Best G/SP Sound/Processing?

[freqdev]

excluding format which stations sound the best?

 

[more kilowatts]

That's a tough one. For the FM's, 96.7 was hard to beat as the Buzzard, but here I am bringing format into the picture which I shouldn't do. Maybe they backed the processing down a little when they went to the Shine format. It just doesn't seem the same. Just my lowly opinion.

As far as AM's, 660 wins hands down with 950 a close second.

I bet we get as many different opinions as we get posts on this one.

 

[carolinaradio]

Tough one! I've always noticed that Entercom's FM stations are better processed than CC's. Entercom's seem to have more "punch", while Clear Channel's are flatter sounding. Agreed that as The Buzzard, 96.7 was probably the best in that cluster. WSPA-FM probably gets the best sounding award for Entercom.

I rarely listen to it, but 94.5 WMUU's processing is VERY good. They are probably one of the best around. Their equipment is very good.

WFBC's processing is pretty bad. It sounds too compressed and (maybe it's my radio) sometimes it sounds over-modulated at certain parts of songs. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[ATOMO]

Thanks for The Buzzard vote on processing. I spent a lot of time getting that one nailed. We did a lot with that 700 watt hairdryer. You can enjoy that same (virtually) processing now on 105-9 The Mountain in Asheville. Also, if you're ever in Asheville, check out 98-1 The River. Different processor but I've got that one pretty damn clean. I got to tweak 96.5 as well a few weeks ago.

 

[more kilowatts]

I have always felt like 96.7 was treated like "the red-headed step-child" because of the 700 watts ERP. Lots of people can't get past that. They don't take into consideration that the transmitting antenna is located at 945 feet above average terrrain which helps it make the most of its 700 watts. It has some good coverage IMHO.

 

[upstate29651]

One station with horrible processing is (was) WTPT. That T1 connection didn't quite cut it. Did they ever go STL & get the new stick up on Hogback yet?

G

 

[freqdev]

i knew there would be a lot of opinions on this one. i agree the entercom stations are louder but have a high end crunch that hurts them imo. wroq probably sound the best in that group. wtpt the worst. cc stations are not as loud but also not as compressed. might help their tsl. wjmz is clean imo but compressed. that may be due to the format

 

[carolinaradio]

yeah, if I turn one of the CC stations up louder and have an Entercom station on, the CC ones sound much more fine-tuned and pleasant to the ear. Is the planet still as bad as when they were with Barnstable? I was listening to WFBC earlier today and really paid attention...the music almost sounds so compressed/crunched that it gets louder and softer so fast, almost gives a headache if you listen with headphones. Somebody needs to back down on something there.

Craig, The Buzzard really did sound great before the flip and in fact, it out-shined (no pun intended on current format) the other 2 rock stations. The processing now seems to sound a lot like WMYI when I listened a long time ago, they may have changed it again. You really put a lot of work in over there, and certainly got a lot more accomplished than they are now. Good luck with the mountain.
As for country, WESC sounds much better than WSSL. WSSL sounds flatter.

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

What about some of the smaller AMs like WPCI 1490 and WDAB 1580.. how do they say?

 

[Jim Graham]

Hi, Gang!

Regarding WBZT FM's current processing/format (Shine): Have any of you ripped a current Contemporary Christian song such as Audio Adrenaline, then opened it with a computer based audio editing program such as Cool Edit? The vast majority of current Contemporary Christian songs have been over-excessively-extremely-terribly multi-band peak limited/clipped to the point that they're a big square wave. All in the interest of being loud. Oh...wait..... haven't radio stations been doing that for years? LOL Seriously, the new Contemporary Christian CDs, along with a lot of other genres, sound terrible. "Processing"- garbage in, more garbage out.

But, that's just me....
Jim Graham CE, CC Greenville

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

Hi, Gang!

Regarding WBZT FM's current processing/format (Shine): Have any of you ripped a current Contemporary Christian song such as Audio Adrenaline, then opened it with a computer based audio editing program such as Cool Edit? The vast majority of current Contemporary Christian songs have been over-excessively-extremely-terribly multi-band peak limited/clipped to the point that they're a big square wave. All in the interest of being loud. Oh...wait..... haven't radio stations been doing that for years? LOL Seriously, the new Contemporary Christian CDs, along with a lot of other genres, sound terrible. "Processing"- garbage in, more garbage out.

But, that's just me....
Jim Graham CE, CC Greenville

As I like to say, you can't shove crap into s&^t and expect any kind of good results.

 

[carolinaradio]

Hi, Gang!

