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DRC's AUDIO SOUNDS.... GOOD!?!?!

W

wgliradio

Listening right now. Audio sounds much improved. Nice bass, consistant tonal balance and it's actually somewhat competitive (loudness wise).

Could use some more highs and a little more punch. But at 12:02am on 7/22/06 (I say that because the audio sounds different each time you tune in) the audio sounds..... good ???

If anyone from there watches this... LEAVE IT ALONE. It is LISTENABLE!
 
It's likely that they were just playing a string of songs that were better encoded.

*OR*! Maybe all our ranting and raving about the crappy audio finally prompted them to do something about it! When I'm back in Connecticut I'll take a listen, but it really seems too good to be true!

-A
 
Like I posted in the other thread, very early today the audio was back to the "crap-ola" sound like they were on their backup or their STL failed again. I got out of an appointment in Danbury about 10:25am and it sounded they fixed the problem as the audio was "less-crappy" than before. Good thing, as they were heavily plugging their HD audio.

Maybe we should just start a thread dedicated to DRC-FM's audio quality as it seems to be a never ending story with them. Then again, if they don't really care maybe we shouldn't either!


Bill
CapitalRadio.us
 
I reckon that WDRC-FM's audio sounds the way it does by design and preference. It's the only rational answer. It does sound very flat to me (sounded real bad last week, back to business as usual this week) muddy, very little compression or "punch". My preference for Oldies stations is to put some punch into the processing, some of those 60's records sound pretty bad and can use all the help they can get.

-Rick Kelly
northeastairchecks.com
 
I've heard some great stations where the audio was killer - these are the stations that have a program director that knows what they want and the engineering staff is top notch. The sad thing is that the Buckley groups has some great engineers, but they're located at WOR-AM in New York. I've read many articles by Chief Tom Ray and he certainly has a great understanding of broadcast technology and he and his staff has their AM-HD signal sounding pretty sweet. If I were Dick Buckley, I would drag my butt out of his Greenwish office and personally drive Tom up to DRC-FM and have him repair the nasty sounding "gunk" that's emanating from the 102.9 dial position!

My only presumption is that a lowly 17Kw FM in the #50 market isn't worth the effort that a station in the New York market gets. I would think it might be an engineer in training but programming seems to have let this travesty go on far too long!



Bill
CapitalRadio.us
 
I've just learned that during the recent period that DRC-FM was on their backup tx, it was necessary to go through WTIC's production board. I find this very interesting. In addition, whenever they went silent it was most likely the result of them being potted down at TIC . . .
 
That's real strange! How does WTIC get the feed from DRC-FM? I know it sounds pretty terrible so it wouldn't surpirse me if it was a Telex or some similar feed. Also, how does WTIC's board feed the DRC-FM aux transmitter? Phone lines?




Bill
CapitalRadio.us
 
I remember (from the late 70's) a fire at WCCC's Asylum Street (near Main Street) studios and DRC brought their "Mobile Studio D" to the CCC Avon Mtn tx site so they could quickly return to the air during the rebuild. I now recall the CCC jocks were very frustrated since the trailer was only equipped with 1 cart machine. They also appealed to the public for donations of records. The point I'm trying to make is that I thought the days of stations helping other stations had gone by. It's nice to see them continue to help each other.
 
I would have to disagree, Jim, as the engineering community is full of people willing to help smaller stations (even competitors) in times of crisis. The past events in New Orleans proved that when big name broadcasters such as Clear Channel were helping out others in addition to getting their own facilities back on-air. This was well documented in the pages of Radio World and a few other broadcast engineering trades.

Back on topic: I listened to DRC-FM tonight on the way out to dinner and on the way back home and the station actually sounds pretty decent. I still won’t put them up to a top caliber sound, but much improved from their past dreadful mess. I think it has to do with all the pushing they’re doing about their HD channel, as if their analog signal sounds bad who in their right mind is going to invest in an HD radio only to hear dreadful audio sound crystal clear?


Bill
 
I see nothing on drcfm.com to indicate that DRC has an HD-2 stream going. Is one planned, or are they just going to continue to use HD to provide a higher-fidelity 102.9?

With their music library, I could see a "Real Oldies"-type format, heavy on the '50s and pre-Beatles '60s, as something that could work on HD-2, or maybe a soul oldies format.
 
I don't know if they have an HD-2 channel, but I was talking about their main HD signal, which they are heavily promoting.

I've seen very few stations take advantage of the lower bitrate HD-2 signal. The only one that comes to mind is WCBS-FM in New York, who thinks they're placating the former oldies listeners by having a lesser sounding air product on theirs. I don't see people swarming out in droves to buy HD radios, especially to listen to a station that's a shadow of it's former self.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
I don't know if they have an HD-2 channel, but I was talking about their main HD signal, which they are heavily promoting.

I've seen very few stations take advantage of the lower bitrate HD-2 signal. The only one that comes to mind is WCBS-FM in New York.
Click to expand...

Doesn't Clear Channel's entire Hartford cluster have multiple streams running, or are they still in the planning stages?
 
CTListener said:
Doesn't Clear Channel's entire Hartford cluster have multiple streams running, or are they still in the planning stages?
Click to expand...

I was told by a Clear Channel engineer (in a different market) that all development of HD-2 programming was "on-hold" for the forseeable future, but I guess anything is possible. With the lack of affordable HD radios I would bet not too many broadcasters are willing to venture into adding extra resources if they don't feel the payoff is around the corner.

Bill
 
FWIW: I caught the John & Beth morning show and the processing they're doing on the microphones is the absolute pits! It's almost as bad as feeling the audio from an AM off-air feed!
 
Bill DeFelice said:
FWIW: I caught the John & Beth morning show and the processing they're doing on the microphones is the absolute pits! It's almost as bad as feeling the audio from an AM off-air feed!
Click to expand...

Are you sure they were in studio? That show does a remote just about every week; not sure if Monday is the day, though.
 
CTListener said:
Are you sure they were in studio? That show does a remote just about every week; not sure if Monday is the day, though.
Click to expand...

Sadly, yes they were in the studio this morning. If you listen it almost sounds like the microphone Beth uses was dropped as it sounds pretty thin with little hint of bottom end (not that I would necessarily a lot of bass with a female voice but it didn't sound "natural".)

Bill
 
We live in central mass; on I-95 near Old Saybrook DRC sounded terrible, I mentioned it to my fiance before ever reading this post. In Hartford it just didn't sound like all the rest of the FM's.
 
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