Norsan Media Acquires Magic 106.3

[KyleSmith1988]

I got a cool new SDR radio recently.
(TEF86 from China / Ebay for about $100),

I Love it...and Now I'm getting outdated RDS info saying 106.3 its still playing "The Outfield - Your Love." 😆

La Rasa ... more like ¡¿No Comprende?!

Loving this Radio very much....it shows how the signal strength changes & Updates in real time. Station RDS info also updates and displays rapidly, (Well, except for this station. 😂)

(dBuV values with larger numbers = stronger signal.) Also, above frequency display is a number displayed in kHz. I believe that is the amount of bandwidth the tuned station is occupying. With a Stronger signal that number does increase, and strongest signals show at least 236khz or more (figure the sidebands of the center frequency.)

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I got a cool new SDR radio recently.
(TEF86 from China / Ebay for about $100),

I Love it...and Now I'm getting outdated RDS info saying 106.3 its still playing "The Outfield - Your Love." 😆

La Rasa ... more like ¡¿No Comprende?!

Loving this Radio very much....it shows how the signal strength changes & Updates in real time. Station RDS info also updates and displays rapidly, (Well, except for this station. 😂)

(dBuV values with larger numbers = stronger signal.) Also, above frequency display is a number displayed in kHz. I believe that is the amount of bandwidth the tuned station is occupying. With a Stronger signal that number does increase, and strongest signals show 236khz (figure the sidebands of the center frequency.)

you have bandwith set to auto.. you can change it into manual. its the upper most button on the right when tuned to fm. same for AM.

Hard press the middle . .gray?.. button and youll see a menu.. you can change a few very important things in there.

I own this for SW.

 

[davideduardo]

They are available from AliExpress for under $70 with shipping.

 

[KyleSmith1988]

I just received this radio yesterday, still playing with it, especially like that its rechargeable even with a Portable Power Bank & uses USB-C wire which is like recharging an Android phone. Sometimes I like the seek tuning function, but I reset it to manual tuning. Soon I'll probably take a video an FM bandscan with it from here in Gaffney.

Did change a few things on that menu, well worth the price, which was quite a bit less than I expected. 📻

Here's some more screen snapshots....Btw you can see a button was missing, but it was in the box, apparently it fell off during shipping, but it's fixed now. 😅

 

[KyleSmith1988]

They are available from AliExpress for under $70 with shipping.

I paid about $90 CAD 🇨🇦, which is about $70 USD shipped from Toronto Canada, only took a week to get here. Im used to seeing these cost at least $120 to $150. Usually buying from China takes about 2 weeks to arrive, so I try to avoid buying directly from China if possible, even if it cost a bit more. However that's not always easy when these new Chinese Gadgets are still rare in the US. China is making some good electronics, but mostly for themselves I guess, not really for mass quantity exports to USA, seems we get their cheap "hand me down" stuff, that doesn't have the same appeal or quality, as American made.., Well, I wonder why?! 🤷‍♂️ I prefer the Chinese VIP 50cc Scooter Mopeds 🛵🛵 Still selling new for about $750. 😂😂

 

[KyleSmith1988]

Finally got to see whats left of the old "Magic 989/1063" on their HD radio feed on a car stereo, while outside of their translator areas in Anderson & Seneca... Maybe Audacy is using Magic as a "placeholder" ... that is, waiting to see if it can (or should) ever be "reinstated" on a full market main signal, assuming one of their other stations ever decide to "Finally" go away. I'm hoping that it would someday be either The Block, or The Fan, or "Weird Wired WYRD."

But for now, their imaging makes no sense to me, but that tells me they would rather keep "Magic" around, rather than replace it with something else under a different name... Right now it should be back to ID as Magic 98.9, (not 106.3) since it is still on their HD2, or Call It Magic 93.7/98.9 (sound quality on 937-4 still pretty bad compared to 98.9-2) or at least by their translators as Magic 95.1/101.5.

Ironically, 106.3 is still showing RDS as The Outfield - Your Love" months after going Espanish 😂 but while I took these pix that's what was playing on Magic via the HD signals this morning...Go figure.

 

[101tm]

The HD PTY is set up correctly for WFBC-HD4 but not WYRD-HD2. Between those and the translators, they can still claim use to the “Magic” name in the market I believe. Just the WSPA-FM calls are gone from being associated with it as those get sold with 106.3. It isn’t like Audacy has signals that don’t make it to those signal areas (95.1 for The Block, 95.1/101.5 for The Fan). I wonder if they somehow plan on bringing Magic back with translators should the opportunity present itself. Just odd

BTW, during primary season, I didn’t hear any political campaign ads on 98.9 that I wouldn’t have heard on 106.3. I barely even heard any for SC-3, much less any district in NC or GA so I wonder if moving to 98.9 even helped. The focus I kept hearing on every show was the SC-4 primary as well as Greenville city/county council races, primarily.

