WBBR/WNEW

[Mark Connelly]

In 2005, Boston's 1510 was sports-formatted WWZN The Zone.
Here's a recording from Rommele, Sweden in APR 2005:https://app.box.com/s/wuwyna63fx3uf4b5u2474g6esp26ytte

This is how 1510 sounded on 21 OCT 2005 at 0045 UTC (20 OCT at 8:45 p.m. EDT) at Ilfracombe in southwestern England ... way better than you could get 'em in Framingham:
https://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/audio1/dx_wwzn-1510_20051021_0045z_from_uk.mp3

Another Boston station that gets across the pond well is WEEI on 850.

21 OCT 2005 recording of WEEI 5 minutes after the 1510 recording, also from Ilfracombe, UK:
https://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/audio1/dx_weei-850_20051021_0050z_from_uk.mp3

Several NYC stations including 1130 were also good as well as 590 VOCM out of Newfoundland.
I have a number of recordings of WBZ 1030 from various places that are quite jaw dropping:
Midway Island, Pacific Ocean (1965) ... R-390A receiver
https://app.box.com/s/5idnzvxo93r3w56vmzxo2abefwm51uf2
Cooma, Australia (1996)
https://app.box.com/s/kydfvk9b18pj1h562f5bq8psc7jv423n
Iceland (2018)https://app.box.com/s/94x7jc74zvzgqswgqw1nc53c9ozfhph5
There are quite a few online receivers available to sample what can be heard around the world.  Some are quite sensitive and others, owing to poor antennas, are deaf as a post.

This link gets you to some of them:
https://sdr.hu/

While some US stations successfully make it to Europe, some of their stations get in here pretty well too, especially for listeners at seashore locations.  The following page has some of what I've heard, mostly at several sites in eastern MA:
https://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/dx_audio.htm

For those of you in the Boston area, there is probably no site better than Granite Pier in Rockport for long haul AM reception.  Sunset is often prime time.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA 
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Vahey <kvahey@gmail.com>
To: M.Casey <map@mapinternet.com>
Cc: Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@aol.com>; Boston-Radio-Interest <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sat, Jan 12, 2019 5:42 pm
Subject: Re: WBBR/WNEW

When 1510 was transmitting from Waltham it came in crystal clear in Bergen, Norway at night. 
On Sat, Jan 12, 2019 at 5:36 PM M.Casey <map@mapinternet.com> wrote:

Not too many 50k AM's are directional toward Europe at night, so it makes 
sense that it's signal would be one of the best. Every time I've been up in 
Maine or Nova Scotia WNEW had one of the strongest nightime signals. I 
agree--Too bad it wasn't still music. Thanks for the comments.
Mark Casey K1MAP
Hampden, Mass


Day and night for 1130 NY here on Cape Cod.

I remember it as WNEW too.  In the '80s I would blast it out in the car at 
night on rides from metro-Boston to the Cape.

One summer evening I was tooling down Route 3 through the Plymouth pinelands 
under a hazy moon and had Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall version of "Sing 
Sing Sing" rocking the speakers like it was in the next room instead of 
coming from a transmitter 200 miles away.  I had the windows down and Gene 
Krupa's drumming was loud enough to blow the birds out of the trees.
When I went to Ireland in 1977, I had no trouble hearing WNEW playing 
then-current Bond movie song "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon.  Maybe 
not at next-room volume but still acceptable entertainment quality on my 
Realistic TRF portable radio with no external antennas or gadgetry.  One of 
the 4 or 5 best AM signals from the States.

Those sticks in the NJ salt marshes sure throw a signal far and wide.  Too 
bad it's just dull talk now instead of jazz, swing, adult standards etc.

Mark Connelly
South Yarmouth, MA