Early in June, KPOO's over-the air signal started sounding crappy -- there was a buzz under everything that wouldn't go away, and things were often a tad distorted. When that was still going on a month later, a friend emailed JJ to ask what was up, and he was told it would be fixed "next week". It wasn't, and this week (2 months after the original problem surfaced) things sounded markedly worse, and the station was basically unlistenable. For the last couple of days, all that's been heard has been static. (The station can still be heard clearly on its internet stream, tho I suspect they have older listeners who aren't tech-savvy.)
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KPOO off the air again
- Thread starter RadioJunkieMike
- Start date
I'm not an engineer. But it sounds like something's shorted out. Likely the transmitter if they've been buzzing and now they're off the air. Good thing it's off for now until the replacement arrives (transmitter fires aren't much fun.) Which could put a massive dent in their budget, depending on how much the insurance pays.
It couldn't happen at a worse time either for KPOO. And it's sad because it's a personal favorite of mine (I love their R&B Oldies shows.)
It couldn't happen at a worse time either for KPOO. And it's sad because it's a personal favorite of mine (I love their R&B Oldies shows.)
Could be a bad capacitor in a power supply that finally completely failed.
Is their located on what seems to be a small apartment building on Nob Hill?
They're only 270 watts so even a new transmitter should be under $5000, unless it's more involved than that - antenna failure, transmission line, etc.
Listening to the stream today, and it sounds fine, peaking at the Icecast Admin screen at Icecast Streaming Media Server there are 65 stream listeners tuned in right now.
Is their located on what seems to be a small apartment building on Nob Hill?
They're only 270 watts so even a new transmitter should be under $5000, unless it's more involved than that - antenna failure, transmission line, etc.
Listening to the stream today, and it sounds fine, peaking at the Icecast Admin screen at Icecast Streaming Media Server there are 65 stream listeners tuned in right now.
Generally, insurance does not pay for internal malfunctions of transmitters that cause them to be severely damaged. Even making a claim for damage caused by line voltage spikes and the like is hard.
Yes, the stream has sounded fine throughout the over-the-air problems. In fact, the station recently started running a new promo telling listeners to go to the website for "a nice clean stream". They are back on over-the-air as of around 3 this afternoon, although the audio is rather distorted. Maybe they're still tweaking the levels.
When I lived in the Oakland hills, I found that KPOO always had distorted audio. I chalked it up to multipath. Last year, I spent quite a bit of time in Emeryville, finishing up some business lingering after my move. My location had a straight shot across the bay toward San Francisco. KPOO sounded distorted there, too. I shrugged and went on, because KPOO wasn't something I was that interested in, but I also wouldn't have thought that multipath would be a problem with the signal path that I had.
From Emeryville, the signal might have gotten distorted by all that steel in the Bay Bridge.
Oh Jeez!.....Is there anything at all they can't make into a Catch 22 in the insurance industry. Anything at all?
So it's now 2 weeks since they got their transmitter back on-line, but the over-the air audio remains painfully distorted. The pre-recorded/recycled stuff, of which there is a lot (like Sat nite's weekly JJ reruns) isn't too bad, but anytime someone is live-on-mic in the studio, it's unlistenable. Don't know how much longer they can go on like this.
I've heard insurance insurance is a thing now.
And tonite, for like the 3rd Sunday in a row, the 7pm hour is a hot mess: Harrison Chastang is not there (again) and we got his opening Charles Mingus music followed by dead air (20 minutes and counting, but the stream has music -- just not the stuff that Chastang usually plays). Sad, really.
Generally, business and industrial gear is not insured for malfunctions or acts of nature. While it may be covered for things like a building fire or theft, the "gear" at a station is self-insured. I've never had insurance for equipment failure or lightening strikes in about 60 years running stations.
Reinsurance of mortgage's insurance (for the possibility of default) was a part of the 2008 financial crisis. Way Way back in the day Lloyds of London would insure anything. The syndicates of investors were on the hook if there was a claim. If there wasn't a claim then they kept the premiums (less LLoyds cut) Not for the faint of heart. Kinda like being the house in a high stakes black jack game. You usually win but every once in a while you pay out big time.
Just heard Donald Lacy mention that the reason Harrison has been of these many weeks is that he is recovering from an unspecified ailment.
KPOO has fixed the distortion problem, at least for the moment. Their overall audio levels are lower and seem to fluctuate back-and-forth between low and slightly-lower-than-low. But that's far less annoying than the unlistenable over-modulated hash we were getting.
I heard that this weekend, even accounting for reception difficulties where I was. The fluctuation was particularly weird.
I know the call letters stand for K POOr People's Radio. But still, K-POO as in number 2?
They're fairly rare, but I have seen KPOO bumper stickers.
Were they on crappy cars?