the even newer WMEX

["David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>]

So there I was yesterday at the marina with a few minutes to kill before
the rest of the family arrived and I decided this would be a good time
to program all those presets on the radio in my new (by which I mean
"recently acquired by me" as opposed to "recently manufactured") car.
When the scanning function paused at 106.5 I was astonished to hear an
actual announcer making an actual announcement--something rarely heard
on the automated oldies format at WMEX (formerly WZEN) Farmington NH.

The announcement had to do with the fact that the station was about to
leave the air briefly to prepare for a new, taller antenna.  It was
promised that there would be more another silent period later in the day
but the station should be back with a bigger, better signal by the
evening.  This was just after 1 p.m. on Monday.

Now I realize there are some folks here who'd grab a camera and head
towards Farmington to document this, possibly remembering to leave a
note for the family (Dear Folks: take the boat without me; I've got to
go to New Durham Ridge to see a big new stick).  Me, I headed for the
island (this is on Winnipesaukee) and found WMEX back on the air by 1:30
with the S-meter on my Sangean ATS 818CS reading 4 (out of 7).  The
station was off the air again around 6 p.m. and back around 6:15 with 3
classic jingles in a row, starting with "The big switch is
to...WMEX...thank you!"  This time the S-meter reading was 7.  If they
were using a temporary rig in the afternoon I can't really say how the
new signal compares with the previous.

Now they're back to the unannounced oldies format.  Two songs, then a
jingle, two more songs, another jingle, and so on.  It's fun to hear the
old jingles but they aren't necessarily used in proper context.  If this
is the "home of the Good Guys," where are the guys?  If this is a
"Double Play," how come I'm hearing two totally unrelated songs by two
different artists?

If you're looking for the Web site, by the way, don't go to wmex.com
unless you want to learn about WBIX.  The address for the current WMEX
is <http://www.expage.com/page/wzen>.