RadioBlog

Clear Channel flipped Hip-Hop/Urban "Power 104" to "fm 104-One," (WPHH-FM 104.1) returning to it's Modern Rock format it once help as "Radio 104." It's currently running jockless, and the playlist slightly resembles my "Radio 104 Classics" playlist on my mp3 player.

The Hartford Courant's Eric Danton blogged on the format switch. Read it here.
Check out the history of the 104.1 signal in the Hartford area on their Wikipedia Page.

It had to happen sooner or later....

100.9 WRNX, Amherst, Ma finally got snapped up by Clear Channel. That Leaves only 2 of my favorite independant stations left:
93.9 WRSI ("The River") in Northampton, MA
and
92.9 WEHM in Long Island.

I hope Clear Channel leaves the format similar to what it was.....

I took a trip to Cambridge, MA this week, and was able to do a bit of scanning on the FM radio dial. I was able to listen to a couple of my favorites, WBOS and WZLX on the commute into the city (and a bit of Stern on WBCN on the way home.)

Interesting note on Howard Stern, 'BCN started to get a bit noisy on the Mass Pike towards Charlton, so I switched over to WCCC and noticed that they weren't simulcasting Stern. It was well past 10 AM, so I'm wondering if 'CCC just dropped the show at 10. They're getting into the home stretch before they switch to Sirius, I'm wondering how fast stations will start dropping Stern entierly.

The semester is over at Wesleyan, and WESU continues to run it's NPR programming. Which, I guess, really isn't such a bad thing. I've always been a big fan of "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition". To have an extra hour of ME isn't such a bad thing. Now, if only we can get rid of Diane Rehm.....but, that's another story.....

WEHM out on Long Island has been doing some more testing with their signal today. I heard several clicks and pops as if they were switching audio processing. I had heard several months ago that they were planning on moving their transmitter location further west. As of now, there has been little change to their allready marginal signal in the Middletown area, or the areas of the Connecticut coastline that they cover.

From Radio-Locator.Com:

Coverage map of WEHM before transmitter move.

Coverage map of WEHM after transmitter move.

WPKN (89.5) in Bridgeport, CT has turned up their new transmitter, WPKM (88.7) in Montauk, NY. I was getting a full-quieting signal tonight just North of Norwich on interstate 395. It totally was in the noise after going over the big hill in Lisbon.....

The Radio-Locator site still lists WPKM as "off the air" and will not provide a coverage map...

As of this writing, I have been hearing live, local-origination programming at the station. The broadcast's of Pacifica's Democracy Now weedays at noon has resumed as well. On Monday afternoon, I listened to a call in show during the PM drive. A few of the times that I have listened were plagued with technical problems, but that seems to be getting better.

The WESU website has been updated, though only to state that streaming audio of it's programs will be available soon.

An article in the Wesleyan Argus discussed Monday's return to live programming in more detail.

The following was forwarded to my by Chuck Dube' -- (possibly via NERW):

At the University of New Haven's WNHU (88.7 West Haven), university officials have apparently backed off a plan to simulcast "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" from Connecticut Public Radio's WPKT (90.5 Meriden). The New Haven Register reports the university's president met with more than 100 students last week, resulting in an announcement that "the time is not right" for a simulcast. WNHU will apparently continue to depend heavily on community volunteers for its programming, with an advisory board being created to help guide the station's future. (The move also means the university won't develop a news internship program with the public broadcaster, as had been planned.)

An article published in the Jan. 28 edition of the Wesleyan Argus discusses the situation at WESU. According to the article, the station will return to live programming in mid February.

Read the article here.

School's back in session at Wesleyan and all last week WESU was still running the same automated music. I've been hearing the the daytime NPR format is slated to begin on February 1. If I find anymore official news, I'll post it here.

WESU has been running some form of automation during Wesleyan's Winter break. Aparently the University has locked out the Community Volunteers from doing shows over the break. It's essentially music (some Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Jazz and some World Music), with id's thrown in for good measure.

There's no mention of what's happening on the official WESU web page, though I found a web page of interest today, SaveWESU.org

WESU isn't the only local college radio station to jump on the NPR bandwagon. WNHU in West Haven, the University of New Haven station, plans to air NPR programming from WNPR up to 6 hours a day.

