Walter Salmaniw wrote:
At 07:17 PM 1/31/2009, you wrote:Audio here now in Barrington IL on the NE TA's BOGs getting past WIND with bouncy pop mx, almost suitable for a dance club.A weak het is now audible in Victoria. Far from audio, though with too much 560 splatter......Walt.
I had the chance to drive near WCKL yesterday on the way home from Boston. In western Massachusetts, 35 miles or so from WCKL and about the same distance from WHYN on (presumably) 560.00, the het was screamingly loud and intensely unpleasant.
Once we've all had some fun with WCKL's off-frequency operation, a few days from now, I'll be in touch with WHYN's chief engineer on the off chance that he doesn't already know why there's a nasty het on his signal.
A quick bit of background about WCKL and why it's so broken: Clear Channel used to own the station, but had to spin it off a few years ago to stay under the ownership limits. It was sold, for a pittance, to a group called the Black United Fund of New York that had never done broadcasting and knew nothing about how to run a radio station, and as a result WCKL quickly went dark.
To keep the license alive while they tried to sell the license, Black United would fire it up every summer for a few weeks. I believe the last application from WCKL for special temporary authority to remain silent was denied, which would explain why it's been on the air.
Black United has never, so far as I know, programmed even a minute of its own content on the station. They just simulcast one of Clear Channel's FMs, either WCTW 98.5 Catskill or WZCR 93.5 Hudson, which operate from a studio building at the base of the WCKL towers, which Clear Channel still owns.
(This may explain why they've had a hard time finding a buyer for the station - there aren't a lot of other spots in the Catskill area where you could put up the three tall towers WCKL needs for its tight directional pattern to protect WHYN and other nearby co- and adjacent-channel signals.)
It's an odd situation indeed. s _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx