Re: WBRS Brandeis Radio?

[aread@speakeasy.net]

> Has anyone ever picked up WBRS (Brandies) 100.1FM from within the city of
> Boston?
> 
> Can you hear them anywhere within the city?
> 
> I have never heard them...I always pick up The Fox in Worcester.
> 
> Anyone know about this school station?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> JP
>

WBRS is off the air a lot because they currently depend on live DJ's to be on the air, and must shut down when no one is available to do a show.  Thanks to this effect making the schedule into swiss cheese, they've lost a lot of listeners.  I currently am working with them to install an automation system...we've got most of the transmitter hardware to make 'em legal for unattended operation; I expect to get the last of it (and make the install) within a few weeks.   After that, we've got a computer with Raduga Automation mostly ready but the ~400GB RAID array isn't quite set up and we've still got to get music into MP3 form...a long and laborous process even with the four "ripping stations" I set up for them.

Their signal CAN be heard in a lot of Boston if you're outdoors and have a good radio.  Obviously if you're in Watertown or Brighton...i.e. closer to Waltham...your odds are better.  But I've gotten them cleanly while parked at Tufts' Medford campus, and once while going on the down slope of the Callahan Tunnel.


It cannot be heard anywhere west of Rt.128 thanks to co-channel WWFX moving their transmitter and jacking up the wattage about four years ago.  Thanks so much Citadel!!!  (bastards)

ERP is 25 watts, but TPO is only 25w on a good day, so the ERP is probably more like 20-22w.  It feeds a two-bay full-wave-spaced antenna on a 50ft mast on top of the Rabb Graduate Center on Brandeis' campus.  Rabb is the highest point of the hill where Brandeis is, save for a Waltham-owned water tower next to it that WBRS probably could move to but it wouldn't be worth the hassle of dealing with the town for gaining maybe 20ft of height (assuming it could pass FCC muster in the first place).   Even so, they're only 46m HAAT and 91m ASL.  Pretty low to the ground...there are places on campus where you can't get it because of the hill and building layout.  But there's line of sight to the Pru Tower and downtown from the roof of Rabb.

Just out of curiousity, why do you ask?  Nobody seems to care much about WBRS these days...  :-/

- Aaron Read
- aread@speakeasy.net