
 
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Just heard on WRKO the latest weather "here on Talk Radio 680--WCBM". I guess we're now in Baltimore, hon...pass the Natty Boh
 
Just kind of funny...like when WWDJ 1150 (or was it the 890) ran conservative talk and the website showed a great view of the skyline--of Baltimore.Carelessness, though yes most
probably don't notice or care.
Then there was the time RKO ran a weather forecast from a previous day and they told of heavy rain continuing the next few hours...and it
was a beautiful sunny day.

I caught the pun...RKO General, owner from long ago. We never _tire_ of the in jokes.
(Wikipedia on General Tire:"The remaining assets of RKO were merged with General Teleradio, and the new company became known initially as RKO Teleradio Pictures, then RKO Teleradio, before eventually becoming RKO General. The radio stations became some of the leading broadcasters in the world, but the division was dragged down by unethical conduct at its television stations. This culminated in the longest licensing dispute in television history, eventually forcing RKO General out of the broadcasting business by 1991.")
 
raccoonradio said:
Just kind of funny...like when WWDJ 1150 (or was it the 890) ran conservative talk and the website showed a great view of the skyline--of Baltimore.Carelessness, though yes most
probably don't notice or care.
Then there was the time RKO ran a weather forecast from a previous day and they told of heavy rain continuing the next few hours...and it
was a beautiful sunny day.

I caught the pun...RKO General, owner from long ago. We never _tire_ of the in jokes.
(Wikipedia on General Tire:"The remaining assets of RKO were merged with General Teleradio, and the new company became known initially as RKO Teleradio Pictures, then RKO Teleradio, before eventually becoming RKO General. The radio stations became some of the leading broadcasters in the world, but the division was dragged down by unethical conduct at its television stations. This culminated in the longest licensing dispute in television history, eventually forcing RKO General out of the broadcasting business by 1991.")
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Too bad: because of unethical conduct on the TV side, the whole RKO-General operation ceased to exist. Lemme guess: it was the TV side that was subsidizing the radio side, and when the former got spun off, the latter lost its air supply. RKO General had some once great radio stations: WRKO and 98.5 WROR(FM), Boston; WOR-AM/FM, NYC; WGMS-AM/FM, Washington, DC; CKLW-AM/FM, Windsor-Detroit; WHBQ-AM/FM, Memphis; KFRC-AM/FM, SF; and KHJ-AM/FM, LA. (I got to hear them all, except for WGMS and WHBQ.)

In 1977-78, when we were living in Chicago, they also owned "103 and a half FM, WFYR, Chicago, broadcasting from atop the world's tallest building." Obviously, they must've dumped one of the above to make this happen. WFYR was a great, full-service radio station; we listened to it at home all the time. We only had an AM radio in the car, so there it was "56 WIND, Chicago, Group W, Westinghouse Broadcasting."
 
It has been noted that WXKS 1200 is now on the HD3 of WZLX 100.7 in place of K-Love (it was said the Methuen based WUBG 1570 with the Medford translator at 105.3 was the originator). I think the iHeart app has been known to carry K-Love as well.
So now the low rated Beck, Hannity, Travis & Sexton etc shows are on that HD3 for no-static-at-all reception. The ratings aren't there but nationwide the various Premiere shows make money for iHR. The power of almost 600 affiliates is why Premiere was able to pay Rush $50 million per year for 8 years. Alright, so the ratings in Boston for 1200 are lower than whale excrement as Howie would put it, but they're putting Talk 1200 on the HD3 anyway.
 
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