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Journey 97.9 Signal

J

JeffDavis

FYI...I'm not the Jeff Davis in Atlanta. I live and work in Cincinnati.

I wanted to give my signal report for Journey 97.9. I was coming through Georgia from Hilton Head to visit a friend in Atlanta. We stopped in Covington to see the "Dukes of Hazzard" and "In the Heat of the Night" filming locations. (So, I'm a huge TV geek.) I turned on 97.9 in Covington and the signal was great from there, west on I-20, north on I-285, and all the way up US 19/GA 400 to Johns Creek. Sounded like a huge signal all the way. I can't believe that's a translator. 99X at 99.1 was also good up 400 to Johns creek.

Either that's a great signal, or I have an unbelievable car radio. (2010 Ford Fusion S).
 
For me though, it's less about how far the signal reaches, and more about the actual quality of the sound (which IMO is extremely muffled and cassette-tape sounding)
 
It sounds like a cassette tape on HD-3 as well. I don't think it even sounds stereo-like in HD. 99X on HD-2 sounds the same way. Obviously the bit rate is turned way down on these two HD signals (maybe 48kbps at best) to compensate for the excellent sound quality of Q100 on HD-1.
 
If an AM can transmit a clean, full bit rate, stereo signal on translators while feeding crap to the old mono AM transmitter, why can't a translator for an FM HD-2 do the same? Unless they are using the HD-2 as an STL hop for the translator...
 
Actually, I thought the audio was fine. I didn't notice anything bad on 97.9 or 99.1.

We drove from Johns Creek to North Point Mall and it was pretty good all the way. 99.1 was not as good. I heard 97.9 all the way up I-75 to the Cherokee County line, where it was pretty much gone.
 
poledo said:
If an AM can transmit a clean, full bit rate, stereo signal on translators while feeding crap to the old mono AM transmitter, why can't a translator for an FM HD-2 do the same?  Unless they are using the HD-2 as an STL hop for the translator...
Click to expand...
That's a good question.  Maybe they have the signal optimized for a narrow-bandwidth token HD subchannel and don't have a separate airchain for the translator.  It seems to me that it should be the other way around--optimized for analog FM, and let the HD sub deal with it--as analog FM is how most people will listen to it. 

atlantaboy said:
JeffDavis said:
Actually, I thought the audio was fine.  I didn't notice anything bad on 97.9 or 99.1.
Click to expand...

Does it really sound as good to you (sound quality-wise) as the other major FM stations?
Click to expand...
It's definitely not as good as one of the Cox FMs (River has awesome sound!), but it's definitely better than 106.7 (all midrange and compressed flat). 

Come to think of it, 106.7 sounds like it would be optimized for news/talk/sports.  Tech games sound great on 106.7, although if you have the TV on too the HD delay is incredibly annoying.

When Cox flipped The Beat to AM 750 and NOW 95.5 FM, NewsTalk WSB, the FM side sounded terrible at first--too much hiss (even after they turned the stereo off), air from open mics, sibilance, occasional boominess, and general harshness.  The processing was probably left over from The Beat.  Once they rolled off the treble and bass and added a little more compression, it sounded great. 
 
atlantaboy said:
JeffDavis said:
Actually, I thought the audio was fine. I didn't notice anything bad on 97.9 or 99.1.
Click to expand...

Does it really sound as good to you (sound quality-wise) as the other major FM stations?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I am listening on an old 1988 GE superadio stereo boombox, and it sounds equal to all of them.
 
atlantaboy, I'm back home now so all I can do is remember that I listened for a long time and enjoyed some of the music. Had there been a serious audio problem, I would have noticed. I listened to various stations all the way through Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas on the way down. Listened to a lot of Georgia radio on the way north. Some stations really do sound awful, but they were in small towns. Nothing about 97.9 or 99.1 stood out to me as being bad.
 
atlantaboy said:
For me though, it's less about how far the signal reaches, and more about the actual quality of the sound (which IMO is extremely muffled and cassette-tape sounding)
Click to expand...

Which is a moot point, unless you live right under the stick. No one can judge sound quality if you can't receive it.

G
 
One thing I know for sure is that there is definintely a huge sound quality difference between WWWQ HD-1 and HD-2/HD-3. HD-1 sounds like a CD rich in bass and treble and HD-2/HD-3 sounds like my Zenith AM transistor 9-volt radio from childhood.
 
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