WHYN-Fm

[adamrivers]

About a week ago, WWYZ and WZMX (both of whom broadcast from West Peak in Meriden, CT) were noticably weaker here. I thought maybe their transmitters were not running the full 50k equivlent, but I talked to CC Hartford engineering today and they are.

In the past week or so, it seems as WHYN-FM has turned their IBOC transmitter on to the point where it is broadcasting over most of the FM band, and I am writing this just to know what anyone's suggestions are because something needs to be done. Here is the example of the situation:

BEFORE (IBOC was ON WHYN-FM, but not to whatever they are doing right now):
92.3 - WFLY Troy NY or WPRO average quality
92.5 - WWYZ Hartford - semilocal
92.7 - WKVT Brattleboro - semilocal
92.9 - IBOC hash
93.1- WHYN
93.3 - IBOC hash
93.5 WZCR Hudson NY
93.7 WZMX Hartford
93.9 WRSI Greenfield
94.1 WHJY Providence (ALWAYS)

THE PAST WEEK THAT WHYN'S IBOC IS ALL OVER THE FM BAND:
92.3 - 94.1 IBOC hash, 92.5 and 93.7 suffering significant signal loss even when pointed directly at them

Now - I don't want to make an accusation without doing my research first. I'm no engineer. Just an ordinary kid that don't know half the stuff you guys know. I didn't really think much of it until today but then realize that WHYN MUST be doing this. I went in the car and played around, there is significant interference in the Greater Springfield area on both 92.5 and 93.7 - to the point where both are not very perceptible. Also, 93.9 The River, a very popular AAA station in the valley, can not be heard - PERIOD. I asked a friend who listens to WZMX and they said they had been problems recently. So what I did tonight (having spent a lot of time in Easthampton with my g/f who lives there, knowing the radio dial, etc.), I took a trip up to Holyoke/Easthampton/Northampton and did so as I listened to WZMX. As I got progressively closer to the Mt. Tom transmitter of WHYN-FM, I could hear the station less and less, and the station was POKING through hash just as if WBOS from Boston were coming in on tropo through WHYN's hash. I got to a point where I know very good reception of the Hartford and south stations is very clear - to the point where even my station (WILI Willimantic) usually overrides WHAI from Greenfield. That spot is less than 2 miles away from the WHYN transmitter and you can see the transmitter clearly from it, it is off of Southampton Road in Holyoke. My observations:

WWYZ - 92.5, completely inaudible, poking thru hash on occasions.
WZMX - 93.7, same as WWYZ
WRSI - 93.9, ALWAYS AUDIBLE - couldn't hear.
WMAS - 94.7 (just 7 miles away!) - hash interfering
WKSS - 95.7 - nearly inaudible, poking thru hash better then WZMX/WWYZ
WSRS - 96.1 - did not even poke thru hash
WTIC - 96.5 - more audible than the others

Now, before this whole thing (whatever it is) happened, all of these stations were perfectly audible, in Easthampton, Northampton, and Holyoke. You can barely hear any of them now, and it is due to IBOC hash - its very clear by just listening that it is IBOC hash.

This, obviously, is impeding my DX, and I know people will try and tell me I'm wrong (cough a certain person that writes a column cough) - but I did investigating and know what I'm talking about and anyone else in the area can vouch for me as well. My girlfriend and her friends are all Kiss 95.7 listeners and have not been able to hear Kiss since this has began. If anyone here tries and tells me that it's not WHYN that's the source of the problem - when it's the frequencies right around it that are the ones being affected the most - I invite you to come take a listen yourself.

Next trip, I went to the center of Easthampton - where I have spent a lot of time and have been always able to hear all of the above stations - and WWYZ/WZMX/WKSS were not even coming in under the hash. All there was was hash. WTIC was poking thru here and there, but not much. I then drove to Northampton, an area where when we played baseball, while warming up I was listening to Kiss 95.7 on my CD player - and the signals were also inaudible there, and there seemed to be considerable interference even on WMUA 91.1 of Amherst. (I don't listen to the non-comm band often, but I couldn't help but notice this).

