Trip to Western Mass

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

It's been over a week since I spent the weekend in Amherst and listened to
a few stations outside my usual reception area.  I've been meaning to
write up what I heard, and I hope at this point that I can still remember
everything I tried to hear.

The first station that I don't usually hear was WNEB, which began to be
barely audible as I reached western Framingham.  I tried listening for
awhile to WSRO 1470, which we've talked about before.  I can get it
faintly in Brookline, and for awhile, I thought it was trying to be an
"oldies" station, but it sounded, Friday afternoon (6 June), as though
they are trying to do FM soft rock.

I returned to WNEB and stayed on it for awhile.  Eventually, I found
WDRC-FM in Hartford, "Big D 102.9".  They're playing an oldies format, but
it sounded like they were playing a lot more of the oldies I like than
WODS does.  I don't know whether this is a regular thing or was just
because they were having a "50s weekend."  But I liked it enough that I
listened to it a lot during the weekend when I was in my room.

Approaching Amherst, I tried to see what was on AM.  I heard WARE in Ware
briefly, but I don't remember anything about it any more.  I also heard a
station at 1520 playing Adult Standards, but I never heard an ID.  I
picked up WTTT in Amherst, 1430, which, for some reason, signed off at
6:00 PM.  WTTT is a daytimer, but I don't recall that they ever signed off
that early at this time of year.

I also listened briefly to WHMP in Northampton.  I think they were
carrying a Red Sox game.  Come to think of it, I think WARE was carrying
the same game.

Whoever it was who told me that WNEB's signal didn't reach Amherst was
quite correct.  It didn't even reach Brimfield.  This surprised me, given
its eastward reach.

Coming home, I stayed mainly with WDRC-FM.  But as it came to be time for
LTAR, I tried periodically to get WNEB.  I finally heard it faintly around
Sturbridge or thereabouts.  Because LTAR apparently has been shifted five
minutes (I assume for news on WJTO), I was able to hear about the last
five minutes of it last week.

By the time WDRC-FM began to fade and become unuseable, I discovered
"B-101" at 101.5 in Providence.  It, too, has an oldies format and seems
to play more of my favorite oldies than WODS does.  I've found that I can
pick it up in Boston, but in a moving car, the signal fades in and out and
is subject to all sorts of multipath.  However, I went down to New Bedford
on Saturday and listened to B-101 a lot.  I finally heard the call letters
as WWBB.  They hardly ever mention the call letters, and so far as I could
tell, never seem to do a legal ID -- or any kind of ID at the top of the
hour.

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  A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                          617/367-0468
  15 Court Square                                       lawyer@world.std.com
  Boston, MA 02108-2573                        http://world.std.com/~lawyer/
==============================================================================

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End of boston-radio-interest-digest V1 #70
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