-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
WZNS
- Thread starter Alex_44
- Start date
Cumulus seems to have zero interest in HD, and since they don't own spare translators in Mobile or Pensacola I doubt they'll do anything with it. That said, WDLT has been back in HD for a while, with the same weird buffering problem it had years ago (as in, when the radio switches to digital there's a brief dropout of audio.)
The only other Cumulus stations that ran HD were 100.7 during the WCOA years and WBLX. It's a shame they were shut off, both sounded phenomenal when they were on, very clean and noticeably better processed than the analog and much crisper than the low bitrate iHeart stations.
Even when they were doing it, I seem to recall it was bare-bones with no song/artist text or album art like iHeart does.
BTW, do you know if WZNS is running any subchannels? If they are, I can add that info to my profile page for them.
The only other Cumulus stations that ran HD were 100.7 during the WCOA years and WBLX. It's a shame they were shut off, both sounded phenomenal when they were on, very clean and noticeably better processed than the analog and much crisper than the low bitrate iHeart stations.
Even when they were doing it, I seem to recall it was bare-bones with no song/artist text or album art like iHeart does.
BTW, do you know if WZNS is running any subchannels? If they are, I can add that info to my profile page for them.
was in FWB yesterday....they are in HD but screen says "HD 1 Title" and" HD1 Artist" they must not be quite ready yet
HD2 was there but audio level was really low....some kind of talk format...... Screen said "HD2 Title" and "HD2 Artiist"I guess since so few listen to the HD broadcasts, they throw these things on air before they have all the equipment in place for proper audio processing and passing along program data. Over here in Mobile we have a few subchannels whose audio is really low compared to the main channel's audio, and a few stations like WZEW, WDLT and WYCT that don't bother with artist/title data or album art. Since they're generally using subs to feed translators, I'm sure it's very low priority to get those things up to par with the main channel. At least everyone has station logos, though.
I know that early on in my HD radio ownership days, I'd travel often and probably half the stations running HD would have PAD info on screen. These days most do, but album art and station logos still aren't real common.
I know that early on in my HD radio ownership days, I'd travel often and probably half the stations running HD would have PAD info on screen. These days most do, but album art and station logos still aren't real common.
Thanks for posting about WDLT and WZNS. I've been without my good HD car radio for a few months so I haven't bothered to listen to anything at all beyond WABF occasionally.
Fired up the old Insignia portable and it picks up the WDLT HD2 and HD3 but the main channel is still analog only. Not sure what causes that; the other Insignia portable and my car radios all pick up the HD1 fine.
Fired up the old Insignia portable and it picks up the WDLT HD2 and HD3 but the main channel is still analog only. Not sure what causes that; the other Insignia portable and my car radios all pick up the HD1 fine.
I assume you mean the only Cumulus station? They're cheapskates, and running HD costs a lot of money to operate with zero return unless the subchannels are feeding translators.
That's my opinion, of course. 😉
WBLX and WJTQ did run HD a one time and both sounded great without subchannels.
That's my opinion, of course. 😉
WBLX and WJTQ did run HD a one time and both sounded great without subchannels.
Another FWB signal is now on HD. WTKE running 2 sub channels with the primary classic rock format.
The license fee is minimal. Engineering is part of the overall tech staff. There may be some production cost, but it is likely just part of a staff member's various tasks.
I don't see the "lot" part. A tiny bit, maybe. And spread over 200 stations or so, maybe something they think can be better used somewhere else.
Do you know what's on the HD3? They launched HD last summer with the Sports Talk on the HD2, but I haven't heard anything about an HD3.
So, the HD fees are part of some sort of blanket deal for the station groups, then? I thought it was on a station by station basis since it was tied to the encoders or whatever.
I get the impression Cumulus is really struggling to keep the engineering side of the equation funded. They seem to suffer more technical troubles than iHeart does, and iHeart isn't exactly well run in this market, either. Last decade they were late to installing HD, and only ran it for a few years before shutting it all off because they never did anything with subchannels or acquiring translators. Then they shut the RDS off, which didn't make any sense since it was probably cheap to put on the air and costs nothing extra to run. In the decade that WDLT's had HD it has never once been in sync, and has never decoded on certain radios, an issue they've never been able to fix. It's currently their only station in Mobile with HD to simulcast WGOK and WXQW, something that only started earlier this year.
Then again, even when they do get the RDS up and lumbering under its own weight, it's usually wrong. 100.7 hasn't been WCOA-FM in many years but the RDS (when it works) still shows that call sign. 106.1 in Pensacola has always said the format is classical (it's R&B) and the station name until recently was "RDS_PS" which is clearly the default text for the encoder.
Contrast this to iHeart in this market: most of the stations run have sponsored RDS text in between songs, their HD always works and has album art/station logos and all the associated data. It's so much more modern feeling than what Cumulus is doing, which is a shame since Cumulus seems to be better programmed in my opinion.
The HD2 is Sports Talk which runs on 103.7 translator. The HD3 is News/Talk which I think runs on 94.3 translator.
Thanks for that. I'll update their profile on my website. I also had the formats for 94.3 and 103.7 reversed, so I'll fix that as well.
I'm in Baldwin County so I can't pick up 100.3 except on fairly rare occasions, and never in HD. WZNS on the other hand is close to being a local most days with HD that decodes fairly well if you're not moving.