95.3 The Buzz

Here in northeast Seattle I get a signal on 95.3. Its audio is mostly buzz, mixed with Air1. I can't hear the air1 well enough to know if the ID from KWAO-88.1 is carried at the top of the hour.
KWAO is the nearest Air1, in Ocean Shores.
From August or September 2013 till June, the signal was constant, but in June it did go off at various intervals.
Here are my questions for fellow board posters.
1. Who else gets this signal, and where?
2. Does anyone know if it's coming from KWAO? (If so, the signal would be huge near their transmitter site. (The 88.1 main signal and the 95.3 buzzer are about comparable strength.
I don't know my distance from KWAO, but I wouldn't expect a spurious signal from there to even reach me. I hear the main signal, but it's not a barn burner.
3. Besides my KWAO spurious signal conjecture, anyone have any theories about this 95.3 signal?
Since it serves no purpose, and the transmission is probably due to a technical problem, I'd love to see it cleared up.

I'm sure KXXK and KGY might be a tad dismayed (to say the least) if it's coming from KWAO....Try driving or walking around the neighborhood - it might be some bad religious pirate wannabe.

Its probably CKZZ 95.3 from Mount Seymour. The high ERP they run would surely be enough to produce a signal if you were in the right spot. I doubt that KXXK or the KGY translator have anything to do with the signal. Those signals are not usable in the Seattle area.

I did hear a rumor (on this board to be exact) that some sort of strange signal was received on 95.3 in the Seattle area a long time ago. It could very well be KWAO.

I've heard this buzz all the way on I-90 from Mercer Island to Issaquah - Tonight heard it up towards Woodinville (very weak, but still detectable)
I moved a part 15 station from 95.3 to 87.9 about 1 year ago to avoid the noise.

Exactly, BW. I don't drive, but I traveled from Seattle to Spokane last November, and I heard this buzz signal for a half-hour out of Seattle.
KWAO doesn't appear to have a phone listing; if they did, I'd have contacted them already.
If I did drive, I'd have already made a day trip out there to verify whether it comes from KWAO, but it seems to be the only logical conclusion; the signal is maybe 80 or 90 percent buzz, with Air1 mixed in.
Anyone have any contacts at EMF?

multiplex said:

Exactly, BW. I don't drive, but I traveled from Seattle to Spokane last November, and I heard this buzz signal for a half-hour out of Seattle.
KWAO doesn't appear to have a phone listing; if they did, I'd have contacted them already.
If I did drive, I'd have already made a day trip out there to verify whether it comes from KWAO, but it seems to be the only logical conclusion; the signal is maybe 80 or 90 percent buzz, with Air1 mixed in.
Anyone have any contacts at EMF?

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I'd report it directly to the FCC.

I've never heard Air1, but I have heard the buzzing on 95.3. Since I got my G8, I've also noticed a lot of noise and buzzing on 104.7, sometimes completely drowning out KDUX.

One thing to consider: could the buzzing noise be a result of all of the 95.3 signals in the area compounding? Perhaps whatever is left of the CKZZ and KXXK signal plus the KGY translator are combining to just wipe that frequency out.

The sound reminds me of an AM radio that is placed too close to a fluorescent light or old cathode-ray television tube.

fordranger797 said:

One thing to consider: could the buzzing noise be a result of all of the 95.3 signals in the area compounding? Perhaps whatever is left of the CKZZ and KXXK signal plus the KGY translator are combining to just wipe that frequency out.

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I'm pretty sure that makes a different noise that what WDAE was talking about. Next time I head down there, I'll check it out.

No, it's not a combined signal. It's much louder than CKZZ and Ellensburg.
At my house it can be nulled out, but it covers enough distance that I'm sure there's somewhere that this thing is just nothing but noise.

If it _is_ coming from KWAO (or some mixing product at that transmitter site), it would be a mammoth signal several miles from point of origin, because it's louder than KWAO.
And frankly, although I wish no ill will for EMF, it it _is_ from KWAO, it's unconscionable that they'd be putting out a huge extraneous signal for nearly a year without detecting and fixing it.

Bobdavcav, I wonder if you're hearing byproducts from 104.9's HD. If so, you'll just have to be creative about nulling it on 104.7.

