WXKS HD3? hopefully!

[Dan.Strassberg]

My guess is that it was a last-minute decision to kill off the Rumba
name in this market and go with Mia. By the time that decision was
made, the WKOX and WXKS (AM) calls had already been swapped. I think
it would have made more sense to keep the Rumba name and WXKS calls on
1430. The Rumba name already had more than two years of history in the
market and had been associated with 1430 all that time (although it
had been more strongly associated with 1200). Obviously, neither Rumba
nor Mia could be associated with 1200 any longer. But I don't think
any questions would have been raised if the SS music on 1430 had been
branded with the Rumba name. Does anyone know whether CCU has killed
off the Rumba name nationwide? And if the name has been killed off
nationwide, why was it?

And yes, it does make sense to have the Rush Radio HD-3 stream on the
FM whose calls match those of the AM that carries the programming. But
that does bring up the question of when, if ever, AM IBOC will go live
on 1200 (and 1330). I've been told that all three of the stations at
750 SawMill Brook Parkway were built with all of the necessary IBOC
gear installed. If so, the broadbanding alone at all three frequencies
must have cost a substantial sum. Even the face dimension of the
towers might have been affected; those towers are quite fat for their
height. When none of the stations turned on IBOC at the time the
licenses to cover were granted (May 2009, I believe), I said wait for
one year after the licenses were granted. Once the year is up, I
believe there will no longer be any legal requirement to mitigate new
complaints of interference within the 1V/m contours. (I believe both
WRCA's and WUNR's 1V/ms lie entirely within WXKS's 1V/m.) AFAIK, 1430
still runs IBOC. Anybody have any info on other CCU and Beasley AMs?
WOAI and KFI anybody? KDWN anybody? (Just to list a few of the
biggies.) I don't think either company has thrown in the towel on
AM-band IBOC, but maybe they have decided simply to leave it in place
where it is already running and to not get involved with additional
installations.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob DeMattia" <bob.bosra@demattia.net>
To: "Boston Radio Mailing List"
<boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>; "Larry Weil"
<kc1ih@mac.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 10:05 PM
Subject: Re: WXKS HD3? hopefully!


> >
>> Most people don't care about call signs, they think of WXKS-FM only
>> as
>> Kiss-108.  So the whole thing strikes me as irrelevant.
>>
>>
>
> Somebody must care, or why bother swapping the WKOX / WXKS
> callsigns?
>
> For me, WKOX always meant the adult standard it was when it was in
> Framingham,
> and WKXS always brings to mind Kiss-108.  WKOX seems to make more
> sense for
> a talk radio station, but that's just me.
>
> Perhaps Clear Channel felt it could woo listeners of the old WKOX
> Rumba over
> to 1430 if they brought the callsign over.
>
>
> -Bob