Herald: Where have you gone Air America

[Eli Polonsky]

> > From: "Bob Nelson" <raccoonradio@gmail.com>
> To: "Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@mail.com>,
> boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org
> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 04:10:32 -0400
> Subject: Re: Herald: Where have you gone Air America
> 
> WKOX and WXKS may not push well into the suburbs, by 
> the way, but shouldn't folks in Boston, Somerville, and 
> Cambridge pick 'XKS's signal up half decently?

WXKS is loud and clear there in the daytime, but the lower
power and directional pattern at night is marginal. I live two
miles from their transmitter in the nighttime null direction in 
Somerville. It's actually fairly strong on my signal strength
meters, but the phase cancellation being broadcast my way
causes a bit of distortion, and a thin sounding quality to the 
audio which allows background noise from other co-channel
stations to be heard. It can be listened to, but it's not clean
reception.

Head another mile or so southwest to Harvard Square and 
the co-channel stations skipping in at night are practically a 
match to the WXKS signal, kicking it around badly. Head 
over the bridge into Allston/Brighton, and WXKS is buried.

WXKS can be heard, more or less, throughout Cambridge 
and Somerville at night, but it's only loud and clear in East
Somerville (Winter Hill, Assembly Square, Sullivan Square)
and in East Cambridge (Lechmere Square, Kendall Square).

In Boston, the WXKS night signal is of course loud and clear
in Charlestown and East Boston, and it's actually not bad in 
South Boston, but in Boston proper it's only clean in areas 
along the waterfront (IE: North End, Government Center, 
Financial District, etc...). Anywhere west of Beacon Hill and 
into the Back Bay it's weak and noisy with the co-channel
stations. By Kenmore Square it's buried, and forget it in the
South End or any of the urban neighborhoods, though it can
be heard weakly and noisily along coastal Dorchester.

EP