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The WORST processing on a radio station

fmradioguy

fmradioguy

What is a radio station you know of that has horrible audio processing?

I know a few off hand; one is 107.1 KMGK in Glenwood, MN. They are really low, muddy/flat and just don't sound good at all... Another is 94.5 KSTP-FM in St. Paul, MN... they just sound like complete garbage.
 
I don't exactly know how they sound now, but in the past, I've heard that Classic Rock station KPOW 97.7FM, in Sedalia, MO, had pretty bad audio processing.
 
KKYS 104.7 in my area sounds pretty terrible, they distort in their antiquated, obnoxious attempt to be loud... in a market 1/4 the size of Houston's. I also don't like the sound of any station here using an Optimod (KORA, KAPN, few others). I never did like the Optimod sound to start with, but it's only insult to injury when seemingly nobody here knows how to configure them.
 
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This is a very subjective subject for lack of a better term. AM’s could sound great or bad depending on what they were trying to accomplish. Big am top 40’s pumped up compression because they were going for lots of short term listeners that could greatly increase ratings. The bigger the bolder was the goal. I am thinking WLS and WABC back in the 70’s. That era is of course gone but you still hear FM’s following that formula.
 
WBMW 106.5FM A Fuller Broadcasting station in Connecticut has the WORST processing I've EVER heard in my life!!! They run the levels at a constant 120%.....! It's ABSOLUTELY the worst IMHO....!
 
indystorm said:
WBMW 106.5FM A Fuller Broadcasting station in Connecticut has the WORST processing I've EVER heard in my life!!! They run the levels at a constant 120%.....! It's ABSOLUTELY the worst IMHO....!
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Like one of them guys on the CB radio with a cranked silver eagle mic. 25,000 WATTS of over modulated garbage. FM radio is LOST forever, listen to internet radio run by real broadcasters.
 
seatownmedia said:
This is a very subjective subject for lack of a better term. AM’s could sound great
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No they can't.
seatownmedia said:
or bad
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Compared with just about anything else? More likely.
seatownmedia said:
depending on what they were trying to accomplish.
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Like gaining or keeping listeners?
seatownmedia said:
Big am top 40’s pumped up compression because they were going for lots of short term listeners that could greatly increase ratings. The bigger the bolder was the goal.
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That's what they thought at the time. The technical reason was keeping the audio levels above the terrestrial noise floor, and positive modulation increasing fringe coverage.
seatownmedia said:
That era is of course gone but you still hear FM’s following that formula.
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And the one's who still do, are fools.
 
KYSN and KQBG in Wenatchee (country 97.7, hot AC 99.5) run their music mix at a much louder volume than the competitors. Country songs sound like the EQ was turned up +10dB.
Too bad KMGK sounds so bad. They are a very unique blend in America's radio environment, running a 1950s-90s AC/Adult Standards blend, local news, 'tradio,' local sports, the whole works. They still have some of the same announcers that they had in the old Jones satellite Smooth Jazz days of 2005-08.
Right now actually, they are running a real SMOOTH JAZZ cut by Eric Marienthal. I haven't heard anything like that on a non-SJ station in years.
 
I worked for an adult leaning hot AC 5-6 years ago. My GM once complained that our competitors, 1 of them a rythmic CHR/Top 40 type station (we called them a thumpy thumpy thumpy top 40 station, around our offic e) and one a mainstream AC were way louder than us.

I spoke to our corporate engineer.. and last time modulation was measured on all of us, we were at 104-105 percent, the competitors were 130-140 percent.

Yuck!
 
Indeed, they were stuck in the 80s. Even though it has been proven -- with real world results -- that a more dynamic and lightly equalized airchain is more appealing to most listeners than a loud Squash-O-Matic system, many GMs unfortunately choose to take the latter approach. The ironic part is, the younger audience most often targeted by AC stations is more likely to tune out in the event of unbearable audio. This is particularly true for female listeners which are, again, often targeted by AC stations.

It just goes to show that sometimes, the people that are supposed to know radio best, being in the industry and all, really miss the basics.
 
On my country everything sounds bad. Stations with state of art equipment sounds worse than a smashed cassete tape. Almost every station broadcast with over 75khz deviation. They're loud and distorted. My station runs Omnia.9 with smooth processing and max 74khz deviation. Our competitor have a analog processor. It sounds bad. Just bad, very weak bass, a huge peak on midrange near 700hz. And distorted and noisy high frequency. They're broadcasting stereo 19khz pilot but their sound is mono because of a mono cable that comes out of their computer automation. Probably due to a faulty STL link. Their modulation usually peak at the max deviation possible on their exciter when there's a lot of assymetrical sound like voice. This makes the station let out a loud BANG on the speakers. Really annoying thing.
 
mpxbroadcast said:
On my country everything sounds bad. Stations with state of art equipment sounds worse than a smashed cassete tape. Almost every station broadcast with over 75khz deviation. They're loud and distorted.
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Stations that run over "100%" modulation don't have to sound bad. In one country, I established 125% as our limit as it fit within the bandwidth of home and car radio and allowed us to coompete with the stations doing 140% and more.
mpxbroadcast said:
My station runs Omnia.9 with smooth processing and max 74khz deviation. Our competitor have a analog processor. It sounds bad. Just bad, very weak bass, a huge peak on midrange near 700hz. And distorted and noisy high frequency. They're broadcasting stereo 19khz pilot but their sound is mono because of a mono cable that comes out of their computer automation. Probably due to a faulty STL link. Their modulation usually peak at the max deviation possible on their exciter when there's a lot of assymetrical sound like voice. This makes the station let out a loud BANG on the speakers. Really annoying thing.
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Again, 75 kHz as 100% is an arbitrary limit. The issue is not going to far over as you will exceed the bandwidth of the average consumer radio.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Stations that run over "100%" modulation don't have to sound bad. In one country, I established 125% as our limit as it fit within the bandwidth of home and car radio and allowed us to coompete with the stations doing 140% and more.

Again, 75 kHz as 100% is an arbitrary limit. The issue is not going to far over as you will exceed the bandwidth of the average consumer radio.
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You're right, the problem is when the station is totally distorted and sounding like a cheap speaker
 
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