Walter Salmaniw wrote:
At 07:17 PM 1/31/2009, you wrote:
Audio here now in Barrington IL on the NE TA's BOGs getting past WIND with
bouncy pop mx, almost suitable for a dance club.
A weak het is now audible in Victoria. Far from audio, though with too much
560 splatter......Walt.
I had the chance to drive near WCKL yesterday on the way home from
Boston. In western Massachusetts, 35 miles or so from WCKL and about the
same distance from WHYN on (presumably) 560.00, the het was screamingly
loud and intensely unpleasant.
Once we've all had some fun with WCKL's off-frequency operation, a few
days from now, I'll be in touch with WHYN's chief engineer on the off
chance that he doesn't already know why there's a nasty het on his signal.
A quick bit of background about WCKL and why it's so broken: Clear
Channel used to own the station, but had to spin it off a few years ago
to stay under the ownership limits. It was sold, for a pittance, to a
group called the Black United Fund of New York that had never done
broadcasting and knew nothing about how to run a radio station, and as a
result WCKL quickly went dark.
To keep the license alive while they tried to sell the license, Black
United would fire it up every summer for a few weeks. I believe the last
application from WCKL for special temporary authority to remain silent
was denied, which would explain why it's been on the air.
Black United has never, so far as I know, programmed even a minute of
its own content on the station. They just simulcast one of Clear
Channel's FMs, either WCTW 98.5 Catskill or WZCR 93.5 Hudson, which
operate from a studio building at the base of the WCKL towers, which
Clear Channel still owns.
(This may explain why they've had a hard time finding a buyer for the
station - there aren't a lot of other spots in the Catskill area where
you could put up the three tall towers WCKL needs for its tight
directional pattern to protect WHYN and other nearby co- and
adjacent-channel signals.)
It's an odd situation indeed.
s
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