Lost Another One..

[wajobu]

AM catchin'-up

(see that, added an on-topic post that says nothing!).

[Sandy G]

Yeah, well, Walker, in all fairness, I DO have about a 3-years' head start on you...<grin> But you ain't doin' bad at all...

[Tube Radio]

I hate it when a Good AM or FM station goes to talk radio or some other modern format. Have that same problem here in Warner Robins, GA. One FM station used to have a show on saturday nights that played songs from the 70's (not all the popular stuff, but what people would say are the forgotten songs of the 70's) that went talk radio. I normally listen to an oldies station that is good (on Sunday nights they play a lot of stuff from the 50's and early 60's ). It is not local so I can't pick it up at work (only 2 1\2 miles from home), but I can pick it up at the house and in the car.

[compucat]

I too mourn the loss of musical variety on AM. It used to be all you needed was an AM radio and there was something on for every area of listener interest. Stations did not change formats very often then. Now it is like every year something changes. Once you get attached to a station, it changes format to something unacceptable. There is too much business in the radio business. The love of money has replaced the love of the medium.

I don't like FM very much although the sound quality is good. The music stations have such narrow playlists that it is not long before you've heard them all a hundred times. I can't take the Gen-Ex music, rap or alternative that is on most of the stations. On FM I mostly like NPR when they're not begging for money.

Now I mostly listen to AM talk radio or shortwave. To me a portable radio without shortwave is almost useless.

I did recently discover an AM station that plays great 60s and 70s oldies, WGOP from Maryland. It is at 540 on the dial or simply Fifty-Four as I like to call it. It sounds great coming through my 1937 Philco 37-610 tombstone which also receives excellent shortwave.

[Nolan Woodbury]

For years I've toyed with the idea of adapting satellite to a big, 12-tube Zenith or some other quality vertical console. It's been discussed here, but I haven't acted on it. Imagine being able to enjoy everything from Big Band, classic country, DooWop or sixties rock on your favorite set, whenever you wanted!

To me, that would be the ultimate radio experience.

I like the tone of a quality AM signal, but here in AZ the interference can sometimes get really bad; especially during the monsoon season. I like FM, and we're lucky to have a few really good stations that not only play good music, but seem to be intelligent enough to stay in business. KOOL-FM (94.5) is owned by CBS and has been playing the same 60s/oldies/Motown format Since 1970. They produce a beautiful signal too; really punchy and loud, with lots of bottom end.

Sounds great on the MJ 1035!

[truetone36]

I've given up on local AM and FM radio, and listen to shortwave most of the time now. Nowadays when I hunt for radios, I look first to ones with SW. My
current daily listener is a Stromberg-Carlson Model 1235 console which I got for the sole purpose of SW listening.


Dumont-First with the finest in television.

[compucat]

Originally Posted by truetone36

I've given up on local AM and FM radio, and listen to shortwave most of the time now. Nowadays when I hunt for radios, I look first to ones with SW. My
current daily listener is a Stromberg-Carlson Model 1235 console which I got for the sole purpose of SW listening.


Dumont-First with the finest in television.

A good vintage radio is great for shortwave listening and I don't just mean the boatanchor type. My Philco 37-610 tombstone gets great shortwave reception, has an accurate dial with fine tuning control, pleasant sound quality and looks good enough for my wife to let me keep it in the living room.

For portable use, I have three favorites: Kaito 1102, Sony 7600GR and Eton E10.

[Tube Radio]

For shortwave use I like to use my Hammarlund SP-600 JX-17. Excellent radio with good quality audio.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, but the damn preachers, left-and-right wingnuts, UFOs-shot-JFK-&-JR crowd have about taken over shortwave as well...

