105.3 The Spy

[Scooby214]

I don't think the signal is as big of an issue as the format. The format is what you make it. You can choose to make it commercially successful, or have the coolest sounding station with a .2 share. The jury is still out on that since I hear the format being tweaked.

Now, on to the signal. Is the tower on MacArthur interfering with the 105.3 frequency? Because I can get the signal from Midwest City to Guthrie, but not between NW 36 & NW 16 on MacArthur. What gives?

I think the 104.9 tower does cause some of the issues you describe.  I live in the same area, and the signal improves when driving away from the tower in any direction.  It seems to do the worst when driving east on 23rd Street.  The signal doesn't improve until you get close to Portland Ave.  Scary thing is, I got the 105.3 signal better when in the SE Choctaw area than I do at home near the 104.9 tower.

I think the music mix is improving daily.  It definitely seems to help having Ferris do the afternoon drive.  He doesn't talk too much, but the breaks in the music are nice.  Most of the newer songs on the station are ones I've never heard, so hearing info about some of the songs and artists is one of my favorite parts of listening to a station (as opposed to listening to Pandora or an ipod).

Brian

[WBIMDJ]

EYE  The Smashing Pumpkins
MY HAPPINESS  Powderfinger
WHITE DISCUSSION  Live
CIRCLES  Soul Coughing
SHADOWBOXER  Fiona Apple
EARLY TO BED  Morphine
NAKED  Goo Goo Dolls
WHY’S EVERYBODY ALWAYS PICKING ON ME  Bloodhound Gang
SALVATION  The Cranberries
BIG BANG BABY  Stone Temple Pilots
HIT  The Sugarcubes
BATTLE FLAG  Lo-Fidelity Allstars
LIES  EMF
WHY I’M HERE  Oleander
KISS THEM FOR ME  Siouxsie and The Banshees
ANGRY JOHNNY  Poe
YOUR WOMAN  White Town
THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME THE CLOSER I GET  Morrissey
IT DON’T MATTER  Rehab
ABUSE ME  Silverchair
MISERY  Soul Asylum
JEALOUS  Gene Loves Jezebel
DRAWER  Summercamp
TATTVA  Kula Shaker
RADIATION VIBE  Fountains Of Wayne
ELEVATE MY MIND  Stereo MCs

Hey Hello4, some of those you outlined were some GREAT tracks! In fact, here I isolated some of the songs that get airplay on my 90's alternative show. ( http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12893780338 ) Honestly, until your post I thought I was the only one who remembered 90's alternative deep cuts like Summercamp's "Drawer" (WOW), Kula Shaker's "Tattva", Gene Loves Jezebel's "Jealous" and Silverchair's "Abuse Me"! (Everyone only knows "Tomorrow").  Great list, I agree that the Spy would do great adding some of these for gold.

[OKCRadioGuy]

My guess is that the 104.9 issue is mainly front-end overload of your radio.  Sometime soon I'll try to run by there in my truck that has a very good DSP-adaptive stock radio in it (Chevy).  If I drive right by and get no interference, it's got to be your radios.  If I get interference I'll grab the spectrum analyzer and go see what's going on.  My guess is that, even if they are emmitting a small amount of 105.3 energy from the 104.9 tower unintentionally, they most likely are totally within their legal allowable mask of emmissions.  105.3 is so dang far out there that it wouldn't take much of anything out of the 104.9 stick to create an interference zone for 105.3 near the 104.9 tower.  I'll let you guys know what I figure out.

[OKCRadioGuy]

As an addendum to the previous post, I'll also say that IF 104.9 was putting out a bit of interference to 105.3, there are filters that Ferris and friends could put on the 104.9 antenna system to prevent it leaving the tower (with KKWD's approval, of course).  Power 103.5 bought and added some filters to the Clear Channel ARS tower combiner system to reduce a 103.5 mix from leaving their tower that initially created a pretty strong interference zone for 103.5 right in the tower farm/Edmond area.

[Scooby214]

Thanks for looking into the interference issue.  I have a portable DSP radio that I use as a spotter, and even it suffers.  The spotter radio does well with first adjacent interference issues, allowing me to listen to KOCD 103.7 without any interference from KVSP 103.5, but KKWD is much closer to me than KVSP.

[Scooby214]

I forgot to mention that I've observed images of 104.9 at other places on the dial.  Before KZLS came on air, KKWD would consistently come in at 99.7 on average radios such as my Boston Acoustics Recepter.  I don't get the other images on my DSP radio, a Kchibo D96L.

[lurker34]

Thanks Scooby and OKCRadioGuy. I have a stock 2007 Chevy stereo, and didn't know if that was the reason or not. I tried to get an HD radio, but they weren't available. So is HD radio going the way of AM Stereo? I really hate the 8 second delay vs. analogue. It makes remotes really interesting.

[OKCRadioGuy]

It sure makes for a real mess when it comes to real live remotes, for sure!  TV has had to deal with it for quite some time however it has been nice that up tp this point we haven't in radio.  I always thought they should have put a fixed delay in the analog signal via DSP in the reciever end to get around having to delay the analog transmission, but I guess it wasn't possible at the time due to costs.  Since in practice radios that are HD are a DSP type radio, one would think it wouldn't take all that much to delay something 8 or so seconds....  I don't think HD is going away but it's certainly not a very high priority for the listeners and many of the broadcasters.  To me HD radio is a solution looking for a problem to solve.  The real issue was with AM yet the "HD" for AM is so terrible and expensive to install that it has become almost a complete failure.

[OKCRadioGuy]

OK... When I get close to the 104.9 stick I am experiencing the same issue with it wiping out 105.3.  My guess, strictly based on what I'm hearing on my truck radio, is the HD hissers are the cause of the interference.  Since "HD" radio takes up adjacent channels for it's transmission, it must be causing the problem.  I don't know if my spectrum analyzer has the resolution to see much of what is really going on, but sometime soon I'll see what I can see.  I need to take a look at what the mask aught to be in the first place.  It may very well be that the HD junk legally spews up that far, but a relitively low level where it's only an issue in close to their stick.  More to come...

[OKCRadioGuy]

http://radiomagonline.com/media/art/SpectrumMask.jpg

OK... So to translate this thing, 104.9 can spew legally up to 105.15, if my calcuations are right.  See the green diagonal line on the right side?  That's right on the edge of 105.3's signal of course.  Our radios, even though they are really good, are being swamped by the strong adjacent noise and are capturing over to it.  That's my guess.  I'll pass on more as I figure it out.