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Loud awful screeching noise on 1100
- Thread starter NEOHMediaFan
- Start date
Pure speculation:
They could be having transmitter issues. But iHeart used to have good engineers. Maybe not enough of them but that's another subject. Just a guess I have no inside info, but sometimes lightning does visit in the summer right when folks take vacation.
Becoming more common and routine on a 50 kW powerhouse.
Got to wonder. What is the effect on everyday listeners? Do they tune out? Where do they go if they do? Do the return?
That a station is a 50kw powerhouse means little today. Companies care more about their 100 watt FM translators.
It means something to those of us who remember listening to WKYC or CKLW on a road trip until they faded away, or dxing at nighttime to hear what's happening in other cities. Now you'll mostly hear the same network shows on those stations.
With cars dropping AM, many hotels have FM only clock radios if they have one at all, some argue that there are areas that may not have internet or cell phone access or can pick up FM signals but WTAM doesn't serve those places.
It's just not as important to the operator and it shows.
It means something to those of us who remember listening to WKYC or CKLW on a road trip until they faded away, or dxing at nighttime to hear what's happening in other cities. Now you'll mostly hear the same network shows on those stations.
With cars dropping AM, many hotels have FM only clock radios if they have one at all, some argue that there are areas that may not have internet or cell phone access or can pick up FM signals but WTAM doesn't serve those places.
It's just not as important to the operator and it shows.
Prefacing this by saying I'm not excusing issues like those stated above. But does sloppy programming on a Sunday night really affect the weekday crowd? Unless there's a Sunday night game is anyone actually listening to whatever it is WTAM is airing on a Saturday or Sunday night?
That was my guess as well. Weather was good when I was up there Thursday and Friday, though warm and humid. The signal was just considerably weaker than I am used to hearing in that area, and definitely weaker than where I typically stay for work on the south side of Akron, only 11 miles north of where I was this trip. It also dropped off quicker than I remember when I was heading back to Columbus between 8-10 Friday evening. Phasing even before Dover/New Philly.
Thought it might be my radio, but WKNR, WAKR and other out-of-town signals were their usual selves.
If you talk to any major player in the business, they will tell you privately that AM is on its way out, so their main financial attention is on their FMs.
The "sloppy programming" is being heard on the FM translator and the iHeart app too. One would think any talk radio station would have weekend sponcers that would buy the time (cheap). If they don't, apparently no one cares except folks on this board. Not a good look for Republican Radio.
Oh I agree. And back in the day when I was working as a lowly Sunday night board operator in market 200+ for minimum wage I made sure everything aired exactly as it should.
I remember as a kid getting upset any time I'd tune in for Casey Kasem and a segment would air incorrectly, the station would repeat the show from the previous week, etc. I thought for sure this was a Big Deal™ and couldn't figure out why goofs like that happened as often as they did, and on so many stations.
One week when we were airing Casey direct from CD on a Sunday night and the Hour 2 CD just wouldn't play on any of the 3 CD players in the studio. I aired some extra spots and PSAs and try as I might I just couldn't make it happen. We still had the previous week's show in the studio so I pivoted to something that would have had my younger self fired up and calling the station to complain - I aired Hour 2 from the previous week. And the previous week had been a guest host, so for an hour listeners heard Casey, then an hour of a guest host (including a few songs that had fallen lower on the chart and had just been heard minutes earlier), and then at the top of the next hour Casey had magically returned. Certainly there were folks all over town just like me that listened to Casey from start to finish every weekend that would be up in arms by this! And now they had a board op that would answer the phone and explain exactly what happened and why the wrong hour was airing.
Not a single call. Not a single concerned listener.
Had it been a syndicated show airing in a prime weekday timeslot would we have gotten flooded with calls? Maybe? Perhaps not flooded, but maybe a few. But a Sunday night at 10pm? I always wonder if there was even one other person that 1) noticed and 2) even if they did, gave it a passing thought
The actual "programming" of the server or PC most likely is not a "function" of the engineer staff. If it fails, the engineer or IT folks get involved. I sure iHeart has "folks" somewhere in the organization that could fix this programing issue faster than I typed out this post.
One would think something on the iHeart app would be fixed under the "digital emphasis".
Garbage in doesn't equal Garbage out in the digital world. Now the garbage is multiplied to the x power.
One would think something on the iHeart app would be fixed under the "digital emphasis".
Garbage in doesn't equal Garbage out in the digital world. Now the garbage is multiplied to the x power.
I listen to Bill Cunningham, The Great American, on Sunday night.