[Jeffhs]

I know the feeling. I like oldies, and was very disappointed when, about four years ago, a little 500-watt oldies station about 20 miles west of here (WELW, 1330 kHz, Willoughby, Ohio, east suburban Cleveland) dropped the format and went to syndicated talk. Haven't listened to the station since. It's probably just as well, as their nighttime signal (42 watts, directional) doesn't reach here anyway, although the daytime signal is fairly good here in east-central Lake County (one of the station's engineers told me in an email, in response to a question I had asked about the coverage area since they began low-power nighttime operation, that their signal is not supposed to reach this far east of Cleveland--I'm some 35 miles east of downtown). When it was playing oldies, the station had two very good DJs who formerly worked at the oldies FM station in Cleveland. I'll bet there were a lot of very disappointed and saddened listeners the last day of WELW's oldies format (a Friday), and I'm sure a lot of very rudely surprised oldies fans when they turned on their radios to 1330 the following Monday and heard, instead of oldies, high-powered syndicated talk programming. If I were a betting man (which I'm not), I'd be willing to bet the station has lost most of its listener base since the format switch, but I guess that's happened to almost all the other AM stations in the greater Cleveland area, and cities across the country as well.

Those of you who still have music stations within listening range are lucky, as most AMs these days are talk, sports, or preaching. I know there is only one music station left in Cleveland (WWMK, 1260 kHz) which is owned by ABC and is an affiliate of the Radio Disney pre-teen radio network. I'm 51 years old (just turned 51 today, July 9) and don't care for that kind of music. I liked 1260 a lot better when it was top-40 in the '60s/'70s, and when it was a big-band station (WBBG, a call sign now held by an FM oldies station in Youngstown, near Pittsburgh).

I'm not upset over any of the foregoing, however, as there are plenty of AM music stations within range of my town; my Zenith C845 gets them all quite well, as does my K-731. Here's a short list:

CHWO AM 740, Toronto (standards, streaming at http://www.am740.ca)
WKTX, 830, Cortland, Ohio (standards, daytime only, 80 miles from Cleveland)
WAKR, 1590, Akron, Ohio (standards, 30 miles south of Cleveland)

FM:

WKHR, 91.5, Bainbridge township, Ohio (standards/big band, 30+ miles from Cleveland) ; streaming on the Web at http://www.wkhr.org; Kenston High School students play the music during the school day and until 9 p.m. EST, then the station is automated all night long until eight a.m. the following morning.

All the hit music stations are on FM, including the oldies station, WMJI, "Majic 105.7"; on the Web at http://www.wmji.com. (WMJI has an HD subchannel as well [WMJI-HD2] which streams over the Web, but the music player needed to listen to that stream only works with Windows XP and Vista--darn it! I'm still running Windows 98SE.)

As for AM, however, every Cleveland station (except 1260) has dropped music and is now programmed with talk, sports or religious content. But this is hardly an isolated case; as I said, the same thing has happened in just about every city in the United States. Much of the time one has to do some looking to find music stations on AM these days; some cities do have AM music stations, but many times their signals are too weak to listen to (outside their normal listening area) or are daytime only (as was the suburban Cleveland oldies station I mentioned above, until it received authorization to operate with sharply reduced power and directional signal pattern after sundown).

WSM in Nashville still plays country after 70+ years and still, to the best of my knowledge, carries broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry, so there is at least one station that refuses to give in to the current trend, i.e. stations dropping music and going to talk or other non-music formats. CHOK-1070 in Ontario, Canada (I forget the city) was doing oldies until recently, when its owners decided to flip it to country a while back. CFCO-630 in Chatham, Ontario, was also spinning oldies until a couple of years ago; now it calls itself "Classic Hits CFCO" and simulcasts on FM at 92.9 (I think).

Oh well. Thank goodness for the Internet and services such as AOL Radio with XM (Nullsoft's Winamp media player comes equipped to receive all AOL with XM streams except the talk channels). Liking oldies as I do, I have my Winamp player set on AOL with XM Sixties on Six and Seventies on Seven, when I listen to music; otherwise, I will listen to my own collection of oldies CDs and cassettes, which I have ripped into my computer. The nice thing about that setup is that the music is uninterrupted and, when the player is set on shuffle (as mine is), the songs play at random, so one may never hear the same song twice if the playlist is several hundred songs long, again as mine is (I have some 500 songs in my Winamp player, which I've sorted into playlists--oldies, soft rock and so on).

