The Day the Music Died (on KB-1520)

[westlife]

RIP: Oldies on "KB-1520" WWKB in Buffalo, NY...
January 27, 2003 - February 6, 2006.

With no advance warning, Entercom switched their 50,000-watt powerhouse 1520 WWKB from Oldies to Progressive Talk today at 3 PM. Instead of the great music and great personalities which skywave listeners all across the Eastern USA and Canada listened to every night on KB-1520, you'll now be hearing syndicated news/talk programming with very little, if any, local content.

No word yet if/when the classic WKBW personalities like Jack Armstrong will reappear anywhere else. IIRC, Jack voice-tracked his show from his home in Pennsylvania, but he did it with such incredible skill, wit, and energy that you could hardly tell he wasn't live and sitting in the KB studios. Hopefully he'll end up somewhere where a regional/national audience can hear him once again -- either on satellite radio or on some other 50 kW AM station. Personally, I think it'd be a real treat if he could do the Saturday Night Oldies show on 770 WABC, even if he was never on the original Musicradio 77.
<P ID="signature">______________

"This is the New York Emergency Broadcast System satellite channel. They took the crosstown bus."</P>

 

[BRNout]

> RIP: Oldies on "KB-1520" WWKB in Buffalo, NY...
> January 27, 2003 - February 6, 2006.
>
> With no advance warning, Entercom switched their 50,000-watt
> powerhouse 1520 WWKB from Oldies to Progressive Talk today
> at 3 PM. Instead of the great music and great personalities
> which skywave listeners all across the Eastern USA and
> Canada listened to every night on KB-1520, you'll now be
> hearing syndicated news/talk programming with very little,
> if any, local content.
>
> No word yet if/when the classic WKBW personalities like Jack
> Armstrong will reappear anywhere else. IIRC, Jack
> voice-tracked his show from his home in Pennsylvania, but he
> did it with such incredible skill, wit, and energy that you
> could hardly tell he wasn't live and sitting in the KB
> studios. Hopefully he'll end up somewhere where a
> regional/national audience can hear him once again -- either
> on satellite radio or on some other 50 kW AM station.
> Personally, I think it'd be a real treat if he could do the
> Saturday Night Oldies show on 770 WABC, even if he was never
> on the original Musicradio 77.
>

That explains why, when I went to listen late last night (11:30), there was talk. I just hoped that it was an early infomercial. This stinks!!!

I just listened to it on Sunday night and the music on it sounded great!

Well, 1520 is officially gone as an AM preset - as soon as I get to the car. Entercom, you stink!

 

[rbrucecarter]

> > RIP: Oldies on "KB-1520" WWKB in Buffalo, NY...

What is it with 1520? KOMA Oklahoma City did the same thing a few years back. A 50 kW powerhouse throughout the midwest and South Central US at night. It made skywave DX'ers out of kids who never cared about the hobby before. From great oldies to talk. GONE from my preset. They even gave up the legacy KOMA call letters.

If you decide to do a tribute web site, let me know. I link them all when I find them from my WCIE tribute web site.

On a positive note - the legacy top-40 station in Dallas - 1190 - is playing music again. But they lost the legacy "KLIF" calls many years ago.

 

[Ai4i]

> What is it with 1520?
> If you decide to do a tribute web site, let me know. I link
> them all when I find them from my WCIE tribute web site.
>

We checked out your WCIE web site.
Radio Disney is on some powehouse AM's.
Sadly, the first thing ABC/Capital Cities/Disney did when they began was to turn all the AM stereo generators off. We hope they will embrace HD Radio technology.
XM and Sirius have both carried R. Disney from the start.<P ID="signature">______________
Proud 2 B a pioneering satellite radio subs¢riber
Ai4i is always on the trailing edge of technology
_______________</P>

 

[rbrucecarter]

> We checked out your WCIE web site.
> Radio Disney is on some powehouse AM's.

You're telling me! KMKI 620 has a signal for 300 miles out west. They have dozens of listeners in Lubbock, I find them all over the place up there when I visit.

> Sadly, the first thing ABC/Capital Cities/Disney did when
> they began was to turn all the AM stereo generators off. We
> hope they will embrace HD Radio technology.

