The Buffalo Radio Manifesto on WECK-1230

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The Buffalo Radio Manifesto on WECK-1230

Postby jon » Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:11 pm

I dunno if this is going to work because they don't have much of a signal, but WECK in a suburb of Buffalo is making a valiant stab at going against "The Buffalo Big Guys" by bringing in a PD who has been on Buffalo stations owned by The Big Guys. One of this first orders of business was to air a Manifesto: Click here to hear.

It is mostly self explanatory, but a little background on WECK is in order.

Until very recently, WECK was really tough to listen to. They are on 1230 KHz, a "graveyarder" that runs 1000 watts non-directional day and night. CHSC St. Catharines was only a few miles away on 1220 KHz with 10,000 watts. Fortunately, CHSC's license has been pulled by the CRTC, but I'm still not convinced that WECK has what you might call a City Grade signal into all of Buffalo and its suburbs, especially at night when skywave brings in some of the other stations on 1230: New York State has 6 alone on the frequency.

Also interesting is the repeated specific references to other Buffalo stations in the "Manifesto", a frequent topic here lately, that of naming and slamming your competitors.
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Re: The Buffalo Radio Manifesto on WECK-1230

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Sun Feb 20, 2011 5:31 pm

Hi everyone, Thanks for mentioning this station Jon. Interesting! I heard them quite a few times back in 200l when I was at my Ontario location near Cobourg, Ontario which is about 60 miles east of Toronto on Lake Ontario. I spent all of 2001 in Ontario near Cobourg. Did a lot of dxing and loop antenna work there back then. Was there during 9ll too. Anyway I heard WECK 1230 Cheektowaga (Buffalo Suburb) New York quite often in the daytime with a Fair Signal (about S-3 or os) using a G.E. Portable Superadio (AM/Fm) and my ferrite portable loop antenna and the Select-a-tenna air-core portable loop as well. Also got them with better signal strength using my Drake Communications Receiver and a C.Crane Radio i have back east. The St. Catharines Station CHSC 1220 came into Cobourg area in the daytime but with a weaker signal, it definitely did not have any slopover onto 1230 or 1240 Khz... at all!!! I would say CHSC was about average signal strength on 1220 AM, maybe S-4 or S-5 on a radio signal meter. By the way 1230 is known as a Graveyard Channel or Local Channel to DXers, (care to explain that to Radio West Non-dxers Jon??) I had to explain to Mrs. CFAY (ANN) what a graveyard AM Channel was and she just said "Why Don't DXers just call it a Dogpile Channel!!". She has heard various Local AM Channels at night and gets quite annoyed with all the hissing and splishing/splashing etc. etc... Definitely Mrs. CFAY does not have the patience to be a graveyard channel AM DXer!!!!

I also have taped WECK 1230 off my Grace Wi-Fii radio in 2009 with their Sunday Morning Polka Show, its local. In fact WECK is a locally owned AM Independant station that first went on the air in 1956 as WNIA. They have mostly local talk and information programs. Exceptions to that would be the Dennis Miller Show, Laura Ingraham and Dirk Van in the early morning hours. Nope they don't currently carrry Coast to Coast AM all- night. They do have a local paranormal/UFO Show on weekends I think. Their programming is pretty unique and quite local for most of it. On the website they also have some really local musical artists with some bizarre names, so they must play local music on-air at times too. Check out their website, its very colorful and gives a lot of info. and photos about the station including ones from the 1960s. By the way the call letters WECK refer to a roast beef sandwich bun thats famous locally in the Buffalo area, its talked bout on the website. Wikipedia has a lot of detail about WECK and its history as well. So thanks Jon for bringing this one to our attention!!!!! 73s, good dxing to you!
Bye . . Mr. CFAY "Frequently On The Frequency"
The CFAY Website: http://cfayradio.wordpress.com
CFAY Radio: http://tinyurl.com/l9qqmh
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