• 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

It looks like 97.3 'The Rattler' is now... 'The Buzz'(?)

I just finished reading this background story of WOOK And guess who was giving out those bible verses on air as part of a numbers racket? The preachers! Quite a notorious history with an owner that was less than reputable, to say the least.
During my first four years or so in radio (I started at age 13) I was a go-fer, board op and whatever else nobody on the staff wanted to do at WCUY and WJMO in Cleveland. Those were the R&B and Jazz stations of Richard Eaton. The staff dreaded the few times he came to town.,

One example: he owned the company that provided office supplies. They never arrived on time, so we often bought our own pens... and even toilet paper and soap.
 
Anyone have info on 97.3 The Buzz? I still listen to it on my daily commutes, but there's no advertising and few signs of anyone on the air. How is it making money?
 
Good question, wondering if this is like KCDX 103.1 situation. Also wondering if they will ever get a stream, the sound on FM and the AM dial is horrible.
I miss The Rattler. It wasn't the usual corporate rock station. They played obscure songs as well as well-known ones. They would do fun things like "songs with the word train in the lyrics". I also like what they're playing as The Buzz. I am getting used to hearing the same soul songs like that one about Hollywood.
 
I miss The Rattler. It wasn't the usual corporate rock station. They played obscure songs as well as well-known ones. They would do fun things like "songs with the word train in the lyrics". I also like what they're playing as The Buzz. I am getting used to hearing the same soul songs like that one about Hollywood.
I can't really listen much, I'm in Maricopa. I can get AM in the day time , and only in the car. That's it, would be nice to have a stream so I can actually listen at my leisure.
 
Good question, wondering if this is like KCDX 103.1 situation. Also wondering if they will ever get a stream, the sound on FM and the AM dial is horrible.
Both the 97.3 and 99.1 translators have low fidelity AM-quality audio. I don’t know it they are under the impression that FCC guidelines say that the sound has to mirror “AM quality.” Several years ago, those translators had higher quality sound.
 
Both the 97.3 and 99.1 translators have low fidelity AM-quality audio. I don’t know it they are under the impression that FCC guidelines say that the sound has to mirror “AM quality.” Several years ago, those translators had higher quality sound.
I would argue that the audio on the AM channels sound even better than their FM translators. At least you don't hear the audio compression that you hear on FM. It more or less just sounds like a normal AM station.
 
Am I living in some kind of fever dream? At 2pm today, 1260 is still The Buzz and playing jazz with low-quality audio. Now The Rattler is back and they've magically fixed their audio woes.
 
Am I living in some kind of fever dream? At 2pm today, 1260 is still The Buzz and playing jazz with low-quality audio. Now The Rattler is back and they've magically fixed their audio woes.
I don't think you are hearing the Rattler. I noticed for some time in some areas KCDX 103.1 has a translator that interferes with 97.3 The Buzz.

KFMR-FM 97.3 MHz​

Central Heights-Midl, Arizona
"103.1 Rock & Roll"
 
Am I living in some kind of fever dream? At 2pm today, 1260 is still The Buzz and playing jazz with low-quality audio. Now The Rattler is back and they've magically fixed their audio woes.
I don't think you are hearing the Rattler. I noticed for some time in some areas KCDX 103.1 has a translator that interferes with 97.3 The Buzz.

KFMR-FM 97.3 MHz​

Central Heights-Midl, Arizona
"103.1 Rock & Roll"
 
No, I definitely heard The Rattler. They identified themselves as 1260/97.3 The Rattler and used the exact same sweepers that they used to before becoming The Buzz.
Interesting. I honestly will have to check once I go into the valley tomorrow. I thought I heard it, but I was hearing kcdx translator here in Maricopa. They also play a lot of rock & roll oldies, but just a jukebox, no sweepers...😆
 
Interesting. I honestly will have to check once I go into the valley tomorrow. I thought I heard it, but I was hearing kcdx translator here in Maricopa. They also play a lot of rock & roll oldies, but just a jukebox, no sweepers...😆
Even more interesting. I'm tuned into 97.3 FM again and now I hear The Buzz, complete with John Tesh's Intelligence for Your Life. Maybe that was just some strange programming glitch?
 
Even more interesting. I'm tuned into 97.3 FM again and now I hear The Buzz, complete with John Tesh's Intelligence for Your Life. Maybe that was just some strange programming glitch?
Could have been. I'm listening as I write this, and the RDS on 97.3 says The Buzz, with smooth jazz (as it was defined in the '90s). Given the 40 dB attenuator that is my stucco-encrusted house in NE Mesa, I hear nothing on 1260. Or 620, for that matter. 😱
 
i wonder if they use a barix box to feed the transmitter and when it loses the main feed from studio to transmitter it defaults to a test channel of some sort
 
I listen to The Buzz on my daily commutes in the Scottsdale area. A classic rock station sometimes cuts in when I stop at a light, the The Buzz comes back when I start moving again. The Buzz plays a lot of the same jazz and soul time and again. I like the James Brown stuff and others. I keep listening because I feel like this is an interlude before another change. I miss The Rattler as it became my favorite station starting around 5 years ago. For the classic rock and the free-form style. You never knew what obscure song might come on. They might play some obscure live track from Buddy Guy, then More Than Feeling from Boston's first album.
 
Am I living in some kind of fever dream? At 2pm today, 1260 is still The Buzz and playing jazz with low-quality audio. Now The Rattler is back and they've magically fixed their audio woes.
Fever dream is a perfect description of what The Rattler was like in the last year or so before it became The Buzz.
 


Back
Top Bottom