Latest Nielsen #'s show radio's diminishing relevance

[Ben Zonia]

I wish we had a Longley Rice Delta map showing the dB difference between the old and new facilities. This is similar to change mapping shown from some types of repeat medical imaging done over time.

There are considerable areas in the Central Grand Rapids Area, mainly near valleys, rivers, and streams, where there is considerable terrain shadowing. This is more due to distance and direction the new site in the DA major lobe, but the DA exacerbates it.

It may be important in certain parts of the service areas, but indeed it may be more due to format recently. The ratings methodology seems to be shrouded in secrecy.

https://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php ... te=1&map=Y

[Ben Zonia]

In the 1970s, I noticed observable signal variation on WJFM and WOOD-FM 105.7 within the City of Grand Rapids.

[Ben Zonia]

It was somewhere along the Grand River between Downtown and the VA Hospital, near where as I recall, they had the Raft Race. The rapidly varying signal was on WJFM and WOOD-FM 105.7. I was surprised, since they had such high ERP. The FCC was still in their near flat earth signal prediction phase, where they still are stuck, but radio engineers have moved on to Longley Rice prediction. Near flat is a variation of 50 feet between 2 and 10 miles as I recall, and that's far beyond that prediction distance.

[Ben Zonia]

I remember seeing the WJEF tower on top of the Pantlind Hotel, probably right before they moved to the Ann St. location. That was probably the early 1960s, when I started DXing. My grandfather always listened to WJEF. They had Detroit Tiger Baseball for obvious reasons, and WKZO might have filled in the service area at Night in outlying areas. After moving, they dropped down to something like 173 watts because of the higher tower radiation efficiency.

The Pantlind had closed as I recall and had fallen into disrepair, and it seems like they had a fire around that time, which may have disrupted WJEF's operation, which might have been why they decided to move.