sporkme
drop the crantini and move it, sister
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-01
Morristown, NJ
 ·Optimum Online
| reply to RadioDoc
Re: This is a great idea
said by RadioDoc  :What really needs to be done is to reclaim the noncommercial, educational end of the FM band (88.1-91.9) from the so-called "religious" operators and return it to its original purpose: Community service. That is a fabulous idea. While they are tax-exempt, they are there to turn a profit, even if it is for a church. I won't even touch the separation of church and state issue here... oops, I just did.
I'd also like to see a bit more spectrum for the community stations so that they can spread out and have a bit more power. At least around here, the only stuff worth listening to is down at the low end of the dial but it sucks to not be able to listen in the car or to have to rig some elaborate antenna system in the attic to pull in stations not more than 20 miles away.
Not to mention the rinky-dink stations seem to be the only ones that give a rat's ass about how they sound. The big stations with all that compression and magic "sweeteners" sound like the audio equivalent of runny oatmeal. The little guys still have dynamic range, which I'll take over a bit of hiss or whatever else the compression is masking.
Internet radio is great as well, but until I can easily/cheaply get it in my car and my bathroom it's limited in it's usefulness. |
RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
 ·AT&T Midwest
1 edit | Heh...well that's the problem with "community radio". It is not supposed to be serving you 20 miles away. 
Here in the Chicago area there are about three dozen college and high school station stuffed into those 20 channels, along with a couple of the usual suspects like Moody on 90.1 (running a grandfathered 100 KW ERP which takes six other channels out of the pool for small locals but at least runs some local programming) and Family Stations up at 91.9 in Joliet at 50 KW ERP wasting electricity & spectrum and running nothing local.
At least in the Chicago market the very high density of little class-D NCE-FMs in the 70's who upgraded to class-A predated the "religious" invasion and occupation of the band so the bulk of what you hear down there is amateurish, inconsistent and totally wonderful.
Having been in this business for over 30 years now it really pains me to see what the "product" has become, but many of my clients still do it the old fashioned way, and actually serve their markets and gives me a little ray of hope...
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Toolmaster of La Grange. |
