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Carrier Current Radio

S

spiritof67

In the 1980s, I recall colleges using Carrier Current technology to broadcast a signal over a specific frequency, using the electrical grid of buildings to carry the signal. One station near me was KCLC-AM, based at Lindenwood College in St. Charles, MO. The college had an FM on 89.1 MHz, and used the AM to broadcast within the campus as a student station.

While internet streaming has eclipsed this technology, are there any active carrier current stations operating? If so, is there a listing for them?
 
This was discussed to death in another thread a few months ago, and the consensus was that there is no way to keep an accurate list of these since they are not licensed.

There do appear to be some (if the sources are correct, which we can't be certain of) although a lot of them had already moved to cable FM as universities started wiring their dormitories for same in the 1980s. I suspect a lot have gone away as transmitters failed and it wasn't worth the effort for the limited reach on frequencies most college students don't even know exist anymore.

I think the OP is correct that streaming has replaced well over 90% of the remaining CC stations.
 
spiritof67 said:
No doubt it's an outmoded technology--I wondered if anyone here knew if someone kept this form of tech around for hobby reasons, not unlike Part 15 radio stations.
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I suppose it would still work fine in a single family residence or in an apartment building where all the common wiring is from the same transformer, but it's probably easier to just do a Part 15.
 
spiritof67 said:
No doubt it's an outmoded technology--I wondered if anyone here knew if someone kept this form of tech around for hobby reasons, not unlike Part 15 radio stations.
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Might work for Talking House or church stations, since the FM band is getting too crowded in a lot of places. The problem, of course, is getting people to tune to an AM station these days.
 
spiritof67 said:
No doubt it's an outmoded technology--I wondered if anyone here knew if someone kept this form of tech around for hobby reasons, not unlike Part 15 radio stations.
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Carrier current is a form of Part 15. There is also a "campus free radiate" exception, which allows schools to use an antenna with theoretically unlimited power, as long as the signal does not exceed Part 15 limits at the campus border.
 
kevtronics said:
Carrier current is a form of Part 15. There is also a "campus free radiate" exception, which allows schools to use an antenna with theoretically unlimited power, as long as the signal does not exceed Part 15 limits at the campus border.
Click to expand...

That still doesn't answer the OP's original question.

To which I do not believe there is an accurate answer.
 
spiritof67 said:
In the 1980s, I recall colleges using Carrier Current technology to broadcast a signal over a specific frequency, using the electrical grid of buildings to carry the signal. One station near me was KCLC-AM, based at Lindenwood College in St. Charles, MO. The college had an FM on 89.1 MHz, and used the AM to broadcast within the campus as a student station.

While internet streaming has eclipsed this technology, are there any active carrier current stations operating? If so, is there a listing for them?
Click to expand...
I didn’t know about “KCLC(AM)”, even though I went to high school near St. Charles and several of my teachers had come out of Lindenwood. That may be an example of the difficulty involved in tracking these things: I don’t know of anyone who tried to keep track of these installations.

KCOU(FM) at the University of Missouri (Columbia) was an outgrowth of an extensive carrier-current system, first called “KCCS” and later “KACK”. KCOU came on the air in 1973, if I remember correctly. The last contemporary mention I’ve found for KCCS/KACK was that year. By 1975, when I arrived to Mizzou as a freshman, the carrier-current system was gone. KCOU’s effort at that point was to get a power increase, which it obtained the following year. I’ve been unable to pin down exactly when that happened to KACK. By 1977, I was volunteering at KCOU. No trace of KACK remained by that time. KCOU is still around, though it’s had a couple of near-death experiences.
 
Mark Roberts said:
I didn’t know about “KCLC(AM)”, even though I went to high school near St. Charles and several of my teachers had come out of Lindenwood. That may be an example of the difficulty involved in tracking these things: I don’t know of anyone who tried to keep track of these installations.

KCOU(FM) at the University of Missouri (Columbia) was an outgrowth of an extensive carrier-current system, first called “KCCS” and later “KACK”. KCOU came on the air in 1973, if I remember correctly. The last contemporary mention I’ve found for KCCS/KACK was that year. By 1975, when I arrived to Mizzou as a freshman, the carrier-current system was gone. KCOU’s effort at that point was to get a power increase, which it obtained the following year. I’ve been unable to pin down exactly when that happened to KACK. By 1977, I was volunteering at KCOU. No trace of KACK remained by that time. KCOU is still around, though it’s had a couple of near-death experiences.
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Mark, I found this feature on KCCS from a Mizzou alumni magazine: The great 58
 
I live next door to a college campus which used to have one of these stations. I don't know how long it has been gone but someone who used to work there was able to get the call letters for his own station a few years later. 1994, I believe was the year of the change.

I could pick up the station on 580 on a radio that plugged in to the wall.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I live next door to a college campus which used to have one of these stations. I don't know how long it has been gone but someone who used to work there was able to get the call letters for his own station a few years later.
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One has nothing to do with the other. CC stations, being unlicensed, do not have assigned call letters and use of same on a CC station creates no restriction on a licensed station requesting the same calls, provided they are no in use by a real station.
 