Hmm. While that's a possibility, I'm well north of 104.9. When I had an hd radio, 104.9 never got a lock, even on the one day with great tropo that got the only lock on 104.1 KAFE's hd. I do know that the HD on KCMS makes a lot of noise on 105.1, but I've never heard that buzzing there. I only hear it on 104.7 and occasionally on 95.3.

Air One is booming in tonight on 95.3 here in the Renton Highlands. The past year or more it has been that buzz with a faint Air One or K-Love in the background.

Disclaimer: Do not take this as hateful commentary directed at the christian religion. For hateful commentary could not be any more opposite of how I actually feel about christianity when it is disconnected from radio.

Getting to the actual point, I am so sick of these STUPID religious translators. I think KCMS does a fantastic job of catering to those who are interested in hearing the "positive alternative". That being said, I see ZERO need for there to be any other such programming scattered across the dial (all of which air programming fed by satellite relay). I don't know how christian contemporary radio ended up on this asinine pathway, but something really needs to be done to stop this from getting any more out of hand.

I wonder if this is someone with a homemade XTMR and streaming EMF from the internet. I can't get KWAO or the buzz on 95.3 Mhz where I live to see if the timing is the same. typically from my experience, the OTA lags the stream.

Yes, 95.3 is Air1, no buzz now. (Apparently EMF people read this board; I doubt it's just coincidence that it's fixed after maybe 13 months.
Two more things.
I can't find any listing for an Air1 translator on 95.3, which retransmits KWAO in Ocean Shores.
Secondly, I agree with the posts about the excess of religious translators.
A few operators grab every frequency without a booming local.
By the way, if this _is_ actually an EMF facility, and they actually _do_ have a license for it, broadcasting buzz for over a year should disqualify them for that license.
However, in today's bizarre environment, a court would probably declare audio buzz with mixing products to be free speech.

I think I heard this buzz on that part of the FM dial also. Not there anymore. Can hear this 'Air One' station now and then with the antenna turned the right way. Where is the translator located?

fordranger797 said:

Disclaimer: Do not take this as hateful commentary directed at the christian religion. For hateful commentary could not be any more opposite of how I actually feel about christianity when it is disconnected from radio.

Getting to the actual point, I am so sick of these STUPID religious translators. I think KCMS does a fantastic job of catering to those who are interested in hearing the "positive alternative". That being said, I see ZERO need for there to be any other such programming scattered across the dial (all of which air programming fed by satellite relay). I don't know how christian contemporary radio ended up on this asinine pathway, but something really needs to be done to stop this from getting any more out of hand.

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I agree with you 100,000%. These national NCE Jesuscasters don't need to be here or anywhere outside their respective states. It's a hell of a racket they got going. And in my opinion, one worthy of a congressional investigation and any congress that isn't as bought off as ours would do exactly that.

Just because they have the loophole and the ability to use satellite relays to all these translators coast to coast doesn't necessarily or automatically give them the moral RIGHT. That's what the internet and streaming audio is for. And we're up to here with these Jesuscasters and sooner or later, it's going to come down to the LPFMs to take control of those frequencies because there won't be room for the Jesuscasters or anything that isn't LOCAL. And LPFMs, as I understand it now have priority over religious translators. The Jesuscasters are NOT providing a LOCAL service. They are not even educational. They utterly serve no purpose other than to make money for the fatcats running these networks. PERIOD.

And I've heard the two people I know who actually listen to these Jesuscasters whine to me "Well I don't like to hear Christian pop, I like Christian rock" Well guess what? I like to hear Laotian Death Polka, but I don't get to get a local radio channel exclusively for that. There's a bunch of genres that can't be found 24/7 - if at all on local radio. So if you want 24/7 Christian rock, that's what streaming radio is for. But a local LPFM serving a variety of different programs for a variety of different people is a far better use of the airwaves than a national religious network in areas already overserved by religious radio (like EVERYWHERE.)

So a challenge, since I haven't succeeded: can you find a licensed 95.3 translator associated with this Air1 retransmission, which does rebroadcast KWAO? It definitely weakens toward downtown Seattle, but strengthens toward northeast Seattle. In a few days I'll be in Shoreline and I'll check there.
But checking in two FM databases I find no applicable Washington state translator on 95.3.