HOW DID WAAF MAKE IT TO THE ALBANY RATINGS BOOKS? HERE's A SURPRISE!

[Fitzpatrick, Mike]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Q. George" <radiojunkie3@yahoo.com>
Subject: HOW DID WAAF MAKE IT TO THE ALBANY RATINGS BOOKS? HERE's A
SURPRISE!


>      When I lived in Great Barrington, MA in the late
> 1970's, Berkshire Cable had a similar set up with an
> non-DA all-band FM service being received from the
> headend.   With it, I was able to always pickup WAAF
> and WSRS in Worcester, virtually all Boston FM's
> including WROR (the first one on 98.5), WCOZ (94.5),
> WCRB (102.5) and WEEI-FM (103.3).  All the Boston FM's
> I received were in strong Stereo! Not bad for 140
> miles away! Many NYC FM'ers were there too, including
> WCBS-FM, WYNY (97.1), WEVD-FM (97.9) and WXLO (the old
> one at 98.7)!

That cable head end is an amazing sight. They pick up WCVB-TV off air using
an antenna that was once used to pick up WNYW-TV the old WNEW-TV from New
York City. Also they used to pick up WWOR and WPIX from New York City off
air as well. However just recently, they dropped WPIX from the lineup, the
last of the NYC TV stations to be carried on the system. During the skip
season, you would see other channels come in over WPIX and WWOR. I remember
seeing WUSA coming in one night over WWOR (so much so that WUSA was
watchable with a little interference from WWOR).

>      The nice thing about the cable service was that
> if any local station were to NOT be on 24 hours, you
> had some nice DX spots to play with after sign-off.
> For example, WLVH (93.7) in Hartford would shut down
> at midnight, opening up the way to hear WCGY from
> Lawrence.  Even the old WLYN-FM in Lynn, MA would be
> heard after WBRK-FM in Pittsfield went silent for the
> night at midnight.  The world (at least the DX world)
> was your oyster!  Ah, life was good!
>

When the "modulated" FM was put in, that ended all that, and the modulators
they used were downright bad. Their input drifted so much the dial was never
stable. I worked with the head end tech at the time to clean it up and it
sounded good for a while, but then it got so bad that it was just a waste.
However IM off the subject. When WBBS 105.1 (now WAMQ) signed off, I used to
listen to WWLI in Providence or the old Mix 105 (WMXV ?) in New York,
depending on which was coming in better.

--Mike Fitzpatrick