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Questions from the past

stan

stan

Those of us who have been around for awhile remember some changing technologies over the years - FM stereo, AM stereo, FM quadraphonic, and now HD for both AM and FM.

Do you remember if any AM stations broadcast in AM stereo? Any still?

Do you remember a FM station broadcasting quadraphonic and publicizing this? When did they stop? (hint - there was one station in Tulsa; I don't know if there was one in OKC)
 
stan said:
Do you remember if any AM stations broadcast in AM stereo? Any still?
Click to expand...

These are the AM's I remember broadcasting in stereo:

Tulsa -- KRMG 740, KVOO 1170
OKC -- KXXY 1340, KOMA 1520

I'm thinking KNOR 1400 was AM stereo, too, but I'm not completely certain. I don't believe any of them are broadcasting in stereo today.
 
I remember 1300 (KBBJ) being in AM stereo until they changed the calls to KAKC.

I think 1430 may have been AM stereo for a while, too during the KSKS days, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

AM 1530 KXTD (licensed to Wagoner) was AM stereo, too... the only stereo daytimer I knew of!

AM 1550 KXOJ went through some days in stereo, too... they had an Optimod with the broadband AGC shut off and the limiters driven into the red... it sounds like it would be awful, but on the air it actually sounded really good!

Quad... that would be 97.5 KMOD, wouldn't it? I only know that because I remember seeing a bumper sticker saying something about quadraphonic stereo.

Death to HD; long live C-Quam!
 
I remember KWON in Bartlesville was bragging they were broadcasting in AM Stereo after they rebuilt the station after the Caney River flood of 1986. Unfortunately they were almost totally automated AC.
 
There was also KPRW AM 1140 in Oklahoma City (which is now KRMP). In the late 80's, it was in stereo for awhile.
 
NightAire said:
Quad... that would be 97.5 KMOD, wouldn't it? I only know that because I remember seeing a bumper sticker saying something about quadraphonic stereo.

Death to HD; long live C-Quam!
Click to expand...

We have a winner! KMOD indeed did broadcast in 'quadraphonic' for a period of time. I think the availability of receivers for said broadcast we limited even more than HD or C-Quam today. I wish that the U.S. had considered the European standard rather than C Quam / IBOC like we are stuck with here. Its kind of like having a non-GSM cell phone that won't work in most of the rest of the world (hear that, Verizon?).
 
Caution, political incorrectness to follow -- but Stan, as a fellow former KAKC AM/FM (what? you never heard 'G. Basil Segraves' mispronounciatin' those classical names 6P-12Mid?), wouldn't ya kinda expect that?

Not sure if the TV show had made its appearance yet... but, putting all the pop-culture of the past 40 years into one big ole stew -- seems like their jocks missed a great group name. With your mind on the same non-PC path that takes you to "Mark, mark" (no reference to the late gentleman who owned KAKC), think 'Mod Quad.
 
I had an extended relative who had a quad turntable setup in his game room, but I don't know if the receiver was quad, and I don't think he ever got any quad records! I used to bug him for a demo and he never came through for me.

I agree that C-Quam was as good a choice as FM multiplexing. ::) Multiplexing gives you that lovely multipath, while C-quam can generate all kinds of wonderful platform motion (like listening to a radio on a merry-go-round!). I'd have voted for Kahn / Hazeltine, but surprisingly, the FCC never saw fit to call me up and ask my opinion...

If you want to hear some amazing radio, go find a Carver TX-11a or 11b... I was never lucky enough to own one, but I demo-d one at Audio Advice back around 89-90. We were listening to stereo 1530, KXTD out of Wagoner... holy crud, guys... ignore that they were a CCM station... hearing that sound pour through in glorious, open, clean, hi-fidelity stereo was a religious experience! The sound took my breath away, and FM has sounded ugly to me ever since.

I've owned a Clarion AM stereo / cassette unit which did a decent job, one of those Sony rectangle things (with the AM stereo mode switch on the side, in case the station announced which system they were using) which was good, and still have a Radio Shack AM stereo tuner, which seems to have rolled off bass plus it drifts like CRAZY.

Today I listen mostly to my GE SuperRadio III, which at least has the benefit of very low distortion (your AM radio DOES add lots of distortion, & you don't realize it until you hear the SuperRadio) and wider bandwidth.

Even though you lose half an octave, I would think a radio compliant to the NRSC standard & with the low distortion characteristics of the SuperRadio, combined with (supposed) improvements to C-Quam and perhaps AMAX-certified noise blanking would have the potential (with good programming of course) to beat up on FM.

Price used to be a problem but I think the SuperRadio & C-Crane have proven cost is not a limiting factor. The SuperRadio was about 60 bucks for a good AM / FM table radio, while C-Crane is getting rich off of their high-dollar radios.

Digital radio certainly could have sounded better than the best analog radio, AM or FM, but with the bitrate-limited system in place now, I'll take analog over "HD" (immaturely referred to by yours truly as "How Dumb") any day. It pains me to say it, but it looks like Europe got digital radio right.
 
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