Sound problems at Kiss-FM Huntsville

For a couple of days now 106.5 Kiss-FM in Huntsville has sounded very distorted with a high pitched squeal in the background. It sounds awful. With an already very limited signal against a 100,000 watt competition, I expected it to be recognized and fixed quickly but that doesn't seem to be happening. I checked the HD parent signal to see if it was a translator only problem & it is also heard on HD. Anyone else hearing this in the Huntsville area?

Its been a week now and it still sounds horrible. The HD signal sounds fine now but the translator is worse. It is unlistenable to me at this point. The squeal in the background hurts your ears after a while and all the "S's" and "F's" are so distorted they come across as almost static like. On another note, when my satellite radio or ipod isn't available I've been listening to WZYP a little because I can't stand the horrible sound on Kiss and I must say, they are sounding better. They've made noticeable adjustments to the music and the new jingles sound fairly decent. Hope they keep that up.

RollTide said:

Its been a week now and it still sounds horrible. The HD signal sounds fine now but the translator is worse. It is unlistenable to me at this point. The squeal in the background hurts your ears after a while and all the "S's" and "F's" are so distorted they come across as almost static like. On another note, when my satellite radio or ipod isn't available I've been listening to WZYP a little because I can't stand the horrible sound on Kiss and I must say, they are sounding better. They've made noticeable adjustments to the music and the new jingles sound fairly decent. Hope they keep that up.

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I think what they are doing is working on the watt and tower height increase for the 106.5 Translator and its not affecting the HD 2 Signal, time will tell.

TOLD YOU THIS WAS CONTAGOUS TO ALABAMA STATIONS!!! This happened to WZBQ in Tuscaloosa too, but they fixed it! Did any of you hear a high pitched squeal or buzzing sound on ZBQ last month?

Was listening to it today at lunch (I don't listen as much since I've gotten out of Top-40 music over the past few years), and it does sound bad...sounds like they need to adjust the bass down a bit and somehow get rid of the background noise (almost sounds like a constant hissing - very annoying!) Do they have a Facebook/Twitter page where someone could complain about this?

Yea they have a facebook and twitter account. I haven't looked at either in a while though. I'm not big on social media. Too busy. They also mention a local request line number from time to time but I can't remember what it is. Usually stations try to get their phone number to include something that has to do with the stations name or frequency number but theirs isn't. Its just some random number. Hence why I can't remember what it is. Glad I'm not the only one hearing it. Proves I'm not crazy lol.

RollTide said:

Yea they have a facebook and twitter account. I haven't looked at either in a while though. I'm not big on social media. Too busy. They also mention a local request line number from time to time but I can't remember what it is. Usually stations try to get their phone number to include something that has to do with the stations name or frequency number but theirs isn't. Its just some random number. Hence why I can't remember what it is. Glad I'm not the only one hearing it. Proves I'm not crazy lol.

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I was in Huntsville last week and I'm starting to think the 106.5 Kiss FM translator upgrade to from 150 watts (directional west) to 250 watts (directional southwest) with a higher tower height has been completed. It was sounding a lot better than a few weeks ago and the signal went further west past Limestone County on into Lauderdale I maintained good signal through Athens and an OK signal in the clement area usually after this it would fade out but things got interesting it almost faded out completely in Rogersville but then came back past that with an OK signal and faded out after passing through Elgin. Can anyone verify this? I've checked the records and it is still showing as a Construction Permit that may or may not be completed.

I honestly can't tell if the CP has been built due to the continued distortion in the sound of the signal. If they did build it out, maybe that's when they screwed the sound up. Its been nearly a month and there is still a high pitch beeping/squealing noise in the background. The treble sounds messed up too. It used to have an impressively clear crisp sound for a translator, now it just sounds like garbage. Its pathetic and hard to believe that it hasn't been discovered and fixed by now. As far as the upgrade, sometimes I think it may have been built too, but even before the CP was applied for there would be good days where the signal would carry well and heard farther out than it should and other days where it was very limited, so it's difficult to say. There has been nothing filed to show that it has. We may not know for sure until a license to cover is filed.

RollTide said:

I honestly can't tell if the CP has been built due to the continued distortion in the sound of the signal. If they did build it out, maybe that's when they screwed the sound up. Its been nearly a month and there is still a high pitch beeping/squealing noise in the background. The treble sounds messed up too. It used to have an impressively clear crisp sound for a translator, now it just sounds like garbage. Its pathetic and hard to believe that it hasn't been discovered and fixed by now. As far as the upgrade, sometimes I think it may have been built too, but even before the CP was applied for there would be good days where the signal would carry well and heard farther out than it should and other days where it was very limited, so it's difficult to say. There has been nothing filed to show that it has. We may not know for sure until a license to cover is filed.

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When I was in Huntsville last week it sounded fine except maybe the F's. At least when I was in Huntsville last week it was pretty much fixed or it seemed like it was.

what would cause "F"s or "S"'s to sound bad? My guess is over modulation?

mrjay, you may be right. I'm not the greatest with engineering stuff, but it sounds to me like (and I could be wrong) treble over modulation causing the squeal and the T's and S's to distort.

Some days sound better than others. Yesterday afternoon was better and less noticeable, but this morning it sounds terrible. Maybe an engineer on the board could give us better insight as to what the problem might be.

RollTide said:

mrjay, you may be right. I'm not the greatest with engineering stuff, but it sounds to me like (and I could be wrong) treble over modulation causing the squeal and the T's and S's to distort.

Some days sound better than others. Yesterday afternoon was better and less noticeable, but this morning it sounds terrible. Maybe an engineer on the board could give us better insight as to what the problem might be.

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I didn't mention this till now but do you think some of the squeals on 106.5 Kiss FM could be from news-talk sister station 1230/830 WBHP/WHOS a.m. ? I know before launching 106.5 Kiss FM this translator was a f.m. signal for this a.m. simulcast. Anyway I was Huntsville again today and the translator is sounding a lot better. Still wondering if the construction permit for it has been completed or not?

About three weeks ago, I had posted a message on their Facebook page regarding the sound issues, and they finally responded yesterday with the following: "I've passed this along to our engineer. I'll go bug him some more!" However, as of this morning, the issues are still there, and I re-posted on FB that they needed to get these resolved as soon as possible, as they are causing myself (and, I'm sure, many others) to tune out very quickly. Hopefully we'll get a resolution soon!

As of this post, it sounds like its finally been fixed. It is unacceptable that this went on for over a month and took listeners posting on their facebook to get them to realize there was a problem. I guess no one in the CC Huntsville building is actually listening to their own radio station. I found their facebook page to read your posts about it Ron, but all I saw was a post from a woman named Amanda complaining about the sound problems too. She said it hurts her ears. Their reply was basically that their engineers were working on it. Did they delete your comment Ron? I guess it doesn't matter now that its fixed. By the way, on the topic of their signal upgrade, I was driving through Meridianville around 8 am this morning & the translator was fighting so bad with WSKZ in Chattanooga that I couldn't even listen to it until I got into the city, so I'm pretty positive it has not been upgraded yet.

CC Huntsville? Did you mean iHeartMedia Huntsville? They just changed their name.