 

[KyleSmith1988]

The morning show (Murphy Sam & Jodi) is on this morning on Magic. Not sure if its live or not. Still no commercials, I'm surprised. Listening on the decent sound quality of 98.9-2. I wonder how syndication is still possible if they officially "sold the station." 🤷‍♂️😅

 

[101tm]

Magic will be doing Christmas in July on the Audacy stream and I assume the HD channels/translators this month.

Unless something changes before then, I don’t look for anyone to flip to all Christmas OTA (analog) this year unless The Lake does, similar to The Lake in Charlotte which flips every year. But then again the Charlotte Lake already sounds more like an AC than the Greenville one so it may not be as good of an idea here. Audacy just needs to dig up the old Magic 98.9 imaging since they don’t even own 106.3 anymore.

 

[KyleSmith1988]

I wonder if Norsan is ever gonna fix RDS on 106.3 (or add HD) or is it gonna be stuck on "The Outfield / Your Love" for who knows what? At least they can change it to the Spanish Translation: "El campo / Tu amor" 😂🤪 Maybe Audacy can fix it for them or did they leave it that way, on purpose, neglected and treated as last priority, ever since Magic Moved to 106.3 and WYRD went to 98.9. They never seemed to put any effort into 106.3 (especially sound quality) and only when they discovered it was possible to move WYRD off AM did they make any changes after 15+ years of owning it.

 

[101tm]

RDS on 106.3 is now reflecting La Raza. Hell has frozen over!

 

[101tm]

Magic 98.9 is back (sorta). 98.9 HD2, everywhere else it is they’re now running old Magic 98.9 liners on occasion. Seems like they’re dropping in more promos, sweepers and commercials recently. The logo on the Audacy app still says 106.3.

 

[KyleSmith1988]

After this next election I say bring back Magic on 98.9 and WYRD Swap with the Fan or the Block.
(1330 / 950 / 97.1 / 97.7)

 

[WSMW987]

Looks like the WOLI signal became “Latina [Tu Musica]”

 

[101tm]

Surpris

View attachment 7655
Looks like the WOLI signal became “Latina [Tu Musica]”

Surprised that didn’t happen months ago. I wonder how Poder 102.9 and La Jefa 94.9 are doing with their new competitor? They have a bit of an advantage, as I’ve said before, even though they’re translators their signals hit the area where most of the Spanish speaking population lives and does a lot of business as well or better than 106.3.

 

[KyleSmith1988]

I recently heard a faint signal on 92.1 while in Gaffney, was broadcasting in Spanish ID'ed as La Jefa, it was beating other usual weak signals on that same frequency, such as WXPS-LP (Spartanburg) and WCFJ (Columbia) and W221EO (York SC / WRBK translator). Kinda Surprised, I think its listed as in Greenville SC but supposedly covers Hendersonville NC ? (W221EK) ?

 

[ngriffin]

FM and TV translators aren't required to cover their cities of license, so it frequently doesn't get updated as the facilty is moved.

 

[KyleSmith1988]

FM and TV translators aren't required to cover their cities of license, so it frequently doesn't get updated as the facilty is moved.

I figured, i was just wondering about their setup / how their signal was heard that far away even over a closer LP to my location, seems like their pattern or power is a bit off vs on paper / RL / reaching over the mountains. I know it wasnt via tropo.

But WCSZ (licensed to Greenville) is already using 94.9 in Greenville, well how can they (legally) add 92.1 as an additional Greenville translator, and push it out of their primary area into NC? Seems like they're stretching it. Maybe its a bit different when its for an AM station.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I figured, i was just wondering about their setup / how their signal was heard that far away even over a closer LP to my location, seems like their pattern or power is a bit off vs on paper / RL / reaching over the mountains. I know it wasnt via tropo.

But WCSZ (licensed to Greenville) is already using 94.9 in Greenville, well how can they (legally) add 92.1 as an additional Greenville translator, and push it out of their primary area into NC? Seems like they're stretching it. Maybe its a bit different when its for an AM station.

Because 92.1 is within the 2m/v of the 1070 signal, as i understand the rules to be

Paper/amps don't always take into account "terrain"... i worked for a station that had translator with 250 watts at 772 feet and thats alot.. but want you dont see if you just look at numbers is that its on the tallest point for 150 miles And there were no stations on the frequencies to the left or right

Dont always assume something is wrong/illegal... in generally, if its approved, its legal

 

[ngriffin]

Paul's right. If the frequency is clear, a translator up high in the mountains can travel, and that one is nearly 2000 feet higher than Gaffney. I used to receive a 10 watt FM translator from Brevard faintly at my old house in jsut south of downtown Spartanburg. Turned out the mountain peak was line of sight to me with no obstructions. Once the translator was displaced to a more crowded frequency (WQNS move to 105.1), it was never heard again.