If what Wimmmex and Tired of It All are saying is correct, then these maps aren't that representative of actual coverage, whether we're talking ground wave or sky wave. However, the Atlantic Ocean seems to be the best spot to pick up any Boston station.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Bloomberg 1200 format change soon
- Thread starter DavidZ
- Start date
If what Wimmmex and Tired of It All are saying is correct, then these maps aren't that representative of actual coverage, whether we're talking ground wave or sky wave. However, the Atlantic Ocean seems to be the best spot to pick up any Boston station.
None of the mapping apps online shows skywave. And, today, very few stations have a listenable skywave service area and essentially none can commercialize their skywave coverage.
The groundwave contours shown on sites like radio-locator show levels of signal. In a congested, noisy metro environment, an AM station is "useful" only inside the innermost contour... in most cases, about 20% less than that inner contour.
At night, stations may have a useful signal beyond where the station can be listened to and that is because they have a very small "interference free contour", a term which refers to where other stations on the same channel put enough of a signal into the area to significantly reduce the effective coverage of the station.
The radiolocator site makes no great claims to accuracy. This is to be expected, since the vagaries of radio propagation are impossible to characterize.
What I was reacting to was raccooner man's comment that the pattern for 1200 AM looked "fairly impressive". I cannot agree. I believe the operative word is "looked", since 1200 AM's reception in my area is, in reality, nothing about which to write home. That was true for its first incarnation as Talk 1200 and now for its latter day gig. During the day, 1430 AM gives better reception where I'm located. At night, I cannot get it OTA at all. And 1200 AM is not - for me - a whole lot better at night.
That said, it is far easier to get decent reception from 1210 WPHT, Philadelphia at night than it is from 1200 AM which, for us, is "local".
The maps are theoretical, statistical and predictive of what the signal would/should be.
However, after that, there are lots of other factors that come into play that are not on the maps, especially in the nighttime, that affect receiviability.....buildings, spurious noise, noisy frequencies, dx issues, nulls....not to mention the receiving tuner and antenna.
As David said, the inner most contour (pinkish area) is the only one that really is reliable for my listening experience.
And if you look at 1430AM's night pattern....Dorchester, Mattapan, W. Roxbury & Brookline with don't make it inside the pinkish area...or barely do. It's hard to call a station a reliable Boston signal when you can't get it in Dorchester after 4:15 in the Winter! ;-)
1200AM seems to cover inside 128/95 pretty well after dark.
That site used to have a disclaimer that said, "for entertainment purposes only". That, in itself, says "don't take the contours are totally factual."
It appears Talk1200 is having difficulty telling time....at 6:50 they announced "first news at 59" - and did the news - they were nine minutes off....just now (7:46am) they announced "first news at 59" - did the news - thirteen minutes off.......
btw maybe it's fixed now but after the time change, WMFO podcasts on their site were off.If you wanted to hear the Sun 5 pm show from this week you had to click on the 4 pm show.
The other day I heard Howie Carr from WRKO doing a spot on Talk1200 for fireplace inserts, just now I heard that horrible kuhner man doing a spot for Kelly Financial? What's up with that? I know they're both IHeart stations but didn't know one station's "talent" can do spots on another station. 
Howie isn't an iHeart employee.He self syndicates his show and WRKO is an affiliate.Kuhner already had a relationship with Bill Kelly and upon his death, stepped in to do a tribute show and a brokered time slot for RKO and probably other stations.
Even before iHR got RKO, some iHR stations ran Howie's show but while RKO carries Howie, he runs his own network.He left Entercom in Nov of 2014..after trying for the previous 7 years to do so.
RKO did sign up for Howie in Mar of 2015, after he had WMEX run his show for a few months.What if they didn't? By June of last year the story would have been "Howie without a Boston affiliate as WMEX goes off the air." We don't know if continuing to run Howie would have kept Daly XXL from its dire situation.
Even before iHR got RKO, some iHR stations ran Howie's show but while RKO carries Howie, he runs his own network.He left Entercom in Nov of 2014..after trying for the previous 7 years to do so.
RKO did sign up for Howie in Mar of 2015, after he had WMEX run his show for a few months.What if they didn't? By June of last year the story would have been "Howie without a Boston affiliate as WMEX goes off the air." We don't know if continuing to run Howie would have kept Daly XXL from its dire situation.
Last edited:
The other day I heard Howie Carr from WRKO doing a spot on Talk1200 for fireplace inserts, just now I heard that horrible kuhner man doing a spot for Kelly Financial? What's up with that? I know they're both IHeart stations but didn't know one station's "talent" can do spots on another station.
Elsewhere I posted that I had heard BZ’s Ben Parker and Carl Stevens reporting on both AM 1200 and on WRKO newscasts. Tag line : “NBC News Radio”.
http://www.insideradio.com/free/nbc...cle_71c37dd2-4809-11e6-85f7-2f767970a622.html
July of '16, NBCNewsRadio partnership with iHeart including a channel on the iHR platform.
July of '16, NBCNewsRadio partnership with iHeart including a channel on the iHR platform.
- Status