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WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
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WOHO
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by WOHO » Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:16 pm

WWJ is throwning a crappy signal down to Toledo, but 1270 is the worst of any Detroit flamethrower, which pisses me off since Cumulus killed-off AM1470 in Toledo, there is NO Detroit Tigers radio outlet in Toledo this season. And no, the arses at Archbold 96.1 does not cover the Toledo metro area such that they won't let another other station carry the Tigers. Granted, they're not that great, but they're still my team. The whole Toledo WOHO/WWWM/WLQR/WTOD/WLQR/WTOD Bullcrap with Cumulus is horsecrap.

The 1470 signal is (WAS) THE first Cumulus station when it was Midwestern Broadcasting and Lew Dickey, Sr. had Junior mowing the lawn there. Anyhow, the Lew JR and his bro actually kept Dad's first station, property, building and four towers, however, in typical Dickey fashion, they spent NO money on maintenance or repair. They kept the place and RENTED it to Cumulus and collected monthly rent for doing nothing. Had an STA for a non-existent ground system on one of the four towers so bad that you lost the lighting at night at 1KW, so how do you fix it? Run 330W and the tower light works. Do that for six years and the FCC said time to fix it, build new or run one tower, whatever, but you're not servicing your city of license anymore. SO, Cumulus didn't even give the Dickey Brothers the option to fix it the way I hear it- they grabbed the license and mailed it back to Washington and went off the air- without so much as the Star Spangled Banner- pissed me way off. Three days to fix it don't cut it, and I get it, the Dickey's were already kicked out of Cumulus and this was the way for Andy Stuart to piss on their father's grave. Building roof leaked, rodents moved it, so very sad. Anyhow, drove by and there are ZERO towers on Pickle Road in Oregon (Toledo), Ohio (other than an old 450MHz remote tower).
Back to the story,
Toledo has no decent over the air signal for the Detroit Tigers - WJR was THE place for the Tigers for 30 years- too bad they don't have them as WJR has a better than City grade signal 24/7. WWJ varies way too much, WXYT-AM can't exceed manmade noise on a super duper Kenwood super tuner, and 97.1 isn't strong enough - as it was back in the 1980's, but not now. As long as WMTR are wiener's about Toledo having a Detroit Tiger OTA feed, then too bad. WJR try and get it back, or I might end-up taking the $5/month XM Baseball deal as much as I hate paying for something that should be OTA.
Last idea: When you calculate the coverage of an HD-2 channel, is it automatically just 1% or 10% of the analog coverage area? What I'm getting at is that WRVF or WIOT could run the Tiger feed on an HD-3 channel and the coverage area would not encroach WMTR or an Michigan Tiger affiliate.

PS: Regarding PPM: some of the new car radios have a neat DSP noise reduction filter on AM - is it possible that is what is preventing the PPM signal from getting to the PPM receiver? With all of Trump's antics, political AM stations should be doing at least midrange in the ratings?



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WOHO
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by WOHO » Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:23 pm

I'm thinking the 1983 version of CKLW then 1995 version of CKWW, 50KW standards; seems that 740 doesn't do too bad. With that big of a stick, they can overcome noise 50 miles away no problem. Heck, in KC, KS, there was an xband station (1660?) when I was there in 1999 that had a CQUAM Stereo Classical music station on the air- only issue was they had to use a fair amount of compression to keep it juiced, but sounded damn good. WJR might be best served being a personality-based music format station- they have nothing to lose if they're only doing a 2 with one of the best 10 signals in the United States.



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WOHO
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by WOHO » Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:26 pm

"JACK AM" - has that been tried? Get the original XM-satrad music programmer to whip up something new like he did before their merger of unequals.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by MWmetalhead » Thu Aug 08, 2019 7:09 pm

Some WWJ transmitter work could be ongoing. HD has been off the air for close to three weeks now.

As a reminder, AM ground wave is always worse during hot, dry weather. This could be a factor in reception issues, too.



fuzzpower
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by fuzzpower » Thu Aug 08, 2019 7:57 pm

1270 generally does not air the Tigers anymore. They are tonight for some reason (along with 97.1).