K.M. Richards said:
One has nothing to do with the other. CC stations, being unlicensed, do not have assigned call letters and use of same on a CC station creates no restriction on a licensed station requesting the same calls, provided they are no in use by a real station.
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I didn't say he had to ask permission. He found out the letters were available, and that could have been true even with what you described.
 
Bill-in-CT said:
The closed circuit AM station at Emerson College's WECB in Boston moved to online in 2006, according to that station's website.
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That seems to have been the case with most former CC stations. The old technology just isn't cutting it anymore ...

... and I am quickly coming to the conclusion that the answer to the OP's original question is "no".
 
Another Carrier Current station that I remember was WIDB Carbondale, which served the students at Southern Illinois University. The station operated on 600 kHz, and then added Cable Channel 13, and Cable on 104.1. This station moved to streaming, but shut down a few years ago.

Here's the site for the history of the station: widbnetwork.org | The One-Stop Shop for WIDB Alumni
Some surveys were posted online: WIDB 600 Carbondale

Another was St. Louis University's KBIL, and later KSLU, which now streams online: KSLU (Saint Louis University) - Wikipedia
 
spiritof67 said:
Mark, I found this feature on KCCS from a Mizzou alumni magazine: The great 58
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I remember reading that a few years ago. Interesting facts in there, but the charms of Aaron Mermelstein’s writing style escape me. He was from the generation before me at Mizzou, most of whom had a much easier time getting good jobs than graduates from my generation. By my time, AM was barely a factor for any kind of radio listening, so it’s little surprise that KCCS/KACK had been discontinued. Someday, I might have to go to the bound copies of the Maneater that reside at Ellis Library to figure out when the formal decision was made to shut the carrier-current system down. Mermelstein mentions the KCOU power increase as a factor; that was spurred by KOPN’s power increase up to 40 kw (using equipment donated from the defunct KDNA), which in turn caused substantial interference on the Missouri campus. But otherwise all I know is that KCCS/KACK was still around in 1973 and it was gone by 1975.

One other thing I noted, and had missed the first time I read the article years ago in print: who signed Mermelstein’s KCCS press-credential card: the station’s news director of the time, Barry Garron. Barry went on to be the Kansas City Star’s radio/TV columnist for years, and then went to the Hollywood Reporter. He passed away in 2022 at the age of just 72. I just re-read his obituary, and see that he did the same thing I did at Missouri: got a dual degree in journalism and political science.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Barry Garron, Former Chief TV Critic for The Hollywood Reporter, Dies at 72

He worked at The Kansas City Star for 24 years and at THR for 11 and served as president of the TV Critics Association.
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com
 
Mark Roberts said:
KCOU(FM) at the University of Missouri (Columbia) was an outgrowth of an extensive carrier-current system, first called “KCCS” and later “KACK”. KCOU came on the air in 1973, if I remember correctly. The last contemporary mention I’ve found for KCCS/KACK was that year. By 1975, when I arrived to Mizzou as a freshman, the carrier-current system was gone. KCOU’s effort at that point was to get a power increase, which it obtained the following year.
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I was at KCOU/KACK during 1973-74. The stations sometimes simulcast, sometimes programmed separately during that period. KCOU's first 10-watt transmitter somehow managed to cover not just the campus, but most of Boone County. That, and the vastly inferior sound quality of KACK, pretty much made that station unnecessary.
 
Steel Nerves said:
I was at KCOU/KACK during 1973-74. The stations sometimes simulcast, sometimes programmed separately during that period. KCOU's first 10-watt transmitter somehow managed to cover not just the campus, but most of Boone County. That, and the vastly inferior sound quality of KACK, pretty much made that station unnecessary.
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KCOU started out at 88.3. It moved to 88.1 with the 1976 power increase. If I remember correctly, the frequency change was due to the need to avoid interference with the campus 10-watter at Rolla. The dial was more wide-open in those days. In hindsight, I think KCOU should have applied for even more power. There was no channel 6 issue at the time, because KMOS-TV was either being operated as a lower-powered Sedalia repeater for KRCG-TV, or was off the air altogether. KMOS didn’t become a truly full-power TV station until late 1979. Until the switch to digital, that would have kept KCOU from much of a power increase, if any. KCOU is now hemmed in by the 100 kw station (KJAB) at 88.3 in Mexico. If you look at its pattern, you’ll see that there’s a notch to the southwest to protect KCOU. That went on the air around 1985 or 1986. It started out at lower power and could be received in northeast parts of Columbia despite the directional pattern.

KCOU went to stereo a few months before the frequency change and power increase. It had no AGC, using only a peak limited for modulation control. It got an Optimod in 1978 and the station instantly sounded much better as a result.

As I’ve mentioned, by the fall of 1975, KACK was gone and was largely forgotten.
 
Mark Roberts said:
by the fall of 1975, KACK was gone and was largely forgotten.
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But while it lasted, KACK (and KCOU) could boast of being probably the only student station in the world to have an actual correspondent at the state capital (Richard Schlessinger, later of CBS News, who as part of his internship in Jefferson City, would file stories of interest to the Mizzou and Boone County community) and its own professional weathercaster (Al Mitleider, who also did weekend weather at KOMU as an undergraduate, and went on to run his own meteorological company.)

But there was interference from Channel 6 once you got to the western part of Boone County, at least on my car's FM converter.
 


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