WGR550: Mickey Mouse Radio

[PromoTheRobot]

On 11/26/2019 at 9:37 AM, Ross Rhea said:

I live in Rochester and WGR is off air here from about 6pm until around 6am, give or take whenever they decide to flip the switch and turn it back on. 

 

Were almost in 2020 and a radio channel still turns off their distance or whatever projects the signal out further overnight, really! 

 

I pickup Toronto, NYC, Washington, Philly, and others way further than Buffalo, I don't get it why does WGR turn off and others don't? Kind of frusterating when you're in driving.

WGR doesn't go off the air. They switch to a directional antenna at night. That's why they lose everything east of Pembroke at night.

[Weave]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

WGR doesn't go off the air. They switch to a directional antenna at night. That's why they lose everything east of Pembroke at night.

Or turn down their power.  FCC allows either option for night time operation.  Do we know for a fact that WGR uses one or the other?

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

Or turn down their power.  FCC allows either option for night time operation.  Do we know for a fact that WGR uses one or the other?

Can't recall which one, but there's a website that claims to show daytime and nighttime broadcast reach for all (?) the US based radio stations.

According to that, though the signal is non-directional during the day, after the sun goes down, WGR's signal resembles a large figure 8 with a N-S axis; so yeah, just about anything East of Pembroke gets only static.  (Unless atmospheric conditions are really unusual.)

Suppose we could ask @PAsabresFan

 if he sees a difference in signal strength from day to night as (going from memory) there is little change in the signal reach heading south towards PA.

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

Or turn down their power.  FCC allows either option for night time operation.  Do we know for a fact that WGR uses one or the other?

Same power, 5,000 watts, just highly directionalized... towards Toronto. See below links.

WGR day pattern

WGR night pattern

[PromoTheRobot]

9 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Can't recall which one, but there's a website that claims to show daytime and nighttime broadcast reach for all (?) the US based radio stations.

According to that, though the signal is non-directional during the day, after the sun goes down, WGR's signal resembles a large figure 8 with a N-S axis; so yeah, just about anything East of Pembroke gets only static.  (Unless atmospheric conditions are really unusual.)

Suppose we could ask @PAsabresFan

 if he sees a difference in signal strength from day to night as (going from memory) there is little change in the signal reach heading south towards PA.

www.Radio-Locator.com

Edited December 5, 2019 by PromoTheRobot

[SwampD]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Same power, 5,000 watts, just highly directionalized... towards Toronto. See below links.

WGR day pattern

WGR night pattern

That’s really cool.

[#freejame]

Just now, SwampD said:

That’s really cool.

I thought so too. Never saw something like that before.

[Ross Rhea]

3 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Same power, 5,000 watts, just highly directionalized... towards Toronto. See below links.

WGR day pattern

WGR night pattern

Why does WGR do this? 

[SwampD]

12 minutes ago, Ross Rhea said:

Why does WGR do this? 

Electricity costs money.

[Zamboni]

Now compare that to WBEN 930

day ... https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBEN&service=AM&h=D

night ... https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBEN&service=AM&h=N

 

interesting difference ...

[Weave]

6 hours ago, Ross Rhea said:

Why does WGR do this? 

Required by the FCC.  Because AM travels so far at night stations above a certain power level  are required to take steps to reduce their signal travel.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Weave

[...]

7 hours ago, Zamboni said:

Now compare that to WBEN 930

day ... https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBEN&service=AM&h=D

night ... https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBEN&service=AM&h=N

 

interesting difference ...

I thought that looked too small.  That's for WBEN, not WGR, these are WGR:

 

day - https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WGR&service=AM&h=D

night - https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WGR&service=AM&h=N

WGR still has the 50,000 watt transmitter.  In the biz, it's called a "blowtorch".

[Zamboni]

12 minutes ago, ... said:

I thought that looked too small.  That's for WBEN, not WGR, these are WGR:

 

day - https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WGR&service=AM&h=D

night - https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WGR&service=AM&h=N

WGR still has the 50,000 watt transmitter.  In the biz, it's called a "blowtorch".

I know. That’s what I said. It’s for WBEN. As a comparison to WGR. I just posted it just so we can compare the two Buffalo stations. That’s all. ??

[...]

