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WSPA'S RDS

C

carolinaradio

Has anyone else noticed that WSPA's RDS appears very un-orderly and odd a lot of times? Sometimes it doesn't even display anything (which can be frequent) and sometimes when it does it displays something like "England Dan - I'dRllyLove2SeeU2Nt", and like "Silly Love/P.McCartney - Paul McCartney." It may be something else though because it's the same on their Tune Genie page: http://www.tunegenie.com/onair/wspa/

I haven't noticed any other Entercom/Greenville stations being like this, but WFBC's does get frozen. Clear Channel, Cox, and WLFJ seem to work fine.
 
I can beleive it. Our RDS unit has to have regular text input to display singer/song title but alot of the newer automation programs that run music don't have text output written into them as they are now using that function for html output for internet feeds and converting back to regular text doesn't always work right. We have run into this problem many times and talking to the automation software help line really doesn't help, all they do is send you a converter program that only works half the time. Of course it could be human error too but not all the time. I finally disconnected our unit for a while till we could get something that will work all the time.
 
This is a little off subject but the translator in Asheville seems to work ok most of the time. Are there any plans to upgrade to a HD signal on 97.7 in Asheville or it would be nice to switch to WFBC or run B93.7 on HD2. WOXL is running the same progamming at night (John Tesh), seems odd with two stations running the same feed at the same time.
 
That makes sense about the RDS. All of the Entercom stations seem to have a problem with it updating.

Speaking of 97.7...why does WSPA even need that? I've never understood. Their coverage is massive, I've gotten it below Columbia and down to Augusta. It's a class C just like 92.5, 93.3, 93.7, 94.5. Is there some sort of problem (or are they like WLFJ and put up translators where the signal can be picked up clearly at 89.3)?
I have no idea about it being in HD.
 
MarkSC said:
Line of sight from Hogback to downtown Asheville is no good, so 97.7 was set up to fill that void.
Click to expand...
Oh, OK. I see now.

Side note: They need to stop being so scared to add new music. If you look they've been playing all the new stuff between 12 and 5am for weeks now. Rest of the day Love Story, The Climb, I'm Yours, and What About Now are shoved down our throats when it comes to "new" songs.
 
Actually, they've done that for years. They do it to stay in good graces with the labels, to get their extra concert tickets, free lunches, and boxes of CD's. But they don't want to play that much new music when people are actually listening, because it runs off listeners.

WMYI has done it as well, but not as much as WSPA.
 
MarkSC said:
Actually, they've done that for years. They do it to stay in good graces with the labels, to get their extra concert tickets, free lunches, and boxes of CD's. But they don't want to play that much new music when people are actually listening, because it runs off listeners.

WMYI has done it as well, but not as much as WSPA.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that makes sense, I see now. Looking at their log, WSPA relies on the currrents much more than WMYI, which I don't really know about because sometimes they play the same song within 3 or 4 hours using that practice. Currents/recent (usually 2007-present songs) are played around :00 and :30 every hour, and they have about 9 or so. They dropped a lot of the big hits earlier this year entirely (rest I guess).

There are actually some notable AC hits from the past few years that Magic totally ignores that I think could and should be mixed with the 'currents' for good measure.
 
MarkSC said:
Actually, they've done that for years. They do it to stay in good graces with the labels, to get their extra concert tickets, free lunches, and boxes of CD's. But they don't want to play that much new music when people are actually listening, because it runs off listeners.
Click to expand...

entercom was in mr spitzers cross hairs for that until he screwed up. the company is known for that
 
Looks like Entercom's not the only one with RDS issues....Clear Channel's on 96.7 seems to keep getting stuck. And I'm probably 4 miles from the station. When it runs, just says that "Save Your Radio Dot Org" they put on all of their RDS's. Never tells the song. My102, Whistle and WESC all work fine.
 
I worked @ 98.9 from '86 to 1997. The 97.7 translator was put on the air in Asheville (Biltmore Forest) when WLOS-FM switched from easy listening to top 40/rock. An outcry from the older peeps led Spartan to ask the FCC for a translator for the Asheville area when the station was still easy listening itself.

As far as the RDS business, the way most of those work is they are fed from the computer hardrive systems that most stations run their music, voicetracking, commercials, etc out of. If the song is labeled stupidly on that system that's what's fed to RDS and comes out on your radio that way. The Paul McCartney deal is probably labled internally that way due to artist protection lables to keep from playing a Beatles song anywhere near it. If they played a Beatles song it may say Paul McCartney as well. Also, watch your RDS when stations play syndicated shows. A lot of times they're labled weird and come out on the RDS as well...i.e. "Segment 1", etc.

On the 96.7, all CC stations are running the Save Your Radio.org. Our company, Saga, CC and others are lobbying congress to keep these dumbass music fees at bay. When I had the Buzzard on 96.7 the RDS would get hung up sometimes so that's probably why it's not changing to song title artist info at all.
 
Yeah, I just checked again, and noticed a couple more labeled funny..."Open Arms/Journey" and "IfYou'reGone/Matchbox 20". I would think since they play Steve Perry (Journey) and Rob Thomas (MB20) songs also, that is the same theory as the McCartney one. They are still in to the 97.7 translator...still gets mentioned every hour when they ID. I guess they are still getting use out of it even with AC.

Checked 96.7's RDS today and it actually said "Shine 967 - Save Your Radio Dot Org" and loops that. I've rarely seen it tell the name of the song, so they may just have it set up like Cox does where it just tells the station name. I guess it's no big deal though, because nobody's listening. ::)
 
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