My favorite FM stations are bookmarked in Winamp as well, so I almost never listen to terrestrial radio anymore. I all but gave up on local AM when the stations dropped music for talk; the Cleveland oldies station is good, but there's too much DJ chatter and commercials for my taste (except after midnight, when the station is automated). Now, if only WMJI-HD2 would stream in a format that Windows 98-compatible media players such as Winamp, et al. can use...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Nolan Woodbury

For years I've toyed with the idea of adapting satellite to a big, 12-tube Zenith or some other quality vertical console. It's been discussed here, but I haven't acted on it. Imagine being able to enjoy everything from Big Band, classic country, DooWop or sixties rock on your favorite set, whenever you wanted!

To me, that would be the ultimate radio experience.

I like the tone of a quality AM signal, but here in AZ the interference can sometimes get really bad; especially during the monsoon season. I like FM, and we're lucky to have a few really good stations that not only play good music, but seem to be intelligent enough to stay in business. KOOL-FM (94.5) is owned by CBS and has been playing the same 60s/oldies/Motown format Since 1970. They produce a beautiful signal too; really punchy and loud, with lots of bottom end.

Sounds great on the MJ 1035!

I can vouch for the great sound of KOOL-FM 94.5. I've heard it on the Web here near Cleveland (I have its stream bookmarked in my browser and listen to it now and then), and, as you say, it sounds fantastic. My only regret is that I cannot listen to it using my Winamp player; one must use the special CBS Radio music player to hear the stream. No matter. I like the station so well I'm willing to use an external player to hear it. That station (and KCDX 103.1) are my favorite Phoenix stations now. That's the beauty of Internet radio streaming--one need never be out of range of a favorite station, even if that station is hundreds or thousands of miles away; as well, stations that stream over the Web can and do increase their listener bases far beyond their over-the-air coverage areas. The oldies station in Cleveland, WMJI "Majic 105.7", is operated by Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio, Texas; it's been doing oldies since 1981 and streams on the Web at http://www.wmji.com. The station sounds great, both OTA and online, but it has too many commercials and too much DJ chatter for my taste, except when it runs 100-percent automated after midnight Eastern time. Even then, I like KOOL-FM 94.5 and another oldies station located in Chicago, WZZN 94.7 (http://www.wzzn.com online). The Chicago station is programmed entirely from the True Oldies Channel satellite oldies network and sounds great as well. There was a station about 35 miles east of me that was carrying the True Oldies Channel for about two years, more or less, then it switched to a talk format.

Easy listening, aka elevator music, didn't die; it went from FM to the Internet. My favorite easy-listening Internet station is "The Breeze" from Crown Point, Indiana (northwest Indiana, near Chicago) ; its URL is bookmarked in my Winamp player. Their website is http://www.thebreez.com (that's without the 'e' at the end, as an announcer intones about once an hour when he gives the station's web URL). On their home page is a picture of an old-time radio, but don't let it fool you; it's not just for looks. That picture will, when clicked on, take you straight to the audio stream, as it is a link to the website I mentioned.

If you like what you hear on The Breeze, drop them a line and tell them so. There is a link on the home page just for that purpose. They read all email that comes in to their inbox, and they appreciate the feedback.

