Re: WBPS-AM 890 Transmitting Unmodulated Carrier

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

Good question. I received e-mail confirmation a week or two ago from someone
at c-net that, because of "a reorgnization at c-net," the
all-high-tech-all-the-time programming would be leaving the air in Boston
"at the end of the month." I assumed that meant 12 midnight on Sunday June
30. However, WBPS has been airing an open carrier since sometime last Friday
(I think Friday morning). This noon I drove by the WAMG transmitter building
on Concord Ave in Lexington--as the crow flies, only about a mile from my
house. It's been years since I've seen anybody there but today I was
surprised to see a car parked in front of the building and the front door
open. I figured that the chirps emitted when I set my car alarm would bring
somebody to the front door. No. Other than the open door and the parked car
(a late-model Saab), there were no signs of life. I could see inside through
the open door but I did not venture past the front steps.

Before ARS sold the station, the company extensively rehabilitated the
property, which had become quite run down. Although the building doesn't
look very large, its size is deceptive. At one time, the building housed the
1150 studios and at least some of the offices as well as the 1150 and 100.7
transmitters. As far as I know, American Tower Systems (the company Steven
Dodge was left with after he sold ARS to CBS), still owns the real estate
and probably at least the FM tower--if not also the three AM towers. ATS has
leased the building to three companies that don't appear to be radio
related. Their names are on the door. I must have been looking at the
offices of one. They were neat and quite pleasant.

I assume that the AM TX or TXs and the FM TX (the 100.7 auxiliary)--if it's
still at the Lexington site--are in the basement. The building has a
walk-out basement and maybe a walk-out sub-basement--the land slopes rapidly
downward from street level once you pass the front of the building. In any
event, my stopping produced little useful information--for example what will
890 be broadcasting whenver the dead-air "stunting" ends? Considering all of
the weired things that radio stations have done during the stunting that
precedes a format change, I must say that dead air is refershing. If there
were legal IDs on the hour (I don't think there have been), it would
probably even be legal.
--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205, eFax 707-215-6367


----- Original Message -----
From: Laurence Glavin <lglavin@lycos.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 1:07 PM
Subject: WBPS-AM 890 Transmitting Unmodulated Carrier


> At this very minute (Sunday, June 23rd at 1:04 pm EDT), WBPS-AM 890
> C-Net Radio for Boston (but for how long?) is transmitting an unmodulated
> carrier.  It's been surmised for some time that C-Net radio is supposed
> to expire next weekend...has WBPS pulled the plug already, or is it a
> "normal" disconnect from the bird?