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New Rock 101.9: stereo/mono? Sound quality

Used to be in the old days, Randy Michaels carried a "greenie" in his shirt pocket and personally tweaked the audio when he came to town.
I'm still stunned....a year later.....at the train wreck this has been. Randy Michaels is supposedly a brilliant broadcaster and engineer - at least that's what I've been told a thousand times. Has Randy had ANY input on programming/engineering the Merlin "adventure?" (There was reverb on the mic.....that sounds like a Randy "touch.")
He/they have had a year to think about "Plan B." And going to the same format abandoned for news is their answer??!!
 
Wonder what the deal is with this. I wonder if they just have one Engineer they have to fly in that did not get here yet or are they waiting on an appointment from an outside firm.

I find it hard to believe they would chose intentionally chose such shitty audio. Unless someone in charge is nostalgic for AM mono music radio 77 sound. I already heard a song sped up and one cut short. I certainly hope not otherwise they are already screwing up what potentially could be a good format.
 
When they stunted last year with 80s hits it was overly compressed and then all news more narrow bandwidth and mono. If it was not for application for the WRXP call letters I would think this was another stunt. Last few times I heard a station stunting the audio was crap, I am thinking because it was being fed in from somewhere else overly compressed.

Maybe the problem is not in NY and what we are hearing is a compressed feed out of Chicago.
 
You may be right, mikerock, especially based on this post from another thread about 101.9:

mjb1124 said:
From the "Songs Just Played" log on the WKQX website:
8:18 AM I Miss You Blink 182
8:14 AM Not Your Fault Awolnation
8:10 AM Gone Away Offspring
8:06 AM Dreams Cranberries
8:02 AM Paradise Coldplay
7:59 AM Sorrow Bad Religion
7:56 AM Too Close Alex Clare
7:47 AM Gold On The Ceiling Black Keys

From the WEMP log on yes.com:
BLACK KEYS - Gold On The Ceiling 22.7.2012 8:08am
ALEX CLARE - Too Close 22.7.2012 8:11am
BAD RELIGION - Sorrow 22.7.2012 8:15am
COLDPLAY - Paradise 22.7.2012 8:18am
CRANBERRIES - Dreams 22.7.2012 8:22am
OFFSPRING - Gone Away 22.7.2012 8:27am
AWOLNATION - Not Your Fault 22.7.2012 8:31am
BLINK 182 - I Miss You 22.7.2012 8:35am

I think Ejxit was on to something. On this Sunday morning, WEMP is indeed playing the same songs in the same order as WKQX, except that WKQX is about 43 minutes ahead of us (remember that Chicago is in the Central time zone). We'll have to see how the logs compare on an afternoon when they have their unnamed DJ on.
Click to expand...

Side note: the Yes.com site has been pretty buggy lately with regard to "time of day" and missing entries - particularly since the change from standard to daylight time back in March 2012. Given that, though, the similarities in the list above are dead-on.
 
BLACK KEYS - Howlin' For You totally distorted on the stream, than a track a lot softer than the previous one. So lots of level issues on the stream, also with the imaging.
 
They're apparently experimenting at this point. During morning drive today the sound changed dramatically a number of times in the middle of a song.
 
They have no serious in market on air challenger. Why don't they just use a "factory preset"? It is not like the listeners are going to compare their "on air sound" to somebody else.
 
This return of RXP is a work in progress. As websites for RXP that have existed in the past year now lead to new rock 101.9, I'd say its coming along.

Also of note is the fact Merlin had wanted to continue with some type of news/talk but the investors refused to continue funding. Merlin's news or news/talk ideas are done..RXP is back and here to stay.
 
Listened this afternoon and the audio is sounding pretty good. Not spectacular, but a huge improvement over last week. It also sounded like some on-air tweaking was being done, and I'm sure by next week they'll have it right where they want it.

The mics sound about 1000 times better than FM News ever did too.
 
The Spy said:
Also of note is the fact Merlin had wanted to continue with some type of news/talk but the investors refused to continue funding. Merlin's news or news/talk ideas are done..RXP is back and here to stay.
Click to expand...

I like these investors if this is the case.

How often, these days, do investors in a major market station overrule management and insist on a flip to alternative rock instead of a talk format?

Very enlightened decision, guys !!!
 
MarkO said:
The Spy said:
Also of note is the fact Merlin had wanted to continue with some type of news/talk but the investors refused to continue funding. Merlin's news or news/talk ideas are done..RXP is back and here to stay.
Click to expand...

I like these investors if this is the case.

How often, these days, do investors in a major market station overrule management and insist on a flip to alternative rock instead of a talk format?

Very enlightened decision, guys !!!
Click to expand...

Insist on a flip to alternative rock? ???
 
Signal issues in West Milford & Boonton at times can be weaker than all the other NYC FMs which come in crystal clear in both townships. Their audio is lower then higher fix it, it's driving me crazy
 
The Spy said:
MarkO said:
The Spy said:
Also of note is the fact Merlin had wanted to continue with some type of news/talk but the investors refused to continue funding. Merlin's news or news/talk ideas are done..RXP is back and here to stay.
Click to expand...

I like these investors if this is the case.

How often, these days, do investors in a major market station overrule management and insist on a flip to alternative rock instead of a talk format?

Very enlightened decision, guys !!!
Click to expand...

Insist on a flip to alternative rock? ???
Click to expand...

Spy, if you've got different info about what happened, why not share it?
 
My guess is that the investors did not care in the least what the new format was.
All they cared about was immediately pulling the plug on the expensive to operate news format.

Management likely figured that a change to alt. rock was the cheapest and quickest solution.
Merlin was already running an alt. rock format on their Chicago Franken FM (LPTV), and it was quick and easy to get up and running in NYC with no research and very few employees.

This was not a "thought out and researched" music format. It was quick and dirty -- throw some crap against the wall and see what works. And, I don't mean that as a negative. Maybe radio could use a little of that.
 
luperm said:
My guess is that the investors did not care in the least what the new format was.
All they cared about was immediately pulling the plug on the expensive to operate news format.

Management likely figured that a change to alt. rock was the cheapest and quickest solution.
Merlin was already running an alt. rock format on their Chicago Franken FM (LPTV), and it was quick and easy to get up and running in NYC with no research and very few employees.

This was not a "thought out and researched" music format. It was quick and dirty -- throw some crap against the wall and see what works. And, I don't mean that as a negative. Maybe radio could use a little of that.
Click to expand...

Exactly right.
 
Do you think they're going to keep this format or not? I wonder if they will add jocks that are local & make the playlist local. I hope they are because they brought back those letters and stuff.
 
XCountry285 said:
Do you think they're going to keep this format or not? I wonder if they will add jocks that are local & make the playlist local. I hope they are because they brought back those letters and stuff.
Click to expand...

I am not 100% convinced due to the horrible audio quality situation and same song repetition.

It reminds me way too much of when RXP first switched to the temporary 80s format before the switch to news last year. That format was also repetitive and had horrible audio quality. Kind of like they threw something together to be played in a loop for a month until they got their act together for the news format. No one caring about the audio or presentation since it was just temporary.

I really do not understand why they would not fix the audio problems if they want this new launch to be successful.
 
More progress being made on the technical front by 'RXP.
On HD1, the names of the songs and artists are finally being displayed. Up till now, this information was only available on RDS.
 
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