Ever liked a station you DXed?

[boombox4]

I used to listen to KGO San Francisco all the time, most of the night time hosts... Also KFBK Sacramento, mainly for Coast to Coast.

Mornings I listened to CBK Saskatchewan on a daily basis, although their signal appears to have weakened. Although it isn't DX, I'd listen to CBU Vancouver on a daily basis, for the programming. I listen to CBR Calgary now for the same reason. I'll listen to KEX for Coast To Coast AM as they play the first hour over again, where the local station cuts to a news program and sometimes I missed the first hour of C2C -- so I hear it that way.

Lately I've been listening to the Merced Rock station on 1660 AM. Great mix of rock music. KXOL seems to be off the air lately (either got yanked again, or conditions to that area of the country have been poor lately), so KTIQ 1660 comes in better than it used to.

 

[boombox4]

Even an RF-2200 for AM is similarly not as useful because of electrical noise, PSSAs, stations operating at high power, and IBOC. I think most of us are very annoyed with all this, and DXing or listening to stations with unique formats has become less fun. Same with digital TV making it nearly impossible to view stations outside the local market, many not viewable even 20 miles away if even slightly terrain shadowed, and VHF hobbled by low ERP.

On AM I've found IBOC only has reduced two channels locally (1100 and 1080), and two others marginally (1240 and 1260). RFI mostly comes from my router's power supply, which doesn't affect the entire house, and sometimes I simply turn it off. The neighbors' RFI is too weak to do much.

I see the situation with the AM band as more of a challenge than a problem. We have the band we're given, and we either live with it or find another hobby. I'm more concerned with SW broadcasting right now, which has definitely taken a nosedive since 2005 or so. It's not so much the problem of RFI and other QRM but the lack of stations. Some nights 31 meters is next to dead and 49 meters maybe has three or four stations -- two of them the US domestic stations. That isn't an RFI or interference problem, it's a dying media problem.

Soon enough the AM band may have the dying media problem, and although there may be some people happy about that, because it will reduce "interfering stations", it will also lower those station counts. Most nights I hear maybe the same 200 or so stations. When the band dies off that nightly number will drop, and also there will be less DX to hear. That super far away station that I really wanted to catch because a semi-local is in the way will probably be gone the same time the "pest" station is gone: because of lack of operating income.

 

[gr8oldies]

It's interesting DXing off the European webs reciever, with so many powerful MW stations having dropped off in the last year.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Your recurring theme of calling stations in other-than-English "foreign" is just so bigoted I can't fathom it. Spanish is the original European language in Tejas and precedes the use of English by hundreds of years. Calling it "foreign" is like calling the Francophones in parts of Maine or the Cajun speakers in Louisiana "foreign". Heck, the name "Texas" is the "old Spanish" spelling of modern "Tejas".

Over-55's are not targeted by radio because there is no revenue to be had by doing so. Advertisers on radio do not target 55+ because older generations require more repetition, called "impressions", of an ad to produce a sale. At some point, the cost of the added impressions exceeds the profit on each sale. This is strictly an ROI decision and has nothing to do with whether older people have a greater net worth.

I could give a flying frog whether you need Viagra or not. The fact is that advertisers for drugs generally sell the visual image of the lifestyle improvement using the product can give. They don't show a guy with a woodie; they show a tender moment of a couple with the message that the product makes that moment possible. And that requires a textured, visual image.

As to ethnic or non-English language stations you have to realize that huge percentages of the population want and need those stations in Houston. For an historical reference, go back historically to New York City even in the pre-War years of the late 30's. WOV was the Italian voice of New York's big immigrant community back when the network affiliations were taken and the AFM made doing an all recorded music format impossible. So doing Italian programming was both a service and a good use for one of the independent AM stations; that kind of broadcasting is an honored and productive part of the last 70 years of American broadcasting.

And even today, you have far more station choices in English in Houston than you did in the 60's. With more stations, many will look for profitable niche opportunities. And I remind your that the two fuller signals in Spanish converted to a Spanish language format when the English efforts failed... particularly the old KLOL.

HD is not going to bankrupt anyone. It is a tiny ongoing expense in a market where the big billers do over $20 million a year in revenue. And the ethnic and non-English programmed stations are regulated by the market. As long as they are profitable, they will endure. If there are too many of a kind, the weakest will try something else.

