96.1 is in fact in stereo. It says ST next to 96.1 on the radio display. The signal started fading (probably because of the mountain) near Tilcon along the Plainville/New Britain line so we had to switch over to the AM. 96.1/990 went to dead air again right at the top of the 11AM hour as we were leaving the Corbin Avenue Stop & Shop in New Britain.
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W241cg 96.1
- Thread starter p2pmusic
- Start date
96.1 lights up the red "stereo" LED on my home receiver as well. It's in stereo, even when it's transmitting only one channel of a recording!
I just checked their signal on two different portable AM/FM personal stereos: An old Panasonic CD model I've had for at least 7 years and a slightly newer Sony cassette Walkman. The City/DX switch was set to DX on both. I checked it against both WKSS-FM 95.7 and WTIC-FM 96.5 for sound quality. Especially against WTIC-FM, the weaker muddy sound of 96.1 was obvious. The effect is similar on the portable Insignia FM HD Radio I use. None of these devices have a "ST" or "STEREO" indicator. The Insignia receiver will show "HD" when it's available and a little "+" symbol if subchannels are available.
When is this stupid station gonna get their act together? Dead Air! Dead Air! And More Dead Air! I told a friend/co-worker about the station on April 1st. He liked it and has been listening to it off an on. I hadn't seen this coworker since last Wednesday and the first thing he asked me after he asked about my injury was "Why is Kool 96.1 off the air so much? I've been trying to listen."
All I can figure is there must be technical infrastructure problems at WNTY that Red Wolf is finding difficult to fix. Maybe a complete fix is beyond the financial means of a small-time operator that may be stretching itself too thin, so it's doing a patchwork, plug-the-holes job just to keep a signal on the air most of the time.
Unfortunately, they've shut down the post-to-page function on their Facebook page, so the only way you can try to ask them a question is to tack it on to an existing thread. But questions about the continuing amateur hour on-air product on 990/96.1 probably will be ignored, as a question about the nature of the money giveaway has been for a few days now. (Apparently, the winners who are put on the air are never identified by name or hometown, and there's a question just how many stations are involved in the promotion: just the oldies multicast or the whole Fuller radio group? The anonymous happy voices in the "winner" sound bites reveal nothing.)
Let's hope things improve. The station has a nice blend of '60s-'80s songs in its playlist, with balanced representation of rock, pop, soul, disco and even a few country crossovers. A more professional sound would make it my No. 1 preset.
Unfortunately, they've shut down the post-to-page function on their Facebook page, so the only way you can try to ask them a question is to tack it on to an existing thread. But questions about the continuing amateur hour on-air product on 990/96.1 probably will be ignored, as a question about the nature of the money giveaway has been for a few days now. (Apparently, the winners who are put on the air are never identified by name or hometown, and there's a question just how many stations are involved in the promotion: just the oldies multicast or the whole Fuller radio group? The anonymous happy voices in the "winner" sound bites reveal nothing.)
Let's hope things improve. The station has a nice blend of '60s-'80s songs in its playlist, with balanced representation of rock, pop, soul, disco and even a few country crossovers. A more professional sound would make it my No. 1 preset.
It seems like it's on all their stations except for their New London County Talk Station 94.9 News Now. I've seen about the contest on the websites or Facebook Page for the various stations.
1. KOOL 96.1/990 and KOOL 104.3/1180 - CT and Rhode Island
2. Radio 104.1 - Hartford
3. Soft Rock 106.5 - New London County
4. Jammin' 107.7 - New London County
5. Latina 100.3 - Providence
6. BOMBA CT
7. Bomba 104.5/1490 - Springfield
It just dawned on me. The dead air problems began around 9 days ago. It may have something to do with the fact that they are broadcasting from a different (temporary?) studio. April 1st is when BOMBA moved from 1270 to 104.5/1490. And when Ray did the request show on April 2nd they had a different call-in number. The request show returns on April 23rd btw.
