Oldies 700's Audio

[PaulBWalkerJr]

According to a friend who drove thru the Dothan area over the weekend, he said Oldies 700 would win the Annual 2007 award for WORST audio & MOST unlistenable raido station for the entire year anywhere im America.

It had absolutely no dynamic range.. it sounded like it was all lower midrange and upper lows. It sounded like it was coming from a well or a barell.

Maybe one reason 700 has never succeeded is because of "listener fatigue".. their audio is SO ABYSMAL that listeners get tired of listening to it. Todd Storz, one of the father's of Top 40 radio knows that "listener fatigue" comes from bad audio and bad programming.

The audio is so bad, even an average high school student would be able to tell.

Ok, sure.. now I'm going to get bashed.. but most likely, by those who post here and work at Oldies 700. Y'all are sure building up a station that has never been much and will never be much unless some things are fixed...

 

[Preem Palvor]

No bashing from this corner Paul. It indeed sounds horrible.
I think they are planning on an STL with POTS codecs.
Maybe they are using just a bare POTS line now.
Not sure what they are processing the AM with.

 

[lash]

I believe they read this board. Hopefully they can get their engineer to resolve this before they do the big sign on March 1st.

 

[NLWMEDIA1]

I have no connection with the station and was driving through Eufaula (45 minutes north of Dothan) and picked it up very clearly in my car.

 

[whit979]

I have heard before that dense processing is the way to go on AM...but of course there is a limit. From your description, their sound is probably much like Star 94 (FM) in Atlanta. Very squashed with lots of midrange "honking." It's possibly just their way of trying to uniquely "flavor" their sound...but if your audio stinks then most people will probably think your station stinks, too.

 

[lash]

I'm enjoying their test audio online. Jack and the guys know how to sign on a new station. Very well done guys!

 

[bawlmerboy]

Driving through Dothan I pick up Oldies 700 as clear as a bell. Great to listen a radio station the way radio is meant to be heard. I picked up the station clearly well past the state line into Florida. For those who say the station sounds horrible I suggest buying a car with a better radio.

 

[NLWMEDIA1]

Driving through Dothan I pick up Oldies 700 as clear as a bell. Great to listen a radio station the way radio is meant to be heard. I picked up the station clearly well past the state line into Florida. For those who say the station sounds horrible I suggest buying a car with a better radio



I agree. I was in Dothan yesterday and it was as clear as a bell. Change your radio out and maybe you can pick it up..............

 

[Preem Palvor]

Driving through Dothan I pick up Oldies 700 as clear as a bell. Great to listen a radio station the way radio is meant to be heard. I picked up the station clearly well past the state line into Florida. For those who say the station sounds horrible I suggest buying a car with a better radio



I agree. I was in Dothan yesterday and it was as clear as a bell. Change your radio out and maybe you can pick it up..............

My radio is fine thank you and so are my ears. Ya'll keep on dreamin'

 

[joewilly]

This whole string is so funny. Naaahhh, the defenders don't sound rehearsed.

 

[jovialjay]

Here's the "inside" scoop on the processing:

The 600 ohm unbalanced audio leaves the 1969 Bauer 8 mixer console on a single pair of 24 gauge solid aluminum, which is then connected to a mic input on a 70's era Shure M67 mixer. The telco line output of the Shure passes through a Gates Level Devil, leaving the building on a Graceba Communications data circuit. At the Graceba CO, the circuit is patched to a "naked" (unequalized & unamplified) loop to the CenturyTel CO at Headland. From there, another data circuit delivers the audio to the transmitter, which is now at -80db. The feed is connected to a Russco turntable pre-amp, the output of which is routed into the mic input of a Radio Shack DJ mixer. The speaker output of that mixer is fed through both a vintage Orban Stereo Synthesizer and Orban parametric equalizer, then through a CBS AudiMax & VoluMax (original model), which then feeds the Collins 20-V2 transmitter. Unable to use the previously used tuning unit and unipole, the RF output of the Collins passes through the voltage regulator from a '48 Dodge flathead six, then into the modulation transformer from a '67 Vintage Gates FM-10H, then into a HUGE copper coil (I think Tom "borrowed" this from a friend's brewing apparatus), which feeds a 500' longwire, which was thrown up into some nearby pecan trees.

All things considered, I think it sounds pretty dang good.

Y'all come,
Jovial Jay

p.s., I'd appreciate everyone keeping my whereabouts a tippy-top secret, since the law is on the lookout for me.

 

[rangerscotty]

Sounds like they need a good eng, my buddy bob mayben can make any station sound great. he has a web site with old radio photos and stuff and it is a link to his e mail bobmayben.com or his e mail is [email protected] he can help and also works for scms selling radio equipment.

 

[phr8trayn]

Sounds like they need a good eng, my buddy bob mayben can make any station sound great. he has a web site with old radio photos and stuff and it is a link to his e mail bobmayben.com or his e mail is [email protected] he can help and also works for scms selling radio equipment.

Yea...maybe if he comes to Dothan he can pay me the money he has owed me since 1984. Bob-A-Lu

 

[phr8trayn]

Here's the "inside" scoop on the processing:

The 600 ohm unbalanced audio leaves the 1969 Bauer 8 mixer console on a single pair of 24 gauge solid aluminum, which is then connected to a mic input on a 70's era Shure M67 mixer. The telco line output of the Shure passes through a Gates Level Devil, leaving the building on a Graceba Communications data circuit. At the Graceba CO, the circuit is patched to a "naked" (unequalized & unamplified) loop to the CenturyTel CO at Headland. From there, another data circuit delivers the audio to the transmitter, which is now at -80db. The feed is connected to a Russco turntable pre-amp, the output of which is routed into the mic input of a Radio Shack DJ mixer. The speaker output of that mixer is fed through both a vintage Orban Stereo Synthesizer and Orban parametric equalizer, then through a CBS AudiMax & VoluMax (original model), which then feeds the Collins 20-V2 transmitter. Unable to use the previously used tuning unit and unipole, the RF output of the Collins passes through the voltage regulator from a '48 Dodge flathead six, then into the modulation transformer from a '67 Vintage Gates FM-10H, then into a HUGE copper coil (I think Tom "borrowed" this from a friend's brewing apparatus), which feeds a 500' longwire, which was thrown up into some nearby pecan trees.

All things considered, I think it sounds pretty dang good.

Y'all come,
Jovial Jay

p.s., I'd appreciate everyone keeping my whereabouts a tippy-top secret, since the law is on the lookout for me.

Well it is obvious this is a fabrication. They didn't build an FM-10H in '67. The G series was still around.
BTW...the pol-lice are looking for me too.

 

[jovialjay]

They didn't build an FM-10H in '67

I think they did, but, upon careful examination, I have discovered that the part in question is from a 1967 Gates FM-3H.

Follow that, killer!

 

[phr8trayn]

1000 pardons oh jovial one.

After dusting off my trusty Gates Catalog 97 (4-1-1967) I found that the "H" series was indeed available in '67.
Catalog 96 lists the "G" series.

Dang Agent Orange from my tour in the Nam clouds my brain sometime.