Fwd: More changes at WERS

[A Joseph Ross]

My recollection is that WBOQ did try to get into the Boston market at 
one time, back in the early 1990s.  I first heard them, sometime around 
1988, on my car radio driving down Storrow Drive and wondered where the 
classical music was coming from.  On my home stereo, I got WBOQ or WRBB, 
depending on how I aimed the antenna, but sometimes the WRBB signal was 
strong enough (or the WBOQ signal was weak enough) that I couldn't quite 
null out WRBB altogether and heard some of the base beat.

I remember seeing posters promoting WBOQ in the classical section of the 
records department at Borders Books on the corner of School and 
Washington Streets downtown.  I also once or twice phoned WBOQ and spoke 
to someone who expressed their frustration with WRBB's signal, which 
stymied their ambition of getting into the Boston market.  I believe 
they had tried to buy off WRBB or help them find another frequency, but 
nothing came of it.  Eventually they installed a direction antenna, 
pointing away from Boston, and concentrated on areas to their north and 
west.  And gave up classical music as well.  And it's become much harder 
to receive them in the Boston area now.


On 8/20/2013 11:04 PM, Eli Polonsky wrote:
>> Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 03:57:47 -0400
>> From: Kevin Vahey <kvahey@gmail.com>
>> To: <boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org>
>> Subject: Fwd: More changes at WERS
>>
>> WRBB was created by the FCC to destroy Simon Geller from
>> getting a huge payday.
> The creation of WRBB had nothing to do with Simon Geller.
> When WRBB was originally granted an FM on-air broadcast
> license circa 1970 or so, it was on 91.7 FM, and was for
> over the following decade. Geller's WVCA was on 104.9 FM.
>
> By the time that WRBB moved to 104.9 FM in 1982, Class D
> FM stations such as WRBB (the old classification for FM
> stations under 100 watts, long before today's LPFM class)
> were no longer granted protection by the FCC. Geller could
> have sent more power toward Boston and caused interference
> to WRBB, and they would not have had grounds to complain.
>
> When 104.9 in Gloucester was sold from Geller to Tanger
> in 1988 and WVCA became WBOQ, the Gloucester signal was
> tweaked a bit, and caused a bit more interference to WRBB,
> especially "across the river" in Cambridge and Somerville.
> This could have been done before, but Geller either just
> didn't get around to it or didn't have the money to spend.
>
> However, the limiting factors for the Gloucester 104.9
> were never WRBB. They were always, and still are, first
> adjacent Class B (50kW) stations on 105.1 in Providence,
> 104.7 in Orleans (Cape Cod), and possibly other stations
> elsewhere, but not the unprotected Class D WRBB.
>
> WRBB just happens to be in the pathway in between WBOQ and
> Providence, so it may appear that WBOQ's pattern protects
> WRBB, but it's not intended to. That's only a coincidence.
>
> EP
>
>
>
>
>
>
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A. Joseph Ross, J.D.| 92 State Street| Suite 700 | Boston, MA 02109-2004
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