Outta hear! Local fans boo Phillies’ lousy radio signal
Team’s new station here was hoping to double its power. But it hasn’t happened yet, and listeners aren’t happy with weak reception.
Grande
By Chad Umble
Published Apr 28, 2006 13:27
The team’s new local radio affiliate, WPDC-AM 1600, is in a similar situation.
The Elizabethtown station took over Phillies’ broadcasts this year when the team’s longtime affiliate, WLPA-AM 1490, dropped them to carry the Barnstormers.
By now, WPDC officials expected to be to be up and running with a transmitter that would double its power.
Yet they are still waiting for the upgrade, leaving some Lancaster County listeners unable to pick up the Phillies’ radio broadcasts.
“I can’t get it. It kinda comes in and out, mostly out,” said Scott Francis, who tries to listen in Leola. “Hopefully we can get some better coverage.”
Vince Grande, WPDC’s general manager, said the new transmitter will bring significantly better coverage, upping the station’s power from 500 to 1,000 watts and allowing it to reach nearly all of Lancaster County.
But getting the transmitter has taken longer than expected. Originally slated to be ready in early April, it now won’t be available until at least mid-May.
“Nobody wants it on the air more than I do,” Grande said, before adding: “With everything happening so quick it was next to impossible to have everything up and running at the start of the season.”
In the meantime, WPDC’s signal remains weak for some Lancaster County listeners, and weaker in the evenings, when most of the Phillies’ games are broadcast.
Like many AM stations, WPDC is mandated to reduce its signal strength at night. The reason has to do with the physics of AM radio waves, which travel near the ground during the day but move higher in the atmosphere after nightfall.
This phenomenon, known as skywave, allows some AM radio station signals to travel vast distances at night, but increases the likelihood that the signals will interfere with each other.
Many stations, including WPDC, are mandated to reduce the strenth of their night-time signals to lessen the chance of this interference.
Currently, WPDC’s 500-watt daytime signal is cut back to a 234-watt transmission at night.
This reduction is discouraging for some WPDC listeners who may lose the broadcast just before game time.
“During the day you can hear the games, but 80 percent of the games are at night and you can’t hear squat,” said Dr. Seymour Kilstein, a Manheim Township physician and avid Phillies fan.
Kilstein said he has better luck listening to the games on the Philadelphia station, WPHT-AM 1210.
However, Kilstein also runs advertisements during the Phillies’ games on WPDC, and is frustrated by not being able to reach his core customers.
“It doesn’t help me too much if it doesn’t go into Lancaster,” he said.
Grande said that after the transmission upgrade, WPDC will broadcast a 500-watt signal at night, roughly equivalent to the current daytime signal strength.
For Kilstein, the promise of some extra radio power has him reserving judgement on the Phillies’ broadcasts.
“The jury is out. We’ll see what happens when this tower goes up,” he said.
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