Signal/Power Issues

TO ALL WVLY LISTENERS

FROM HOWARD MONROE
STATION OWNER

From time-to-time people will say they have a hard time hearing us at certain times of day and in certain parts of the Ohio Valley.

WVLY is a 5,000 watt radio station licensed to Moundsville, WV. Our tower and transmitter site are on a hill outside of Moundsville, which puts us about 20 miles South of Wheeling. Other AM radio stations in our listening area are located in the immediate Wheeling area. As a result, listeners in Marshall County and other areas in the "southern" segment of the local listening area can hear us better than most other AM stations, but in the Wheeling area--because our signal travels further to get here--there can be occassional interference.

This normally occurs in the early morning and late afternoon during what the technical folks call "critical hours". These are the hours that the atmosphere is rising (and lowering). The critical hours are constantly changing throughout the year. In the winter, these "critical hours" are most severe. During winter, intereference affects us as late as 8am in the morning and as early as 3pm in the afternoon.

Additionally, the FCC--which licenses all radio stations--requires all AM stations to adjust their power in the night time hours. These hours vary each month, by law. As a result--again as Fall turns to Winter-- we not only have interference because of the atmosphere, but we are also required to TURN DOWN the output of our transmitter. In Winter months, after 6pm, our signal coverage is limited to the Marshall County area.

This is why, for example, listeners in Wheeling or St. Clairsville may have a heard time hearing Tony Caridi and Sportsline in the winter.

Note that Wheeling-based stations have the same problems in reverse (poorer coverage in Marshall County and better in Wheeling during critical hours and power down times).

Since these issues are controlled by the laws of physics and the regulations of the federal government, we can't do much to change it.

We HAVE made it easy for you to listen during the interference times, though. Just use our streaming audio feature from the web site. This will give you clean, clear audio 24 hours a day through your computer, smart phone, or other internet-enabled devices. In fact, you will find the on-line audio will be a crisper, more listenable, sound than listening on a radio no matter where you are.

If you have any questions, you can e-mail wvlyradio@aol.com and I'll try to answer them.

Understand that this is a basic "layman's explanation" of the situation. Engineerng types will probably think I didn't explain fully enough, but this should give you a basic understanding of what happens.