WSB-AM Debuts On FM Today at Noon

[taylorengineer]

With 95.5 being a far suburban Does anyone reckon Cox will work to get this on a stick closer to downtown?

Cox has an application on file now with the FCC to move the 95.5 tower closer to downtown. Once approved and implemented, the 95.5 signal should greatly improve over downtown Atlanta.

The application actually is to move 95.5 to the same tower used by WSB FM/V103/Star94. They will be 100,000 watts at around 800 feet HAAT. It will be slightly directional. The signal will effectively be a "major" signal.....it decidely will not be a "rimshot" anymore!
WSB AM's signal has become increasingly "polluted" by IBOC sidebands from other stations and foreign broadcasters.
It has been a huge money maker for years so it is no wonder they have made this move to protect the product. Washington DC and Jacksonville Fla are just two examples of where combo news operations have beeen top rated stations in the market. I wouldn't be surprised if that happens here although I do think there are programming issues causing most of WSB's ratings problems. Look at their demos - lot's of 45 to dead in there. Same with WABE - big numbers but lot's of blue hair listening.

 

[onetake]

Tom you're 100% right but in a world of young demo worship we might see an adjustment in our media thinking. Fact is the country is getting older and stations with older demos may not be discounted so much in the future.
Median age for CBS TV is now 55, ABC 51, NBC 49, Fox 44 and CW 39 years old.
Brian Williams show on NBC at night has more audience than all the cable news shows combined.
And while those numbers are shifting, the quality of the audience WSB AM and 95.5

 

[davideduardo]

Tom you're 100% right but in a world of young demo worship we might see an adjustment in our media thinking. Fact is the country is getting older and stations with older demos may not be discounted so much in the future.

As long as advertisers specify the age target to their agency, there will be no change until marketers find that there is a good return on investment on advertising against 55+ listeners.

For the moment, the broad radio buy targets are 18-49 and 25-54, with a swing to 18-49 being noted.

The older a consumer, the more ad messages it takes to make the sale. At some point, the cost of advertising is greater than the profit on the sale... and that is why most radio ads are targeted at some segment of the under-55 audience.

Yes, there are more over-55's. And their buying behavior continues to be the same... and the ROI on advertising does not favor advertising just to them; many adult formats have huge 55+ cumes, and advertisers get that spillage for free.

 

[JR1967]

[The application actually is to move 95.5 to the same tower used by WSB FM/V103/Star94. They will be 100,000 watts at around 800 feet HAAT. It will be slightly directional. The signal will effectively be a "major" signal.....it decidely will not be a "rimshot" anymore!]

This is great news to us who live SW of the Metro area.  WSB 750 has a slight null at nighttime down this way in Coweta County, and 95.5 at times has slight interference from another station on that dial, presumably from somewhere in Alabama.

 

[davideduardo]

This is great news to us who live SW of the Metro area. WSB 750 has a slight null at nighttime down this way in Coweta County, and 95.5 at times has slight interference from another station on that dial, presumably from somewhere in Alabama.

WSB has no nulls... it's non-directional. But you might just be around the area where some skywave and groundwave cancellation might happen... although the Newnan area seems a little close in for that.

Any interference to the south of WSB is likely the Caracas, Venezuela 100 kw station, as there is nothing within 700 miles or so of WSB on 750 kHz on at night in the US, Mexico, etc.

 

[jmtillery]

WSB has no nulls... it's non-directional. But you might just be around the area where some skywave and groundwave cancellation might happen... although the Newnan area seems a little close in for that.

Any interference to the south of WSB is likely the Caracas, Venezuela 100 kw station, as there is nothing within 700 miles or so of WSB on 750 kHz on at night in the US, Mexico, etc.

I believe he may have been referring to AM IBOC interference, although there are no longer any AMs that I am aware using IBOC at night. The nearest IBOC station that I am aware that could possibly cause interference to WSB at night would be WJR 760 Detroit. Aside from that, I'm not sure what else could be causing a reception problem in that area unless it is as you suggested possibly the station in Caracas, Venezuela.

