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93.1 nyc

J

Joylovepulse967

Guest
From radio insight

After running on STA from the Empire State Building since 2003 after losing its licensed facility on 9/11, Spanish Broadcasting Systems Spanish AC “93.1 Amor” WPAT-FM Paterson NJ is once again attempting to make the ESB its permanent facility.

WPAT-FM has been operating with 4kW/415m with the STA, but seeks to increase power to 6kW. An identical application was filed in 2002 but was dismissed by the FCC and petition for reconsideration was rejected due to the increased interference the move would have created towards iHeartMedia’s 93.1 WHYN-FM Springfield MA. In its most recent filing to extend the STA, SBS states it has signed a lease for a permanent transmitter facility at the Empire State Building
 
djl said:
They should go back to 1WTC, where they were until 9/11.
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The problem is that a site in Lower Manhattan wastes signal over more ocean and parts of New Jersey that are not in the NYC MSA while the ESB site is better for the NE NJ counties, Fairfield West and the general New York MSA.

Also, the 1WTC site requires further reductions in power, and I think gets stations into the zone where they have "a non-penetrating signal everywhere".

For a Spanish language FM, the ESB is the only place to be.
 
On the old 1WTC site I used to still be able to get WKTU, WPAT and WNYC further out on Long Island with my car stereo than I did from the ESB stations. Wouldn’t the extra height (even at lower power) still go further? If WPAT is only at 4kw presently at ESB, then it’s power of 3.3kw at 1WTC would not be much of a signal loss.
 
djl said:
On the old 1WTC site I used to still be able to get WKTU, WPAT and WNYC further out on Long Island with my car stereo than I did from the ESB stations. Wouldn’t the extra height (even at lower power) still go further? If WPAT is only at 4kw presently at ESB, then it’s power of 3.3kw at 1WTC would not be much of a signal loss.
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All Class B stations unless grandfathered are the equivalent of 50 kw at 500 feet. So if you go up in height, the power goes down to produce the same exact signal contours.

In the case of WPAT, the ESB does a better job of putting the signal where the listeners are, particularly in the upper West Side Dominican communities where the core target listener group is.
 
There are tradeoffs between height and power, to be sure. Put a 50 kW ERP signal at the class-standard 500 feet on a middling rooftop somewhere in mid-Manhattan and you wouldn't like the results - the predicted contour might be identical to 6 kW on Empire, but the multipath down there in the urban canyons will be brutal. Go up as high as the old 1WTC was, and your ERP goes down so low that building penetration suffers, as does the ability to overcome the desensitization all those Empire signals cause to any FM coming from anywhere else.

The new 1WTC is arguably a little too far south - not only for WPAT's specific need to reach the Upper West Side, but as a general manager for centering coverage over the bulk of the market's population. You pick up a little more of the Jersey shore (including areas outside the NYC market) at the expense of the denser populations in Westchester and Fairfield.

And there's another huge challenge, too. Since there's no FM infrastructure right now at 1WTC, whoever goes in first will need to figure out the business aspects of putting a new antenna on the tower and a combiner down below. If nobody else in the market seems to want to be there, will Durst pick up some of those costs just to lure one tenant?
 
There is FM infrastructure at 1WTC. There is a low power, directional station on 104.7 and it’s COL is Perth Amboy. It covers Staten Island, Brooklyn and some NJ. I can also pick it up using the directional antenna I have in my attic, even though I have it aimed to 291 degrees (the direction to ESB) from my home in Southeastern Nassau County. My Pioneer SX-6 receiver has a high stereo/mute threshold of 30dbu and it exceeds the amount to allow me to hear it in Stereo.
 
fybush said:
There are tradeoffs between height and power, to be sure. Put a 50 kW ERP signal at the class-standard 500 feet on a middling rooftop somewhere in mid-Manhattan and you wouldn't like the results - the predicted contour might be identical to 6 kW on Empire, but the multipath down there in the urban canyons will be brutal. Go up as high as the old 1WTC was, and your ERP goes down so low that building penetration suffers, as does the ability to overcome the desensitization all those Empire signals cause to any FM coming from anywhere else.
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A good example of a non penetrating signal is 105.9.

Unless I held a radio on the windowsill of the studios and the (legendary) 485 Madison address, I could not get WCAA inside the station's own offices, just a matter of blocks away from the ESB.

You have to really want to listen to that station to hear it in many places. Which is why its current format is an ideal use.
 
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