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WZBG
- Thread starter TPO
- Start date
WZBG was able to go on the air because of FCC Docket 80-90. That docket in the 1980s provided for an additional 1,000 FM stations. Because of Docket 80-90, three stations were able to go on the air in CT in Litchfield, Enfield and a town in New London County.
The late, great Michael collins was the one who figured out 97.3 would work up there in Litchfield, which meant WERBN had to move. And it did, to 94.5
I'm guessing the docket 80-90 station is WBMW. All the other FM's are much older than them or ,, shockingly, in the case of 107.7.. newer.
The story i once heard is WLNG couldve had 50kw if they went on at 106.5 .. but it wouldve had to be on fishers island.. i wish i remember who told me that story, but it was told to me 20 or so years ago, probably by michael collins.........
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I hope my Radio colleague & friend, CE Chief Engineer Pat Carlone, retains his position. We worked together at WXCI & WINE/WRKI. He also engineers WSNG, among others.
Saw this WZBG notice on another radio board. Gotta wonder how and why an A/C station that claims to be doing okay $$$-wise in 2023 is packing it in. I have no clue as to what their previous formatting had been ; maybe the veterans there are tired of what A/C music has become?
The stream is the standard-issue 2023 radio offering, with the overloaded spot clusters and positioners, albeit with the local-community emphasis.
There doesn't seem to be any shortage of rebound suitors, though. Re poster Paul Walker's mention of the docket 80 commotion, the recall here is of the time when Hanover NH was bestowed 92.3 availability -- and some twelve applicants pounced on it before the ink dried on the Broadcasting Magazine issue.
Fwiw, ratings in Hartford, Springfield, Danbury and even Poughkeepsie NY don't include WZBG.
Here's hoping that the staff is well looked after.
The stream is the standard-issue 2023 radio offering, with the overloaded spot clusters and positioners, albeit with the local-community emphasis.
There doesn't seem to be any shortage of rebound suitors, though. Re poster Paul Walker's mention of the docket 80 commotion, the recall here is of the time when Hanover NH was bestowed 92.3 availability -- and some twelve applicants pounced on it before the ink dried on the Broadcasting Magazine issue.
Fwiw, ratings in Hartford, Springfield, Danbury and even Poughkeepsie NY don't include WZBG.
Here's hoping that the staff is well looked after.
The owners have had it for 30 years and just want to step away, its been the same owners since its inception. Sometimes to often, owners sell because they want to step away from ownership responsibilities and liabilities.
WZBG is in part owned by the Ebersol family, Duncan "Dick" Ebersol is a former big wig at NBC TV Sports and is 76. Hes married to actress Susan St James. Dick owns part and his son, a Torrington attorney owns part
Steve Green NEPA wrote -
>Fwiw, ratings in Hartford, Springfield, Danbury and even Poughkeepsie NY don't include WZBG.
According to Radio-Locator estimates, WZBG's 3K signal doesn't reach those markets. I believe the purpose of Docket 80-90 was to put stations in places like Litchfield and Enfield. The Enfield station was originally marketed as a Springfield one.
>Fwiw, ratings in Hartford, Springfield, Danbury and even Poughkeepsie NY don't include WZBG.
According to Radio-Locator estimates, WZBG's 3K signal doesn't reach those markets. I believe the purpose of Docket 80-90 was to put stations in places like Litchfield and Enfield. The Enfield station was originally marketed as a Springfield one.
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That Radio-Locator guess is dead wrong about Meriden. WZBG was deep, deep fringe, not even audible in much of the city on my car radio. Sometimes I really have to wonder about their methodology. I've seen defenses of R-L here by people who say their maps are strictly for "entertainment purposes." Seeing coverage ranges so detached from reality has little entertainment value for me.
They dont care about those markets and are pretty far removed from some of them
@Bill-in-CT
Just for confusion's sake, I worked at that 94.7 on two occasions in the era when it was AoR WHVY. Lol -- the first gig was back when the label 'AoR' hadn't even been assigned to that music genre yet. The studio, tower and the COL were situated in, and as, Springfield. In the same building was Country WMAS 1450 *Springfield*. Now the FM has become 'Enfield' in some fashion. Yeah .... that Enfield COL is maybe just 8 miles south of Springfield but is in a different state.
And IIrc , WAQY 'Springfield', 102.1, was originally the FM of WTYM 1600, COL East Longmeadow. 'Time Radio' on 1600 was an omni daytimer that once applied for, and apparently even had engineered,, a grotesque directional nighttime plot -- under the calls 'WIXY' sometime in the 70's.
I speak from some experience in these matters, though, having worked for two stations that have gone dark plus one that burned to the ground -- twice in one day. Really. So it's tough keeping up with all the changes and shoe-horning and LPFMs and translators.
Just for confusion's sake, I worked at that 94.7 on two occasions in the era when it was AoR WHVY. Lol -- the first gig was back when the label 'AoR' hadn't even been assigned to that music genre yet. The studio, tower and the COL were situated in, and as, Springfield. In the same building was Country WMAS 1450 *Springfield*. Now the FM has become 'Enfield' in some fashion. Yeah .... that Enfield COL is maybe just 8 miles south of Springfield but is in a different state.
And IIrc , WAQY 'Springfield', 102.1, was originally the FM of WTYM 1600, COL East Longmeadow. 'Time Radio' on 1600 was an omni daytimer that once applied for, and apparently even had engineered,, a grotesque directional nighttime plot -- under the calls 'WIXY' sometime in the 70's.
I speak from some experience in these matters, though, having worked for two stations that have gone dark plus one that burned to the ground -- twice in one day. Really. So it's tough keeping up with all the changes and shoe-horning and LPFMs and translators.