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lidoshuffle
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by lidoshuffle » Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:51 pm

WJR is airing an absolute clownshow of a program tonight, as some NFL franchise is laying massive turds at the 50 yard line, yes it's only "pre-season"...lol...



innate-in-you
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by innate-in-you » Mon Aug 19, 2019 12:40 am

Went shopping yesterday.
Verifying "WOHO"'s observation that the WOHO array has been dismantled.

Two weeks ago, all four towers were standing.



Deleted User 3751

Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by Deleted User 3751 » Mon Aug 19, 2019 12:23 pm

WWJ is highly directional to the north, that is why the signal is not solid in Toledo which is on the back side of the pattern.



Bobbert
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by Bobbert » Sat Aug 24, 2019 8:47 am

Very happy to see the trend for WRCJ, the classical/jazz station (1.9>2.3>2.7). Wonder if their new mid-day host Peter Whorf influenced that? He has the name recognition from his father Mike, and it's natural that he would have a more energetic, youthful appeal than the late Chris Felcyn (R.I.P.).



IIN4MU
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by IIN4MU » Sat Aug 24, 2019 9:15 am

Bobbert wrote:
Sat Aug 24, 2019 8:47 am
Very happy to see the trend for WRCJ, the classical/jazz station (1.9>2.3>2.7). Wonder if their new mid-day host Peter Whorf influenced that? He has the name recognition from his father Mike, and it's natural that he would have a more energetic, youthful appeal than the late Chris Felcyn (R.I.P.).
I'm wondering the same thing. No doubt that Peter has a more energetic presentation than Chris (RIP), who was a walking encyclopedia of music. My take is that WRCJ is a "safe" station in that you don't have to turn down the volume when there are kids around because they're saying/playing something offensive. Plus, with all of the political noise on the air today (are you listening, WJR?), I think people are looking for stations that could lower their blood pressure, not raise it.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Aug 25, 2019 8:02 am

A lot of Classical music selections aren't exactly soothing.



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FredLeonard
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by FredLeonard » Sat Aug 31, 2019 3:16 pm

They could even do better running airchecks of WJR from 30, 40, 50 years ago.



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WOHO
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by WOHO » Fri Sep 06, 2019 1:52 pm

Agreed, play freaking Middle Of the Road music on WJR with personality, but not politics. I am on politics overdose = fatigue since this administration is in the news every single damn day, except when they're doing something unconstitutional, then they keep quiet. so I would love just some good ole 'beautiful music" on WJR, turn on the stereo exciter and play music and mindless trivia games with callers. "Flashback 760" for all the boomers that want something on the radio that's just for them with a great signal still. Move all the syndicated crap to HD-2 and HD-3 on 96.3 and leave 760 back to the 'Great Voice of the Great Lakes, stereo music 760, with news and weather at the top of the hour and music to fill your day. Hell, put NightFlight 760 back into the air!! Everything old is new again. Cumulus could actually make money selling to the 50-75 boomers that still want bigass cars, jewelry, and great restaurants for ad spots.



innate-in-you
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by innate-in-you » Sat Sep 07, 2019 6:27 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Thu Aug 08, 2019 7:09 pm
Some WWJ transmitter work could be ongoing. HD has been off the air for close to three weeks now.

As a reminder, AM ground wave is always worse during hot, dry weather. This could be a factor in reception issues, too.
Interesting thing about 1270's patterns:

By day, their signal is awful in Ohio. Even if the signal is strong enough, carrier suppression ruins it (unless you have a receiver with USB or LSB mode in the AM band)

This is because they are 50KW, are far to the South of the former site at Broadcast House, and they need to protect 1280 WONW in Defiance, OH.

In the fall, the shift from day pattern to night pattern is quite an experience. They don't have to protect WONW over a broad area.

Also note that Charlevoix is 27kW day.

There are places in Monroe County where, before sunset, the Charlevoix station dominates the channel - WXYT causing interference to it only in the fades.

The instant WXYT switches to night pattern, it's as clear as a bell! This is because WXYT, a "senior" station on its regional channel, always blew the equivalent of 20kW into its NNE and SSE lobes, so it was allowed a lot of RF to the South when they changed TL.



fuzzpower
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Re: WJR hits another all-time low and takes a big plunge from last month's already terrible numbers!

Post by fuzzpower » Sat Sep 07, 2019 6:31 pm

WONW, there’s another station that is useless at the moment. Do they even have any local programming whatsoever?



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