Regarding WBZT FM's current processing/format (Shine): Have any of you ripped a current Contemporary Christian song such as Audio Adrenaline, then opened it with a computer based audio editing program such as Cool Edit? The vast majority of current Contemporary Christian songs have been over-excessively-extremely-terribly multi-band peak limited/clipped to the point that they're a big square wave. All in the interest of being loud. Oh...wait..... haven't radio stations been doing that for years? LOL Seriously, the new Contemporary Christian CDs, along with a lot of other genres, sound terrible. "Processing"- garbage in, more garbage out.

But, that's just me....
Jim Graham CE, CC Greenville

I agree completely....the Contemporary Christian songs are worse than a lot of the other ones, IMO. I dont know why, maybe it is recording facilities/equipment but the quality is not impressive, as compared with regular top-40 which doesn't really sound that great. WLFJ-F sounds pretty clean, but flat...not sure how 106.9 sounds.

Jim....you all have WESC sounding pretty good! Probably the best sounding FM in the cluster. Good job. Certainly beats My and definately Whistle.

 

[CJ_Jackson]

I have that issue with staying somewhere around the "sweet spot" here with the C.C. format. It's taken me a looooong time to find something that sounds ok after the combiner, et al get hold of it. Jim's right, the processing is all over the place from song to song. I've seen more and more come through virtually no dynamic range or other strangeness or weird eq or no stereo image hardly. Little history here: Back when I was the Chief at 93.3/92.5 for a brief period of time before the CC/AM-FM merger, I had the good fortune of having a real Gregg Labs Black Box processor at 93.3 and no one kicking me where it hurts to "make it loud". That was the best sounding box when used sparingly.... ( microwave stl too, relayed from the wesc tower site across the mountains ;D ) That box was retired after I left the market and an optimod 8200 was installed I understand. That's when I started reading folks talking about things being grungy there. wesc had a nice analog optimod 8100 with the multiband chassis back then. I took the p.d. up to the site a time or two to get it like we wanted it. One day I drove through on I-85 after the Buzzard came on, and yeah the processing was very good on it. Grum, we gotta do lunch one day dood, if I can ever get outside the atl perimeter.... Tell Long John hi for me-

 

[Jim Graham]

I agree completely....the Contemporary Christian songs are worse than a lot of the other ones, IMO. I dont know why, maybe it is recording facilities/equipment but the quality is not impressive, as compared with regular top-40 which doesn't really sound that great. WLFJ-F sounds pretty clean, but flat...not sure how 106.9 sounds.

Jim....you all have WESC sounding pretty good! Probably the best sounding FM in the cluster. Good job. Certainly beats My and definately Whistle.
[/quote]

Thanks for the kind words about the audio on WESC FM and 660 AM. John Landrum (92.5) and Trey Cooper (660) are part of those two. I want to say that I’ve been frustrated with excessive radio audio “processing” for a long time. Probably 30 or more years ago I realized that the average person does not listen to radio the way we in the business listen. I felt that radio should deliver a fairly consistent audio level but with enough dynamic range to be enjoyable and non-fatiguing. And I know that quality audio requires far more consistent effort in the source material and mixing/delivery system than in an audio processor to do that. In my career and prior to Clear Channel, I have had the opportunity to design and build two FM’s and one AM from microphone to antenna. I had the privilege to employ the audio theories I just mentioned. Eventually, though, the more commonplace “crushed 6-band audio” was forced to be put in place. That’s frustrating. And I think that loudness wars are self-gratification of some of those of us in the business. The wall-of-sound seekers usually are the same ones who will say that the listener can’t tell the difference between a WAV file and an mp3 and then spend hours tweaking a processor in an attempt to “attract listeners” or be louder than the competitor. Very high quality equipment is easily available and is typically used in broadcast stations. Why do we mess up the audio? A little audio manipulation goes a long way. And isn’t it really programming content that attracts an audience? Don’t mean to stir up any controversy; I’m just expressing my opinion, and I don’t expect anything to change. That’s one reason why I do my web site. As another note regarding the square-wave-looking audio, particularly the Contemporary Christian tracks: those tracks can be fixed a little bit by restoring some of the stereo image and dynamic range with Cool Edit (and others) one at a time, but not with an audio processor. If you took the time to read all of this, I appreciate it. Happy Thanksgiving!! -JG

 

[Jim Graham]

Hi, C J!

Did ya ever run into copperhead snakes warming themselves in the outdoor generator housing at the 92.5 site? About 3 years ago we had to get Greenville County Animal Control up there to remove three of them before the generator guy could repair the thing. Then, the fellow who does our grass maintenance up there found a fat rattlesnake on the generator's concrete pad. Bet there are all kinds of run ins with snakes and rodents at tower sites. We have to be careful! I won't go poking around in the generator housing in the dark!

Hi, John! There, I told him.

Hope you had or are having a good Thanksgiving!

