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Q96?

M

musicman3355

Guest
Haven't heard anyone talk about this station for a while... so what's next for this station? Is the move-in a success or a failure? Is it even on the air? Since I'm not in SD, I can't tell what's up with this station. I've heard a really weak signal of Q96 in Downtown when I was there in April 10.
 
Q-96 is using it's booster on Miguel, and exciter power in Campo. It will be 9 months on the 19th since they were supposed to be broadcasting.
I don't believe they even have the 7.5kw transmitter installed. Probably waiting to sell the "station" as-is. And they're selling air time...
You aren't missing anything...

Big 121
 
Was a blip in PPM. Signal is not great in the area around the booster site.
 
No one listens to Q96 because it has the same playlist as Channel 933 or Z90 most of the time but never comes in clear for more than 5 minutes. Frequencies like that need to have a unique format that forces the listener to tolerate the poor signal strength. Like Dance or 80's, or some other small-audience format.
 
Q96 sounds like it's broadcasting in mono, with poor processing, when you're listening to it in the rural areas to the east of San Diego. Yet (static aside), it sounds stereo and cleaner when you're within the city limits. Does this have something to do with the booster/exciter mentioned earlier? (Please forgive my lack of understanding of engineering terms.)

At any rate, what a complete disaster of a move...such a shame for what was once, in my opinion, one of the best-sounding small market CHRs.

At least the Imperial Valley now has Mexicali's Power 98 (XHMIX 98.3) which, at least musically, is a great station. It has a much broader playlist and is considerably less ghetto-sounding than U92.7 (KKUU) from Indio/Palm Springs -- which (in a car, anyway) is also receivable in some of the same areas. I also love the imaging and the "Power 98 Jams" moniker - it is reminiscent of similarly formatted stations from the early 90's.
 
[Q96 sounds like it's broadcasting in mono, with poor processing, when you're listening to it in the rural areas to the east of San Diego. Yet (static aside), it sounds stereo and cleaner when you're within the city limits. Does this have something to do with the booster/exciter mentioned earlier? (Please forgive my lack of understanding of engineering terms.)

You're hearing it correctly, justthenumbers. The Campo site appears to be fed with a standard (mono) phone line.
I believe they are using an 'exciter'(a low powered 10-30 watts) self contained transmitter connected directly to the antenna, which gives about 120 watts antenna out. The S.D. area booster uses much higher audio quality.
I liked 98.3's Classic hits/Oldies format, before it changed. But KXO has me when I'm out there...

Big 121
Click to expand...
 
I don't know about Power 98's signal, but back in the day KSIQ has an awesome signal. I had never even been to the Imperial Valley until recently, but I could pick up Q96 in Palm Springs/Coachella area, Blythe (where there are hardly any stations to begin with so it filled that Top-40 void there) and even some places in the IE before 96.1 in San Jacinto came on the air.
 
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