So there is a serious problem here. I made some phone calls and hopefully some action will be taken. This is impeding my DX and especially ordinary people that want to listen to their favorite radio stations (and obviously my loyalties to WKSS since I have worked there in the past).. someone needs to take care of this problem.. because this is ridiculous. And obviously no one's going to take me seriously. I'm not stupid. Either

1. There is a problem with their equipment - which would not seem to be the answer - they've had IBOC for a year and this has just happened in the past week

2. They are mailiciously trying to block out the signals of WZMX/WWYZ (which gets high ratings in Springfield) to try and steer listeners to their cluster of stations which don't compare to the Springfield stations.

My guess is #2. But this crap better stop. Or I'm gonna make a call to Washington.
Discuss.

Adam Rivers
Chicopee, MA
http://www.adamrivers.com

[w9wi]

I sent Adam a rather lengthy reply in personal email, but to be a bit more concise:

- Springfield is just barely within the protected 54dBu contour of WZMX and WWYZ. (the two stations have identical power and transmit from a common antenna) Walk a mile north of the "reference coordinates", and in theory you can no longer receive these stations. (of course, in practice they're probably plenty loud!) WRSI and WMUA are not protected signals in Springfield. (though that may be news to both stations!)

- If hash from WHYN-HD is in fact clobbering WZMX & WWYZ anywhere within the Springfield city limits then there certainly is a problem. There should be more of a guard band than this.

- My guess is that WHYN did some recent maintenance on their transmitter, and didn't get it adjusted properly; the linearity may no longer be adequate. This would cause the various IBOC carriers to mix with each other and create a wide band of noise. FM stations have not had to worry about linearity in the past, and it can be tricky to achieve. (ask a TV engineer<grin>)

- I would be EXTREMELY surprised if WHYN were doing something to intentionally interfere with WWYZ and WZMX. I have never heard of a licensed broadcast station intentionally interfering with other licensed stations. There have certainly been numerous cases where stations operated in violation of their license with the intent of improving their own coverage, and where they either knew or should have known that interference to other stations would result, but I've never heard of one doing it with the primary intention of causing interference.

[Mike-CT]

I'm listening to WHYN-FM (93.1) and they have turned off their IBOC signals. They know they are having problems. (6/27 @ 1930 ET).

Makes for good DXing, with WEZF in Burlington VT (92.9) audible in stereo at 180miles.

Adam was a little too quick on the trigger.

[fybush]

Adam was a little too quick on the trigger.

Well...that's never happened before. :rotfl:

A polite, non-threatening inquiry to some of the folks involved today reveals that WHYN's signal generator wasn't working properly and that the station was indeed throwing spurs. A backup signal generator was put into service, the IBOC was turned off for the time being, and everything's being fixed, I'm told.

That said, having just been in Springfield a couple of weeks ago, Doug is absolutely correct that the area is very much on the edge of the Hartford stations' protected contours. I had a bear of a time in my downtown hotel room hearing much of anything that wasn't WHYN-FM or WMAS-FM, which is no surprise considering I could see WMAS from the window. WRSI certainly didn't exist downtown.

So before anyone starts making threatening calls to Washington (do you really want to make a threat like that with your employer's name attached to it? I sure wouldn't - I like keeping my job(s)!), take a couple of deep breaths, remember that broadcast equipment sometimes goes haywire, that not everything's a conspiracy, and that engineers are people, too.

If I've learned anything useful in my years in the business, it's this: it's always a good idea to be on good terms with your engineers. They can make or break you in many subtle ways. And I'd sure hate to get my dream job at my favorite radio station, only to find that the engineer I called a "cheater" in public standing across the glass from me.

[chris560]

First! Let me openly apologize to the stations that WHYN-FM's HD transmitter interfered with. What a mess. Scott's post is right. Sometimes radio equipment goes haywire. This was certainly one of those times!

Second, I'd like to credit Adam Rice for leaving a very entertaining Voice Mail for us. Unfortunately it was loaded with vulgarity & threats so it wasn't taken seriously. However, I DID dub it down to an MP3 so we could play it at the company Christmas party this coming December.

I received a call from a very pleasant listener yesterday afternoon asking if we had a problem on Mt. Tom. He left me his phone number & name, he didn't riddle his message with a plethora of obscenity & character assassinations and within 30 minutes of that call I was in Easthampton, identified the problem as mine and had the HD transmitter shut down. Mike Fitzpatrick was a big help to me yesterday afternoon and I want to thank him. Seems someone needed the HD radio in my truck more than I did and claimed it as their own a few months ago leaving me at a disadvantage.

