Calling Station - Talking to DJ

[kevtronics]

Why a handful of Luddites keep derailing topics to relive failed and long dead AM stereo, is beyond me.

Gen Z'ers would look at this board and call us all Luddites.

And Magnavox made an unannounced exit from the AM Stereo race in 1984, a year before Kahn sued Motorola for alleged patent and antitrust violations:

"With little fanfare and no public announcement, Magnavox joined Belar as an AM stereo casualty. After two years under the marketplace, Magnavox had but six stations on the air and reportedly had stopped active promotion."

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED313723.pdf

 

[Kelly A]

Gen Z'ers would look at this board and call us all Luddites.

Not me. In spite of being an old guy, I'm interested in the present and future. Not old failed technologies which I witnessed first hand.

And Magnavox made an unannounced exit from the AM Stereo race in 1984, a year before Kahn sued Motorola for alleged patent and antitrust violations:

Leonard had sent letters to all concerned that he was going to sue everyone, which he ultimately did.

"With little fanfare and no public announcement, Magnavox joined Belar as an AM stereo casualty. After two years under the marketplace, Magnavox had but six stations on the air and reportedly had stopped active promotion."

I already explained why Magnavox bailed. You can wave revisionist history around all you want. Just as with election fraud claims from the past administration, it doesn't make it true.
There's a place here to discuss stupid AM stereo. Take it there rather than hijacking other threads with your drivel,

 

[CTListener]

I still hear little soundbites of callers in between songs on some stations..."when are you giving away those tickets for [insert band here]?" Sometimes I will hear a request on Tom Kent's shows. And of course, Delilah still takes phone dedications. But in reality, I haven't heard a LOCAL station take a song request from a phone caller in a long time. My guess is the syndicated show 'requests' are prerecorded days or weeks in advance.

One of our local country stations, WXXK Lebanon, NH, plays an hour of requests and dedications every weekday at 5, but they're collected during the previous two hours via the website (with frequent urging by the jock on air) and the phone is never used.

 

[Kelly A]

One of our local country stations, WXXK Lebanon, NH, plays an hour of requests and dedications every weekday at 5, but they're collected during the previous two hours via the website (with frequent urging by the jock on air) and the phone is never used.

And you'll find a lot of stations get listener feedback via their apps, website, or social media pages. The old days of phone calls are pretty much in the past. I can call my kids and they won't answer the phone. I can text them and they answer back right away.

 

[kevtronics]

I already explained why Magnavox bailed. You can wave revisionist history around all you want.

I'm reporting the history as it was written decades ago. If you're calling it "revisionist", you'll need to go back in time 30 years and argue with the people who wrote it.

 

[ThePowerCow]

Unless you're calling from a landline, sound quality of phone calls are terrible.

 

[Kelly A]

Unless you're calling from a landline, sound quality of phone calls are terrible.

That's a valid point. Since the pandemic where 'calls' were made using IP methods like Facetime, Zoom, Skype, Teams, etc., phone line quality is definitely inferior. Sort of like AM radio. Inferior in every way, so it's been written off by younger people who know better.

 

[kevtronics]

That's a valid point. Since the pandemic where 'calls' were made using IP methods like Facetime, Zoom, Skype, Teams, etc., phone line quality is definitely inferior.

It's usually not the connection that is the biggest contributing factor to the poor audio quality of people doing hosting and interviews from home. It's the poor quality and placement of the microphone they're using -- usually just the built-in one in a smartphone or laptop -- and the lack of acoustic treatment of the room they're in.

 

[Kelly A]

It's usually not the connection that is the biggest contributing factor to the poor audio quality of people doing hosting and interviews from home. It's the poor quality and placement of the microphone they're using -- usually just the built-in one in a smartphone or laptop -- and the lack of acoustic treatment of the room they're in.

Think you misread what I was saying: Phone calls are inferior quality to IP forms of communication.

 

[davideduardo]

That was the problem with diary ratings; in spite of Karen having her dedication played on the Neal and Bob Morning Zoo, chances are she was never sent a diary. In fact, most people never tracked what station they listened-to on a daily, let alone hourly basis, and would just wing-it by filling the diary out the day before it was due.

