Hello everyone. Me and my wife are planning on being in Pittsburgh the first week of July to visit family. I would like to know if anyone could help me by giving me an accurate listing of the HD2, 3, and 4 signals in the area. Everywhere I've searched online has an outdated listing I believe. Thank you in advance.
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Pittsburgh HD signals
- Thread starter neosolbrudda
- Start date
Check this link click the little i button to show more information on the stations. 92.9, 93.7, 94.5, 96.1, 96.9, 100.7, 102.5, 104.7, 105.9, 107.5, and 107.9 are all hd radio stations that come mostly clear in the Pittsburgh area. Though, to provide specific evidence check the link.
Thank you. I wasn't sure if this was site was accurate either, because the last time we were in Pittsburgh, there was no longer a "Q in the City" on 92.9 HD2, and that was one of the stations in particular that I was interested in.
Alright, here's the current state of Pittsburgh HD radio subchannels (from an actual bandscan). The HD radio website, Radio-Locator, and Wikipedia are out of date for many of these stations.
Notably, 92.9 WLTJ has no HD signal at all anymore. I stopped getting it a few months ago and was disappointed. Although Q in the City is long gone, they had variety (and I mean a wacky mix) on their HD2, classic rock on HD3, and soft rock on HD4. These subchannels were basically commercial free, with a few PSAs about once every hour.
- 89.3 WQED-FM HD2 - Classical "Pittsburgh Concert Channel"
- 90.5 WESA HD2 - Jazz, HD3 - BBC World Service
- 93.7 KDKA-FM HD2 - KDKA (AM) Simulcast, HD3 - Sports
- 94.5 WWSW-FM HD2 - Oldies/Classic Hits, HD3 Displays "Relevant Radio Religious Talk" but is at least currently silent
- 96.1 WKST-FM HD2 - Top-40/LGBTQ-oriented "Pride Radio"
- 96.9 WRRK HD2 - Oldies, HD3 - Oldies
- 98.3 WPKV HD2 - Christian Contemporary "Air1", HD3 - Christian Classic Hits "K-Love Classics"
- 100.7 WBZZ HD2 - 2000s Hits, HD3 Displays "WBZZ HD3" but is silent as of this post
- 102.5 WDVE HD2 - "Steelers Nation Radio"
- 104.7 WPGB HD2 - Sports
- 107.9 WDSY-FM HD2 - Hot AC (Simulcast of WBZZ 100.7 HD1, not sure why), HD3 - LGBTQ-oriented talk and music "Channel Q"
Notably, 92.9 WLTJ has no HD signal at all anymore. I stopped getting it a few months ago and was disappointed. Although Q in the City is long gone, they had variety (and I mean a wacky mix) on their HD2, classic rock on HD3, and soft rock on HD4. These subchannels were basically commercial free, with a few PSAs about once every hour.
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Interesting, and IMO this shows in some ways how far some parts of the country have progressed...Who'd have thought that Pittsburgh, PA, an area once as blue collar as one could find, with steel mills, coal mines, heavy manufacturing and air filled with smoke and soot, would have an LGBTQ-oriented Pride Radio channel. Of course, much about that city has changed just in the past 30-40 years. A great town for sure!
"Pride Radio" is a national iHeart format, I wouldn't assume there was much (if any) local decision making involved.
I had heard way back that LTJ's engineer did the HD channels. Maybe he's not there anymore? That outfit is unlikely to expend any time or energy on something that doesn't generate revenue.
The only reason I could think of for Star 100.7 being on Y108's HD2 is that Y108 has better coverage to the Southwest. 100.7 has to protect 100.5 in the Wheeling market.
I had heard way back that LTJ's engineer did the HD channels. Maybe he's not there anymore? That outfit is unlikely to expend any time or energy on something that doesn't generate revenue.
The only reason I could think of for Star 100.7 being on Y108's HD2 is that Y108 has better coverage to the Southwest. 100.7 has to protect 100.5 in the Wheeling market.
WRRK 96.9 "BOB FM" is owned by the same company and still had its subchannels (both carrying an oldies format which I don't particularly care for). I'm wondering if there was an equipment failure at 92.9 and they never bothered to fix/replace it due to low HD listenership. I wish they'd move a few of the 92.9 subchannels to 96.9.
That makes sense about WBZZ/WDSY-FM. I did not know WBZZ had a directional pattern. Though with the HD signal being transmitted at much lower power I'm not sure if this would actually increase the coverage area.