Did I already refer to something being "bigoted"? Well, the use of the term "foreign rabble" is racist, bigoted and obscene.

Mexico was defeated in Texas 180 years ago. Get over it! English is now the dominant language in Texas, and that's not going to change. Anything else is foreign language here. And I was referring to stations, not people, when I said foreign rabble. The collective poor engineering, poorer sound quality, and even worse micro-targeted formats on these foreign stations is awful. Maybe somebody listens to Spanish Christian polka folk pop or whatever micro-targeted format it is, or maybe somebody is just paying for brokered time and doesn't care that nobody listens. Either way, the station is a dark spot on the dial for anybody who speaks English. Period. There is ZERO interest in foreign language programming by English speaking people. And - thanks for bringing up an old wound - KLOL. A heritage station going dark or going foreign is a tragedy - brought on by heartless business interests that don't give a darn about the heritage of a station. Short term profits are all they care about. 101.1 is a wasted spot on the dial as far as it is concerned. I wish they would go out of business, so I could aim my antenna at Dallas and get WRR, or at San Antonio and get KONO. I am an equal opportunity offender - I wish 93.7 would go out of business so I could get KLBJ from Austin. If it isn't playing something I like, I don't tune to it. If that is bigoted, I am a bigot. And - there is some white rabble on the air, too. I wish Cypress radio would get its act together and invest in a decent audio chain. There is nothing more frustrating than hearing a highly-distorted, overmodulated, clipped version of "Stairway to Heaven". So bad - even I tuned the song out. And KCOH on an HD-2 - awful! Nobody is going to listen to that awful audio quality. There is such a high frequency emphasis the announcers and songs sound like chirping birds. I like some of the songs, but the sound quality is so bad - NO WAY I listen. That is rabble, the same as the cheap, bad, distorted, awful audio chains of your beloved Spanish language stations. I don't know how anybody could listen to some of those translators and LP stations for any length of time. Low bandwidth modem streaming would sound INFINITELY better. If I spoke Spanish, went to one of those churches, or if i spoke Hindi, or Chinese - I would not tolerate the poor quality audio! I think there should be a minimum audio standard, enforced by the FCC, and offenders shut down until they fix their technical problems!

 

[joebtsflk1]

I used to listen to KGO San Francisco all the time, most of the night time hosts... Also KFBK Sacramento, mainly for Coast to Coast.

Mornings I listened to CBK Saskatchewan on a daily basis, although their signal appears to have weakened. Although it isn't DX, I'd listen to CBU Vancouver on a daily basis, for the programming. I listen to CBR Calgary now for the same reason. .

I used to DX CBK 540 Sasatchewan from Iowa in the 70s for one show: Al Bonner's Hall of Fame, which would play one side of Ron Jacobs' Cruisin' album series each week. The show aired at midnight late Saturday evening. Great reception in the winter and it made for OK off-air recording. By late spring, I had to give up as reception became unreliable and often full of static crashes.

Today of course DXing 540 in Iowa is strictly about logging another station behind the 180 watts of night-time KWMT Fort Dodge, nothing more. Other daytimers on Canadian clears in Iowa share the same story. Ten watts PSSA of 740 KMZN (neé KBOE) Oskaloosa couldn't stand a chance when the DX from CBC's 50 kW signal rolled in.

PSSA operation on regional channels isn't great but it usually provides OK service to a five mile radius. But I'd say PSSA power under 100 watts on clear channels is incapable of providing any useful service, especially in winter.

 

[davideduardo]