Actually, there are a series of calls or contacts to confirm arrival, to be ready for first day, to check after first day, part way through and at the last day and to mail back. The worst performance is weekends, which often are not done till Sunday late or Monday.

 

[davideduardo]

It was Belar who dropped out of the AM Stereo race when the FCC announced the marketplace decision. The Belar system was different from the others in that it used FM to transmit the L-R stereo difference component, rather than phase or quadrature modulation.

You could write a whole book about how the FCC screwed up the AM Stereo decision -- and someone actually did:

The book would be all about Leonard Kahn who single-handed lay destroyed any chance of long-term AM survival.

 

[ContinuousWave]

re: AM stereo failure - something to learn from, stereo caught on w/vinyl LPs, FM, TV (and movies) but not AM (quad sound faded away in late 1976 and came back in mid-1982 due to a marketing change - calling it surround sound and tying it to movie soundtracks [at first]).

I rarely listened to WLS AM though (I listened to KIIK, KRNA, KQCR FMs), I probably read about them broadcasting AM stereo in one of the monthly Audio/Electronics mags.

Anyway, I'm glad the WLS AM DJ did answer my question (to the best of her ability).


Kirk Bayne

Was that Yvonne Daniels? She was a goddess ...

 

[ContinuousWave]

Gen Z'ers would look at this board and call us all Luddites.

And Magnavox made an unannounced exit from the AM Stereo race in 1984, a year before Kahn sued Motorola for alleged patent and antitrust violations:

"With little fanfare and no public announcement, Magnavox joined Belar as an AM stereo casualty. After two years under the marketplace, Magnavox had but six stations on the air and reportedly had stopped active promotion."

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED313723.pdf

Magnavox had serious distortion issues that they never could resolve.

 

[kfbkfb]

Was that Yvonne Daniels? She was a goddess ...

I don't recall, I listened to WLS AM a little in late 1972 when my high school friends listened on the way to school (eastern IA), my cousin in south eastern WY listened in 1979 because his car only had an AM radio and then I listened a little in the fall of 1983 and then a lot starting in the fall 1984 to fall 1987 (put in a Radio Shack FM -> AM converter then) because my car only had an AM radio.


(maybe the DJ tells my story as part of her WLS DJ adventures - "then there was this time in 1983 when some guy called the WLS request line [sounded long distance] and asked which AM stereo system WLS was using")


Honestly, since stereo was the norm on LPs/45s and FM by ~1980, I thought AM stereo would be a shoo-in.


Kirk Bayne

 

[davideduardo]

Honestly, since stereo was the norm on LPs/45s and FM by ~1980, I thought AM stereo would be a shoo-in.

By 1980, there were a lot less releases on 45. Cassettes and albums were the norm.

But by 1980, FM had already taken almost 60% of radio listening... and when talk formats are removed from analysis, over 75% of music listening was on FM.

 

[vchimpanzee]

One of our local country stations, WXXK Lebanon, NH, plays an hour of requests and dedications every weekday at 5, but they're collected during the previous two hours via the website (with frequent urging by the jock on air) and the phone is never used.

Classic country WAME outside Charlotte NC said the listeners program the station during lunch hour, although the people don't necessarily call. There was a list of things listeners might want such as more older or newer songs, bluegrass and even gospel.

 

[CTListener]

Classic country WAME outside Charlotte NC said the listeners program the station during lunch hour, although the people don't necessarily call. There was a list of things listeners might want such as more older or newer songs, bluegrass and even gospel.

WXXK is a mainstream contemporary country station, so I'm sure the requests are cherry-picked so as not to include songs from other genres or songs too old for the format. What differentiates the request hour from the other hours is the presence of deeper gold from artists still relevant today as well as gold from performers who haven't had hits in the past five to 10 years but whose music still fits the format.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Classic country WAME outside Charlotte NC said the listeners program the station during lunch hour, although the people don't necessarily call. There was a list of things listeners might want such as more older or newer songs, bluegrass and even gospel.

Hi @vchimpanzee

I'm on WAME overnights....

 

[seatownmedia]

Communication today with media properties is 98 percent email or text. This happened in a blink, or perhaps has been evolving within several years. If you try to call you will likely get voicemail or a long wait to stay on the phone. Then, the person who eventually answers can not answer your question. Welcome to the 2020’s.