Q100 on air processing sounding very tinny.....

Last several weeks the station, OTA (99.7mhz) sounds like it's blaring mostly mids and highs giving it a very shrill sound. Gives me a headache after a few mins. I know they're killing in the ratings right now. The music and imaging are def on point. But, something is up with the sound processing. Any idea on whats going on?

The mid range is too high. This seems to have occurred when they got the new transmitter.

RadioDoogie said:

The mid range is too high. This seems to have occurred when they got the new transmitter.

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Not sure if this is at all related but both substations on 99.7 sound awful. They haven't always sound that bad. Best sounding HD stations are on the 94.1 signal.

Well someone should let them know. Don't they notice this? Or maybe we're the few ultra sensitive audiophiles out there. Lol Anyway, Q's music and imaging is sounding hotter than Power these days. If they could bring those blaring mids down some it would be perfect. I really want to like Power 961 but lately Power's playlist is sounding so safe and cookie-cutter, I just can't take it. anymore. Lol

Power tends to wait until songs make it to the top 20 before adding them to their playlist. Also I noticed the song has to be charting upward in order for it to get air play. If it stays at #19 for a few weeks, they won’t play it. Q100 tends to be more liberal with their playlist and give everything on the top 40 a chance. This is in total contrast to what they were like 10 years ago when they sounded very Adult CHR.

RadioDoogie said:

Power tends to wait until songs make it to the top 20 before adding them to their playlist. Also I noticed the song has to be charting upward in order for it to get air play. If it stays at #19 for a few weeks, they won’t play it. Q100 tends to be more liberal with their playlist and give everything on the top 40 a chance. This is in total contrast to what they were like 10 years ago when they sounded very Adult CHR.

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And that drives me crazy. Lol For years I wanted Atlanta to have a full-on on CHR from iHeart and then we get one and it's more reserved than Q100! Go Figure. Oh well. I def like Power's mixshows on Friday/Saturday nights but that's about it.

RadioDoogie said:

The mid range is too high. This seems to have occurred when they got the new transmitter.

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A new transmitter at the same power should not be a big deal audio processing wise, unless they changed out the STL or the exciter. Many years ago I always used the air monitor to run the headphones and studio speakers. If the music sounded wrong, sooner or later someone would notice. Now with voice tracking, HD and its digital “lag”, some of the older internet STL’s having 2 plus second digital lags, I doubt anybody at the studio uses the on air monitor anymore. The only exceptions would be translators tied to AM’s and the few non HD FM stations in the market. The receptionist can only have one station playing in the lobby. There could be stations in this market that no employee listens to the “on air signal” regularly.

secondchoice said:

A new transmitter at the same power should not be a big deal audio processing wise, unless they changed out the STL or the exciter. Many years ago I always used the air monitor to run the headphones and studio speakers. If the music sounded wrong, sooner or later someone would notice. Now with voice tracking, HD and its digital “lag”, some of the older internet STL’s having 2 plus second digital lags, I doubt anybody at the studio uses the on air monitor anymore. The only exceptions would be translators tied to AM’s and the few non HD FM stations in the market. The receptionist can only have one station playing in the lobby. There could be stations in this market that no employee listens to the “on air signal” regularly.

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I noticed yesterday how WKHX sounds very brittle and clipped on mid to high frequencies. WUBL sounds night and day better. Q100 does indeed sound like someone got carried away with the Voltair. They may have just bought Omnia's latest "dice and clip" audio processing software for the Omnia 11. I hear it sounds very "New Yorkish." Makes great square waves if you're into square waves.

The Cumulus stations used to sound better than the IHeart stations. Now they’ve flipped. I have listened to these stations when the engineer starts playing with the equalizer on air. Not sure why someone hasn’t hired anyone to fix Q’s sound. Aren’t most of the equalizers these days digital and have some kind of a preset where if something gets messed up, there’s a default button? Which station in Atlanta in your opinion sounds the best? The River has some of the best processing in my opinion.

IIRC there was a posting on this site that Cumulus “locked” the settings on processing company wide. Maybe that person or position is gone. Cumulus is not the most stable place to work. I will bet a small cup of coffee that some of small markets are running whatever they had when Citadel or Cumulus bought them or hand me downs from large markets. Last time I listened to KZ106 out of Chattanooga they sounded the same.

RadioDoogie said:

Which station in Atlanta in your opinion sounds the best? The River has some of the best processing in my opinion.

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Cox generally does a great job.

jabba17 said:

Cox generally does a great job.

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I agree the Cox stations sound really good.

IMHO, processing should match the station's format. I think B98.5 has excellent, high-quality processing that fits its AC format. The same processing would sound awful for CHR.

Another station whose processing I like is Star 94-1.