I am listening to WBZ radio 1030 AM here on the east end of Lake Ontario with pretty much the same signal strength I had most nights in PEI. WBZ is the oldest licenced station in North America operating now for 83 years. They claim they are heard throughout the continent east of the Rockies - which is probably true given they have a 50,000 watt licence and a clear channel without competition. Don't judge the station by its terrible web site.
WBZ
Posted by on Friday, June 13, 2003 in - 4 comments
Paul Sullivan [who sounds exactly like Ray Romano except for a total lack of "duh, I dunno" schtick on Everybody Loves Raymond (they never asked me) that drives me nuts] hosts the 10 pm to midnight Eastern show following David Brudnoy - a Phd talking in the town where Harvard can be found - who starts at 7 pm. Both in their own way stake an interesting place in the talk-radio world as both are rightist libertarian without being republican right-wing a la Limbaugh. Brudnoy, for example, was merciless on the Clinton administration but not in the banal coarse way in which most US talk radio was - he was offended on principle. By way of contrast, one of the few real US liberal voices on any talk radio is Lovell Dyett evenings on the weekend. He also has the best voice on radio anywhere, making James Earle Jones sound watery and thin.
What is amazing to me is that the CRTC can't block access to whatever radio waves on the AM band float over the border to be caught by a $9.99 Radio Shack transistor special. In Canada, we live in a veritable cultural police state when it comes to the control of access to television signals on the grounds of protecting Canadian values. If those nasty US values are conveyed by audio, somehow they don't count.
Heck - on a good night you can hear Cuba on 600 Khz from most of eastern North America most nights on your car radio, especially in winter. Viva the old tech! Viva the low tech! Viva radio libre!
Comments
Adam - June 16, 2003 11:41 am
Ah WBZ.... music to the ears of a native Bostonian.
If I recall, they also carry all the Boston Bruins games, so there's yet another reason to tune in! ;-)
Now if I could only get the Sox games on WEEI 850 am....
-A.
Alan - June 16, 2003 12:04 pm
Try 1080 out of Hartford, WTIC. It carries the games on a much stronger signal. <p>Brudnoy, who has a principled view against all things Canadian, loves to introduce the Bruins games which niterrupt his shows as "ther very exciting hockey game" in a deadpan voice.
Peter Rukavina - June 17, 2003 11:56 pm
I regularly listen to WCBS (New York City), Bloomberg News Radio (New York City), WINS (New York City) and CFRB (Toronto) -- the last two share 1010 on the dial, and Charlottetown is apparently the place where their signals converge; in Stratford you get New York on my car radio and in Cornwall you get Toronto. Signals only come in at night, of course, and only in certain weather. My AM-radio-at-night-in-the-car habit is one of the only things that Catherine vocally objects to about me.
Alan - June 18, 2003 12:16 am
It's the static. And the waves of propagation. Ellen had the same thing. You just get Catherine listening to Ecos Del Torbes on 4980 shortwave out of Venezuela. That is the linchpin station. The host's mike is on reverb between the musical numbers. Apparently this is romantic in the southern Venezuelan jungle. Let it fade in and out during winter evenings around the house. [Sadly, CHTN ruins some of the best long distance am stations for PEI.] Then Radio Rebelde on 600 in the car - Truro used to block it but CKCL is gone. The music should overcome the normally adverse reaction to waves of propagation. If the effect is not apparent, repeat with Guinness.