You are lucky to have so many different radio stations in the Phoenix area. Here in the Cleveland area, most stations from 92.3 MHz on up play rock, rap and other stuff, but no easy listening. Below 92 MHz, however, things are different. There is a very good big band/standards station on 91.5 MHz, WKHR-FM, operated by a local school district. It has students from a local high school as disk jockeys during school hours and until 9 p.m.; after nine p.m. the station is automated until about eight o'clock the following morning. Their website is http://www.wkhr.org if you want to listen online. Their OTA signal is very good everywhere in greater Cleveland, owing to the fact that the station is located in Geauga County, Ohio. This county's elevation above sea level is very high, which means the station's antenna tower is higher than those of most Cleveland stations; the latter have their transmitters and antenna towers in a southwestern suburb of Cleveland called Parma (a few stations have their towers/transmitters in another southwestern suburb known as North Royalton, and still others have their transmitters in yet another SW suburb called Seven Hills). Cleveland station WENZ (Z107.9, urban) also has its transmitter and towers in Geauga County. This station runs only 16kW effective radiated power (ERP) vertical and horizontal these days, but in the 1960s and '70s, and possibly into the early eighties, it was a monster running 70kW ERP in both directions, for a whopping 140kW ERP signal. The FCC ordered WENZ to reduce its output to 16kW about 20 years ago, IIRC, when new FMs went on the air in Pittsburgh and Toronto, Canada, on 107.9 MHz. I would be willing to bet, if I were a betting man (I'm not), that, when WENZ began operating with only 16kW ERP vertical and horizontal, the station's older engineers probably sighed, "Oh well, it was fun while it lasted." They would be referring, of course, to the station's days as a 70-kW ERP powerhouse. I don't think anyone around here will ever forget those days. Kinda' like when WLW in Cincinnati first went on the air in the '30s with a 500-kW transmitter. The signal was so powerful that it caused light bulbs to glow, even out of their sockets, and in lamps that were not even plugged into an AC outlet. The problem was lessened, if not completely solved, when the FCC limited the maximum power any U.S. AM radio station could run to 50kW.

BTW: Nolan, I have a picture of Phoenix, Arizona during monsoon season as my computer desktop wallpaper. Nice to look at, but I bet monsoon season is no picnic in that area.

I can think of at least one way you can hear satellite radio through your treasured Zenith antique radios; just connect the audio output of your satellite receiver or computer across the volume control (using a series blocking capacitor, of course). The sound will be reproduced through your radio's own audio system and speaker, and it will be great if your set's audio system is good, as all Zeniths are. I once had a 23" Zenith b&w TV with a hi-fi sound system; I hooked up the audio output of an old FM tuner across the volume control, and it worked/sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, I had to give it up when I moved about three years later. And after all the work I had put into it (new tubes, etc.)! Oh well, it was plenty of fun while it lasted.

[Sandy G]

Well, ONE is bucking the trend-WQBB 1040 AM in Knoxville-"The Music of Your Life"- but they're too weak to be heard up here, 60 miles up the road..

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Well, ONE is bucking the trend-WQBB 1040 AM in Knoxville-"The Music of Your Life"- but they're too weak to be heard up here, 60 miles up the road..

Sandy, I'm surprised you don't hear WQBB from just 60 miles away. I just looked up the station on Radio-Locator.com and found that it runs 10kW (daytime only) and 3kW during critical hours (two hours before sunrise and two hours after sundown).You should be able to hear it just fine with that 10kW signal, but then again the signal may be so sharply directional (favoring greater Knoxville) that it won't reach your area. As I mentioned in a post to this forum last night, there is a very small station some 20 miles west of me that is absolutely inaudible in my area at night, probably for the same reasons. That station runs only 42 watts at night, probably with a sharply directional signal pattern during dusk to dawn hours as well that concentrates the station's signal on the west Lake County/eastern Cuyahoga County area (suburban Cleveland). The daytime signal (500 watts) is directional as well, with the pattern covering pretty much the same area, though I can hear it fairly well here until it goes to the night pattern; then it drops into the noise.

[Nolan Woodbury]

No one writes more thoughtful, informed and downright eloquent posts than Jeff. Happy birthday bud!

Thanks for the boatload of links. I've got Chicago's 94.7 'True Oldies' streaming right now. Great station! That's a new bookmark-

Like everywhere I imagine, Arizona has its highs and lows. It is brutal right now, but us desert rats are old hands at dealing with it. Monsoon storms wreck AM signals, but it won't get really bad until next month when the rains and storms really hit. Sometimes it's all day, but especially after 6:00pm. We shut all the lights off and watch the lightning show through the house windows.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Yeah, we have a few AM music stations here in Pittsburgh, one is on 620 and the other is 770, both owned by the same people. There is an alternative/heavy metal station in the 1500's somewhere too. BTW, a lot of the older music was mixed especially for AM radio. I also like to listen to WABC out of NYC every Saturday night from 6 to 10 PM when they have their oldies show.