 

[carolinaradio]

Thanks for the kind words about the audio on WESC FM and 660 AM. John Landrum (92.5) and Trey Cooper (660) are part of those two. I want to say that I’ve been frustrated with excessive radio audio “processing” for a long time. Probably 30 or more years ago I realized that the average person does not listen to radio the way we in the business listen. I felt that radio should deliver a fairly consistent audio level but with enough dynamic range to be enjoyable and non-fatiguing. And I know that quality audio requires far more consistent effort in the source material and mixing/delivery system than in an audio processor to do that. In my career and prior to Clear Channel, I have had the opportunity to design and build two FM’s and one AM from microphone to antenna. I had the privilege to employ the audio theories I just mentioned. Eventually, though, the more commonplace “crushed 6-band audio” was forced to be put in place. That’s frustrating. And I think that loudness wars are self-gratification of some of those of us in the business. The wall-of-sound seekers usually are the same ones who will say that the listener can’t tell the difference between a WAV file and an mp3 and then spend hours tweaking a processor in an attempt to “attract listeners” or be louder than the competitor. Very high quality equipment is easily available and is typically used in broadcast stations. Why do we mess up the audio? A little audio manipulation goes a long way. And isn’t it really programming content that attracts an audience? Don’t mean to stir up any controversy; I’m just expressing my opinion, and I don’t expect anything to change. That’s one reason why I do my web site. As another note regarding the square-wave-looking audio, particularly the Contemporary Christian tracks: those tracks can be fixed a little bit by restoring some of the stereo image and dynamic range with Cool Edit (and others) one at a time, but not with an audio processor. If you took the time to read all of this, I appreciate it. Happy Thanksgiving!! -JG

wow, yeah the loudness thing can get to be a bit too much. Entercom has 93.3 and 93.7 cranked up so high they over-modulate some times....maybe somebody doesn't know what they're doing. Barnstable/Upstate Radio had their stations (well, not really Planet, it's never sounded that good) sounding well, but then Entercom came and had to crank the sound up and messed with things. Sounds like they have the market cornered on loudness.

If I can ask...do you maintain the WGVL/1440 site? Very nice looking!

 

[Lhsh]

I have felt that way about Clear Channel's WCOS-FM here in Columbia. I can tell that many of the songs that they play are somewhat distorted and think that they are going for the loudness factor and it sounds bad, I would rather listen to WWNU because their processing and signal sounds really nice.

 

[more kilowatts]

WGVL/1440 site? Very nice looking!

I am glad to know someone besides me thinks this site is nice looking. I enjoy looking at AM directional arrays, and have seen many over the years, but I have always thought 1440 was the best looking one around. Maybe it is because the site is always so well maintained and the towers are kept painted, plus you have an excellent view from the road or the Ingles parking lot.

Having lived in the Greenville area all my life, I have been down White Horse Road many time past this site. I still have to slow down and take a long look every time I go by. Prior to the early/mid-70's, all 4 towers were lighted at night instead of just the 2 outer ones as it is now. You could see them from miles around.

 

[carolinaradio]

WGVL/1440 site? Very nice looking!

I am glad to know someone besides me thinks this site is nice looking. I enjoy looking at AM directional arrays, and have seen many over the years, but I have always thought 1440 was the best looking one around. Maybe it is because the site is always so well maintained and the towers are kept painted, plus you have an excellent view from the road or the Ingles parking lot.

Having lived in the Greenville area all my life, I have been down White Horse Road many time past this site. I still have to slow down and take a long look every time I go by. Prior to the early/mid-70's, all 4 towers were lighted at night instead of just the 2 outer ones as it is now. You could see them from miles around.

I definately agree with you. I love the straight, flat line array. It is the best looking one around...it must have been very well maintained over the years to be in the condition it is in now. Here's a great "bird's eye" view of the site, you may have to drag around to get a good view:

Click

Does anybody knows what's in the building now? I believe they were studios a long time ago.

 

[Jim Graham]

The 1440 AM site on White Horse Road. It's ME! No hablo español Thanks for those kind words. A Spanish speaking company, "Radio Mix" is under agreement with CC to program 1440. The building houses the transmitting gear and a bit of storage. As with all the CC sites, I try very hard to keep them all up. We have a couple of vendors who keep the field bush-hogged as well as keep up maintenance on the tower fences and enclosures and mow around the building. The same guys do the 660 AM site a mile or so north of the 1440 site, which is also licensed by CC. Our bush-hogging guy also does our FM sites.

Back to audio for a minute, I remember +/- a few years around 1980, WQOK installed an Optimod 9000. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I also recall it was a gentleman named John Francioni who set it up. While working at WANS AM/FM in Anderson, I remember tuning in one day and was amazed at how good WQOK sounded. I mean really good. Ahhh, but the PD would have none of that. A week or two later it was back to crapola.

Y'all have fun! -JG