Another single-channel song heard today -- the Mamas & Papas' "I Saw Her Again." Like "Bus Stop," this is one that WDRC-FM also used to play as one-channel-only. Could Red Wolf own the same faulty recording that Buckley did, or is there some El Cheapo, cut-rate Internet music source that both operations downloaded portions of their music libraries from? "I Saw Her Again" is practically unlistenable in single-channel form, with nothing but background singers going "dee dee dee dee dee" for a couple of stretches.
990 AM was off the air most of the morning. Not sure what time they came back on because I worked the early shift at the Pine Street Stop & Shop today. When My Mom picked me up after 1PM 990AM was back on but they were playing different music from 96.1, so perhaps they're still several minutes behind 96.1 FM.
That's a sad commentry on the state of radio these days. Ok, WNTY isn't a major station, but to run a dead carrier for that long is just plain wrong. I thought John Fuller was a real radio guy. I guess I was mistaken. Real radio people take pride in their stations no matter the power or the dial position.
I remember back in the day at WPOP, if there was dead air for just 10 seconds an alarm would sound in the xmtr room and the engineers would be on it immediately. Usually it turned out to be a faulty cart machine or some other piece of equipment going south. Sometimes it was the jock not getting back from the bathroom in time to start the next record. Whatever.... it was frowned upon and fixed in minutes if not seconds.
I remember back in the day at WPOP, if there was dead air for just 10 seconds an alarm would sound in the xmtr room and the engineers would be on it immediately. Usually it turned out to be a faulty cart machine or some other piece of equipment going south. Sometimes it was the jock not getting back from the bathroom in time to start the next record. Whatever.... it was frowned upon and fixed in minutes if not seconds.
He deserves credit for trying to fill Hartford format niches -- alternative, oldies, tropical (on FM) -- with his signals and not just turning them over to infomercials or paid religion. The continuing technical nightmare that is WNTY/W241CG, though, is killing a lot of that goodwill. I tried listening to 96.1 in the car Thursday night and, while the music mix was great, the audio was distorted and mushy -- and yes, one of the songs played only had one channel audible. I had to switch to SiriusXM after 15 minutes. When even WERB (the Berlin High School station at 94.5) has better audio than your station, Mr. Fuller, you absolutely should be embarrassed.
You guys should really understand how many upgrades have been going into those stations as of the last two weeks. Unless you have first-hand knowledge (as I do) you clearly don't understand what is going on behind the scenes - I would reserve taking shots at a station or person as more attention is being paid to these stations than has been in many years. Sometimes such massive upgrades are a little bumpy. Unfortunately some very bad equipment was inherited and is being properly disposed of including an automation system that I wouldn't run on a pirate station.
I personally was just making an observation about 990 being down for so long. The only reason my Mom and I care is because where we live in Southington we can not get 96.1 clearly. It's probably because we have crappy cheap radios. On the car radio crystal clear. We don't listen to Bomba, but we have the same problem with Bomba 98.5 FM.
Idk what is the problem is but 104.3 is coming in perfectly fine. Just a little static here and there because it's only a translator and i'm about 20 miles from it.
Is there a separate feed of KOOL Radio for 96.1 FM? The reason I ask is because at 8:30AM yesterday 990 switched over to the Italian Show as normal while KOOL Radio remained on 96.1 FM. Then 5 mins later 96.1 went to dead air. (We turned off the radio at that point). About 15 mins later when we went out to run our errands the Italian Show was on 96.1, but very distorted. (It was crystal clear on 990). Also what happened to The Polka Show. Regular KOOL Radio programming was on during the 2PM hour on both 96.1 and 990. And on Saturday there was another commercial in Spanish. A spot for Bob's Discount Furniture aired in Spanish Several times between 6:15AM and 8:45AM (which is when I got dropped off at work).
Technically the broadcast on the FM must mirror the AM station exactly. If its broadcasting something different then its not a FM translator and is illegal.
It's not legal even temporarily?
I remember several years ago a friend who had an HD Radio in their car showed me that WMRQ 104.1's HD was down, but their BOMBA station (normally heard on 104.1 HD2) was still on the air on their translator frequency of 97.1 FM.
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