[BC] WPRB

[Bernie Courtney]

I saw this earlier and did just that on my way back from the gym a little
while ago.  That trip takes me from Piscataway, through New Brunswick, and
ending up in East Brunswick- then back again.  For those not familiar with
the area Piscataway is about 5mi south of Edison since thats one of the
references on the coverage maps (http://nyclubkid.com/WKTU-WPRBCoverage.gif)

I really didnt see any *major* difference between the two stations -- KTU's
signal takes hits driving around down here sometimes, although I will say
WPRB seems to be somewhat worse. At least part of that could be the fact
that because of KTU's format and heavy processing imperfections in their
signal dont stand out as much, and surely would go unnoticed to most casual
listeners.

WPRB sounds like they are running next to nothing in their airchain so you
hear every little imperfection in their signal as your driving around.  The
fact that half the time I spent listening the DJ was doing a 10 min recap of
reading the last half hours playlist because for some reason (automation
crashed?) they coulnt play any music and according to the DJ "it wouldnt be
another day here at WPRB without some technical glitches" made it even worse
since with just a dry voice talking you REALLY heard everything, since you
rarely  get such moments on KTU its tuff to make a fair comparison.

Bottom line is that WPRB's signal overall seems to be slightly worse, but
since I've never listened to them before this afternoon its really hard to
say if IBOC has anything to do with this, or if there signal around here
(this area is right on the edge of their 'local' contour) has always been
like this.

And after about a half hour of listening I now must say I'm even more
appalled at Bob Orban's take that KTU should just sign off to give them
better coverage.  To the contrary PRB should just sign off for the sake of
being a waste of natural resources in all the energy they are using to
broadcast their crappy programming.  Maybe it was just this one daypart, but
the 200w @ 2m HAAT station that's shared between Rutgers and Piscataway HS
has better programming on it, and that's sad because for years i thought
that station was a waste of spectrum.  :-)

bern

On 1/23/06, Robert Meuser <Robertm at broadcast.net> wrote:
>
> I dont see a problem since WKTU is IBOC someone could easily drive out and
> listen WPRB. I suspect Chicken Little will be disappointed.
>
> R
>
> DANA PUOPOLO wrote:
> > Yeah.
> >
> > Until each lights up IBAC on the other's frequency that is.
> >
> > -D
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>It bears noting, also, that the overlap between WPRB and WKTU, while
> >
> > very real, is less obtrusive to listeners than one would expect, for
> > two reasons. First, WKTU's aggressive processing causes it to
> > dominate the channel pretty quickly once you're inside the I-287
> > beltway that serves as a sort of psychological barrier between the
> > "New York" part of New Jersey and the Philadelphia-centric South
> > Jersey that starts roughly at Princeton. I've never had any trouble
> > hearing WKTU as close to Princeton as the Edison/Metuchen area.
> > Second, WKTU's format fits its signal limitations - its dance-heavy
> > music is aimed largely at the five boroughs and the close-in suburbs,
> > so if reception suffers in New Brunswick or Flemington, it's no great
> > loss to WKTU.
> >
> >
> >