WCRN speculation

[Sean Smyth]

Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@att.net> wrote:
> WCRN may not be for sale but I think that if Entercom were to acquire
> it,
> they'd be more likely to pair it with 680 than with 850. The reason
> is that,
> at least at night, the 680 signal is weaker to the west than the 850
> signal--until you reach Marlborough, where neither signal is likely
> to be
> listenable at night, but the 680 signal is slightly stronger (because
> attenuation vs distance occurs more rapidly at the higher carrier
> frequency).
> 
> If 830 and 850 were in a simulcast and both stations ran IBOC, I
> think you'd
> have the interesting phenomenon of a region (east of Framingham and
> west of
> Needham) where neither signal could be received--at least in the
> digital
> mode--even though both stations were carrying the same program.
> 
> Even if 830 and 850 were not simulcasting, the area where neither one
> could
> be received in digital mode would still exist, but the irony of the
> HD Radio
> system failing because of interference between two stations carrying
> the
> same program would be lacking. The problem is that HD Radio requires
> that
> both digital sidebands be present and not be receiving much
> interference. If
> stations on second-adjacent channels cover the same area, the upper
> digital
> sideband of the station on the lower frequency and the lower digital
> sideband of the station on the higher frequency both occupy the
> (supposedly
> unoccupied) channel in the middle. In this case WCRN's upper digital
> sideband and WEEI's lower digital sideband would both occupy the
> spectrum
> between 835 and 845 kHz--that is, the spectrum allocated to 840. HD
> Radio
> receivers can't handle such situations. With luck, the receiver would
> "fall
> back" to analog mode, but it also might produce no audio output.

Dan, as usual, good points, given the progression toward HD radio. I
was just thinking, if you're going to simulcast on an outlying station,
why not simulcast stations close in frequency -- if you're using a dial
tuner, odds are you'll not miss both stations. 

Of course, since dial tuners are less and less common today, though
still out there, it doesn't matter as much.


 
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