They are. The plan is to make most of their network IBOC. Probably then offer cheap IBOC radios that make their stations sound good under the Disney brand. Masterful stroke - that is if IBOC were to really work. I have predicted from day 1 massive AM interference and the whole thing will implode due to cross jamming. Hopefully C-Quam or Cam-D will emerge as a MANDATORY standard on AM receivers costing over a certain amount.

> XM and Sirius have both carried R. Disney from the start.

Since they cut the bandwidth and C-Quam here, I have been looking into getting satellite.

 

[k9ez]

> > We checked out your WCIE web site.
> > Radio Disney is on some powehouse AM's.
>
> You're telling me! KMKI 620 has a signal for 300 miles out
> west. They have dozens of listeners in Lubbock, I find them
> all over the place up there when I visit.
>
> > Sadly, the first thing ABC/Capital Cities/Disney did when
> > they began was to turn all the AM stereo generators off.
> We
> > hope they will embrace HD Radio technology.
>
> They are. The plan is to make most of their network IBOC.
> Probably then offer cheap IBOC radios that make their
> stations sound good under the Disney brand. Masterful
> stroke - that is if IBOC were to really work. I have
> predicted from day 1 massive AM interference and the whole
> thing will implode due to cross jamming. Hopefully C-Quam
> or Cam-D will emerge as a MANDATORY standard on AM receivers
> costing over a certain amount.
>
> > XM and Sirius have both carried R. Disney from the start.
>
> Since they cut the bandwidth and C-Quam here, I have been
> looking into getting satellite.
>


Our local Disney outlet (WKSH) is running HD and they sound great! Yes the interference issues are still to be worked out (if they can be). But I am sure your average listener will certainly like the sound of AM HD!

 

[rbrucecarter]

> Our local Disney outlet (WKSH) is running HD and they sound
> great! Yes the interference issues are still to be worked
> out (if they can be). But I am sure your average listener
> will certainly like the sound of AM HD!

To me - Ibiquity's own samples posted on their web site sound only a little better than low bandwidth streaming audio. Listener fatigue will set in really fast with the annoying phase shifts. C-Quam sounded better. MUCH better. And I could get over 300 miles daytime range on it. No way IBOC will make that range.

And - Ibiquity's sample FM clips are deceptive. Mono on medium fringe. In a good signal area, you would hardly notice the difference.

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Bruce Carter on 02/08/06 10:06 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[pianoplayer88key]

> > XM and Sirius have both carried R. Disney from the start.
>
> Since they cut the bandwidth and C-Quam here, I have been
> looking into getting satellite.
>

Bruce, can you get the 1690 from Colorado? If so, is it still C-Quam? Signal here is marginal (nighttime) to non-existent (especially daytime) due to adjacent-channel interference from local blowtorch CASH 1700, and a 1690 in Roseville, CA (but then, I haven't built one of your loop antennas yet - I only have the Select-A-Tenna.)

And the 1110 up in L.A. has been in HD daytime for a while, and while they open up the bandwidth at night, I haven't been hearing any separation on my SRF-42 when I've been up there. I've mainly been listening to 1290 from San Bernardino and 1580 from Tempe.

(And, another thing, I know they're mostly directional away from you, but I think they have a little bit of a lobe to the east - can you hear 1580 KMIK from Tempe, AZ, at all where you are?)

 

[k9ez]

> > Our local Disney outlet (WKSH) is running HD and they
> sound
> > great! Yes the interference issues are still to be worked
>
> > out (if they can be). But I am sure your average listener
>
> > will certainly like the sound of AM HD!
>
> To me - Ibiquity's own samples posted on their web site
> sound only a little better than low bandwidth streaming
> audio. Listener fatigue will set in really fast with the
> annoying phase shifts. C-Quam sounded better. MUCH better.
> And I could get over 300 miles daytime range on it. No way
> IBOC will make that range.
>
> And - Ibiquity's sample FM clips are deceptive. Mono on
> medium fringe. In a good signal area, you would hardly
> notice the difference.
>

iBiquity examples are crap. The real life -- on air-- sound is much better.