wbz boston: how well is the reception west of the mississippi

[blamethemayo]

im just curious as to how often folks west of the mississippi can tune in wbz.

i know they count a few states west of the mighty mississip...as the '38 states' they are heard in..

[kc0ltv]

I'm not quite "west of the Mississippi", but farther west than a lot of locations that ARE west of the Mississippi (I'm about 100 mi east of it, not far from the source).  WBZ is fairly weak here, and currently trashed by somebody's IBOC too. 

[mimo]

Last time I was in Iowa (around the turn of the century) WBZ was a regular catch with a moderate signal.  I don't think it's that way anymore with WHO's Iboc.

[BRNout]

Last time I was in Iowa (around the turn of the century) WBZ was a regular catch with a moderate signal.  I don't think it's that way anymore with WHO's Iboc.

No, I was around Cedar Rapids and Dubuque last year and WBZ carried a decent nighttime signal into those areas.  I think that WHO causes more trouble once you get into central Iowa. 

The "38 states" thing is an old radio cliche that probably was true for some east coast stations back in the pre-TV days.  WTIC had a nighttime host back in the 1980s who loved to use that line.  And, it was never true for them thanks to the existence of KRLD.  It would seem that very few stations could actually boast of actually having a listenable signal in 38 states.  The ones that come to mind would be WLW, WGN, WWL, KMOX, WBBM, WJR, and WHAS. 

Many others (WSCR, WLS) get disqualified thanks to Cuban/Mexican interference in the south.  A Cuban blots out 670 in PA more than half of the time; I'm sure it's decimated by the time you get to SC or FL. 

WBZ?  It's pretty tough for any east coast station to pull that off these days.   They'd have to get some signal into each of the plains states (including Texas) and all of the south (inc'l Florida and LA) which is pretty unlikely thanks to IBlOCk, Cuba and Mexico. 

[rbrucecarter5]

I used to have pretty good luck with them in West Texas - but a 1030 signed on in Wyoming and that had to be nulled.  Then a lot of Spanish stuff that refuses to shut down at night from over the border - WHO's IBOC finishes it off.  I can't even hear it in Dallas.

[Buckeyes2001]

I have ID'ed WBZ near Des Moines, IA before (Indianola, IA about 15 miles south to be exact) when nulling WHO so they do make it at least that far. Here in Vermilion, OH, my Pioneer HD car radio with actually lock onto their HD signal at night for at least 10 seconds at a time, from over 600 miles away!

[DavidEduardo]

I used to have pretty good luck with them in West Texas - but a 1030 signed on in Wyoming and that had to be nulled.  Then a lot of Spanish stuff that refuses to shut down at night from over the border - WHO's IBOC finishes it off.  I can't even hear it in Dallas.

Several of the stations on 1030 in Mexico are licensed and notified to the US as fulltime, with talk XEQR in Mexico City running high power at night; that's the station that has historically been heard on 1030 when WBZ is off or where conditions don't favor the Northeast. And XEQR is totally legal under the existing treaties.

[cyberdad]

I've heard them as far west as Flagstaff, AZ.  Good signal there, but that was in the 1960s, and probably also a fluke. 

They were, however, absolutely reliable on a nightly basis during my college years in Eastern Iowa. They're still common there.  I also had no problem with them last month in both Omaha and Kansas City (the latter was under a low-powered local). 

[icybluelake]

WBZ is still a fairly regular catch in eastern Iowa, but maybe not as regular as 20 years ago. WHO isn't much of a factor (interfering with 1030). Of course, eastern Iowa isn't very far west of the Mississippi.

[radioman148]

I picked up WBZ in Seattle in 1963 before the Casper, Wy station was born. These days WBZ still puts in a very good signal into the Chicago
area, but not the great signal it used to have years ago.