Mexico was defeated in Texas 180 years ago. Get over it! English is now the dominant language in Texas, and that's not going to change. Anything else is foreign language here. And I was referring to stations, not people, when I said foreign rabble. The collective poor engineering, poorer sound quality, and even worse micro-targeted formats on these foreign stations is awful. Maybe somebody listens to Spanish Christian polka folk pop or whatever micro-targeted format it is, or maybe somebody is just paying for brokered time and doesn't care that nobody listens. Either way, the station is a dark spot on the dial for anybody who speaks English. Period. There is ZERO interest in foreign language programming by English speaking people. And - thanks for bringing up an old wound - KLOL. A heritage station going dark or going foreign is a tragedy - brought on by heartless business interests that don't give a darn about the heritage of a station. Short term profits are all they care about. 101.1 is a wasted spot on the dial as far as it is concerned. I wish they would go out of business, so I could aim my antenna at Dallas and get WRR, or at San Antonio and get KONO. I am an equal opportunity offender - I wish 93.7 would go out of business so I could get KLBJ from Austin. If it isn't playing something I like, I don't tune to it. If that is bigoted, I am a bigot. And - there is some white rabble on the air, too. I wish Cypress radio would get its act together and invest in a decent audio chain. There is nothing more frustrating than hearing a highly-distorted, overmodulated, clipped version of "Stairway to Heaven". So bad - even I tuned the song out. And KCOH on an HD-2 - awful! Nobody is going to listen to that awful audio quality. There is such a high frequency emphasis the announcers and songs sound like chirping birds. I like some of the songs, but the sound quality is so bad - NO WAY I listen. That is rabble, the same as the cheap, bad, distorted, awful audio chains of your beloved Spanish language stations. I don't know how anybody could listen to some of those translators and LP stations for any length of time. Low bandwidth modem streaming would sound INFINITELY better. If I spoke Spanish, went to one of those churches, or if i spoke Hindi, or Chinese - I would not tolerate the poor quality audio! I think there should be a minimum audio standard, enforced by the FCC, and offenders shut down until they fix their technical problems!

This is like arguing with the devil (and I use the term with considerable purpose because your attitudes do not reflect Christian values such as tolerance, acceptance and forgiveness).

"Rabble" is a word that every dictionary defines as applying to people, not things. "Ordinary people regarded as socially inferior" and "a disorderly crowd" are the two rather standard definitions. So if you are applying the term to stations, you are wrong and at the same time you are implying that the listeners are inferior, that their culture is inferior and that you are discriminating against those people involved. Classic bigotry.

KLOL: commercial radio companies have as their first and foremost objective to make money. Back when there were many commercial classical stations, they survived since they made money not because they were a sort of cultural oasis or whatever. When it became nearly impossible to even cover expenses with classical, those stations changed or were sold. Such was the case with KLOL; no amount of heritage can sustain a station that has lost its niche or where the niche has aged out of the demographics that advertisers are interested in reaching. This is the same profit motive that the Mom and Pop store on Main Street, USA, must have to keep the doors open and the family fed. Yet you seem to find the single and only way for a station to survive to be inherently evil.

Yes, there are low power or "dog" facilities that are run badly out of lack of knowledge or failure / inability to spend the money it takes. And it is unfortunate that poorly processed audio gets on the air. But I can think of many, many examples of horrible audio from back in the "loudness wars" era of the 60's and 70's that passed the FCC Proof of Performance yet set up the audio chain to create as close to square waves and a motionless modulation monitor pegged at 99% so this is nothing new.

And whether you like it or not, Spanish is not a foreign language in the Southwest United States of America because it preceded the use of English by centuries. And since the US has no "official" language, calling Spanish "foreign" in a state where many counties, cities and places have Spanish names sounds demeaning; "foreign" means "coming from outside" and actually, Spanish was here in all the Southwest first. Conquerors who try to erase culture have much in common with the actions of ISIS in Palmyra

The local Spanish language stations that account for 25% of all Houston radio listening have just as good, modern and expensive audio gear as the English market counterparts, by the way.

A person who lives in a market that is approaching 40% Hispanic and which is 75% ethnic might have a happier life adopting a greater live and let live attitude towards diversity. Wishing misfortune on stations you don't personally like is selfish and un-Christian.

 

[boombox4]

I have no problem with ethnic programming, be it Spanish or Hindustani or whatever... I see it as keeping AM alive, and I live in a multi-ethnic area, and deal with people of all ethnicities on a daily basis. When it gets down to it, they're just people just like the rest of us.

There is a Spanish language radio station located near where I work. Very nice people. Very friendly. Many of them speak perfect English. Their stations (FM and AM) seem to be engineered cleanly. They play religious pop and praise music, as well as other religious programming. I'll listen sometimes, even though I don't know much Spanish. A lot of their listeners speak English in at work or in commerce, but just want to hear some programming in the language they grew up with.

And I see no problem in that. It's the United States. We supposedly have freedom here.

RE: bad audio: I used to work in one of the format factories, and a lot of times we received bad audio in the form of Mp3's, be it for commercials or music for hard drive. Some of the commercials sounded atrocious.

You can only pretty up a grainy Mp3 so far -- anyone with a discerning ear will still hear the graininess.

