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New Format at KRKO

I'm guessing that all of the music for KCDA was on a local server that all stations in that cluster had access to, because you'd occasionally hear a random song tag on another station, usually KIXZ, which was CHR at the time and had one local air shift.
 
bobdavcav said:
Thanks guys for reminding me I've been meaning to make a phone call up there for months regarding some liners I wrote for KXA, a couple of which were inspired by some of the stuff I heard on Alt 102.9. I'm sure that conversation is going to be even more interesting with a new format on the way for 1380.
Click to expand...

Bobdavcav, you should do that! Give Chuck Maylin a call!
 
Glad to see the ‘band’ is still together on these threads. It’s been a long time since I’ve checked in. Hope you are all well.
 
Andy-
First, congratulations on a good sounding launch of the new format. Hope it serves you guys well.

Secondly, must be tough to build out that nice physical plant and deal with the nuts and all that, just to see the majority of your listeners migrate over to the 250 watt translators. Which I don't doubt they have, and will continue to. Wonder if you might in the future be able to recoup at least some of that outlay by switching your AMs to digital only...heard that an outfit back east (Beasley) has recently applied for an AM digital only CP. Those are two killer signals, at least to the N and W. I dunno...just know that I feel for you!
 
Andrew Skotdal said:
Glad to see the ‘band’ is still together on these threads. It’s been a long time since I’ve checked in. Hope you are all well.
Click to expand...

Thank you man. Yeah it's been a long time. We have some new roadies and we're still picking out the shrapnel from the audience reaction last October to our cover of "Free Bird" (it was not over in 9 minutes, but 9 seconds.)

I don't know where to begin, but we've mostly cleaned up. Got out of the fast lane, toned down the infighting and our new album "The RadioDiscussions Seattle/Tacoma Board Sings the Cole Porter Songbook" will be out next week on Warned Bros. Records. We'll be trying out our new sound on open-mic night at the Lamprey ("The Lamprey...It Sucks, But It'll Grow On You.") Love to have you do guest lead vocals on "Night and Day".

Cheers!,

Bongwater the Bass Player
 
The New Chico said:
Andy-
First, congratulations on a good sounding launch of the new format. Hope it serves you guys well.

Secondly, must be tough to build out that nice physical plant and deal with the nuts and all that, just to see the majority of your listeners migrate over to the 250 watt translators. Which I don't doubt they have, and will continue to. Wonder if you might in the future be able to recoup at least some of that outlay by switching your AMs to digital only...heard that an outfit back east (Beasley) has recently applied for an AM digital only CP. Those are two killer signals, at least to the N and W. I dunno...just know that I feel for you!
Click to expand...

We'll take listeners however they come to us, stream, AM, FM, whatever it takes! The thought of using AM MA3 (all-digital) did cross my mind, and in the HD tests we conducted in 2015, the AM signals were in full stereo as far as Lacey. It's not perfect though because when the signal encounters interference from an urban environment, it's gone, and that was apparent in downtown Seattle where digital completely falls apart for AM. My suspicion is that the same thing would happen for most of the "Seattle" AMs save for maybe 880, 710, and possibly 1000, and even then given the overhead metro lines, I wouldn't hold my breath. We'll watch the Beasley test with interest. It's creepy being in an AM transmitter plant with just the transmitter hum and no audio singing in the tuning coils, though! Sounds like any other cellular site.

And, Bongwater, if you put me on vocals, you'll have a repeat of things being over in 9 seconds.
 
And, as an aside, I actually prefer AM Stereo to HD, but that ship has sailed. It's too bad that didn't get sorted out. Easier to implement, less costly, applicable to a far greater range of transmitter plants.
 
I have a feeling HD would have come along with or without AM stereo. What you say about digital broadcasting is exactly the reason I'm against it on either band. Honestly though, I haven't heard an increase in noise on AM when driving downtown, so I don't think that would be too big of an issue for Seattle stations. That being said, I haven't been downtown in a while if ever while listening to either KRKO or KKXA, so don't know what those sound like as they exist down there. I have noticed that AM has a noticeable whistle in our car when the engine is running, and I was in a Lyft about a year ago and the AM band was extremely noisy. I wonder how an all digital band would react in either of those situations.
 
