• 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

Name This Radio Station

J

Joe Grits

Guest
So, I was doing some YouTubing last night for Seattle TV Sign Offs and came upon this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ocvjhbiv2qs

Listen to the background radio station...is that an old C-band satellite AC format? What fascinates me the most is in 1989 I'm pretty certain there were no local FM stations around, and I feel certain any station using that service for automation would have inserted a sweeper in the beginning of the set.

Do you think this is a service used by one of the local radio stations up there at the time or is this a case of the cable company basically taking the music off the dish and putting it on the head end with no permission?

Radio-X
 
Hmm Port Angeles, the only ACs I know of up there are KAFE out of Bellingham and CIOC out of Victoria. which wasn't going by those calls at the time. Also, if it was a radio station, wwouldn't you hear the local station IDs?
 
There was also KLLM 103.9....But yeah, this sounds like some syndicated B/EZ - AC something. Nothing I remember on the radio in NW Washington at that time sounded anything like it.
 
Not KLLM. They were country, according to the FM Atlas, in 1989. I suspect likely a satellite service...but I don't see any "Soft Sounds" references to the former Satellite Music Networks (later ABC/Cumulus) or Jones Radio Networks.
 
At about the 4:45 minute mark, it identifies as "Soft Sounds" and "Galactic Radio"

"Soft Sounds" was one of the seven(?) for-cable audio-only "Galactic Radio" networks originated by Jones Intercable and made available to other systems.

It's been quite a few years, but IIRC, in the late 80s/early 90s, Galactic Radio used most of the subcarriers on Galaxy III, Transponder 11.

TCI systems that I subscribed to on both coasts carried these feeds on FM.
 
crainbebo said:
Not KLLM. They were country, according to the FM Atlas, in 1989. I suspect likely a satellite service...but I don't see any "Soft Sounds" references to the former Satellite Music Networks (later ABC/Cumulus) or Jones Radio Networks.
Click to expand...

The atlas you're referring to is wrong. I spend some time in Forks in the late '80s and early '90s and can tell you that KLLM was still some sort of CHR/AC. KLLM didn't switch to country 'til '94.
 
fordranger797 said:
I thought all cablevision systems ran generic music in the background of information channels back in the day.
Click to expand...

Most systems used local FM radio. Viacom in Snohomish County even used KWYZ 1230's noisy over the air AM signal (when it was Country "Radio 123" as the background for their community calendar.) But it was mostly the local FM stations you heard. Not some direct feed from some syndicated satellite whatever. There was no DMX or Music Choice back then

Cable back then had FM as an extra goodie and you just needed a splitter and 300ohm adapter to hook it up to your home receiver's FM antenna input.

In the '70s, most local cable companies also had an FM frequency on their grid that could be used for community radio. But very few ever used them (First, the cable companies didn't exactly go out of their way to let you know they were there. Second, they were more focused on Public Access TV, which was far more popular and a mandatory inclusion by law.) And finally, most of the cable companies back then weren't interested in running a cable-only community FM station. Main reason was very few people back then were interested in using it and even fewer people listening to it. You'd have a lot of dead air and it was too much dead air for a one or two programs a week to keep the signal going.

When MTV came along in 1981, those frequencies were mostly used for MTV's stereo simulcast.

(Up in Canada, the CRTC had an interesting scheme in the late 1980s. They mandated that ALL AM stations as well as FM be included in the FM cable grid. They kept this going into the '90s...)
 
Bongwater said:
Cable back then had FM as an extra goodie and you just needed a splitter and 300ohm adapter to hook it up to your home receiver's FM antenna input.
Click to expand...

Not to reply to my original thread...but, this is fascinating stuff here!

My guess is this is why a dozen or so radio stations are still carried on W. Washington Comcast lineups. Given the terrain around here and the geographical size of the Seattle/Tacoma TV market, I'm thinking there was a bit of a protest when cable FM was phased out as there were probably quite a few listeners to the Seattle and Vancouver stations in far-flung reaches in the market -- well past the broadcast coverage areas of these stations. It's one of the few markets in the US I know of where numerous AM and FM radio stations are still repeated on the cable system somewhere other than the 'Community Channel'!

Radio-X
 
The audio is from Drake-Chennault later Jones Radio network and was serviced to cable systems around the U.S. along with 6 other formatted background music channels.
 
Thank the LORD ALMIGHTY this mystery has has been solved.

Maybe we can take things up a level by discussing what brand toothpaste Tom Shane uses.
 
AQH said:
Thank the LORD ALMIGHTY this mystery has has been solved.

Maybe we can take things up a level by discussing what brand toothpaste Tom Shane uses.
Click to expand...

He always seemed like a Pepsodent kind of guy.....
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom