Levine Sees AM Digital Vote as “Breakthrough”

[frankberry]

He's running MA1 digital on it already, which (at least in theory) requires flat response over 30 kHz. Assuming the array was properly tuned up when he added MA1 ("hybrid") HD, it will be plenty flat for the narrower bandwidth needed for MA3 all-digital, which only needs 10 kHz.

Whether it will play out as well in practice as it does in theory... well, we'll see.

Thanks so much for your clarification. I have dealt with some very "tight" patterns and found bandwidth and symmetry to be a big issue in many cases.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Actually, that spelling is acceptable in latin american countries.

From: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Saúl

Saúl m

1. (biblical) Saul, the king of Israel.
2. A male given name, equivalent to English Saul.

I'm sure that David means no disrespect to Mr. Levine.

Frank, we are not in a Latin American country, so it IS still inappropriate. It IS a sign of disrespect not to call a man by his chosen name. I hardly think you would appreciate being called "Franco" without your permission in a public forum.

Plus, I am not convinced he means no harm. Saul is a man of Jewish descent, and David's continual choice to Spanish-ize his name could be taken by some that David believes his Hispanic heritage is somehow superior to Saul's Jewish heritage, and thus has a right to supersede his culture over Saul's, a subtle yet very public form of antisemitism. I am NOT accusing him of that, but when you show this level of blatant disrespect, some people may legitimately wonder.

The problem is easily solved by David respectfully calling another man by his chosen name. Period.

 

[kevtronics]

To try to steer this thread back on-topic, AM 1260 in LA transmitted HD Radio back in 2016 when they were "K-Mozart" (KMZT) with an all-Classical format. This video has a clip of receiving them in HD towards the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRX3yAgWvKI

They switched it off when they flipped to Oldies, but I guess now Saul wants to switch it back on, and is boasting about the $250,000 he already spent on it years ago.

 

[davideduardo]

David, For the last time STOP DISRESPECTING SAUL BY INCORRECTLY - AND NOW OBVIOUSLY PURPOSELY - MISSPELLING HIS NAME.

His Name is not Sol
His Name is not Saúl

His Name is Saul. You have now been told this multiple times by multiple posters. It is moronic and unprofessional of you to keep putting some Spanish take on his name, especially when then man clearly is not of any Hispanic heritage. And please, no more of your lame excuses. You are an accomplished writer, poster and board moderator. I know you can handle the spell-checker and your predispositions towards language just fine when you need to. Just do the right thing and spell the man's name, that only has four letters, correctly. Thank you.

As a side note, calling a man with well over a half a century's worth of radio experience and who has become rich in the process a "fool" doesn't exactly reflect well on your judgement either.

Oh, please, give it a break.

My error in using "Sol" came mainly from Mr Levine's interest in using the KSOL calls on the 540 station up on the high desert (the one that became an X-Band move-in to OC) back in the 90's. Scott kindly clarified the difference between "Saul" and "Solomon" which I was unaware of since in Latin America, where my greater contact with people of either of those names has occurred, both can be given the nickname of "Sol".

And I explained that polyglots often make little proper noun mistakes like that. How many languages to you speak? I have spell-checker settings for 5 languages and 3 dialects, but proper nouns just don't seem to work as there are no rules even within single tongues.

And, without campaigning for the sympathy vote, I explained that I am dyslexic. You might read about that for a better understanding... I have worked to prevent ostracizing school-age kids who can't throw, catch or kick a ball and suffer greatly for it among peers who do not understand.

Oh, and "Saúl" and "Saul" are the same name. If Mr. Levine goes to México, he instantly becomes "Saúl" as, without the accent, it is pronounced... ready for this?... "Sol".

With the forgiveness of Air Supply, you are "making a big deal out of nothing at all".

Finally, I think what Mr Levine is doing with his AM station is pouring good money after bad. The signal is pretty atrocious, the night signal is atrocious squared, it's a high on the dial frequency where nearly nobody has gone for three or four decades in LA, it's AM, a band with declining usage, and, with any format, it has multiple and superior alternatives on streams. To me, that defines a foolish act.

 

[davideduardo]

T

They switched it off when they flipped to Oldies, but I guess now Saul wants to switch it back on, and is boasting about the $250,000 he already spent on it years ago.

I was waiting for confirmation of this: I thought Mr Levine replaced the transmitters in the northern San Fernando Valley several years back when he increased the power and changed the City of License.

In the current context, it seems very unlikely that he has again replaced the transmitters just a few years after he bought the new gear for the power increase.

And, when he "upgraded" the station I don't think he had in mind to go all digital with no analog; nobody did at that time.

 

[Groove1670]

I was waiting for confirmation of this: I thought Mr Levine replaced the transmitters in the northern San Fernando Valley several years back when he increased the power and changed the City of License.