If I had one piece of advice for you Little Man, it would be to calm down and stop subscribing to the “Shoot first, ask questions later” theory of reaction. Bridges burned, such as the ones you just burned with our cluster and those locally owned by Clear Channel are tough to rebuild. If they can be rebuilt at all. Your reputation around the industry is quite unpleasant as it is and it has just reached a new level.

Oh and by the way, the apology you left on our OM’s Voice Mail this morning is duly noted. I subscribe to the theory, “Forgive, but not forget”. Re-read Scott's earlier post, (Scott you're a genius with words), for someday I may the Engineer standing on the other side of the glass ...

Good Luck ...

Chris Tracy
Director Of Engineering
Clear Channel - Springfield, MA.

[NECRAT]

I sent Adam a rather lengthy reply in personal email, but to be a bit more concise:

- Springfield is just barely within the protected 54dBu contour of WZMX and WWYZ. (the two stations have identical power and transmit from a common antenna)

A minor correction... WWYZ and WZMX use seperate antennas.
WWYZ is an ERI 3 bay half wave spaced antenna.
WWYZ Tower pics (http://www.necrat.com/wwyz_pro.html)
WZMX is an ERI 2 bay HW antenna.
WZMX Tower pics (http://www.necrat.com/wzmx_pro.html)

For all the west peak pictures go to:
Connecticut Index (http://www.necrat.com/ct-pix.html)

--Mike

[w9wi]

A minor correction... WWYZ and WZMX use seperate antennas.
WWYZ is an ERI 3 bay half wave spaced antenna.
WWYZ Tower pics (http://www.necrat.com/wwyz_pro.html)
WZMX is an ERI 2 bay HW antenna.
WZMX Tower pics (http://www.necrat.com/wzmx_pro.html)

For all the west peak pictures go to:
Connecticut Index (http://www.necrat.com/ct-pix.html)

--Mike
That'll teach me to make rash assumptions<grin>. I made that comment based on the fact that the stations' HAATs are identical....

[NECRAT]

I am unsure why his apology was removed from the board, but that was inappopriate to remove.

With that said, can we put this whole matter to rest?

What's done is done, and anything futher will be between ClearChannel and Adam, and doesn't involve anyone else here...

[NECRAT]

In fact, might I add, not only is this post/topic done, but the whole thread should just be deleted...

[Mike-CT]

[quote=NECRAT]I am unsure why his apology was removed from the board, but that was inappopriate to remove.


When I saw this thread around 1pm, Adam had posted. He deleted whatever he wrote and replaced it with "post deleted". There was no other text.

None of the admins changed that post. If we had, everyone would have seen that date/time of the edit on the bottom of the post. There was none.

I can only assume that the post was removed later because it contained no information.
Update: the post was deleted per Adam's request.

[capitalgold]

Without commenting directly on the current happenings:

I've been tinkering with radio since the late 70's. I feel I'm fairly quick on the uptake, and perhaps may even have a limited laymans knowledge of how RF energy is created.

But even after 25 years of being in the 'hobbyist' arena, I'll never have a complete understanding of the scinetific end of broadcasting. Almost every time I talk to an engineer, I learn something new. Even about things I thought I already knew about. Maybe others here can relate to that. The old addage 'you're never too old to learn' certainly applies in the technical realm of broadcasting. It's not quite as plug-and-play as some folks tend to think. I know I'm not smart enough to be a broadcast engineer, and I certainly don't envy what engineers have to do to keep their facilities on the air and functioning properly.
Not to blow smoke up anybody's butt here, but B.E.'s are by far some of the most techincally adept people I've ever met. Discussions over the years with guys like Mike Fitzpatrick or Dennis Jackson have been nothing short of a pleasure, as it's pretty cool to tap the knowledge they have (especially since they aren't in the least bit obligated to share it).

And to agree with Scott and others, I would't want to be across the glass from a ticked off engineer. My show already sounds bad enough as it is! :)

[pqgeorge]

:shocked: It might be wise to act little bit more civil toward other people, BEFORE you make such strong accusations in the future. I know for a fact that the people at WHYN-AM and FM are a class act and I know that any equipment can go haywire at any-TIME and any-WHERE! Hopefully, you will learn by your mistakes and take it from there. BUT don't forget, "voice-mail is forever". (yecccchhh.:eek: )

[NECRAT]

OK, again, I think the time to call it "time" on this topic is here...