Re: WBZ / WBZA

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

        I know this thread is old, but I'm catching up at the moment, so
here's my $0.02:

On Tue, 3 Jun 1997 NewHUC@aol.com (Rick Kelly) wrote:

>> It was always my understanding that 'BZ's directional pattern west was to
>> give better coverage to the original city of license, Springfield.  this was
>> the rationalization to shutting off the synchronous transmission in
>> Springfield.

Someone else (Ed Hennessey, I think), wrote:
>
>This seems unlikely.  The WBZ facility, with its directional pattern,
>dates from 1940.  The synchronous transmission in Springfield was shut
>down around 1962.
>
>I don't know how much better the signal would have been if WBZA had still
>been operating, but I found, when I was at UMass in 1963-67, that WBZ was
>not readily audible in Amherst at night.

        For WBZ, Springfield is not the original city of license. We're
dealing with two stations. They swapped call letters in the late 1920s or
thereabouts, so WBZ moved to Boston and WBZA moved to Springfield.
        When I worked at WSPR and hung out in Springfield radio circles in
the mid-70s, some of the veterans, especially the engineers, used to
chuckle that when WBZA was shut off, listeners didn't notice. They just
heard WBZ instead. Exaggeration? Perhaps.
        WBZA also must be one of the few stations for which a legal ID used
to be given after it didn't exist anymore. I remember that the DJs on WBZ
gave a live ID at the top and bottom of the hours. For the first few weeks
/ months after WBZA shut down, they would, out of habit, mouths running on
autopilot as they watched the clock come up to the hour, occasionally give
the WBZA ID, too. Then they'd catch themselves and make fun of their
ineptitude, as was their style.
        I'm surprised by the comment that reception of WBZ was bad in
Amherst. Perhaps this is true in steel frame buildings such as many of
those at UMass, but the signal elsewhere is pretty decent--certainly you
can listen to it. But it is a comment on the really bad ground conductivity
in New England. Amherst is only about 85 miles from Hull. And they're using
a directional aimed toward Amherst with the equivalent of, contributors to
this group believe, at least 100kW. Out in the Midwest, the former Class IA
stations in Chicago, for example, put signals out much farther than WBZ can
manage.

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