WJIB at 101.3

[Bob Nelson]

Here on the North Shore lately I don't really hear the pirate cutting in
but I have picked up occasionally talk station WVQM Augusta ME or the WMRC
translator. Friday, I was at the Fresh Pond rotary and went Rt 2 to 128
north and the WJIB translator didn't take long to disappear in favor of the
WMRC one especially on 128. Yes there were ads for places like a sports bar
in the area; the "my 101.3" nickname etc.

The W267CE (//WJIB) has a signal pattern that doesn't go as far to the
north or west as one would suspect to protect stations on or near 101.3.
Last night on 114 in Peabody, 128 in Danvers and 62 in Beverly it was the
WJIB translator just about all the time but not perfect due to my being on
the fringe of the signal.I don't know if the pirate shut down or turned
down power.

Maybe the pirate is still around and affecting the WJIB // to the
south.While the pirate affects WJIB's translator, the same happens to those
trying to get Big City...overpowering it or interfering. Some of the
pirate's listeners are wondering on Twitter or Facebook why some oldies
station as they put it is cutting in or why they can't get Big City at all
now.

Think I read WJIB's translator pushes both horizontal and vertical while
the pirate only does one way? If Big City tries a different frequency (not
that it would be any more legal than what they're doing now) they may find
there are pretty much no open frequencies available. And if they cause
trouble to a huge company like Beasley, Entercom, CBS, etc they may find
themselves silenced extremely quickly (like a 93.5 in Mattapan). FCC issued
a letter of warning recently (one of many over the years I'd think); so far
no fines or seizures unless the feds moved in just now or the pirate shut
off the signal.I have no way of knowing.

On Wednesday, August 16, 2017, A Joseph Ross <joe@attorneyross.com> wrote:

> I listened to the WJIB translator while driving to my office yesterday and
> today (Tuesday) to see how it would come in.  Monday, I had a lot of
> interference with a competing signal around my home in Washington Square,
> Brookline and going up Beacon Street to about Cleveland Circle.  After
> Cleveland Circle, going out Beacon Street to Newton, the translator signal
> was pretty clean, with only a few cut-outs until I got to Newton Centre and
> turned onto Centre Street.  In the parking lot of my building on Centre
> Street, WJIB had a lot of competition from some other station.  From the
> sound of it, I suspected that the station interfering in Newton was not the
> same one that was interfering in Brookline.
>
> Tuesday, the translator signal was mostly clean in Brookline, to the
> extent that I think whatever station was competing with it was off the
> air.  In Newton Centre, I began to hear another station.  At one point, it
> cut in with just an announcer saying "101.3" before WJIB came back.  By the
> time I got into the parking lot, I had heard enough of the competing signal
> to think it was not a pirate but a professional station.  I even heard part
> of an ad for a business in Milford.  When I parked the car, the other
> station was coming in loud and clear, so I stayed and listened for a little
> bit, and they IDed as WMRC, Milford.
>
> A quick look at Wikipedia shows that WMRC is at 1490, with a translator
> that they just put on the air last December.  They're calling the station
> "MyFM 101.3" and playing adult contemporary music.  They seem to have a lot
> of local commercials from in and around Milford.  Not a pirate, and they
> must have quite a signal to be able to reach Newton Centre.  Before WJIB's
> translator came on, they must have been easy to pick up in Newton, at least
> on a car radio.
>
> I still think that whatever I heard interfering in Brookline was a
> different station.  Stay tuned.
>
>
>
> On 8/9/2017 6:50 AM, Rob Landry wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 8 Aug 2017, A Joseph Ross wrote:
>>
>> Looks like even Newton is on the boundary between local and distant.
>>>
>>
>> Now that my office is in Newton Centre, I'll have to try and listen from
>>> there. Unfortunately, the pirate seems to make the FM translator hard
>>> to listen to in most of the translator's local coverage area.
>>>
>>
>> Newton Centre is on the border of what we used to call "intermod alley",
>> the area around the towers near Route 128 where receiver overloading from
>> the nearby transmitters interferes with reception of more distant signals.
>> I've noticed an increase in interference to WHRB's signal on my car radio
>> due to something new going on the air in the area; I've not ye had the time
>> to figure out what it may be. But it wouldn't suprise me at all if receiver
>> overloading is an issue with receiving WJIB's translator in Newton Centre.
>>
>>
>> Rob
>>
>>
> --
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D. | 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 | Newton, MA 02459
> 617.367.0468 | Fx:617.507.7856 | http://www.attorneyross.com
>