But Mp3 is a cheap way to deliver music. And a lot of the stations we served were on tight budgets. They wanted the most music they could fit on their hard drives. The technology has undoubtedly improved since I left the industry a few years ago -- so maybe it's gotten better. But maybe some stations just hold on to the old Mp3's and use them. After all, they don't wear out. And why would someone buy a completely new, higher resolution music library when the old one works and listeners aren't complaining?

Joebtsflk: I really like the CBC. Their news shows are interesting. Lately I listen to CBR 1010 a lot to hear them, it's the most dependable CBC station I can hear. I can see why many of the CBC outlets have such high ratings. CBK 540 used to be fairly strong here, but the last couple year it's weaker. Have you noticed a difference where you live?

 

[landtuna]

Another capcha error - sorry

 

[landtuna]

Mexico was defeated in Texas 180 years ago.

The "war" to which you refer was not between the USA and Mexico but rather between Mexico and the breakaway Mexican state of Texas. People living in Texas (including a substantial number of Mexican ex-pats) wanted their independence and Mexico objected. Eventually the Texans won and voluntarily joined the USA later. There are other former Mexican territories who accomplished similar things without a war including my old home town of Tucson (and the southern half of Arizona) and almost the entire state of California (the Russians had settled most of coastal Northern CA at that time). The Mexicans of yesteryear came here for much the same reasons they still do today - to find work and raise their families. Central Arizona and much of SoCal can be directly attributed to these pioneers who through hard work and perseverance created cities out of a rather harsh environment. The culture of the modern American southwest is largely defined by their ancestry.

Because we are a nation made up largely of immigrants there are many languages spoken here. Spanish has always been popular but should you visit San Francisco you would find large populations speaking various Chinese dialects and slightly smaller numbers of people who have Italian as their native tongue. In the upper Midwest it is German and Scandinavian tongues and in upper New England French. Coastal Texas/Louisiana and "south of L.A." finds Vietnamese without much trouble. If you are bigoted towards "foreign" languages you are obviously living in the wrong country. Perhaps somewhere like North Korea would be more to your liking. I am pretty sure you fit their tolerance laws just fine.

 

[joebtsflk1]

Whenever I listen to 540 at night in CO I don't hear much from CBK, usually it's a Mexican. Daytime is the bilingual sounds of KNMX Las Vegas NM.

 

[Ai4i]

This discussion seems to come down to which language or languages would be acceptable after the people who spoke such languages as Arapaho and Comanche were all properly suppressed.

 

[wildthangjim]

This discussion seems to come down to which language or languages would be acceptable after the people who spoke such languages as Arapaho and Comanche were all properly suppressed.

They weren't suppressed, they just aged out of the demos targeted by advertisers

It's my observation that on this site, if a discussion thread goes on long enough, whatever its original topic, it will eventually devolve into an argument about either

a) why a station should or shouldn't flip to a format that I like, or
b) why oldies or dance is or isn't a viable format, or
c) why we have to have all these ethnic stations

Sometimes you get more than one of these in the same thread. It would be nice, when someone says something provocative on one of these subjects, everyone else would leave it be.

 

[boombox4]

Back on topic? KXOL from Utah is blasting in on 1660 with norteño music tonight -- I guess you could call them my favorite quasi-legal AM radio station, as they are apparently not supposed to be on the air.

And my new favorite AM DX station, KTIQ Merced, which I mentioned in an earlier post, is barely audible on the PR-D5.... You can just hear the dives on the 80's whammy bar rock guitar track they're playing.

 

[wildthangjim]

Yes, back on topic. When I got my first car in 1974, in Tulsa OK (before I got an "FM adapter"), I had a preset set on WLS. At the time, especially in the winter, WLS came in as strong as a local every night. Several folks mentioned KOMA, but they were barely there, presumably due to GW/skywave issues and their protecting WKBW. I was also a fan of KAAY's Beaker Street, but the signal wasn't as good as the Big 89. At home on the Realistic TRF, I liked KXOK's Mason Lee Dixon and of KMOX's St Louis Cards and Blues broadcasts. In the winter daytime I could hear WHB from Kansas City, which had a great Top 40 format.

For the last 4 years I've been in Australia and I enjoy all the non-Aussie stuff I hear for it's exoticism, but can't say I listen to any distant stations for pleasure.

