WBNW 1120 AM off the air

[Dan Strassberg]

I'm not sure just when WBNW 1120 AM went off the air; I don't think the
station was on yesterday, Saturday, 3/27 and it hasn't been on when I
checked today, Sunday, 3/28. Whatever the problem is, it seems to have been
developing over a period of weeks. Until a month or so ago, WBNW had
operated illegally for several years--never switching to its night
facilities. Over a month ago, more-or-less coincidentally with the end of
the station's overnight broadcast of ABC's satellite-fed Real Country
format, WBNW began reducing power and changing patterns at sunset in
accordance with the terms of its license.

The mainstays of the new overnight lineup were TalkAmerica's Bruce Williams
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM, I believe, and Doug Stephan 4:00 AM to 9:00 AM. (I
never did find out the rest of the overnight lineup; the daytime lineup has
been mostly brokered financial talk and infomercials for herbal nostrums.)
Clearing TalkAmerica probably had something to do with de-facto station
owner Barry Armstrong's (as far as I know, owner of record is Armstrong's
wife, Susan) moving of the syndication of his Monday thru Friday 9:00 AM to
11:00 AM Money Matters program to TalkAmerica.

For the last week or so, WBNW has apparently been signing off more or less
at sunset but has been on the air during the daytime. I had also noticed
that WBNW seemed to sometimes be using its night facilities during the day.
Although the night power (1 kW) is lower than the day power (nominally 5
kW), the station can't legally use its night pattern during the day, even at
the lower power, because even at 1 kW, the night pattern sends too much
signal toward first-adjacent WCEC 1110 Salem NH.

Anyhow, lately, there have also been intermittent problems with audio
quality; the audio has sounded quite distorted at least as often as it has
sounded OK. It has not sounded good for a LONG time--probably since the
station was WADN.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367