New England Radio Watcher: Long Time, No Post
Scott D Fybush
It's been just a bit too long...and in my absence, seems like most
of the big stuff (WRKO going to Metro for news, Matty in the Morning
going syndicated, WBZ's Joe Green retiring) has been covered.
So just a few quickie notes:
*The new calls at 104.1 Waterbury-Hartford CT are, as noted,
WMRQ -- calls that have a New England history behind them. WMRQ
was the incarnation of Boston's 103.3 FM just before the
current WODS, "Oldies 103." WMRQ - "Quality Rock Q103" lasted
less than a year circa 1987-88, if memory serves. It was
a sort of adult-oriented rock format -- I guess CBS's attempt
to take on 'BCN and the then-new WZLX.
*Noted in the Westerly (RI) "Sun", Sunday April 2, 1995, this
odd little advertisement:
"Attention Dunn's Corners: Listen to the Paul B Show, Monday-
Friday from 2:00-5:00 pm for the best music from the 50's thru
today, on AM1580, WCTD, our variety station."
A check of my map shows Dunns Corners (sic) as a bump in the road
on US1, a couple miles east of downtown Westerly. There is no
licensed station on 1580 anywhere nearby (the closest is WLIM,
Patchogue Long Island), so it looks as though this could be
a pirate -- or conceivably a legal low-power operation.
*WRKO 680 (50kw DA, talk) is now live and local from 5:30am
to midnight, except for Rush, with the addition of a weeknight
"Sex Talk" show from 10pm-12mid. It's hosted by Phyllis
Levy, who comes to WRKO from Chicago, where ARS's John
Gehron heard her while he was working for Pyramid at WNUA.
Rumor has it that 'RKO will want to syndicate the show eventually.
Rumor also has it that Levy will do the show some of the time from
her home in Chicago. The WRKO lineup now:
5:30-10am Majorie Clapprood and Pat Whitley
10am-12noon Jerry Williams
12noon-3pm Rush Limbaugh
3-7pm Howie Carr
7-10pm Charles Adler (8-9pm simulcast with WABU-TV 68)
10pm-12mid Sex Talk with Phyllis Levy
12mid-5:30am Reruns of Rush and Howie
Sex Talk bumps Bruce Williams off WRKO and over to WBNW-590,
which will run him earlier in the evening, 7-10pm I believe.
*Two new TVs: In Boston, Telemundo has turned on LPTV W32AY, with
a *very* good signal from the Prudential Tower. LPTV W19AH had
been running Telemundo up till now...I can't see them here so
I don't know what they're doing now. And in New Haven CT, after
more than 35 years as a CP, WTVU(TV) channel 59 has signed on at
long last. The station is owned by K-W Television of Skokie IL,
and is being operated as an LMA by LIN Broadcasting's WTNH-TV 8,
the ABC affiliate in New Haven. WTVU is running a paltry 100kw
or so from WTNH's site in Hamden CT. WTVU gets the WB affiliation,
the same week indie WTXX-20 Waterbury picks up UPN.
*Opie and Anthony from Long Island (WBAB I think?) have taken
over the afternoon duties at hard-rocker WAAF.
*And speaking of misinformation about Worcester FMs: An article
in the Globe a couple of months ago talked about noncomm WUMB 91.9
Boston, and mentioned WUMB's new satellite station, WBPR in Worcester,
also on 91.9. The article erroneously stated that WBPR operates on
a 3-second delay from WUMB. That erroneous bit of information
has now surfaced in Bruce Elving's "FMedia!" newsletter for this
month. 'Tain't so. WBPR's only delay is the speed-of-light delay
on the 8khz mono line from Boston. You can hear the two signals
fight it out as you drive along the Mass Pike approaching Worcester.
WUMB has full-fidelity audio and stereo...WBPR cuts off at 8khz
and is in mono.
And I think that clears the backlog from this end...
-=Scott Fybush - fyb...@world.std.com=-
Rob Landry
fyb...@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) writes:
>month. 'Tain't so. WBPR's only delay is the speed-of-light delay
>on the 8khz mono line from Boston.
There's a little more than just propagation delay on WBPR's audio. That 8 kHz
line they use is actually a 56 kbps data line carrying MUSICAM-encoded 7.5 kHz
audio. The encoding and decoding process introduces some additional delay,
although it's probably closer to 30 milliseconds than 3 seconds.
At any rate that's the way it was when I visited the WBPR transmitter site
last year.
Rob Landry
um...@tiac.net
DLeeGordon
WMRQ >>
_W_ _M_odern _R_o_Q_ .
<<WBPR's only delay is the speed-of-light delay on the 8khz mono line from
Boston. You can hear the two signals [WBPR & WUMB] fight it out as you
drive along the Mass Pike approaching Worcester.>>
Kind of reminds me of the old days with WBZ (Boston) and WBZA
(Springfield).
Lee Gordon
Lee Gordon, Production Director WPOP/WMRQ Hartford