Facility #5 is now online for WYAB 103.9 FM - new Vicksburg station coming soon

[Casual_Observer]

Hey all -

As of Monday, 9/13/2010, WYAB 103.9 FM is now on the air from its new tower in Hinds County (two miles south of Pocahontas, specifically). The signal in Jackson is much improved with direct line of sight antenna coverage into almost all of the market. That makes five tower sites in total - the radio station would be quite profitable were it not for all of these capital expenditures....

Also happy to report that we have picked up a permit to build out a sister station in Vicksburg - look up KSBU 92.7 FM!

On another note - we are about to have a hole from 3-6 PM in our format once Dr. Laura 'retires' from radio. Any suggestions? Anyone out there feel that they are capable or know someone who is capable of doing a local show?

Thanks!
--- Casual Observer

 

[oldiesstation]

What about Dave from the old JT and Dave program? I also hear Bill Fulgham might be available.What about Travis Childers,he'll be available soon. A new station in V"BURG??
That's all they need is another station not making money in that market.

 

[pert]

- get the Dennis Miller Show

- run the Rusty Humphrys show in proper order

- drop the moron that comes on at midnight and pick something else up - he's pathetic.

- drop the LSU crap

-

 

[Casual_Observer]

- get the Dennis Miller Show

- run the Rusty Humphrys show in proper order

- drop the moron that comes on at midnight and pick something else up - he's pathetic.

- drop the LSU crap

-

Pert -

I think we can take care of item #2, and possibly #1 when Dr. Laura goes. What should we run in lieu of Phil Hendrie and LSU?

--- Casual Observer

 

[tomservo]

Not that I'm in the listening area so my opinion doesn't mean diddly, but I actually like Hendrie. Even being "in on the joke" his show is often more entertaining and original to me than any of the actual real talk shows.

I'd like to know if any changes are/were made to the processing. Last time I was down there it was kind of harsh to listen to, like the compression/gain was being ridden to maximize the signal. Now that the station does a better job in that area, will the compression be backed down a smidge?

Talk on FM, processing-wise, must be a black art. I don't really hear a lot of stations that give an "oh wow" type presentation. It's something I'd love to learn more about.

 

[beachguy3b]

Dennis Miller has to be one of the worst talk shows out there.

 

[theradiopro]

Casual_Observer

I send you a private message, I would like to talk to you!

Thanks

 

[flytrap]

I agree. talk radio never really sounds good on FM to me. I guess its from listening to AM all these years. a lot of the fm talk stations just sound tinny. and you also notice the low bit rate artifacts that get into the audio. some of the network shows sound like its comming from a poor internet feed. Supertalk has that gurgly digital sound. Its better than it used to be, but it still sounds bad. Not a talk station but AFR 92.5 in Forest is one of the worst sounding stations I've ever heard. It sounds like audio from a dial up modem.

As many times as the station has been moved, why not put the entire radio station in the back of an 18 wheeler with telescopic antenna on top. You could just drive to a new location.

 

[tomservo]

I agree. talk radio never really sounds good on FM to me. I guess its from listening to AM all these years. a lot of the fm talk stations just sound tinny. and you also notice the low bit rate artifacts that get into the audio. some of the network shows sound like its comming from a poor internet feed. Supertalk has that gurgly digital sound. Its better than it used to be, but it still sounds bad. Not a talk station but AFR 92.5 in Forest is one of the worst sounding stations I've ever heard. It sounds like audio from a dial up modem.

It's all in the processing, or lack thereof.

My gold standards for FM talk are KARN Little Rock and WYDE Birmingham. Both make the best of often poor satellite feeds. KARN somehow manages to sound clean and crisp without highlighting all the digital artefacts and WYDE on local shows is really nicely balanced. WYDE still broadcasts in stereo despite a tower well outside the metro.

I'd invite anyone to hear them off the air and try to match that sound.

Most if not all public radio stations seem to have good processing for speech. I like the way all the MPB stations sound, but can't speak for classical because I don't listen to that. Alabama Public Radio's Tuscaloosa station WUAL also sounds really nice. There are exceptions, though; WKNO has some sort of issue with silibants that makes the audio scratchy on my radio. Yuck. Oddly the HD version sounds better!

I may ruffle a few feathers by saying this, but several of the Supertalk stations I've heard are the worst sounding stations of anykind, anywhere. Watery, garbled over-compressed audio, hillbilly hosts, rather poor signals and they can't even get the RDS to decode well.

The only thing I can figure is each Supertalk station must be getting its feed from different methods. The Jackson and Columbus area affiliates sound better than the rest, with Corinth not far behind. The Greenwood station is the "gurgliest" of all and almost unlistenable for long periods of time, and the Oxford stick, aside from being a pea shooter signal in the woods has the low bit rate sound AND the sound of dolphins squealing in the far background whenever I listen to Coast to Coast AM. Seriously, it's weird. Frankly, I'd rather go back to AM, if we had any around.

I like some of WYAB's syndicated shows and would listen to that type of station if it were available where I live, but the processing on the old site, as I remember many many months ago, was fatiguing. I reckon they're going for a loud sound to overcome the lack of signal from the prior TX site but one setting somewhere just wasn't "right".

I run all my favorite talk podcasts through a compressor before putting them on my mp3 player and it took me months of screwing around with the settings before I got a suitably aggressive, LOUD but clean sound out for in-car listening. It takes a lot of fiddling!