 

[jabba17]

WSB has no nulls... it's non-directional. But you might just be around the area where some skywave and groundwave cancellation might happen... although the Newnan area seems a little close in for that.

Any interference to the south of WSB is likely the Caracas, Venezuela 100 kw station, as there is nothing within 700 miles or so of WSB on 750 kHz on at night in the US, Mexico, etc.

I believe he may have been referring to AM IBOC interference, although there are no longer any AMs that I am aware using IBOC at night. The nearest IBOC station that I am aware that could possibly cause interference to WSB at night would be WJR 760 Detroit. Aside from that, I'm not sure what else could be causing a reception problem in that area unless it is as you suggested possibly the station in Caracas, Venezuela.

I thought the FCC pulled the plug on HD/IBOC at night. They should probably also stop it during critical hours, at least in situations where a non-class-A could interfere with a class A to the east in the PM (and to the west in the AM). I thought HD Radio has pretty much been a bust on AM (not that it's been spectacular on FM).

Is it possible that Hugo Chavez is playing dirty just to be a pest?

 

[jmtillery]

Yes, AM-IBOC night service was pulled by the FCC alhough I believe daytime IBOC is still allowed. It could be, as you suggested, IBOC problems from WJR during critical hours. I have no way of knowing for sure, but that may be a possibilty.

 

[DuckBlue]

Were you one of the guys who bought a car with an AM Stereo radio? Do you ever get together with the other five guys?

It was in someone else's car that I heard it. The difference between what it sounded like in my car and in the car I rode in was astounding. I felt like I was in the room with Ludlow. Remember him?

I do have a Denon TU-680NAB tuner which has an AMAX AM stereo tuner in it. A fine piece of equipment.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Were you one of the guys who bought a car with an AM Stereo radio? Do you ever get together with the other five guys?

It was in someone else's car that I heard it. The difference between what it sounded like in my car and in the car I rode in was astounding. I felt like I was in the room with Ludlow. Remember him?

I do have a Denon TU-680NAB tuner which has an AMAX AM stereo tuner in it. A fine piece of equipment.

I never heard of Ludlow.

I have, over the course of years, heard radios in other peoples' cars that sounded better than mine. I don't know if it was because they were AM Stereo or just because they were better radios overall. I've never been a gear head. If it takes a $650 radio to get good sound on AM, then I'm never going to hear good sound on AM. There is nothing broadcast on the AM band worth spending $650 to listen to.

 

[davideduardo]

Yes, AM-IBOC night service was pulled by the FCC alhough I believe daytime IBOC is still allowed. It could be, as you suggested, IBOC problems from WJR during critical hours. I have no way of knowing for sure, but that may be a possibilty.

Night HD was stopped by a few stations, like Citadel's adjacent 760 and 770 clears by internal decision, but the FCC allows it; I was just listening to KFI HD driving back to LA from Phoenix and the HD came in around Indio, CA, at 9 PM. KNX also noted with HD around Redlands, CA.

If you go to the gladiator-style HD board, you will note how the owner of a 1040 station in the Rochester market continues very upset that the FCC has not limited the impact of night HD on WBZ well within his market.

 

[jmtillery]

Night HD was stopped by a few stations, like Citadel's adjacent 760 and 770 clears by internal decision, but the FCC allows it; I was just listening to KFI HD driving back to LA from Phoenix and the HD came in around Indio, CA, at 9 PM. KNX also noted with HD around Redlands, CA.

If you go to the gladiator-style HD board, you will note how the owner of a 1040 station in the Rochester market continues very upset that the FCC has not limited the impact of night HD on WBZ well within his market.

David - Thank you for the update. For some reason I thought the FCC had stopped night-time IBOC operations. I know there were complaints, such as the one you outlined, among several clear channel stations not so long ago.

 

[davideduardo]

David - Thank you for the update. For some reason I thought the FCC had stopped night-time IBOC operations. I know there were complaints, such as the one you outlined, among several clear channel stations not so long ago.

