Posted by Greg Strickland on October 27, 2009 at 20:08:50:
In Reply to: Re: Re: WQXR: A few weeks of listening to 105.9 posted by Jim Burns on October 26, 2009 at 10:19:57:
In any receive location 105.9 would be expected to have about one third the signal strength of the full Class B stations on Empire State Building. The Class Bs have more margin to accommodate signal attenuation from building structures, terrain and eventually the curvature of the Earth.
FCC rules protect Class B stations from interference to their 54 dBu contour, and Class B1 stations (like 105.9) to their 57 dBu contour.
What else is there to say? I think 105.9 has an amazing signal from a fantastic antenna location with a clear shot to millions of people.
The only problem is that Class Bs from the same site have about three times as much signal. So the focus becomes not the ten million who hear 105.9 just fine, but the several million who are behind a hill, inside a thick building, behind a bunch of buildings, on the fringe of protected coverage or using a poor receiver.
I am puzzled by those who think something is wrong, other than the good argument that only Class Bs should have been allotted by the FCC within 50 miles of the New York City metro.