Ch 50 weatherman Al Kaprelian laid off

[Scott Fybush]

Dan.Strassberg wrote:
> According to the TVFMSTNS software I use, WZMY is transmitting with an
> ERP or 7.3 kW from a HAAT of 669' at a site 31 miles NNW of the Pru.
> Conceivably, this info is out of date. The OTA signal where I live
> (Arlington Heights, just north of Route 2, maybe 1/2 mile west of the
> top of Belmont Hill near Lexington) is mostly unwatcheable
> (pixellation, long gaps in audio). If the technical info is current,
> given the low power, the modest height, the long distance from where I
> live, and the fact that I am using an unamplified indoor antenna
> (which I think is typical for OTA reception in this above average
> location), it is quite amazing that the signal is ever watchable. If
> those are still the WZMY facilities, it is quite surprising that any
> network would call WZMY its Boston affiliate. OTOH, some radio network
> once called WGAW (1340 Gardner) its Boston affiliate.

The difference is that WGAW is unavailable to roughly 99% of the 
Boston-market population. WZMY, thanks to cable and satellite 
must-carry, is at least available to (if not viewed by) somewhere north 
of 85% of the population in the Boston DMA...maybe closer to 90% if you 
include the OTA viewers north of Boston who actually can see the off-air 
signal.

s