WCNI Power Increase

Much to my surprise, I tuned to 90.9 MHz and heard WCNI from New London College tonight in Farmington, CT. The signal was weak, but I was able to listen to a very interesting student programming while on I-84 in Bristol, Farmington, and West Hartford.

I knew that they were going to change freq. from 91.1, but I didn't realize they were going to crank the power up to 2,000 watts?

Does anyone know when they switched?

Their web site says they are going through some organizational changes as well but it sounds as if they are going to keep their wonderfully eclectic format that I have always enjoyed. Their programmers seem to take advantage of the freedom that college radio can offer instead of just trying to be clones of commercial jocks. I know this has been discussed before and not everyone agrees, but college radio is a place where people can experiment without having to worry about formats and commercial pressure. One doesn't have to stick to a playlist that someone else created to learn how to do commercial radio so I think college radio can provide unique programming while training announcers in the art of radio.

Some people say that college radio will never be popular but they miss the point, it is not meant to be widely popular. College radio can afford to narrow cast, which is something they do best. Connecticut has some very successful college stations that have not copped out and gone the commercial-clone route: WHUS, WWUH, WRTC and WFCS to name four. For the skeptics, WHUS has won "Best College Station" in the Advocate Readers Poll two years in a row, WWUH has thousands of listeners who support it financial every year and a wildly successful webcast and concert series, WRTC has a very loyal following and even WFCS's 36 watt signal has a surprisingly number of listeners.

I live in New Britain's south end and I've always struggled to pick up WFCS-FM's "massive" 36-watt horizontal signal (3 miles or less from the CCSU campus). It's kinda tough to increase power when you've already got WWRX-FM 107.7 ("Jam'n 107.7") in the Stonington area. As for WCNI-FM, I haven't tried them out yet on either my Walkman or Sony radio.

By the way, I-84 doesn't go through Bristol. Perhaps you meant CT Route 72? (Sorry, I had to nitpick!)

I don't considering your correction "nitpicking". Accuracy is important. especially when discussing radio station coverage. When I first heard WCNI on their new freq, I was near what I call the "ESPN Exit" off of I-84, you know, the Lake Compounce exit, and I just assumed that I was probably in Bristol at that point on 84. I haven't bothered to check a map, but I would suspect that I was probably in Southington at the time.

WFCS replaced their old four bay horiz-pol antenna with a circular polarized antenna about five years ago. They put in a new Crown transmitter and updated the processing at the time as well to do everything they can to get out on such a crowded channel. The CP helped, especially with boom box and table radios. They've got some pretty high terrain around them too which doesn't help one bit. Prior to the sign on of the 107.7 near the shore, they had listeners in Vernon, Hartford and Bloomfield!

You can see pictures of their antenna at http://www.necrat.com/.

Let us know how the 90.9 signal sounds at your location.






> I live in New Britain's south end and I've always struggled
> to pick up WFCS-FM's "massive" 36-watt horizontal signal (3
> miles or less from the CCSU campus). It's kinda tough to
> increase power when you've already got WWRX-FM 107.7 ("Jam'n
> 107.7") in the Stonington area. As for WCNI-FM, I haven't
> tried them out yet on either my Walkman or Sony radio.
>
> By the way, I-84 doesn't go through Bristol. Perhaps you
> meant CT Route 72? (Sorry, I had to nitpick!)
>

I remember DJ'ing twice at WCNI under Chucky Daddy's reign. I was only there twice because I moved, unfortunately..

It was still at 91.1 when I was there and they were sitll in the process of fighting to get it approved. The signal did vastly improve with the jump to 90.9 and 2KW. I think it's great for them, they truly do some great radio. You can find them online at www.wcniradio.org if im not mistaken.|

I remember having to sign the station off so Michael Rice (I think it was him) had to come down and fix a few parts in the board.

You know, the old 91.1 tower was right outside the side door at WCNI and on campus, sticking above the tree, but nearly all of the students I spoke to had never seen it. Go figure.


> I don't considering your correction "nitpicking". Accuracy
> is important. especially when discussing radio station
> coverage. When I first heard WCNI on their new freq, I was
> near what I call the "ESPN Exit" off of I-84, you know, the
> Lake Compounce exit, and I just assumed that I was probably
> in Bristol at that point on 84. I haven't bothered to check
> a map, but I would suspect that I was probably in
> Southington at the time.
>
> WFCS replaced their old four bay horiz-pol antenna with a
> circular polarized antenna about five years ago. They put in
> a new Crown transmitter and updated the processing at the
> time as well to do everything they can to get out on such a
> crowded channel. The CP helped, especially with boom box
> and table radios. They've got some pretty high terrain
> around them too which doesn't help one bit. Prior to the
> sign on of the 107.7 near the shore, they had listeners in
> Vernon, Hartford and Bloomfield!
>
> You can see pictures of their antenna at
> http://www.necrat.com/.
>
> Let us know how the 90.9 signal sounds at your location.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > I live in New Britain's south end and I've always
> struggled
> > to pick up WFCS-FM's "massive" 36-watt horizontal signal
> (3
> > miles or less from the CCSU campus). It's kinda tough to
> > increase power when you've already got WWRX-FM 107.7
> ("Jam'n
> > 107.7") in the Stonington area. As for WCNI-FM, I haven't
> > tried them out yet on either my Walkman or Sony radio.
> >
> > By the way, I-84 doesn't go through Bristol. Perhaps you
> > meant CT Route 72? (Sorry, I had to nitpick!)
> >
>