For the third time this week, I got in the car and the radio (tuned to WGBH-FM 89.7) was singing a song of signal-free static. The two earlier static spectaculars came between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. Today’s 100% content free experience came between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m.
After the second dead-air day, I became curious to what was happening. I turned on the sister station (Classical 99.5 WCRB) and the announcer chatted about the music – no mention of problems down the dial. A google search turned up nothing.
Today, when I was blessed with my third 89.7 surround sound static session, I called the station. After a few minutes on hold, I learned my radio wasn’t allergic to frequencies between 89.6 and 89.8, and the dead air was a side effect of painting the transmitter tower.
Who knew?
Well, the voice on the other end of the phone said it was posted on the website, and today I found this little reference in the middle of the main page:
Please excuse the interruption
89.7 WGBH will be off the air on Thursday, 7/15, 2pm-4pm due to required maintenance of its broadcast tower. We will continue to stream live online.
Buried elsewhere in the website was this message:
89.7 Broadcast Alert:
The WGBH 89.7FM broadcast tower is getting a new coat of paint this week to protect it from deterioration and make it more visible to planes during the day. Periodically we will need to turn off the transmitter or reduce its power to protect the painters while they work. 89.7 listeners can expect some interruption of our broadcast service during this time. Online streaming will not be affected by the work.
So, if you have taken your car to the stereo store due to intermittent static sessions, let’s hope your new radio was worth the price because the old one wasn’t malfunctioning.
YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO WBCN!
THEY HAVE BECK AND PALIN!
THEY HAVE SWEET MICHELLE!
Though I still go to Billerica for my grocery shopping, because I like their Market Basket. I hate the one on Middlesex Turnpike, too crowded and too much traffic.
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p>Where have you been?
Agree about the MB. Moved to Arlington and loving it.
Im surprised somebody isn’t fired, I had a show at a small community station (I am always impressed how far I can hear it though) in Chicago that would have canned me if there was even a second of dead air on my show. I always had to have a CD ready in case I needed to go to the bathroom, my guest bailed on me, or I had issues with the phone connection for guests. It was a pain because Green Onions and Classical Gas only last so long!
Classical Gas (very appropriate), but there’s also MacArthur Park and Alice’s Restaurant. Of course, Alice would blow through two or three stop sets as well.
I had to show up or lose my show, so on days when my co-host bailed, I was really sick, or didn’t feel like doing it you can’t beat Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull. It’s a great song and its 45 minutes long!
This sounds like a station issue affecting the signal, which a CD wouldn’t be able to work on any better than live activity.
I got a new (to me) car and I was wondering if there was something wrong with the radio. My wife hates everything about the car and then on top of that the radio is screwed up. I’m thinking “oh here’s another thing I’m going to have to make excuses about!”
Given that BMG folks are the kind of thoughtful seekers of information who might be pounding on their dashboards, hoping to get the radio to bounce back to good behavior, I thought people would like to know the radio is just fine.
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p>I wish this got a little more publicity or notice on WGBH.