What do you think?I certainly don't think its my home market of San Francisco!
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Which Market has the Best HD Coices
- Thread starter travisl5678
- Start date
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (where there aren't any).
I guess the best choice depends on what kind of formats you enjoy.
Although I'm not totally drinking the HD Kool-Aid™ yet, I was enamored of several HD choices in St. Louis, namely the Clear Channel commercial free "Real Oldies" on KLOU-HD2. It complemented the main station's commercials with some classic hits mixed-in format. Non-comm alternative KDXH has only one stream and sounded pretty clean. KFTK's talk format is something of a rimshot analog signal but it's also carried on another Emmis property, KIHT-HD2 and that was the only way I could get it in my hotel room recently. KSHE-HD3 was doing an all 80's dance party format, but it was in mono. It still managed to sound almost decent.
Clear Channel was also running KMOX on one of the FM HD subchannels but I forget now which station exactly.
And while I've had dropout issues in the mountains of Arkansas and places like that, the terrain and tall towers in the STL market really favor solid HD coverage. I drove the entire perimeter of the city's interstates and never got a single dropout on that KLOU-HD2 station. That's a heck of a lot more than I can say for my state's poor HD coverage on the public radio network.
Although I'm not totally drinking the HD Kool-Aid™ yet, I was enamored of several HD choices in St. Louis, namely the Clear Channel commercial free "Real Oldies" on KLOU-HD2. It complemented the main station's commercials with some classic hits mixed-in format. Non-comm alternative KDXH has only one stream and sounded pretty clean. KFTK's talk format is something of a rimshot analog signal but it's also carried on another Emmis property, KIHT-HD2 and that was the only way I could get it in my hotel room recently. KSHE-HD3 was doing an all 80's dance party format, but it was in mono. It still managed to sound almost decent.
Clear Channel was also running KMOX on one of the FM HD subchannels but I forget now which station exactly.
And while I've had dropout issues in the mountains of Arkansas and places like that, the terrain and tall towers in the STL market really favor solid HD coverage. I drove the entire perimeter of the city's interstates and never got a single dropout on that KLOU-HD2 station. That's a heck of a lot more than I can say for my state's poor HD coverage on the public radio network.
Zach, St. Louis has several HD's I enjoy, even though I don't care much for the technology behind IBOC/HD.
The stations I enjoy the most are:
KSHE-HD-2, (KSHE-2), and WARH HD-2 (Deep Tracks). Both offer AOR/classic rock cuts that are not overplayed. KSHE-2 is locally programmed, and features more local favorites (known as "K-SHE Klassics). Deep Tracks is based out of Bonneville's Chicago HD-2 service of WDRV.
KLOU HD-2 has a clean sounding stream, considering the artifacts of HD.
KFTK HD-2 offers martini music and is known as "Red." Red was once on terrestrial radio. Red on HD also sounds fairly clean as well.
KIHT HD-3 is a locally programmed smooth jazz format called "The Verve."
And recently, KWMU began offering an HD-3 of Minnesota Public Radio's "Classical 24" format. It is designed to fill the void that KFUO-FM will be leaving when it leaves the air in July. KWMU split a 32k stream three ways to achieve three stereo streams.
Aside from those, many of the other stations offer fairly redundant versions of the main channels (e.g. WIL-FM, KPNT, KSLZ), and in my opinion aren't worth the time.
KSHE HD-3 is actually an all 1980's format, rather than a dance-specific format of the decade.
KMOX is carried on KEZK HD-3. The stream sounds all right, but only one channel was fed into the mono stream. It isn't important except when their "Route 66" program features music, and vocals are frequently missing (think 1960's era stereo recordings).
Many of the towers in St. Louis are centrally located, which clearly helps reception in our area.
The stations I enjoy the most are:
KSHE-HD-2, (KSHE-2), and WARH HD-2 (Deep Tracks). Both offer AOR/classic rock cuts that are not overplayed. KSHE-2 is locally programmed, and features more local favorites (known as "K-SHE Klassics). Deep Tracks is based out of Bonneville's Chicago HD-2 service of WDRV.
KLOU HD-2 has a clean sounding stream, considering the artifacts of HD.
KFTK HD-2 offers martini music and is known as "Red." Red was once on terrestrial radio. Red on HD also sounds fairly clean as well.
KIHT HD-3 is a locally programmed smooth jazz format called "The Verve."
