What's up with KQRS? They've been off HD now for almost a month, and it seems like their signal is way weaker in the suburbs than it used to be six or so months ago. What's weird though is I still get a darn near perfect signal in my house but in the car driving around I can hear some static, and it's especially noticeable on quiet song intros. One other thing I've noticed, I don't know if this has anything to do with this or not, is that they have appeared to have cranked up their modulation and composite clipping levels. Using MPXTool with a great signal, KQRS is showing 115% total modulation (pretty sure it used to be 105% before) and the demod levels are showing peaks up to 170%....
-
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
What's up with KQRS?
- Thread starter RadioGuy1019
- Start date
Here's KQQL's modulation in comparison to KQRS' modulation...
Likely tower work.
I noticed this too. They started making the processing a lot more aggressive back in October, and it's so bad that it's damn near unlistenable in my opinion. Quiet parts of songs are almost just as loud as loud parts. They are absolutely pegging the modulation too. It's so hot that RDS stops decoding on my receivers during loud parts of songs!
Also, not sure what's up with their HD. Both KQRS and sister KXXR dropped their HD subs a month ago. KXXR replaced theirs with a simulcast of Love 105 which tells me that this is all on purpose.
It makes me so sad seeing them butcher this station from the awful new RDS RT format to the horrible new processing to them dropping HD. When I head down to the cities next weekend I'll bring our "real" modulation monitor from work down and I'll see what they're running it at!
Also, not sure what's up with their HD. Both KQRS and sister KXXR dropped their HD subs a month ago. KXXR replaced theirs with a simulcast of Love 105 which tells me that this is all on purpose.
It makes me so sad seeing them butcher this station from the awful new RDS RT format to the horrible new processing to them dropping HD. When I head down to the cities next weekend I'll bring our "real" modulation monitor from work down and I'll see what they're running it at!
Yup. I remember turning on the car radio back in October and noticing the tape hiss in some of the songs, and then I heard the distortion. I agree with you, it's beyond unlistenable. I swear they actually turned it up more just recently, because it sounds even louder and more distorted than it did in October. I hope the engineer or whoever is calling the shots when it comes to the processing on KQRS realizes they are making a huge mistake. Louder is not always better, especially when it comes to Classic formats like Classic Hits and Rock. But that's just my personal opinion.
I also noticed Jack's modulation "randomly" went up from 105 to 110 (RDS injection was also lowered from 12% (way too high) to 2.5%) after the changes at KQ as well.
Just saw that KQ switched HD back on within the last couple of hours! No HD2, so I think The Bear might be officially dead unfortunately. I am curious to see how well it'll sound at 96 kbps though.
Also, the HD text is just "hd1 title", "hd1 artist", and "hd1 album" respectively. Does nobody there even care? I don't get it. It honestly just makes me sad. If this is how they're gonna treat it, just turn it off again.
Also, the HD text is just "hd1 title", "hd1 artist", and "hd1 album" respectively. Does nobody there even care? I don't get it. It honestly just makes me sad. If this is how they're gonna treat it, just turn it off again.
That’s good news! Not near a receiver as of now, but have they turned the processing down or is it still over compressed and distorted garbage like before?
what does all this mean? can you tell us how to read this? where is MPX on the dial?
Seems like a lot of companies are turning off the HD subchannels to save money. Aside from Cumulus, sounds like Audacy has turned off everything but that leased Hmong station and WCCO, while iHeart Media has turned off Breeze (a while back).
Of course they are keeping formats that are rebroadcast on translators, but I think the days of exclusive HD radio stations may be coming to a close.
Of course they are keeping formats that are rebroadcast on translators, but I think the days of exclusive HD radio stations may be coming to a close.
Sad, since the one of many selling points was to have HD compete against satellite radio, which it never did.
The idiots were too busy trying to jam the local competition of the FM band.
Not sure if HD will survive, betting the yearly price to broadcast is too high, and they charge too much for the chips for the auto manufacturers to just simply install it.
The idiots were too busy trying to jam the local competition of the FM band.
Not sure if HD will survive, betting the yearly price to broadcast is too high, and they charge too much for the chips for the auto manufacturers to just simply install it.
Thanks for the report, but not sure what other times you're thinking they should be adding.
I'm betting they have too old of HD importer/exporter to provide album covers etc.
So basically the engineer is either intentionally making them sound like complete crap or doesn’t know what he’s doing. It makes zero sense to run that low of bandwidth when there aren’t any subcarriers they need to split the bandwidth with.
Also, I’ve noticed processing changes over at Love and 93X as well. All three now are very squashy, aggressive and unlistenable, but not quite as bad as KQRS. I’m also pretty sure the processing changes have deteriorated KQ’s signal a lot as well. It picket fences in places it used to come in loud and clear prior to late last year. I’m talking places well into their 60dBu coverage like Maple Grove, Plymouth, Brooklyn Park/Center, Crystal etc. I’ve noticed this problem on three different car radios too.
- Status