WQEW runs spots for WBBR, WVNJ

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

Although the New York Times may have imposed a gag order on the WQEW air
personalities--presumably, a condition for their receiving severence
benefits is their public silence about the impending lease of the facility
to Radio Disney--the station itself is carrying a fairly heavy spot load for
two stations that hope to pick up the WQEW audience after the switch. WBBR
1130 is advertising that its blend--the dullest in the annals of
broadcasting, IMO--of news, financial news, and features repeated ad nauseum
will be "music to your ears." That is just plain insulting. I'd say that I
hope WBBR's ratings decline as a result of these ill-advised commercials,
but from what I hear, that's not possible. WBBR allegedly has the lowest
ratings of any English-language commercial station licensed to New York
City. From my vantage point, those ratings are well earned.

More to the point, or for those WQEW listeners who have good radios or a
high tolerance for electrical noise, are the (much less frequent) spots for
WVNJ 1160, Oakland NJ. WVNJ's mostly locally produced adult-standards
programming is well executed and very reminiscent of WQEW's. The trouble is
that, except for listeners in Rockland and Westchester counties in New York
and Bergen County in New Jersey during the day and a much smaller area at
night, most WQEW listeners can't hear WVNJ. The 20 kW (daytime) signal,
which beams east from a TX a few miles south of the New York/New Jersey
border does a decent job of covering New York's northern suburbs by day. The
2.5 kW night signal, using a pattern similar to the day pattern doesn't go
very far, however. WVNJ can't improve its signal to the south because it
must protect third-adjacent channel WBBR and WLIB, whose TXs are both about
20 miles south of WVNJ's in the Jersey Meadowlands. In addition, there is a
co-channel station in southern NJ.

WVNJ used to operate with 10 kW daytime. Its increase to 20 kW daytime about
three years ago required the addition of a fourth tower to its three-tower
directional array. The station still uses three towers for its 2.5 kW night
service. Why WVNJ can't add the fourth tower to its night array and thus
increase its night power somewhat is unclear to me. An increase in night
power would improve the night signal in areas that WVNJ reaches by day but
could do nothing to improve the (nonexistent) night signal in New York City
itself.

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Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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