A Radio Station That Cares About Sound Quality

One of the stations in my area (WWMY, 102.9 FM in Raleigh, NC) recently switched to a good "oldies" format, much larger and wider playlist than usual. I've even heard a couple of things I didn't recognize, and that's pretty rare!

Anyway, the sound quality of this station is excellent. It's apparent they're not compressing too much, and are using high-quality rips. It sounds as good as I've ever heard FM sound; very detailed and natural. I sent the Program Director an email congratulating him on caring about sound quality. Thought I'd share his response:

Quote:

"Thanks for the kind words. At Y102.9 we "dubbed" every song by hand, from the best re-mastered CD's I could find. They're not all great, but many sound very good.

Our processing gear is all vintage analogue, and we run it fairly lightly.
Thanks for noticing the difference!

No tubes, but except for our computer delivery of MPEG Layer 2, it's all analog. I do use tube pre-amps in my home studio for commercials. I love that sound.

Most every other station in the Triangle is using digital processing, which further degrades the sound quality of MP2 files. I'd rather put up with a little hiss than digital grunge.

Unquote.

Love that last line! I did take the opportunity to direct him to this forum and the AF site to learn about the best "re-masterings." I have no connection whatsoever with this station, but when somebody is doing a good job, it should be made known.

Any pop stations in your area that still care about sound quality?
Thanks,
Bob

 

Hi all,

My 2 public radio stations I engineer have a similar philosophy. Minimal processing with old analog gear. We also have an FM radio oldies station (satellite driven) which sounds good with similar processing gear. All 3 mainly use CBS Labs Volumax or Audimax processors. The oldies station uses a 10 KW Gates FM rig with an RCA Exciter. Superb Stereo that way.

 

Bob, I live in Raleigh. I'll have to take better notice of their sound - I've been mostly listening to 100.7 or CD's. Cool post, cool response from the P.D. When I saw the subject heading, it caught my eye due to the unusualness of a radio station caring about sound quality. They're definitely playing some oldies not heard in a long, long time: "Arizona" - Mark Lindsay, for one.

 

I'm a huge fan of a New York area station called The Peak, 107.1. The station is not overly compressed, which is one of the reasons I like it, but another reason is that they care about mixes, as well. One day, I heard what I thought was the mono mix of "Paperback Writer" and just about fell off my chair! I emailed the PD and here's what he said:

"You did hear the mono mix! We've been subbing out many of the stereo
mixes for the mono mixes on appropriate songs. Some of them just sound
so much better. Rob's a real stickler for details and has an incredible
collection."


This station is run by real music fans!

Dan

 

Strange, they play that one in my area a lot (KOMA). I don't think the people at KOMA care what source they use, but they do have okay sound.

 

Good point about the mono mixes - I've noticed that the station I mentioned plays the great majority of the early Beatles and Beach Boys tracks in mono, even when stereo mixes are available.

 

All I can say is WOW! Wish there was something like that around here. Obviously that's a station, along with some of these others, that deserve support.

 

This is encouraging to see someone out there doing this... Go Raleigh!

 

North Mississippi Radio

Radio here in North Mississippi really sucks the big one. 99% of them are owned by Clear Channel. If you don't like Country, Urban, or cliched "Classic Rock" you are S.O.L. There is one AM station that broadcasts (when it's on the air) "Music Of Your Life". They are obviously only broadcasting one channel of a stereo feed, because when they play a hard panned stereo track, you only get one channel. I've called and tried to tell them, but they don't care.

 

Our local oldies station can't even get both channels going; I heard "Baby I'm A Want You" the other day and it was just one channel, mono'ed, so it was lead guitar and (I think) bass all through! It's been this way for about four years, and obviously they don't care...I've mentioned it to them before.

 

102.9 does sound good (didn't realize there were that many Triangle-ites on these forums). I used to get so peeved when "oldies" format stations would put reverb (!) on their music. Did anyone esle ever notice this?

That said, my family has become hooked on 100.7 ("The River"). I have no idea what their format is supposed to be (their tagline is "It's all about the music"), but I am rarely compelled to turn it off.

Interesting thing about them-- they NEVER announce tunes or artists -- they just play music. If you want to find out what you were listening to, you can go to their website (http://www.river1007.com) and look it up by the time that you were driving around (where I do all my radio listening).

I just pulled up their last 10 songs from the website:

Losing My Religion -- R.E.M.
Pump It Up -- Elvis Costello
Back 2 Good -- Matchbox 20
Carolina Blues -- Blues Traveler
Friend Of The Devil -- Grateful Dead
Alive And Kicking -- Simple Minds
Linger -- Cranberries
Tom's Diner -- D.N.A With Suzanne Vega
Every Little Kiss -- Bruce Hornsby & The Range
Come Away With Me -- Norah Jones

So there you have it -- what format would you call this

 

Dan, Thanks for the tip, I will give them a try on the way home tonight.

 

I call it almost totally unpredictable and such a refreshing change from the likes of 101.5 and 106.1. I turned it on the other morning and they were playing "Message To My Girl" by Split Enz, one of my favorite Enz tunes and one I've never heard on the radio.

 

The one that got me yesterday was "Somewhere Down The Crazy River" by Robbie Robertson. Not exactly your typical radio fare.

It's a welcome change of pace, even if it is owned by (ugh) Clear Channel.

 

There is a college radio station here in OKC called 93.7 (broadcast from Stillwater, Oklahoma.) They play a lot of the new stuff (they have Casey Casum's Top 20 show on Sunday) but they also play random things from the 1990's that brings back memories for me. The only problem is that their rips suffer from that bad computer artifact. I think they need to upgrade their sound cards and use some old tube gear. Other than that, it's a good station.

 

the station im listening to doesnt care about sound...
ill quote the dj

"over the next few weeks we are putting the songs from this years top 2005 songs as voted by you into our ipod and pressing shuffle"

yeah great....