Steve Green NEPA wrote...
>Just for confusion's sake, I worked at that 94.7...Now the FM has become 'Enfield' in some fashion. Yeah .... that Enfield COL is maybe just 8 miles south of Springfield but is in a different state.
iHeart owns 97.9 (then WPKX, now WUCS), and got the COL changed from Enfield to Windsor Locks when CC moved the transmitter from the Springfield market to downtown Hartford. In order for Enfield to still have a station, iHeart (then called Clear Channel) got Citidel to move its WMAS-FM's COL from Springfield to Enfield. Yeah I know, it is confusing.
>Just for confusion's sake, I worked at that 94.7...Now the FM has become 'Enfield' in some fashion. Yeah .... that Enfield COL is maybe just 8 miles south of Springfield but is in a different state.
iHeart owns 97.9 (then WPKX, now WUCS), and got the COL changed from Enfield to Windsor Locks when CC moved the transmitter from the Springfield market to downtown Hartford. In order for Enfield to still have a station, iHeart (then called Clear Channel) got Citidel to move its WMAS-FM's COL from Springfield to Enfield. Yeah I know, it is confusing.
WzBG has an odd signal. When I lived in downtown Bristol from 2009-2012 WZBG was fuzzy on my car radio and in the summer their signal was often overrode by the Portuguese 97.3 from New Bedford. I couldn't pick WZBG up on the radio in my apartment. (Also worth noting my apartment was located above a dentist office and when they were open all the stations on Meriden Mountain came in staticy).
Back to WZBG's odd signal. During that time I worked with a woman who lived in New Britain. She said she would to listen to the NASCAR races on WZBG. She never told me what kind l of radio she had. However she told me when Bomba in Bolton moved from 97.5 to 97.1 she could no longer pick up WZBG.
Today I live with my Mom in Southington minutes from Bristol and Plainville. I can pick up a staticy signal from WZBG on my no-name armband radio I picked up from Walmart earlier this year after my longtime Sony died.
Back to WZBG's odd signal. During that time I worked with a woman who lived in New Britain. She said she would to listen to the NASCAR races on WZBG. She never told me what kind l of radio she had. However she told me when Bomba in Bolton moved from 97.5 to 97.1 she could no longer pick up WZBG.
Today I live with my Mom in Southington minutes from Bristol and Plainville. I can pick up a staticy signal from WZBG on my no-name armband radio I picked up from Walmart earlier this year after my longtime Sony died.
Vis a vis coverage maps and market books, one tale from the late '70's must be related here. Word of it always has stuck in memory here.
The AoR station from Worcester MA (home city to acts such as Aerosmith, Orpheus and J. Geils) was 'WAAF' for the longest while. It is now WKVB religious programming.
But during at least one ratings sweep the station somehow showed up in numerous markets -- among them the unlikely Albany NY survey. Perhaps at the time there weren't as many local AoR stations of worth in the regions reporting listenership to 'The WAAF Giraffe'. So that acclaim, back in the Diary Days of AoR, could be interpreted as college-age and teen kids finding ways to hear 'their' music. Hard to say. But I do remember the buzz from radio people (especially AoR followers) about the improbability of a station reaching enough listeners to be tabulated in markets beyond its plotted coverage area,
Two other examples, albeit due to the quirk of water-path and on AM, come to mind. Long Island daytime/directional WHLI 'made good book' in two NJ coastal markets and a few Connecticut ones for a while during the Diary Era. And Sports WFAN at least once made every single book northeast along the Connecticut shore ...... Fairfield, New Haven, New London, Providence ....... up to and including the Cape Cod survey. If one wants to count 'inland' acclaim, WFAN used to clobber local WPOP's sports in the Hartford book every time, plus show up the other way, through Middleset-Somersex-Union in NJ and into Philadelphia.
In any event, those R-L coverage maps exist for entertainment purposes. But at one time so did radio stations. Cheers and best of wishes to the veteran WZBG staffers.
The AoR station from Worcester MA (home city to acts such as Aerosmith, Orpheus and J. Geils) was 'WAAF' for the longest while. It is now WKVB religious programming.
But during at least one ratings sweep the station somehow showed up in numerous markets -- among them the unlikely Albany NY survey. Perhaps at the time there weren't as many local AoR stations of worth in the regions reporting listenership to 'The WAAF Giraffe'. So that acclaim, back in the Diary Days of AoR, could be interpreted as college-age and teen kids finding ways to hear 'their' music. Hard to say. But I do remember the buzz from radio people (especially AoR followers) about the improbability of a station reaching enough listeners to be tabulated in markets beyond its plotted coverage area,
Two other examples, albeit due to the quirk of water-path and on AM, come to mind. Long Island daytime/directional WHLI 'made good book' in two NJ coastal markets and a few Connecticut ones for a while during the Diary Era. And Sports WFAN at least once made every single book northeast along the Connecticut shore ...... Fairfield, New Haven, New London, Providence ....... up to and including the Cape Cod survey. If one wants to count 'inland' acclaim, WFAN used to clobber local WPOP's sports in the Hartford book every time, plus show up the other way, through Middleset-Somersex-Union in NJ and into Philadelphia.
In any event, those R-L coverage maps exist for entertainment purposes. But at one time so did radio stations. Cheers and best of wishes to the veteran WZBG staffers.
Steve - Interesting about AOR WHVY. WIXY/Country16 was run on a Schaefer automation machine. At the time (the late 70's - early 80's) it was "5,000 Watts Over Springfield". I worked at the FM Wacky102/Rock102, where the antenna is on Provin Mountain in Agawam