WHCU Radio Broadcast

[RichH]

[quote redice][quote profudge]redice and RichH,   I agree -  I miss the FM away game broadcasts  and I am near top of hill about  20 miles south of Ithaca.  AM is impossible to listen to most evenings.     WHCU, please switch to FM for sports coverage.[/quote]

I admit that I don't know that radio business.   So, I don't fully understand why they make their decisions.   (And, as you might expect, they offer no explanations.)  But, it's frustrating to know that Cayuga Radio Group has five FM stations and they can't find a way to broadcast CU Hockey on one of them.   I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that there must be a good reason.  But, given the fact that the Elmira Jackals are ALWAYS on FM, I can't believe the reason is that compelling....  Or should I believe that Cayuga Radio Group is just miles ahead of all the other stations in the decision-making process?   I seriously doubt it.

I've just gotta say it:         ::asshole::[/quote]

To add more fuel to the fire, I'll share my experiences:

When I lived in Rochester, the games were on 103.7 FM.  I could pull them in from my apartment on a good night.  On a bad night, all I'd have to do is hop in the car and drive to Victor for clear reception (yes, I'm crazy, but so are all of you.)  Once they made the switch to 870 AM, I couldn't hear a thing (besides WWL from New Orleans) when I was any further than 15 miles outside of Ithaca.

During the day, 870 is great.  They pump out at 5000 Watts and I can pick up CU football games at my parents' house, which is more than a 90 minute drive SW of Ithaca.  At night, when all the hockey games are, FCC rules requires WHCU AM to power down to 1000 Watts.  And goodbye reception to a potential audience that could cover Binghamton, Corning, Elmira, Syracuse, and the outskirts of the Rochester market.

It's dumb not to put the games back on FM.

[Chris '03]

[quote RichH]

It's dumb not to put the games back on FM.[/quote]

Think of all the redcast subscriptions they'd lose if radio were free to people who weren't already at the game! :-P ::bolt::

[Rita]

[quote RichH][quote redice][quote profudge]redice and RichH,   I agree -  I miss the FM away game broadcasts  and I am near top of hill about  20 miles south of Ithaca.  AM is impossible to listen to most evenings.     WHCU, please switch to FM for sports coverage.[/quote]

I admit that I don't know that radio business.   So, I don't fully understand why they make their decisions.   (And, as you might expect, they offer no explanations.)  But, it's frustrating to know that Cayuga Radio Group has five FM stations and they can't find a way to broadcast CU Hockey on one of them.   I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that there must be a good reason.  But, given the fact that the Elmira Jackals are ALWAYS on FM, I can't believe the reason is that compelling....  Or should I believe that Cayuga Radio Group is just miles ahead of all the other stations in the decision-making process?   I seriously doubt it.

I've just gotta say it:         ::asshole::[/quote]

To add more fuel to the fire, I'll share my experiences:

When I lived in Rochester, the games were on 103.7 FM.  I could pull them in from my apartment on a good night.  On a bad night, all I'd have to do is hop in the car and drive to Victor for clear reception (yes, I'm crazy, but so are all of you.)  Once they made the switch to 870 AM, I couldn't hear a thing (besides WWL from New Orleans) when I was any further than 15 miles outside of Ithaca.

During the day, 870 is great.  They pump out at 5000 Watts and I can pick up CU football games at my parents' house, which is more than a 90 minute drive SW of Ithaca.  At night, when all the hockey games are, FCC rules requires WHCU AM to power down to 1000 Watts.  And goodbye reception to a potential audience that could cover Binghamton, Corning, Elmira, Syracuse, and the outskirts of the Rochester market.

It's dumb not to put the games back on FM.[/quote]

Now I do not feel so bad about the times I sat up on the Crescent with my walkman so I could get AM1080 out of CT and listened to Whaler games. ::blush::

[billhoward]

You went to the top of the Crescent to pull in Whaler games? THAT is dedication to a home team that was about to treat its fans rudely by decamping.

[redice]

[quote RichH]
To add more fuel to the fire, I'll share my experiences:

When I lived in Rochester, the games were on 103.7 FM.  I could pull them in from my apartment on a good night.  On a bad night, all I'd have to do is hop in the car and drive to Victor for clear reception (yes, I'm crazy, but so are all of you.)  Once they made the switch to 870 AM, I couldn't hear a thing (besides WWL from New Orleans) when I was any further than 15 miles outside of Ithaca.

During the day, 870 is great.  They pump out at 5000 Watts and I can pick up CU football games at my parents' house, which is more than a 90 minute drive SW of Ithaca.  At night, when all the hockey games are, FCC rules requires WHCU AM to power down to 1000 Watts.  And goodbye reception to a potential audience that could cover Binghamton, Corning, Elmira, Syracuse, and the outskirts of the Rochester market.

It's dumb not to put the games back on FM.[/quote]

I have pretty much the same radio history.  If they would get it on FM, I WILL get the station.   In that frequency range, there is a lot that can be done with directional, gain antennas.   Add in a preamp and just about any signal can be heard....  AM radio frequencies call for monster-sized antennas and just don't lend themselves to such practices.   The only thing, on the FM band, that could foil me is a high-power local station (in Elmira) on the same or nearby frequency.

I understand the deal with WHCU's low power night time transmitter.  It's my understanding that, when they went to being a 24 hour station, they had to take steps to NOT interfere with WWL in New Orleans.   I do believe their nighttime antenna array is configured to have a null lobe to the southwest.   Oh, did I tell you that I live southwest of the transmitter (shit)?