A very very old data point, when I owned 1550 in Braddock PA during its 1550 WZUM R&B Oldies days, I tried to rent a HD channel from them. I spoke with a couple of people but was finally told the owner needed to decide. I never heard back. I left a couple of messages but never received a return call. It would have been nice to get a "we're not interested" call but no such thing occurred.
A second idea that never happened is we thought about renting the Secondary Audio Program channel on one of the low power TV stations. When I spoke to several listeners, none of them even knew what that was so that idea never went anywhere.
Continuing the discussion on HD radio, has anyone else noticed that WRRK (BOB FM) 96.9's HD1 signal sounds horrid? I used the NRSC-5 software (someone reverse engineered HD radio and figured out how to decode it with an SDR stick) to determine that 96.9's HD1, HD2, and HD3 are using a bitrate of about 30 kbps each, for a total of about 90 kbps. Yet my Sangean HDT-1X indicates that 96.9 is using MP3 mode (not to be confused with the MP3 audio format) which provides a payload bitrate of 120 kbps.
Sure radio stations need to use some of the payload for metadata but I've seen many using all but 4-6 kbps for music. I'm thinking engineering is unaware that they are not using the full available bitrate.
Per the FCC, the HD1 signal is supposed to have at least the same fidelity as the analog signal, which in my opinion WRRK does not do.
Sure radio stations need to use some of the payload for metadata but I've seen many using all but 4-6 kbps for music. I'm thinking engineering is unaware that they are not using the full available bitrate.
Per the FCC, the HD1 signal is supposed to have at least the same fidelity as the analog signal, which in my opinion WRRK does not do.
I'm using my insignia HD / FM radio here and to me it I can barely receive their hd signal theres so much multipath with their signal. I'm located near the Dormont area and according to radio locator I'm in the top notch location to receive their signals.
Yeah the Pittsburgh area is pretty bad for multipath! Where I'm at in Oakland many of the radio stations sound significantly better in HD, due to the multipath distortion on analog. BOB 96.9 is an exception.
I would agree with that, for sure.
Now if we look at 106.7 WAOB they broadcast in mono with rds from Beaver falls, PA and I can receive them no problem.
I don't listen to religious stations and kinda hate them because there are so many of them. They take up too much bandwidth that could be used for LPFMs.
edit examples:
88.5
88.7
96.5
97.9
98.3
101.5
And the stations who use a lot of repeaters. I'm looking at you khb
Guys, you responded right on time, and I seriously appreciate it as we start our journey from Texas next week. I'm an aircheck collector, and I was trying to get an ideal of what I was going to record when we make it to Pittsburgh. Finding an accurate listing for Pittsburgh radio is close to impossible, and I don't understand why. One more question. How is signal of WPTS?
It's tiny. If you're in Oakland, or across the river on the South Side, you'll hear it. Anywhere else it tends to get overwhelmed by more powerful signals. The Pickle on 92.1 from Ellwood City kills it to the north, and there's a translator on 92.3 that gets in the way to the south.
The one time recently I've gotten good reception for an aircheck was staying in a South Side hotel (near the Hot Metal Bridge) late last year, when I could literally look out the window over the river and see the antenna atop the Cathedral of Learning building at Pitt.
As @neosolbrudda said, it's pretty weak. Also, if you are listening in stereo the audio pans fairly quickly back and forth. I'm not sure if it's a glitch or intentional but IMO this effect makes the station unlistenable even if the signal is strong.
I contacted them a while back about this and the issue was fixed temporarily, but it is back now.
On an interesting note, I was walking around the Robert Williams reservoir, about 4000 feet from the Cathedral of Learning, listening to WPTS on my cell phone's FM tuner. As soon as I passed in front of the chain link fence surrounding the resevoir, it was like someone threw a switch and I could hear WKPL. The fence was acting like a faraday cage/reflector. Even though I could see WPTS's antenna through the fence it was blocking the signal!
We are staying in West Mifflin, so I'm assuming that I might as well cross WPTS off the list...
Awesome!!! I wonder if someone there reads RadioDiscussions
I'd say it's worth a shot, but you might experience some adjacent-channel interference from 92.3, WKHB's translator in Irwin. Of course where you are in regards to the terrain makes a huge difference as well.
Khb should not be allowed to have that many repeaters.
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