1 minute ago, Zamboni said:

I know. That’s what I said. It’s for WBEN. As a comparison to WGR. I just posted it just so we can compare the two Buffalo stations. That’s all. ??

Oi! You're right, my bad. I should not post before the first cup of coffee. 

Readers, ignore the last several posts if you don't want to be confused.  

[PromoTheRobot]

22 hours ago, Ross Rhea said:

Why does WGR do this? 

AM waves  travel further at night. So stations on the same channel in different cities have to pull their signals in at night. 

They lose Rochester but they are heard like a local station in Toronto day and night.

[Happy Days]

Schopp and the Bulldog are terrible. The rest of the programming is fine.

 

[LouBrawls]

This is a station that employs Mike Schopp, that says it all.

[inkman]

Whoever is on the air is bloviating about the GD Bills officiating...STILL.  I don't know about y'all, but I moved onto to next season 10 seconds after the game ended.  Judging by the Bills thread, it seems as if lingering around and rehashing Bills losses is fun for you.  I don't get it.  I don't understand it. Why torture yourself?  

[Stoner]

On 12/4/2019 at 7:42 PM, Taro T said:

Can't recall which one, but there's a website that claims to show daytime and nighttime broadcast reach for all (?) the US based radio stations.

According to that, though the signal is non-directional during the day, after the sun goes down, WGR's signal resembles a large figure 8 with a N-S axis; so yeah, just about anything East of Pembroke gets only static.  (Unless atmospheric conditions are really unusual.)

Suppose we could ask @PAsabresFan

 if he sees a difference in signal strength from day to night as (going from memory) there is little change in the signal reach heading south towards PA.

The strength maps pretty much jibe with what I've always known here in northern PA. I can always get WGR, day or night, but it ranges from only decent to very good. Maybe weather-related? WBEN, back in the days they had Sabres hockey anyway, only occasionally was listenable, and often totally absent.

[SwampD]

The “Cup of Coffee” draft was really good.

[inkman]

On 6/23/2020 at 12:49 AM, SwampD said:

The “Cup of Coffee” draft was really good.

As much as they bother some people, I usually really enjoy their drafts.  I usually wish they would go longer.  

On a side note, it really exposed what a weirdo Schopp is.  He seems really uniformed on most things.  Like he's so busy with fantasy and stratomatic that he barely pays attention to life.  

[Hawerchuk]

I'm bringing this thread back to let everyone know that the RADIO.com app is still hot garbage! I was able to listen to approximately 10 mins of the game, first period last night (vs CAPS) and it randomly stops and goes to commercial. So frustrating. Someone mentioned that the NHL.com app allows to you get the radio feed from any team home and away broadcasts. Is that correct?

[sabremike]

6 minutes ago, Hawerchuk said:

I'm bringing this thread back to let everyone know that the RADIO.com app is still hot garbage! I was able to listen to approximately 10 mins of the game, first period last night (vs CAPS) and it randomly stops and goes to commercial. So frustrating. Someone mentioned that the NHL.com app allows to you get the radio feed from any team home and away broadcasts. Is that correct?

That is correct. Only thing is that it's a minute behind real time so you get push button notifications of goals before you hear them.

[SwampD]

22 minutes ago, Hawerchuk said:

I'm bringing this thread back to let everyone know that the RADIO.com app is still hot garbage! I was able to listen to approximately 10 mins of the game, first period last night (vs CAPS) and it randomly stops and goes to commercial. So frustrating. Someone mentioned that the NHL.com app allows to you get the radio feed from any team home and away broadcasts. Is that correct?

Those commercials coming at any time are really annoying. If I'm not mistaken, though, if you hit the Live On Air button (or Jump to Live. Can't remember for sure), I think it cancels out the commercial and goes back to the broadcast. I think.

[Radar]

2 hours ago, Hawerchuk said:

I'm bringing this thread back to let everyone know that the RADIO.com app is still hot garbage! I was able to listen to approximately 10 mins of the game, first period last night (vs CAPS) and it randomly stops and goes to commercial. So frustrating. Someone mentioned that the NHL.com app allows to you get the radio feed from any team home and away broadcasts. Is that correct?

Who else but WGR would go with an outfit by which you can't  coherently listen to their programming? We so desperately need a legitimate sports station here