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94.3 "The Point" in mono!?

S

satech

I guess nobody at the station has noticed that at least for the past few days, 94.3 WJLK has been transmitting audio that is completely monaural? The stereo indicator is still on, but I'm not hearing any stereo separation at all, neither on music nor commercials.

I guess this is what happens at an HD Radio station where the DJs are listening off the board instead of to their actual on-air signal, due to the digital encoding delay -- they might have some kind of alarm indicator to tell them if the transmitter goes off the air completely, but otherwise they have no idea what their own signal actually sounds like on the air, from inside the building.
 
They've been having problems with their STL link for the past couple of months, according to their engineer ..
They have been using either a backup ISDN line, or in some cases, their own webstream, to continue to be on the air ..
Also, the HD has been out for about a month or so because of an air conditioner failure at the transmitter ..
 
Quoting from the engineer here, "the HD transmitter is very inefficient, and switching to the backup (non-HD) transmitter is roughly equivalent to turning off a 3700 watt space heater."
 
I just checked with my Insignia HD Radio (which I rarely use because it has ridiculously horrible battery life!) and I can't get any trace of an HD signal from 94.3, although their RDS is still on and working.

If they were using the kind of FM HD setup where the HD Radio signal gets its own separate transmitter and then is combined together with the analog transmitter at the antenna, then I can see how that is quite inefficient, since that is running two transmitters simultaneously.
 
Pirate_Jim said:
They've been having problems with their STL link for the past couple of months, according to their engineer ..

Also, the HD has been out for about a month or so because of an air conditioner failure at the transmitter ..
Click to expand...

I totally believe that (no, I really do) ... redundant failures of multiple systems going unresolved for weeks and / or months. BUT, I thought they only let that happen in Townsquare's bottom 200 Markets (for example: Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Abilene, Amarillo and Tyler, Texas, etc..).

That happens in Monmouth/Ocean, New Jersey too? That really IS crazy!

Well, Norman in Texas is not VP of Engineering for the NJ Region, I'm sure. This suggests the engineering management problem at TSQ is not merely limited to the Southwest Region.

Seems it is time for a change in TSQ technical management group wide.

High time to end the "TSQ Culture" of dispassionately discharging technical duties.

So disappointing to hear the same TSQ stories happen in a Top-50 Market!
 
You would think a broken AC is a critical problem, and should be fixed as soon as possible in the summer. It'll be cheaper than fixing a broken transmitter. But it seems like Townsquare just wants to wait till winter rather than fix the AC.
 
satech said:
If they were using the kind of FM HD setup where the HD Radio signal gets its own separate transmitter and then is combined together with the analog transmitter at the antenna, then I can see how that is quite inefficient, since that is running two transmitters simultaneously.
Click to expand...

Since The Point was an early(er) adopter of HD, I'm sure that it's being combined at the antenna with a dummy load for the waste wattage.

And here I thought Townsquare had a decent rep for engineering...
 
Townsquare wasn't the owner of 94.3 when it first went HD, to be fair. I think at that time it was Millenium?

You would have to pin that on not any particular engineer, but that's how "HD" was done when it first came out. A lot of strides in both transmitters, combiner tech and antennas has happened in the last 10 years.
 
They most likely wouldn't get another more efficient HD transmitter now. Their flagship NJ 101.5 has never been in HD. Millennium shut down Shore Alternative on 94.3-HD2 because it was getting very few listeners.
 
I was told at one time that they had an HD transmitter ready to be installed for 101.5 ..
Whether or not they actually install it, is another question ..
 
Pirate_Jim said:
I was told at one time that they had an HD transmitter ready to be installed for 101.5 ..
Whether or not they actually install it, is another question ..
Click to expand...

They do, but the licensing fees and lack of a ROI have kept it from coming online. They wanted to do "Jersey's Favorite Hits" on the HD-2 as well
 
I recall for a while in the late '90s, 101.5 was in mono (without the stereo indicator on) for talk programming and only turned the stereo on during their weekend music.
 
Turnpike Tuner said:
Pirate_Jim said:
I was told at one time that they had an HD transmitter ready to be installed for 101.5 ..
Whether or not they actually install it, is another question ..
Click to expand...

They do, but the licensing fees and lack of a ROI have kept it from coming online. They wanted to do "Jersey's Favorite Hits" on the HD-2 as well
Click to expand...

So, that means the HD transmitter will never go on the air since there is no ROI. Even an ethnic broadcaster won't get a return on its investment if it goes on an HD2, look at One Caribbean Radio in NYC for example. It abandoned WWPR-HD2. It won't even be worth the electric bill.
 
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