 

[crainbebo]

Before they flipped formats late last fall, I streamed KFEZ-101.3 Walsenburg, CO many times. I had received them via Es on 7/5/2015 with their hybrid Soft AC/Smooth Jazz format. Interesting variety of music for a small market (south of Colorado Springs). Now they are ESPN and are not worth listening because I already have my local 1460.
There is an online stream that emulates KLOL 101 Houston; it's at rock101klol.com.
I don't argue about why there's so many ethnic or boring stations, but it irks me when heritage stations flip formats with little or no warning. KLOL did have warnings, but others didn't.
As for DXing, like Bruce I can't stand having all of these little translators and LPs around, but that's an argument for another day.
KOAI-95.1 Phoenix - caught this on 6/23/15. It was also a good soft AC station, but they have seemed to gone the "mainstream" route with a lot more Bruno Mars, Adele etc. to compete w/ KEZ 99.9.
I enjoy hearing those via Es that have local farm reports, noon newscasts, etc. It is interesting to hear the latest news and community calendar segments for some small town of 2,000 people in the Midwest. Many of these stations only stream high school sports/local news online, with no music.

 

[Icangelp]

They weren't suppressed, they just aged out of the demos targeted by advertisers

It's my observation that on this site, if a discussion thread goes on long enough, whatever its original topic, it will eventually devolve into an argument about either

a) why a station should or shouldn't flip to a format that I like, or
b) why oldies or dance is or isn't a viable format, or
c) why we have to have all these ethnic stations

Sometimes you get more than one of these in the same thread. It would be nice, when someone says something provocative on one of these subjects, everyone else would leave it be.

Agree. But sometimes a person just can't help but reply.

I am so proud to live in a nation which is comprised of many people from so many backgrounds, but it pains me to see much of the framework which has allowed this to happen being deconstructed.

My wife an I have visited Australia and New Zealand a couple of times and found the people of both nations to be very welcoming to Americans. The one exception was a New Zealander who berated the U.S. for a number of things including race relations. Easy for him to say, considering he lives in a country of 5 million people, the majority of whom share a common race and common history.

 

[Icangelp]

Back in my youth, one aspect of DX that I found satisfying was hearing local news and local content from distant cities. It's why I especially loved short wave listening.

KMOX, WWL, WLW, WJR (great locally produced programs), and the Canadian clears come to mind. Can't say they were real DX, as they were strong signals in Indy at night, WJR and WLW daytime too.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

There were some I-A and I-B stations that didn't send out QSL Card requests if the person making the report was in the Skywave service area of the station. Other stations realized the listener goodwill it created, and that if the person ever moved to their area, they would be a loyal listener. They sent the QSLs out even if they were in the 10 mV/m 5% Skywave signal, in the major lobe of a Directional Class I-A or I-B, 200-300 miles away.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Back in my youth, one aspect of DX that I found satisfying was hearing local news and local content from distant cities. It's why I especially loved short wave listening.

KMOX, WWL, WLW, WJR (great locally produced programs), and the Canadian clears come to mind. Can't say they were real DX, as they were strong signals in Indy at night, WJR and WLW daytime too.

It worked the other way, too - WKRC and WLW were very strong signals in Jackson, MI. WKRC was still music at the time, and very enjoyable. A little bit of interference from Buffalo underneath, but not bad. I moved to Southern Michigan in time to enjoy WLS daytime and nighttime in C-Quam stereo - they sounded better than some FM stations. Then - the music died. Just another boring talk station now.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WKRC has a very strong and even listenable signal at Night in Michigan, even in the Northern Lower Peninsula. WGR has to protect stations like KFYR Bismarck at Night, which was a III-A and has a low NIF, and Michigan is in the same general direction. Because the conductivity is so high around Bismarck, the whole NIF groundwave contour covers a large area, and has to be protected, like the Skywave of a Class I/Class A station. Since these III-As and some III-Bs are usually much closer than a Class I/Class A on the other side of the country, they require a similar angle and IDF level of protection. Many applications are rejected or objected to because of NIF clipping, where the site is protected with a sharp null, and the IDF increases angularly so rapidly that the NIF is clipped. WKRC comes in so well that I often wondered if they were on Day facilities. However, it is a minor lobe in the 5000 watt Day pattern that goes toward Michigan, so that is not the case. It's the four tower Night pattern with just 1000 watts. WKRC also fades very slowly because the wavelength is so much greater than most other stations.