In the current context, it seems very unlikely that he has again replaced the transmitters just a few years after he bought the new gear for the power increase.

And, when he "upgraded" the station I don't think he had in mind to go all digital with no analog; nobody did at that time.

Certain AM transmitters that were purchased a few year back have the capabilty to change over to AM digital MA3 with very few issues.

 

[Kelly A]

It's his station and his money. If he wants to consider himself one of the pioneers trying to save AM, who are we to argue?

 

[Kelly A]

Certain AM transmitters that were purchased a few year back have the capabilty to change over to AM digital MA3 with very few issues.

Correct. If the transmitter was capable of doing AM IBOC, it will also do MA3. That's how several of the stations testing MA3, but normally run HD/IBOC worked.

 

[davideduardo]

Correct. If the transmitter was capable of doing AM IBOC, it will also do MA3. That's how several of the stations testing MA3, but normally run HD/IBOC worked.

My biggest question is the bandwidth of the antenna system and the reactance difference on the upper and lower sidebands.

 

[davideduardo]

It's his station and his money. If he wants to consider himself one of the pioneers trying to save AM, who are we to argue?

All true. I'm reminded of what some US radio friends told me when I did "new" things on my stations in Ecuador: "pioneers get shot".

I did not get shot, at least successfully. But I did get guns stuck in my face, literally. I lost a dozen stations in that experience.

Being a pioneer in a pandemic seems beyond the realm of a calculated risk.

 

[semoochie]

Frank, we are not in a Latin American country, so it IS still inappropriate. It IS a sign of disrespect not to call a man by his chosen name. I hardly think you would appreciate being called "Franco" without your permission in a public forum.

Plus, I am not convinced he means no harm. Saul is a man of Jewish descent, and David's continual choice to Spanish-ize his name could be taken by some that David believes his Hispanic heritage is somehow superior to Saul's Jewish heritage, and thus has a right to supersede his culture over Saul's, a subtle yet very public form of antisemitism. I am NOT accusing him of that, but when you show this level of blatant disrespect, some people may legitimately wonder.

The problem is easily solved by David respectfully calling another man by his chosen name. Period.

I am under the impression that David once explained that he was not of Hispanic descent and simply lived and worked in some Spanish speaking countries.

 

[davideduardo]

I am under the impression that David once explained that he was not of Hispanic descent and simply lived and worked in some Spanish speaking countries.

I'm going to explain this as, in these times of racial and cultural awakening by some, the term "Hispanic" is more often than not used incorrectly or confusingly.

"Hispanic" is not a race, ethnicity or nationality. It is a culture. I moved to Mexico when I was 16 and have lived in Latin America, worked with Latin American radio stations and been in a 100% Spanish speaking home for 57 years and Spanish is my primary language and reflects my culture. You add those and see what you get!

Sidebar: A sociologist in Puerto Rico once told me you can tell a person's culture by the language they make love in or that they use when they hit their finger with a hammer. I can certify that I yell "coñocarajomierdapuñeta" in the hammer instances.

I've worked in every Spanish speaking country in the Hemisphere except Nicaragua and Cuba. I have been in all of them; Cuba only thanks to a guy with a gun, an airplane and a good pilot.

Twice the U.S. Census in Puerto Rico classified me as "Hispanic" based on their cultural litmus test.

As you can see, the term, created by American bureaucrats, covers everyone from Auca natives in Ecuador to Holocaust survivors in Argentina to the Afro-Antillean folks in the Dominican Republic to the significant Asian population in Perú. It's important to note that the U.S. Census has a question, separate from race, about being "Hispanic, Latino, Mexican, Puerto Rican or other".

Of course, if you want anything screwed up, let the government do it.

 

[davideduardo]

Plus, I am not convinced he means no harm. Saul is a man of Jewish descent, and David's continual choice to Spanish-ize his name could be taken by some that David believes his Hispanic heritage is somehow superior to Saul's Jewish heritage, and thus has a right to supersede his culture over Saul's, a subtle yet very public form of antisemitism. I am NOT accusing him of that, but when you show this level of blatant disrespect, some people may legitimately wonder.

That is indeed terminally offensive, now that I re-read it.

My first fiancée in Ecuador was a Holocaust survivor; she had a number tattooed on her arm. She was born in a camp. My two outside engineers were WW II refugees of the Jewish faith; one was a radio manufacturer in France and a member of the French Underground and the other was the Telefunken design engineer until he fled, as well. I assisted the clandestine Mossad agent in Ecuador in trying to find Martin Borman, supposedly living near the Brazil / Peru / Ecuador Border.

Can you see why your statement is offensive? And annoying, too?

I've been a member of the Museum of Tolerance for 25 years. I was invited by the Israeli government to visit that nation because of my defense of religious tolerance on KTNQ. My grandmother was a director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, so the family has a history of religious understanding.

