Radio station signal strength question

In My Humble Opinion
1

I like to listen to a nearby college’s radio station but in the last few months I’ve been encountering serious bleed through from a Christian radio station located in another state.

The college is only located about 10 to 15 miles away. I looked up the Christian radio station online and they broadcast from three different locations, each of which is about 60 miles from me.

I realize that college radio probably doesn’t have the budget to put out a serious signal but how can it be that I can’t hear them from just 10 miles away? Is it possible that the commercial radio is putting out a signal that is too strong or can I only hear them because the college signal is so weak? Does the FCC get involved in cases of radio interference? Should I tell the college (I assume they don’t really care as long as you can hear it on campus)?

Please note that I don’t know anything about the science of radio signals or regulations from the federal government. I just want to know why I can’t hear a local station instead of an out-of-state one.

2

some college stations are very low power and cannot be heard beyond the campus. I know some in the past were only 50 watts. to compare a big FM station is 100,000 watts.

3

…of rock. You can’t say “100,000 watts” without adding “of rock.”

4

I DJed at my college station; I believe that we were transmitting at 20 or 25 watts (and our transmission mast was only about 50’ off the ground). Depending on the weather, you might not even be able to pick up our signal at the far end of campus.

5

Your college station may be as low-powered as 10 watts, with an antenna only 20’ or so tall. Low power stations like that are intended to broadcast to only a small area. (Ten miles is actually pretty good!) By contrast, it’s not unusual for a station to be able to be heard 60 miles away, depending on a bunch of factors.

If you used to be able to hear the little station with no problem, you can call the college and ask if something has happened. But in cases of a big station interfering with a little one, the FCC says the little station has to accept the interference.

6

this x100

7

Possibly also with “pumpin’ that wattage into your cottage.”

8

Beside signal strength, as mentioned above, are you listening to AM or FM, and are you listening during daylight or night?

AM station signals, especially, can travel very far at night.

9

I listen often to KUPS, a university station located in Tacoma, and its signal strength is so weak (only 100 watts) you can only hear it within two miles of campus on a standard radio. For that matter, I used to listen to a high school radio station five miles away–until it got overwhelmed by a commercial station on the exact same frequency over 60 miles away.

10

WJHU-FM88.1, Baltimore, 1978-85, broadcasting at 10 mighty watts of power, those were the days.

On a very good day we made it out of Baltimore County :smiley: Once we were having serious problems with over the air performance until Darryl took a look outside and had to throw rocks at a large crow that was perching on the antenna (roof of a 3-story dorm).

c.1980 the Powers That Be decided that the 10 watt college/community stations would get one use-it-or-lose-it chance to upgrade or be forever locked into “school” use, so many went away or upgraded or laid about until they migrated to web radio. Move forward a couple of decades and guess what, they decide to bring back low-power FM so now there’s like a few score of those tiny stations.