 

[flytrap]

When digital first came out in the form of CD I thought it sounded great. but it seems in recent years digital has gotten worse than analog. It all started when they started trying to save bandwith by lowering bitrate and quality in order to squeeze more into a smaller space. Digital TV is great as long as they don't try to squeeze too many subchannels at the expense of the main channel. Some of the subchannels are unwatchable because of the low resolution. Especially on a flatscreen. FM used to sound good, but now you hear over processed loud audio or a poor "swishy" network feed. cellphones are unitelligble. Especially when people call talk shows or broadcast a football game over them. Mp3 sounds ok if you use a high bitrate, and internet audio sounds bad at lower bitrates. I remember in the 70's if you had a decent AM/FM reciever and some 12" woofers it sounded great. Now we have digital surround sound and people would rather listen to tiny speakers or a cheap boombox. People take their priceless wedding and vacation pictures on a bad camera phone. Give me a box of glorious Kodachrome slides anyday. Btw, they just processed the last roll of Kodachrome a few months ago by the same guy that took the famous Afghan girl for Nat. Geographic. In terms of quality, we seem to moving backward intead of forward.

 

[tomservo]

That's "progress" for ya, flytrap. It's not all bad, though.

Nothing can match the Kodachrome film, but cell phone cameras are getting better every day. When I bought my cellphone off the internet (unlocked, natch) years ago its' 2 megapixel autofocus camera was whizz-bang stuff for a phone. Now 2 megapixels is considered low-end, and many are 5 MP or more.

Heck, some phones can shoot 720p video now. That's an impressive feat even if it still looks yucky.

HDTV can look good and for now, DirecTV and Fios are leading the way with (so far) not applying more compression to the signals so they don't look any worse than when they leave the uplink. On the other hand, several ABC O&O stations are running TWO HD channels at once (ABC HD and their healthy living channel, whatever it's called) and you can imagine how great that must look.

But apparently not enough people are complaining because stations keep doing stupid stuff like that, and HD radio stations seem to pay no mind to have three or now four subchannels in total.

We're in a world where children have grown completely up and they may have never heard actual analog audio through-and-through. Radio stations play mp3 files, their digital cable TV picture and sound are compressed, their cellphone is digital (not to mention it also plays mp3s or aac files) and heck, even many movie theaters are completely digital. No telling what a kid today would think if he went to see a film and actually heard the projector whirring in the background!

So maybe these digital audio artefacts that grate on our nerves, they don't even notice, because they don't know any better. Somehow though the years we've gone from cherishing big meaty speakers on our stereos to placid little plastic wheeze boxes or worse yet, $20 Wally-Mart ear buds as the "gold standard" of listening apparatus. It's no wonder that radio stations have by and large slipped, sound quality-wise… fewer and fewer are able to notice the difference anyway.

 

[the golden boy]

On another note - we are about to have a hole from 3-6 PM in our format once Dr. Laura 'retires' from radio. Any suggestions? Anyone out there feel that they are capable or know someone who is capable of doing a local show?

Can you get Mary Wieden back?

 

[Casual_Observer]

Can you get Mary Wieden back?

I had actually called Mary (several times) to try to get her to do a show during that timeslot, but she it quite happy doing the traffic copter reports for WLBT. It was bad timing I suppose - she has a really cool job now.

How about a Phil Hendrie repeat during the timeslot instead? You know, for a show that airs live well after midnight, we get a bunch of complaints that he's too left-leaning for the station. How many other shows are live from 12A-3A? It's not like Art Bell is exclusively conservative either.

--- Casual Obsever

 

[tomservo]

Art Bell? *snickers*

You must not listen to much UFO bigfoot radio.

 

[the golden boy]

How about a Phil Hendrie repeat during the timeslot instead? You know, for a show that airs live well after midnight, we get a bunch of complaints that he's too left-leaning for the station.

So what? Everything on talk radio in this area already is to the right.

 

[chriscollins]

That's "progress" for ya, flytrap. It's not all bad, though.

Nothing can match the Kodachrome film, but cell phone cameras are getting better every day. When I bought my cellphone off the internet (unlocked, natch) years ago its' 2 megapixel autofocus camera was whizz-bang stuff for a phone. Now 2 megapixels is considered low-end, and many are 5 MP or more.

Heck, some phones can shoot 720p video now. That's an impressive feat even if it still looks yucky.

HDTV can look good and for now, DirecTV and Fios are leading the way with (so far) not applying more compression to the signals so they don't look any worse than when they leave the uplink. On the other hand, several ABC O&O stations are running TWO HD channels at once (ABC HD and their healthy living channel, whatever it's called) and you can imagine how great that must look.

But apparently not enough people are complaining because stations keep doing stupid stuff like that, and HD radio stations seem to pay no mind to have three or now four subchannels in total.

We're in a world where children have grown completely up and they may have never heard actual analog audio through-and-through. Radio stations play mp3 files, their digital cable TV picture and sound are compressed, their cellphone is digital (not to mention it also plays mp3s or aac files) and heck, even many movie theaters are completely digital. No telling what a kid today would think if he went to see a film and actually heard the projector whirring in the background!

So maybe these digital audio artefacts that grate on our nerves, they don't even notice, because they don't know any better. Somehow though the years we've gone from cherishing big meaty speakers on our stereos to placid little plastic wheeze boxes or worse yet, $20 Wally-Mart ear buds as the "gold standard" of listening apparatus. It's no wonder that radio stations have by and large slipped, sound quality-wise… fewer and fewer are able to notice the difference anyway.

Direct (Like Dish) recodes all HD to MPEG4. OTA is MPEG2, so it does get transcoded/recompressed when you watch a local on Directv. As a matter of fact, all HD does unless it is delivered MPEG4 in the first place.

 

[didradio]

KSBU? Obviously over in LA-format??