I was listening to an AM music station running HD a couple of years back and it sounded great during the day. At night with the skywave it got a little iffy. (whadaya want from a graveyard frequency?) When it couldn't decode, it fell back to analog, which was the jumbled mess of 5 stations 75 miles apart. I would expect all digital to behave the same way.

I remember when that AM stereo light would pop on in the old car and you'd get this nice, wide open sound. Too bad that in my town, the station that played music picked Kahn and our car had C-Quam, so the only music we ever heard in AM stereo came DX-ing at night.
 
I haven't pressed the 'AM' button on my radio in a very long time, but maybe I should give the new KRKO a try late at night. See how decent the playlist is, and if any interesting songs stick out. I hope they get a lot of listeners nevertheless!
 
The New Chico said:
Andy-
First, congratulations on a good sounding launch of the new format. Hope it serves you guys well.

Secondly, must be tough to build out that nice physical plant and deal with the nuts and all that, just to see the majority of your listeners migrate over to the 250 watt translators. Which I don't doubt they have, and will continue to. Wonder if you might in the future be able to recoup at least some of that outlay by switching your AMs to digital only...heard that an outfit back east (Beasley) has recently applied for an AM digital only CP. Those are two killer signals, at least to the N and W. I dunno...just know that I feel for you!
Click to expand...

The all-digital AM testing we did for NAB afforded crystal clear daytime coverage to Lacey, WA and Bellingham. The nighttime ended up being about the same to the south, but improved to the north. All-digital is superior, but it crashes in urbanized environments, meaning - awesome on I-5, awesome in rural areas, get into or around big buildings or bus wires without signal density and your receiver flatlines. I'm watching the all-digital AM effort Beasley has going on in Maryland. We'll see what kind of listenership comes of that. Digital receiver penetration was still pretty low in Seattle the last time I checked. But AM digital will matter...someday.
 
At least on my Sony Xdr-S3, there was no stereo during the KXA tests, despite the promo about how there would be. That could be a drawback of the Sony, but I assumed that the source material was all mono. Incidentally, I know the test was heard in Seaside, Oregon near sunset.
I was really a fan of AM stereo, especially the Kahn system. I lived in Bakersfield in 1983 and won a Sony portable from KHJ. Great nighttime stereo reception from KNBR, KBOI, WLS and others. And yes, Andy, much better than HD and compatible with all radios.
 
Andrew Skotdal said:
The all-digital AM testing we did for NAB afforded crystal clear daytime coverage to Lacey, WA and Bellingham. The nighttime ended up being about the same to the south, but improved to the north. All-digital is superior, but it crashes in urbanized environments, meaning - awesome on I-5, awesome in rural areas, get into or around big buildings or bus wires without signal density and your receiver flatlines. I'm watching the all-digital AM effort Beasley has going on in Maryland. We'll see what kind of listenership comes of that. Digital receiver penetration was still pretty low in Seattle the last time I checked. But AM digital will matter...someday.
Click to expand...

It came in just fine in Portland.
 
multiplex said:
At least on my Sony Xdr-S3, there was no stereo during the KXA tests, despite the promo about how there would be. That could be a drawback of the Sony, but I assumed that the source material was all mono. Incidentally, I know the test was heard in Seaside, Oregon near sunset.
I was really a fan of AM stereo, especially the Kahn system. I lived in Bakersfield in 1983 and won a Sony portable from KHJ. Great nighttime stereo reception from KNBR, KBOI, WLS and others. And yes, Andy, much better than HD and compatible with all radios.
Click to expand...

Oh here we go again with the AM Stereo was the best thing ever camp. Regardless of your view that AM stereo was wonderful; the facts are that audio from an AM HD signal is much better quality than AM stereo ever had. Decoded AM-HD has a superior s/n ratio, frequency response and stereo separation (for stereo audio). One could also argue that in spite of a dwindling number of AM-HD stations, there are more HD receivers in vehicles today that could receive AM-HD, than were ever available to demodulate AM stereo.
 
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