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Kansas City gets new Urban Oldies station

A

AnyHuman

Guest
The low powered KPPZ-LP which has had problems in the past has ditched the talk format and began a new, Urban Oldies 98.5.

From the Facebook page:
"Good news old school music lovers. The all new Urban Oldies 985...hit the airwaves at 7pm this evening..featuring the best r&b hits from the 60's 70's and 80's....all the music that traditional music has left behind. Take some and spend some of your day or night with is.
We are the brand new Urban Oldies 98.5 FM"

https://www.facebook.com/urbanoldies98.5FM/

https://streams.radio.co/s2c845a2c1/listen
 
I listened for a couple of hours. They played "Escapade" by Janet Jackson, "Kiss" by Prince, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" by James Brown, "Get Down On It" by Kool and the Gang, "The Sweetest Taboo" by Sade, "Run To You" by Whitney Houston, "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross, along with some obscure songs mixed in about 30% of the time. The liners/imaging sound very small time, like something you would hear in a town of less than 3,000 people. I could barely hear the top of the hour ID it was buried so deep into the music. They say "Playing all the Hits...Urban Oldies 98.5". No jocks, songs fade all the way out before the next element kicks in. You'd better be within a 5 mile radius of midtown to pick them up. I imagine them broadcasting from a van in an alleyway off of Cleaver II Blvd and Troost Ave. I'm not sure what they're trying to do.
 
The FCC tends not to license LPFM stations to 'vans in alleyways'. KPPZ-LP, like all LPFM stations is limited to 100 watts at 100 feet or equivalent. All LPFMs are non-commercial (aka like their full power public radio brothers).
 
b-turner said:
The FCC tends not to license LPFM stations to 'vans in alleyways'. KPPZ-LP, like all LPFM stations is limited to 100 watts at 100 feet or equivalent. All LPFMs are non-commercial (aka like their full power public radio brothers).
Click to expand...

And what they're trying to do seems to be providing music that's not otherwise available on KC radio. I'd like to know what the "obscure songs" that wastedtalent23 heard were. Could be they were hits on soul/black/R&B stations back in their day that never crossed over to Top 40/CHR. The songs the poster mentioned by name all were major crossover hits. If the part of KC the signal covers has a significant black population, the little station might attract a following just for the music, no matter how amateurish the presentation.
 
LOL you may be correct about where they're broadcasting from, WastedTalent. The liners sound okay with bass, but the majority of songs have no bass. The FM has no compression/limiting from what I can tell, and the no bass on FM makes the station sound like a transister radio at best. The audio is also slightly too loud for FM during the louder parts of songs.
However I like the variety of music. They just need better equipment.
 
b-turner said:
The FCC tends not to license LPFM stations to 'vans in alleyways'. KPPZ-LP, like all LPFM stations is limited to 100 watts at 100 feet or equivalent. All LPFMs are non-commercial (aka like their full power public radio brothers).
Click to expand...

I understand that they are very limited, and non-commercial, but I was raised on the philosophy of "Sound BIG no matter what". It doesn't take much production effort to put a few sweepers/liners together and an audible top of the hour ID. What they're doing is a start, but they have a lot of work to do if they want a loyal audience. I'm not trying to knock it, just an opinion. At least they're doing something besides Christian or talk.
 
LOL they used to be talk and that station had no ID whatsoever. So this new thing is a lot better ID wise.
 
They recently fixed the volume level and made it quieter on the transmitter.
Still however most songs are missing audio below 1000 HZ it sounds like (no bass at all).

Maybe somebody in the KC area with time on their hands could help KPPZ fix the bass. Black stations matter too. ;)
 
AnyHuman said:
Haha they just played Funky Cold Medina by Tone Loc, followed by Stone Love by Diana Ross & The Supremes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63ZIf2H9S0E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2ce7FWOAM8
Click to expand...


Not trying to hijack your thread with geek trivia, but Stoned Love is actually The Supremes after Diana left the group. Jean Terrell is the lead singer on that single.

I always thought the Supremes made some good records after Ross went solo, but few seem to know that Stoned Love and Up The Ladder To The Roof are not Diana on lead.
 
If I recall correctly, Someday We'll Be Together was the last Diana & The Supremes hit, peaking shortly after it was announced Diana Ross left the group. It came around the same times the Beatles breakup was announced. Diana Ross & the Supremes could almost do no wrong at the time...virtually every single they released climbed the charts. The Supremes did some quality stuff.
 
Here's a clip of the garbled audio currently coming out of KPPZ-LP, it's been like this for a week and I did contact them on more than 1 occasion, no response.
"98.5 the Failbox" LOL
 
This was posted to KPPZ's Facebook page on Christmas.

"Merry Christmas from the staff and management of Urban Oldies 985. We are experiencing some transmitter issues, but we are working hard to solve the issue. Thank you for your patience, and we will be back on very soon."


LOL I don't consider not fixing the audio after 3 weeks "working very hard". It's still making noises... Do they not have access to their station for some reason?

If I were KPPZ I'd have turned in the license or gave it away a long time ago.
 
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Makes sense.

I'd just think they'd turn off the garbled sound while they fix it. But I'm not them.
 
AnyHuman said:
Makes sense.

I'd just think they'd turn off the garbled sound while they fix it. But I'm not them.
Click to expand...
Better to broadcast subpar audio for a while rather than send out silence or turn off the transmitter. The last two options might give listeners the impression that the station is out of business and gone for good rather than just having technical problems, and those listeners might not come back again.
 
The FM is still making broken noises, the online stream is still down, and several contact messages to the owners via the website go unanswered. Talk about people who don't seem to care about their radio station...
 
Saw that too. LOL and let's not forget about 95.3, which is also Concrete Truth. At least 95.3 is working properly. COMMUNITY NETWORK | concretetruthmedia


As for KPPZ-LP it is now broadcasting silence, so maybe they're working on it now. The streaming is still down, and the Facebook page's last post is Jan 1.
 
KPPZ-LP is once again playing music, however the vocals are missing from most songs, as though the people running the station are using the sound mixer/audio equipment the wrong way, probably plugging a stereo audio cable into a mono jack from the sound of it.

The forum won't let me upload MP3 files, so here is an external link to the audio example. https://sndup.net/735d/d
 
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