They keep running a promo saying that their transmitter is "getting a facelift", so they're running at low power, and steering their listeners to their online alternatives. No wonder I can barely tell that the station exists if any of my house's dimmer switches are in use.
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WRKO is running at low power
- Thread starter Cap-n Spackle
- Start date
RE: Backups and low power:
Funny, WBZ was running at low-power (10,000watts from Allston omni) for about a week while they dealt with tech issues. I was amazed at how bad the signal was. The frequency should be pretty quiet....but as I drove around corners etc, the signal kept dampening.
WRKO had a few times last year where they went off the air during Howie's show...I was amazed that I heard the Canadian pretty clear the instant they went off the air.
Funny, WBZ was running at low-power (10,000watts from Allston omni) for about a week while they dealt with tech issues. I was amazed at how bad the signal was. The frequency should be pretty quiet....but as I drove around corners etc, the signal kept dampening.
WRKO had a few times last year where they went off the air during Howie's show...I was amazed that I heard the Canadian pretty clear the instant they went off the air.
Low power is probably an improvement.
Allston isn't really on/near a nice body of water. It's inside the city limits and I wouldn't expect ANY AM signal in an urban setting to do well.
Look at the huge difference in WMEX's signal from when they were running (wasting) 50,000 watts in a Waltham parking lot to now, with their site on the waterfront, at a fraction of the former power, no less.
WBZ's Allston transmitter was also in a parking lot......................
Back in my college days the then WRYT now WROL used to take advantage of the transmitter testing window on Monday morning between Midnight and 5 AM running a full-blown Top 40 show - 5,000 watts non-directional from the Saugus swamp packed a punch - WPEN in Philly complained they could hear WRYT on their off air tuner in Center City.
NARBA in 1941 was not kind to Boston AM stations except for WBZ.
Post-WWII saw some brilliant engineering from WHDH (850) and WLAW Lawrence (680) to create strong 50KW regional signals but both had severe nulls at night south and west of Boston. The WHDH transmitter in Needham was the tallest manmade structure in New England until Channel 4 built their TV tower in Allston.
I'm not sure I follow where you're going here - all that NARBA did in 41 was to move existing facilities up the dial without changing their relationships with other co-channel signals. WORL and WPEN coexisted on 920 pre-NARBA the same way they did on 950 after. Same with WNAC and other stations that went from 1230 to 1260, or WHDH/KOA on 830 to 850.
What's very true is that Boston's AMs overall got the short end of the stick compared to other very large markets of the era (Chicago, Philly). I suspect it's because some of the good regional frequencies that might have gone to Boston ended up in nearby big cities such as Hartford (1080) and Providence (630, 790, 920) that also needed good service.
And it didn't help that Boston was in the same radio zone as NYC and so of course the clear channels that were allocated to the zone mostly went to NYC. I'm sure rural areas of New England outside of metro Boston had no trouble listening to the NYC clears at night through most of that era, minimizing the need for big duplicate network affiliate signals out of Boston.
@fybush - I was just pointing out that when WRYT (WORL) did transmitter testing on Monday mornings they created problems at WPEN
It was by design that New York and Chicago stations were assigned adjacent frequencies - 660/670, 710/720, 770/780, 880/890 etc
John Shepard III's WNAC deserved better than 1260 BUT I sense the creation of the 'Yankee Network' hurt him in getting a better Boston signal. However, WNAC was given Channel 7 in 1948 which in retrospect was a ghastly mistake but................... (by then RKO General had bought WNAC )
WHDH became a powerhouse after WWII with the move to Needham and getting the Red Sox in 1947 and at the same time Bob & Ray.
Driving between the antennas in Newton on 128 today, RKO's signal was mostly a loud buzz.
That's just K0000nah's normal annoying drone.
There was a DXer who heard it in East Tennessee last night and that signal never goes west. That apparently is why.
I hope they also do some lighting upgrades for reliability while they are up there, considering how close those towers are to Hanscom Field. I swear to God there is a standing NOTAM for tower lights being out on one of those towers