WCLK now in HD Radio

Looks like WCLK is finally turned up their HD, still has mono audio like their analog FM. No FM subchannels yet. The ID string says "HDHD-FM".
I really wish they would improve their audio, mono sound for jazz really detracts from the program material. I know they are a college station, but instead of HD, how about improving the audio chain first? The station has a great format and is professionally run, but sounds like it is coming out of some Ramsey Electronics kit transmitter into a coax dipole antenna.

MRFLASHPORT said:

Looks like WCLK is finally turned up their HD, still has mono audio like their analog FM. No FM subchannels yet. The ID string says "HDHD-FM".
I really wish they would improve their audio, mono sound for jazz really detracts from the program material. I know they are a college station, but instead of HD, how about improving the audio chain first? The station has a great format and is professionally run, but sounds like it is coming out of some Ramsey Electronics kit transmitter into a coax dipole antenna.

Click to expand...

WCLK sounds fantastic when decent source material is being used. I often hear source material that sounds like it is very low bitrate MP3 (reminds me of cassette days) but then at other times the station sounds terrific. They use an Omnia9 which is used by many other Atlanta stations. The STL path is a T-1 and I hear lots of stereo separation when I listen. You may be getting blend audio, which is frequency response reduced and mono.

The way they interface the audio to the exporter causes the analog signal to sound somewhat dull and the HD audio to sound excessively bright. By using both AES outputs from the audio processor they could make the HD signal sound identical to the analog.

Last time they ran HD my radio constantly switched between analog and HD. They were not synced which was annoying and the HD also sounded tinny compared to analog. They switched it off after a couple of weeks. I hope it works better now (power increase on HD?) because I like the format and station.

they have done some tweaking, there stereo sep on analog is quite noticeable now. I am in a strong signal area for them, so I doubt I'm getting blend audio. I have many high quality receivers including two Sony HD radios and one Sony HD tuner with incredible front ends.

Their source material may be the problem. As you've said, much of it may be from garbage pail MP3 files. Do you know if they had a transmitter upgrade? I've never gotten any HD off them before until recently.

WCLK Moved to the Briarcliff site (Richland) several years ago. They have had the same Harris TX in there the whole time. Likely, they just turned it on! They ran HD from the old site, but it was never time synched, which was pretty annoying.

HGR1290 said:

WCLK Moved to the Briarcliff site (Richland) several years ago. They have had the same Harris TX in there the whole time. Likely, they just turned it on! They ran HD from the old site, but it was never time synched, which was pretty annoying.

Click to expand...

HD still doesn't work very well outside 285 and still wasn't time aligned...at least the last time a listened a few days ago.
Still one of my favorite stations and programmed/engineered well. Automobile reception has improved remarkably since going to Richland...