And, my favorite crazy story about listening to Cornell Hockey on the radio.  After they went to AM, CU was playing a playoff game at Clarkson.   I couldn't receive the game at home.  So, I took my wife to a downtown Ithaca movie theater.   She watched the movie.   I listened to the hockey game on my radio.   It ended in a 0-0 tie.  As the game wore on, I sat there wondering if I could control myself if CU scored a goal.  Fellow movie-goers aren't too keen on someone standing up, with arms in the air, & yelling a lot, you know....;-)

[Jim Hyla]

[quote redice]
And, my favorite crazy story about listening to Cornell Hockey on the radio.  After they went to AM, CU was playing a playoff game at Clarkson.   I couldn't receive the game at home.  So, I took my wife to a downtown Ithaca movie theater.   She watched the movie.   I listened to the hockey game on my radio.   It ended in a 0-0 tie.  As the game wore on, I sat there wondering if I could control myself if CU scored a goal.  Fellow movie-goers aren't too keen on someone standing up, with arms in the air, & yelling a lot, you know....;-)[/quote]That was one of my most favorite games of all time. A 0-0 tie with Clarkson pulling their goalie to try and win it.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

One night last spring I was actually able to pick up WHCU from my car radio here in Allentown.  Signal strentgh was horrible and it faded in and out a lot, but I was actually able to make out enough to know it was HCU (and Cornell was winning).

[dss28]

[quote Rita][quote RichH][quote redice][quote profudge]redice and RichH,   I agree -  I miss the FM away game broadcasts  and I am near top of hill about  20 miles south of Ithaca.  AM is impossible to listen to most evenings.     WHCU, please switch to FM for sports coverage.[/quote]

I admit that I don't know that radio business.   So, I don't fully understand why they make their decisions.   (And, as you might expect, they offer no explanations.)  But, it's frustrating to know that Cayuga Radio Group has five FM stations and they can't find a way to broadcast CU Hockey on one of them.   I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that there must be a good reason.  But, given the fact that the Elmira Jackals are ALWAYS on FM, I can't believe the reason is that compelling....  Or should I believe that Cayuga Radio Group is just miles ahead of all the other stations in the decision-making process?   I seriously doubt it.

I've just gotta say it:         ::asshole::[/quote]

To add more fuel to the fire, I'll share my experiences:

When I lived in Rochester, the games were on 103.7 FM.  I could pull them in from my apartment on a good night.  On a bad night, all I'd have to do is hop in the car and drive to Victor for clear reception (yes, I'm crazy, but so are all of you.)  Once they made the switch to 870 AM, I couldn't hear a thing (besides WWL from New Orleans) when I was any further than 15 miles outside of Ithaca.

During the day, 870 is great.  They pump out at 5000 Watts and I can pick up CU football games at my parents' house, which is more than a 90 minute drive SW of Ithaca.  At night, when all the hockey games are, FCC rules requires WHCU AM to power down to 1000 Watts.  And goodbye reception to a potential audience that could cover Binghamton, Corning, Elmira, Syracuse, and the outskirts of the Rochester market.

It's dumb not to put the games back on FM.[/quote]

Now I do not feel so bad about the times I sat up on the Crescent with my walkman so I could get AM1080 out of CT and listened to Whaler games. ::blush::[/quote]

HA!

Strange but true: You can actually get 870AM in West Hartford, driving on Whetten Road from Albany Avenue to Asylum.  You can also get 870 on a few of the side roads in Bloomfield and Avon Mountain.

...Not that I did that on more than one occasion.

[redice]

Yeah, that happens here in the Elmira area occasionally.    I'm not sure if it was just fluky propagation or WHCU neglected to switch to their nighttime setup.   Whatever the explanation, I liked it.

[oceanst41]

[quote profudge]redice and RichH,   I agree -  I miss the FM away game broadcasts  and I am near top of hill about  20 miles south of Ithaca.  AM is impossible to listen to most evenings.     WHCU, please switch to FM for sports coverage.[/quote]

Heck even inside Ithaca the broadcast wasn't great. I remember having to rig my stereo's AM antenna in all sorts of orientations just to make the feed bearable to listen to. Frankly, it was easier just to go to the away games. :-}

[Jim Hyla]

[quote oceanst41][quote profudge]redice and RichH,   I agree -  I miss the FM away game broadcasts  and I am near top of hill about  20 miles south of Ithaca.  AM is impossible to listen to most evenings.     WHCU, please switch to FM for sports coverage.[/quote]

Heck even inside Ithaca the broadcast wasn't great. I remember having to rig my stereo's AM antenna in all sorts of orientations just to make the feed bearable to listen to. Frankly, it was easier just to go to the away games. :-}[/quote]and more fun, too.

[munchkin]

The WHCU broadcast is in time with the RedCast, does that mean that RedCast is on the 10 second delay?

[Jacob '06]

The WHCU broadcast is in time with the RedCast, does that mean that RedCast is on the 10 second delay?

The redcast picks up the audio by putting an extra microphone in front of the broadcasters, or tapping in to the feed out of the arena to the radio station, they aren't picking it up out of the air and broadcasting it. The video is certainly on some sort of delay for the time it takes to compress the video and broadcast it, but I imagine it is as "live" as they are capable of doing it.

[Rosey]

The redcast picks up the audio by putting an extra microphone in front of the broadcasters, or tapping in to the feed out of the arena to the radio station, they aren't picking it up out of the air and broadcasting it.

Clearly evidenced by the chatter in lieu of commercials.

[redice]

There was no 10sec delay on the WHCU broadcast tonight.

If anyone from WHCU reads this, Thank you!!

It was nice to, once again, listen to Jason & Tony's commentary.