The WJR WABC agreement to both suspend HD at night made big headlines. A few other stations have turned HD off at night... but more have simply turned it off. I feel that in some cases the additional technical time required to maintain the equipment and the electrical costs just wore some stations out, particularly if the GM couldn't find a car with an HD radio in it,.

When it is on a finely engineered station, like KFI, it sounds great. But many don't sound very good, with all the dueling codecs piling up and distorting.

 

[BIGSTICK]

Were you one of the guys who bought a car with an AM Stereo radio? Do you ever get together with the other five guys?

It was in someone else's car that I heard it. The difference between what it sounded like in my car and in the car I rode in was astounding. I felt like I was in the room with Ludlow. Remember him?

I do have a Denon TU-680NAB tuner which has an AMAX AM stereo tuner in it. A fine piece of equipment.

I never heard of Ludlow.

I have, over the course of years, heard radios in other peoples' cars that sounded better than mine. I don't know if it was because they were AM Stereo or just because they were better radios overall. I've never been a gear head. If it takes a $650 radio to get good sound on AM, then I'm never going to hear good sound on AM. There is nothing broadcast on the AM band worth spending $650 to listen to.

I know it might be goofy today, but I still love to be on a beach or way out in the country and DX on my old GE Super Stereo Radio. It has always been a hobby, and will always love it.

 

[Bengalsfan]

David - Thank you for the update. For some reason I thought the FCC had stopped night-time IBOC operations. I know there were complaints, such as the one you outlined, among several clear channel stations not so long ago.

The WJR WABC agreement to both suspend HD at night made big headlines. A few other stations have turned HD off at night... but more have simply turned it off. I feel that in some cases the additional technical time required to maintain the equipment and the electrical costs just wore some stations out, particularly if the GM couldn't find a car with an HD radio in it,.

When it is on a finely engineered station, like KFI, it sounds great. But many don't sound very good, with all the dueling codecs piling up and distorting.

Many stations turned it off because of the underlying hiss in analog audio. This hiss was there because the antenna was not tuned, or could not be tuned, broad enough to allow both the HD sidebands and analog audio pass through without some cross talk. The only station up here I hear with HD still running is WLW. I suspect it may be a matter of time before they turn it off, too.

 

[jabba17]

I never heard of Ludlow.

http://funseekers.net/welcometoourworld/

 

[Talk_Dude]

I never heard of Ludlow.

http://funseekers.net/welcometoourworld/

No wonder I never heard of Ludlow. It's only on AM stations.

 

[qbot101]

I hope that the tower move to Atlanta happens. I normally listened to WSRV HD2 and the signal was very flaky for me near East Point. And WBTS isn't all that great in signal for me but I will have to see when I visit soon...

 

[jabba17]

I know it might be goofy today, but I still love to be on a beach or way out in the country and DX on my old GE Super Stereo Radio. It has always been a hobby, and will always love it.

Who on this board would ever consider DXing goofy? Although my daughter sometimes DXes Radio Disney affiliates; she considers some of those stations Mickey Mouse operations. (I'll be here all week...try the veal...)

Seriously, I didn't think GE ever made a stereo Superadio.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Who on this board would ever consider DXing goofy?

DX'ing is a wonderful hobby. It's right up there with collecting stamps or rare coins, or playing Dungeons & Dragons, or being a Civil War reenactor, or playing fantasy football, or any other hobby. No one should put anyone down for DX-ing.

At the same time, DX'ers shouldn't assume that just because they invest lots of money in expensive gear for their hobby that regular, ordinary folks will also buy that same gear. DX'ers shouldn't assume that just because they like to go scanning through the AM dial searching for distant stations, that doesn't mean that ordinary radio listeners who aren't into DX'ing care about how wonderful the reception on some piece of high-end radio gear is. Most of all, just because DX'ers enjoy putting up with static and hiss on the AM band doesn't mean that the suits who run the broadcast industry should base their programming decisions on capturing the DX'er market segment.