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WZEW adds an HD subchannel

I understand Cat Country is having problems with their new HD transmitter.
Also their 92.3 translator is experiencing drop outs so I've had to start listening to 1620 again.
99.1 is still purring along with the sound of silence.
 
I understand Cat Country is having problems with their new HD transmitter.
Also their 92.3 translator is experiencing drop outs so I've had to start listening to 1620 again.
99.1 is still purring along with the sound of silence.

Dang, that transmitter is only a few months old. It shouldn't be going into failure so soon.

It's back on today, with WNRP on HD-3 and HD-4 and HD-2 still dead air, but the signal is definitely weaker than normal.

I keep checking every few days, hoping to catch a change that might indicate they've moved 1620 to 1330 or debuted a new format, but I'm beginning to think it will never happen.
 
Oh that's interesting. I thought they'd been operating at high power to start with, but I guess it was "high but not maximum." Conditions are a bit enhanced at the moment so I can't tell if the extra power is doing any good here in Baldwin County or not. They seem to have had good coverage already up to about Highway 59 in central Baldwin, then it started getting spotty east of there.
 
Tropo seems to be enhancing stations from the east tonight. That being said, I'm picking up Q92 Destin with the HD indicater lit trying to lock WZEW.
I'm approximately half way between the two stations. 92.1 is usually the "most crowded channel on the dial" but it requires a directional antenna to pick up 92ZEW..
 
Today (Sunday) the band was d-e-a-d so I tried again and I do think their increased power has maybe kinda sort of helped a little. I sat in the living room for over an hour this afternoon and listened to The Crab via the HD2 without a single dropout. Considering I'm on the 60 dBu fringe and less than a quarter mile from WHEP's translator, it was surprisingly stable. I still lose it if I get up and walk around, and it still won't decode next to my PC… but that area is an RF mess so everything suffers in that general area.
 
Hey folks, are the Cumulus stations back in HD? (92.9, 97.5, 104.1)

Hahahahahahahahahaha…

*gasp*

Wait, are you serious?

Hahahahahahahahahaha…

It wasn't a month ago they finally figured out how to get song title & artist info on the RDS. I doubt HD is coming back any time soon. 104.1's has always been on but only starting actually "working" recently. 92.9 and 100.7 are still off. I don't think 94.1, 97.5 or 102.7 ever had it.
 
Something now on WZEW HD3

It appears to be a very short loop of TV theme songs. WKRP, Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons, Good Times…

The Streetbeater (the theme to S&S) is at least the full version, but it sounds pretty bad in crunchy digital mono.

Also, ADX has begun airing a loop of that KRS-One "Are You Ready For This?" song that is so popular at sports arenas on their HD2, so I suspect the sports programming will launch over there soon.
 
When Zew HD2 launched someone posted an unlisted link to the online stream. Got one for the HD3?

"Are you ready for this" is on the 94.5 translator too. Hopefully it's still testing at reduced power because today it has the worst signal of any Pensacola translator. Sometimes it doesn't stop on seek a few blocks from the tower and gets lots of static heading toward the beach.
 
I did some sleuthing but came up empty handed. The server that handles their streams has ones for the main station, The Crab, 92 Blues, and WNSP (which was dead air when I checked it) but nothing new is listed. Maybe they wised up?
 
I had a chance to listen to the HD channels yesterday while driving through Mobile. Coverage is quite good - I carried the HD1, HD2 and HD3 down 98 to the Mississippi line. I did notice that the Crab HD2 audio seemed to lack high end - the TV show themes on the HD3 had better audio response on my radio. Maybe the processor has pre-emphasis turned off?
 
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