And recently, KWMU began offering an HD-3 of Minnesota Public Radio's "Classical 24" format. It is designed to fill the void that KFUO-FM will be leaving when it leaves the air in July. KWMU split a 32k stream three ways to achieve three stereo streams.
Aside from those, many of the other stations offer fairly redundant versions of the main channels (e.g. WIL-FM, KPNT, KSLZ), and in my opinion aren't worth the time.
KSHE HD-3 is actually an all 1980's format, rather than a dance-specific format of the decade.
KMOX is carried on KEZK HD-3. The stream sounds all right, but only one channel was fed into the mono stream. It isn't important except when their "Route 66" program features music, and vocals are frequently missing (think 1960's era stereo recordings).
Many of the towers in St. Louis are centrally located, which clearly helps reception in our area.
K
kenglish
Guest
You must live in the country. I can't hear anything from across town on AM 
.
(I'd trade neon light buzz, cable tv buzz, power line buzz, plasma tv buzz, and flourescent light buzz for some i-buzz any day.)
.(I'd trade neon light buzz, cable tv buzz, power line buzz, plasma tv buzz, and flourescent light buzz for some i-buzz any day.)
M
Mike Walker
Guest
I think the real hidden "power app" for FM HD might well prove to be providing an extra outlet, with (sometimes) extended coverage...especially at night...for the AM(s) down the hall. Stations that have HD on FM and AREN'T doing this are, in my opinion, missing one of the greatest advantages that HD offers.
It seems simple: HD offers an opportunity to privide extra programming...but that ain't free. Down the hall you have great available programming that needs to be heard more widely, or (depending on bitrate) with better sound quality. Lots of successful marriages are based on less!
It seems simple: HD offers an opportunity to privide extra programming...but that ain't free. Down the hall you have great available programming that needs to be heard more widely, or (depending on bitrate) with better sound quality. Lots of successful marriages are based on less!
Mike Walker said:
Close, but no cigar. The real hidden "power app" for FM HD is the possibility of it's owner obtaining an analog translator on which to rebroadcast it. In other words, they get an extra FM outlet in a given market that way. Of the four HD-2's that actually make the Arbitron book, all four do so thanks to being heard on analog translators. Not one HD-2 has made the book (i.e. gotten any ratings) with solely a digital signal. Not one.
I'll thank Tom Taylor for the stat, though - even without it - I would have made a similar comment.
Honorable mention goes to Sacramento, where they have a blues channel and a comedy channel. Lots of repeats, but at least they're trying.
Dave B.
Dave B.
Detroit actually has ONE decent HD-2 channel from WRIF, but that's it out of 23 HD signals
Zach said:
Pretty much any Entercom market with HD has the comedy and blues channels. We have them on WBEE 92.5-2 (comedy) and WBZA 98.9-2 (blues) here in Rochester, while Buffalo has them on WKSE 98.5-2 and WTSS 102.5-2.
One smaller market with some interesting HD subchannel offerings is Syracuse: WCNY 91.3, which is all classical on its main channel, has a nifty 50s/60s oldies format on 91.3-2 (a lot of the WCNY airstaff came from the days of Syracuse top-40 radio in the sixties, and they do a nice job tracking the HD2) and full-time jazz on 91.3-3. There's also Spanish AC on WWHT 107.9-2 and the Clear Channel "Pride Radio" format on WYYY 94.5-2, WXPN's "Xponential Radio" on WAER 88.3-2, a simulcast of news-talk WSYR 570 on WPHR 106.9-2, and a Clear Channel country format on WBBS 104.7-2. Not a bad place to have an HD radio at all...
J
JimmyJames
Guest
In Detroit, WDET's HD2 is a decent music mix. Not quite what they had on 101.9 in the old days, but not bad.
jhimbo said:
KDFC is in HD, with mostly full symphonies on the HD-2 channel. I don't listen much, but it's there. Most of the stations have an HD-2 that's similar to the main channel. KUFX (classic rock) has a channel called "deep cuts" which are supposedly the under-played classics, but they're still all songs I'm tired of. The Wolf (Country) has a classic country channel, and KFOG has "the 10 at 10 station" which is a rotating repeat of their long-running "10 great songs from one great year" show that airs every weekday at 10 AM. There are 3 "classic hits" channels on HD-2, and KWAV has standards on their HD-2. The Bone (a harder-edge classic rock station) has something they call "Bone 2" which is serious head-banging music. That's what I can think of right now.
Unfortunately, the sidebands of the HD channels take out KPIG, KKUP, and KRSH. Only my opinion, but those stations were better than any of the HD-2's.
Dave B.
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