Read the article from the New Haven Advocate here.

NOTE: I had originally written a post on this subject last month, but problems with my RadioBlog host prevented this from being posted.....

This information was forwarded to me by John Schwenk at WHUS. Being a longtime supporter of College Radio and in particular freeform stations, I was extrememly interested in this:

> According to an article in the Hartford Courant, the
> president of Wesleyan wants to take the students and
> community members off the air during the day at
> freeform WESU, in Middletown, and replace them with
> NPR programing.
(the article is no longer available on the CTNOW website)

> Wesleyan's student newspaper, the Argus, has published
> articles on this, although you may have to run a
> search on WESU, to find them.
> http://www.wesleyan.edu/argus

> WESU's web site is...
> http://www.wesufm.org/
> and, in a slightly different form
> http://wesu.web.wesleyan.edu/

You will definately want to check the WESU website, they have a few press releases and their side of the story there as well....

Chuck Dube', Chief Engineer at WFCR, the public radio station Amherst, MA has put together a web page documenting the installation of their new HD radio system. Click here to check it out!

I wonder how far the FCC will go now with 4 more years of a Bush administration. It's a very sad state of affairs.

Well, it had to happen sooner or later....
Listening to Classic Rocker PYX-106 in Albany today (while there for work), they played Pink Floyd's "Money." OK, nothing unusual about that except the fact that the word "bullshit" was editied out of that one line in the song. Thanks FCC!! Thanks Clear Channel!! I mean, this song has been played probably a million times since it's release without being edited....

WDRC-FM in Hartford has tweaked their Oldies format to the "Big Hits of the 60's and 70's" format. The music has made some changes, noticibly more of the Top 40 hits of the late 70's in heavier rotation. They now actually get a preset in the car radio, as well as the work van...

I just got back from a week is Seattle, home of one of my favorite radio stations that I listen to online, KEXP. It was a great treat to be able to wake up to them on the clock radio, or in the car (the one time I was in a car while out there, the driver had KEXP on.) They play a great vairety of eclectic music, check them out via the net if you get a chance!!!!

I borrowed a CD of The Cranberries "No Need to Argue" from the library the other day. One of the songs on it is "Zombie." That's one of the songs that was in heavy rotation in the early days of Hartford's now defunct modern-rocker Radio 104. At the time, they didn't have any DJ's (who were allowed to speak), but there were board op's running the CD's and commercials (still on carts those days). I was actually the board-op on duty when they made the switch from "Star 104" to "The New 104" (as it was known prior to Radio 104) on Nov 1, 1994- The first song played in the new format was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, in case you're wondering.

So, hearing the Cranberries song, got me to thinking about what other songs were in rotation back from my board-op days there. I've started to compile a list with the hopes of making a personal CD comp of them. I've got at least 18-20 of them that I can recall as being in heavy rotation. If you remember songs on the playlist of "New 104" drop a line to me and let me know.

On a related note: someone started a "Bring back Radio 104" petition online. Doubt if it would do any good, as ClearChannel is probably going by the books alone....but a Modern Rock/Alternative station in Hartford would be a good thing (AAA anyone??)

DX ALERT: Driving on RT 8 north of Thomaston, I picked up strong signals on 101.9. Playing a modern rock song. Station played commercials for the Cape Cod area of Mass. Positioner identified it as "Cool 102". The station faded as I rounded the turn north of the Northfield exit. Radio-Locator found WCIB-FM, Falmouth MA. Station Website: www.cool102.com

I'm a long time radio listener and hobbyist. Nights of listening to the radio in my parent's basement, listening to strange, distant AM stations and often catching FM DX from New York City on those magic nights. Those days led me into Ham Radio and electronics and eventually working in the radio industry.

So, here, in the RadioBlog, I'm going to write about what ever radio-related thought strikes my fancy, from a distant or new station that I've picked up while travelling in my new job, or something I heard on the air, industry gossip, whatever....

Hopefully, some radio affectionado will find this as interesting as I do....

Ok it's been months. Beta testing the new RadioBlog Features. If only I can get the framesets the way I want them!!! Damn you frames, DAMN YOU!!!