skywatchbob said:
I wonder how well this station will do. Most of today's radios simply cannot get the signal because their tuners only go to 87.9.
That will be a big challenge for them, I would think.
audioguy said:
I gave it a listen on my way back from Michigan last Sunday-- I tuned in around Lansing on the Tri-State. The signal was there, but unfortunately it sounded awful, due to the fact that my Kenwood only tunes to 87.9. Back in the days when I had an analog tuner, there would have been no problem. I suppose there are still a lot of clock radios and "walkman" type portables in use that have analog tuners.
Because of the tuning problem, the station is just not listenable in my car. Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to go out and buy a new receiver just for this one signal. I do hope it is successful though. Perhaps eventually they will be able to pick up one of the suburban stations for an affordable price. I would rather listen to a weak Class A with a little noise in the background than something that sounds bad all the time because it is 150 kHz off frequency.
I guess I'm not an average listener: both of my vehicles tune down to 87.7, one has RBDS(RDS) and it reads
WLFM. My Sony 7.1 Component Receiver tunes down to 87.50. My Sony ICF-SW7600GR Portable tunes down to 76.00 Mhz, and even my Sony Clock Radio tunes down to 87.5, and my Walkmans and Sandisk MP3 Player tune down to 87.5. And I have a number of analog tuners as well.
The alternative to listen (at least at home) would be to tune in with an Analog TV since the sound is Analog FM, unfortunately WLFM-LP has changed the deviation to 75 kHz (like regular FM stations use) from 25 kHz (what TV stations use) and the Stereo Pilot Tone is different for TV's (15.734 kHz) than Radio's (19kHz) so the sound may be distorted and might not be receivable in Stereo on a Stereo TV. And a Live Internet stream may be available at some point, as well (not the Clear Channel Smooth Jazz Online Stream, that's a different stream)
If they were "cuming" around a million listeners as WNUA, and they do well, one could only hope that Smooth Jazz 87.7 could eventually acquire some suburban signals...