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Site of the Week 11/11/2016: Manchester, NH

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
November 11, 2016
in Free Content, New Hampshire, Tower Site of the Week
0

Text and photos by SCOTT FYBUSH

On the week when our interminable election season has finally come to an end, or at least a pause, what better place to visit on Site of the Week than the quadrennial epicenter of American politics, Manchester, New Hampshire?

WMUR's Commercial Street studios
WMUR’s Commercial Street studios

WMUR lobby
WMUR lobby

And for the better part of half a century, the epicenter of that epicenter is New Hampshire’s only commercial network affiliate, WMUR-TV (Channel 9). From humble beginnings in an old Elm Street mansion back in 1954, WMUR has thrived, in no small part on political ad money. It left the mansion in 1987 for a new home in the Millyard area along the Merrimack River, then grew so fast that it needed to move again in 1996, this time to a nearby South Commercial Street site that had once housed a Service Merchandise warehouse store.

Newsroom
Newsroom

Control room
Control room

Take a right turn off the lobby, as we did when we visited in June, and you’re walking straight into WMUR’s busy newsroom. Until recently, this was the only TV newsroom in New Hampshire (we’ll see the new entrant in that field next week); even long after primary season, it’s actively covering all the other news that’s a little out of the range of the Boston stations.

A glass wall along one side of the newsroom looks into the control room; at the far end, another glass wall forms the back of the main news set that fills much of the south end of the building.

Studio
Studio

Studio
Studio
Rack room
Rack room

A hallway behind the newsroom takes us to the master control area. Even after WMUR came under common Hearst ownership with its erstwhile ABC competitor from Boston, WCVB (Channel 5), operations up here have stayed quite separate – master control is done locally here, including the MeTV signal on WMUR’s 9.2 channel that also features a 10 PM newscast.

And where do all those visiting reporters go every four Januarys when it’s primary season here? Across the lobby, there’s a huge open area that was once the Service Merchandise warehouse and is now rented out to CNN, ABC and other broadcasters that need temporary Manchester space.

Master control
Master control

Extra room at WMUR
Extra room at WMUR

On this beautiful June day, we followed up our studio visit with a ride up Mount Uncanoonuc, where the 1320-foot south peak enjoys both a lovely view eastward toward Manchester and also a crown of TV and FM towers.

WMUR on Uncanoonuc
WMUR on Uncanoonuc

WMUR's transmitters
WMUR’s transmitters

We missed out by a year or so on seeing the original WMUR transmitter house up here, which was originally a house belonging to New Hampshire governor Francis Murphy. In 1948, the house became the transmitter site of WMUR-FM (95.7), which lasted only a few short years up here. The site of the house is now empty land in front of the prefab structure that houses WMUR-TV’s digital transmitters. (You can see Garrett Wollman’s 2004 photo of the old house here.) You don’t need much power on VHF for digital, and those two little Larcans are dwarfed by the rack of other gear in the room.

WMUR
WMUR

WLMW 90.7
WLMW 90.7

WMUR’s main tower got some company at the start of the DTV era, when a smaller tower went up here with the interim DTV signal on channel 59. The DTV tower is still up here, even though WMUR returned to VHF channel 9 in 2009.

Just down the hill from WMUR is a little tower that holds the two directional antennas of religious WLMW (90.7), a relatively late addition to the hill.

WZID/WMLL
WZID/WMLL

WNEU
WNEU

WZID/WMLL
WZID/WMLL

Turn around from the WMUR-TV site and you’re looking at the site of WZID (95.7), the oldest FM up here, with a history of continuous operation dating back to 1947 as WKBR-FM. Originally on 100.1, it moved to WMUR-FM’s old 95.7 frequency in 1956. Today, it shares its tower with Saga sister station WMLL (96.5 Bedford), as well as translator W260CF (99.9), which relays WFEA (1370).

WGIR-FM aux
WGIR-FM aux
WGIR-FM
WGIR-FM

Adjacent to the Saga tower is the tower of WNEU (Channel 60), the NBC-owned Telemundo outlet which is about to become famous as the northern end of the new “NBC Boston.” The old analog channel 60 antenna (ex-WGOT) is gone from the top of the tower, and the RF channel 34 digital signal now comes from a little side-mounted antenna up here.

A little up the hill from those towers, we come to the old (now aux) and newer towers of WGIR-FM (101.1), iHeart’s rock station. Look very closely at the aux tower and you’ll see not only a three-bay directional antenna at the top but also, lower down, an even older five-bay horizontal antenna.

WBNH-LP
WBNH-LP

WBNH studio
WBNH studio

We’ll show you one more stop this week before we lost daylight on this trip: our longtime radio buddy Harry Kozlowski invited us over to Bedford, 10 miles or so from Manchester, to see his latest project, WBNH-LP (105.1).

WBNH racks
WBNH racks

Bedford Community TV studio
Bedford Community TV studio

Operated by Bedford Community TV, this is a model of what LPFM can be: a well-equipped studio (where local folks were recording a computer show right after we snapped that picture), a transmitter room right down the hall, easy access by town emergency personnel to get on the air when there’s an emergency, and the cable TV studio right next door. And when there’s no emergency, it’s nice to have a radio pro like Harry on hand to keep things going with an alternative rock format that’s unique to the market!

Thanks to WMUR’s Michael Saffell and Duncan Shaw and WBNH-LP’s Harold Kozlowski for the tours!

CALENDARS ON CLEARANCE

If you don’t have your 2023 Tower Site Calendar yet, now is the perfect time to get it. Because we have lowered the price to just $14.

The calendar has great photos of broadcast sites near and far (everywhere from Navajo Nation on the cover to Boston to Toronto to Texas, and beyond), plus a lovely “centerfold” you can keep on your wall for 2024.

It’s still shipping regularly, and you can have yours in just a couple of days!

Order your copy and you’ll see what we mean.

If you have already ordered your calendar, make sure you check out the other items in the store, too!

And don’t miss a big batch of New Hampshire IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!

Next week: Manchester and Concord

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Tags: WBNH-LPWGIR-FMWLMWWMLLWMURWZID
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Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

Editor/Publisher, NorthEast Radio Watch and Tower Site of the Week

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