All this because of a totally correct accent and a mistaken interpretation of a radio licensee's interest in a set of call letters. Oy vey ist mir.

 

[semoochie]

I'm going to explain this as, in these times of racial and cultural awakening by some, the term "Hispanic" is more often than not used incorrectly or confusingly.

"Hispanic" is not a race, ethnicity or nationality. It is a culture. I moved to Mexico when I was 16 and have lived in Latin America, worked with Latin American radio stations and been in a 100% Spanish speaking home for 57 years and Spanish is my primary language and reflects my culture. You add those and see what you get!

Sidebar: A sociologist in Puerto Rico once told me you can tell a person's culture by the language they make love in or that they use when they hit their finger with a hammer. I can certify that I yell "coñocarajomierdapuñeta" in the hammer instances.

I've worked in every Spanish speaking country in the Hemisphere except Nicaragua and Cuba. I have been in all of them; Cuba only thanks to a guy with a gun, an airplane and a good pilot.

Twice the U.S. Census in Puerto Rico classified me as "Hispanic" based on their cultural litmus test.

As you can see, the term, created by American bureaucrats, covers everyone from Auca natives in Ecuador to Holocaust survivors in Argentina to the Afro-Antillean folks in the Dominican Republic to the significant Asian population in Perú. It's important to note that the U.S. Census has a question, separate from race, about being "Hispanic, Latino, Mexican, Puerto Rican or other".

Of course, if you want anything screwed up, let the government do it.

I was under the impression that the US Census coined the word, "Hispanic" in 1980 because "latino" was too encompassing and vague and they wanted something more descriptive than the previous word, "white". Allow me to change the word, "Hispanic" in my previous post to "Spanish".

 

[davideduardo]

I was under the impression that the US Census coined the word, "Hispanic" in 1980 because "latino" was too encompassing and vague and they wanted something more descriptive than the previous word, "white". Allow me to change the word, "Hispanic" in my previous post to "Spanish".

The term "Hispanic" was coined, using an antiquated and seldom used reference to the Latin name, Hispania, for what is the present day Iberian Peninsula. "Latino" is a translation of "Latin", and that means that it could be construed, as is the English term "Latin" to persons from any Romance Language nation... including Brazil, French Guayana, Martinique, Monserrate and even St Pierre et Miquelon in this Hemisphere.

Because of the potential confusion and inclusion of groups not intended to be part of the category, such as Italian Americans, they appropriated the term "Hispanic". There was a certain urgency in creating a category for the 1970 census because of the laws and regulations that had been generated since the prior census that required more equal treatment of minorities.

The government found it had no quantification of what we now call Hispanics: people who spoke Spanish, or whose ancestors had spoken Spanish or even persons with little Spanish who came from predominantly Spanish speaking countries. So it included later generation persons born in the US to families that may have lived in US areas that were originally under Spanish rule. Or descendants of immigrants from Mexico or other parts of the Americas whose families had not spoken Spanish for generations. Or immigrants who spoke the indigenous languages of Mexico or other Spanish speaking nations.

The category was like a net that catches a lot of dissimilar things, but all of which fall under the general description of "fish".

As you mention, most of the folks we now call Hispanic were classified as "white" in prior decennial census tabulations. And, in fact, the vast majority of Hispanics now are racially classified as "white" today. But the Census, this year, expanded the "race" question to a more full option for persons who self identified as being of more than one race.

And this is further confused by the fact that in Spanish, "raza" does not totally equal the English "race". "Raza" also means "breed" as in dogs or horses. And, in Mexico "raza" means "brother" as in the English "bro". That makes for many confused Spanish dominant people when it comes to filling out the Census.

The term "Hispanic" was intended to be a cultural denominator, but by being an over-simplification it failed to take into account the enormous and diverse variety of peoples in the Spanish speaking nations of Latin America... ranging from the direct descendants of WW II refugees to immense numbers of Native Americans or indigenous peoples descendants from the Incas and the Mayas and other nations of the pre-colonial period.

Interestingly, each U.S. Census form since 1980... five in total... has changed a bit the descriptive language that aids a person in identifying, or not, as Hispanic.

As mentioned before, I was in Puerto Rico for the 1980 and 1990 Census process; in the first one when the Census taker knocked on the door, I answered, "¿Quién es?" and they automatically listed me as "Hispanic". I asked, and was told that "no gringo answers the door in Spanish. So we are told to base that question on the language of the first speech of the respondant." The same thing happened in 1990, with only a slightly different procedure which was "what language do you speak with friends and family" (I seldom if ever spoke English with my daughters and at work I only spoke Spanish). In both cases, I got checked off as "Hispanic" by the Census... and since the category is a political construct, I guess that is what I am.

 

[frankberry]

I am closing this thread.