Thanx Chris!
This is a station I might try to listen to, although I don't think I'll be able to pull in a 1KW station on 1230 AM in this neck of the woods (Ottawa, Canada).
Worth a try though - you never know.
BCB DX still lives on.
I'll probably check online just to hear the content even though it's definitely not local for me.
I enjoy listening to the stories of some of the guys in our local ham clubs of things done to survive and stay on the air (as staff members of the stations as well as hams) during natural (and other) disasters - such as the ice storm that went through in January 1998. My youngest daughter was born during that storm. I cannot overemphasize how valuable the information from the local stations (especially AM stations) was during that storm.
Or the coverage just a couple of years ago when tornado(s) went through the area and totally devasted the power switching/distribution/transformer station (one of the major ones for our city/area) just two blocks from where we live.
Local stations, even low(er) powered AM ones still have a definite place these days.
- Bill Henderson / va3hwa
Nepean (Ottawa), Ontario, Canada
On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 7:38 PM Christopher Bowne <aj1g@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Well I expect that our local WBLQ 1230 AM1KW 24/7 in Westerly RI will keep on going. It’s not quite a Mom and Pop AMer, but it’s owned and run by a couple of True Believers in the concept of local broadcast radio that’s reflected in the programming. Great music content focusing on 60s through the 80s, with some newer stuff. Morning local sports and talk, local Town Manager (Westerly) and First Selectwoman (Stonington CT) are each on the morning show weekly. Veterans Hour weekly, What’s Your Business spotlighting local businesses and business people weekly, Resiliency Radio that focuses on environmental issues weekly, Mann about Town (husband and wife the Manns) with feature content of local interest. Saturdays daytime, after a bunch of locals have a sports call in show, is The Time Machine, classic top forty in the style of the golden years of NYC’s WNBC 660 and 77 WABC, lots of old school style jingles, station IDs, and heavy reverb on the DJs. Sunday has two hours of That’s Amore, Frank, Deano, Lou Monte, and other Italian musicians, comedy bits by Pat Cooper (lots of Calabrese in Westerly, Sicilianos in Pawcatuck section of Stonington), then several hours of Sunday Jazz Brunch. Rest of Sunday features a number of syndicated rock programs Nothing But Old 45s, One Hit Wonders, and a Beatles show.Broadcasts local high school football and basketball games and a local basketball Christmas Tournament. Also the annual Westerly Stonington Thanksgiving Day football game. In 2020, when the game was not played due to COVID, they rebroadcast the 1998 game, which my son and many others his age still in the area had played in. Their kids had the unique experience of listening to a football game that their fathers were playing in.And great live coverage during hurricanes, nor’easters and blizzards. During Hurricane Sandy, the station manager broadcast from the transmitter site on the banks of the Pawcatuck River after feed from downtown studio went down with all the power. Took calls and patched callers in through his personal cell phone with the transmitter emergency generator roaring away in the background, and water coming onto the floor of the building at high tide.They are one of only the very few US AM stations still broadcasting in AM Stereo, although one wonders if any of their listeners are actually receiving in stereo. They recently added on a stereo simulcast FM transponder on 103.1, and of course like everyone else, “stream worldwide via the Internet”. They are very good about keeping extremely clean audio quality unlike many over-compressed and overly bassy stations where loudness is all that matters.Long live local AM radio!Chris B. AJ1GStonington CTSent from my iPhone