WJIB RE-LAUNCHES AM STEREO BROADCASTS TO THE GREATER BOSTON AREA IN 2016!!
WJIB "THE memories STATION" returned AM stereo C-QuAM broadcasts playing adult standards music since 2016, after a local electrical power surge of 600-volts to the collocated studio and transmitter location deemed the stereo exciter, and other transmission components beyond economical repair years ago. WJIB is listener-supported from annual donations, has a playlist of over 5,000 songs, and is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting, licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts USA, which serves the greater Boston DMA!
New England USA radio fans are saddened by the passing on May 26, 2023 of Bob Bittner, lifetime broadcaster and the owner/operator of the "Memories Radio" adult standards music network on five New England area radio stations: WBAS(AM) in Cape Cod (1240kHz), WJIB(AM) in Cambridge/Boston (740kHz), and WJTO (730kHz), WLAM (1470kHz), and WLVP (870kHz) in the Portland, Maine market. Bittner was 73 years young, two weeks short of his 74th birthday. It was in the 1990's that Bob Bittner entered the radio ownership business, submitting the winning bid of $277,115 for WLIB (then WLVG). Bittner purchased and sold a number of USA signals throughout New England, before settling on the current five signals of "Memories Radio." Ben Ewen-Campen, Somerville City Council President, tweeted, "I'm heartbroken to learn that Bob Bittner passed away. He ran the indescribably great local radio station WJIB AM740, "The Memories Station." What a beautiful life bringing this wonderful music into our homes, never playing commercial advertising, and reading his own public service announcements. Thank you, Bob."
meduci visited the WJIB transmitter site on August 16, 2021 in Cambridge. We also recorded some airchecks from meduci MW-2A PLL tuner during this same visit. Please play the video by clicking >> here: 
KYMO-AM 1080kHz LAUNCHES AM STEREO IN MAY 2020 !!
We received a nice note from Broadcast Engineer Dave Obergoenner on May 30th, 2020 informing us that KYMO-AM 1080- which is a medium wave 500-watt non-directional daytime licensed station, serving Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, and Western Kentucky USA- was converted to AM stereo on May 22nd, 2020. KYMO(AM) plays a "Classic Hits" format, which is totally locally produced, with a real local on-air staff. This is a link to their web page. There is not a mention for the AM station on the web site, yet; because they are considering a format change to the AM to another music format.
Dave was surprised to be able to listen to the AM stereo signal, with good separation in Cape Girardeau, quite a distance from the KYMO transmitter site. KYMO's BROADCAST ELECTRONICS AM-1a transmitter is fairly new, and was purchased in 2019. AM stereo is achieved using the internal AM stereo generator card. The processing is "a mixture, finally ending up with a refurbished, later model CRL 900A Matrix Processor...which sounds AWESOME! Much better than an Orban Optimod for music programing," in Dave's humble opinion.
Dave also says, "When AM Stereo is implemented, considerable work is performed to balance, phase-align, and equalize the individual (upper and lower) side-bands, which is where the modulation resides. So, although the average AM radio can't decode the AM Stereo (left minus right) phase modulation of the carrier, the sound CAN be somewhat improved, even on mono AM radios. This is one of the reasons I've been talking-up AM stereo for a long while now (since the early 1980's). The other point is, there are still a few AM stereo radios out there, which when they detect the AM stereo pilot, will jump to a wider bandwidth. Whether there is actual stereo information there or not, suddenly the sound becomes brighter and clearer. It was common for those radios to have only a 3kHz bandwidth for mono stations, but on hearing the AM stereo pilot, they would open up to 6kHz or 7kHz bandwidth. ... which certainly sounds dramatically better. As a broadcast engineer, I honestly believe that AM stereo is still quite viable in 2020, and encourage AM stations I handle to implement it, if at all possible. I've been a proponent of AM stereo, since I first put it on the air at the first AM stereo station in St. Louis (550 KSD, later KUSA). That was the early 1980's, and it helped that AM station survive, and thrive, getting great ratings for many years to come. ... even beating its primary country music formatted competition, a 100kW FM [station]."
Dave says, "Kahn stereo system can (to some extent) be decoded by using two AM radios. There were at least 1000 times as many Motorola C-QuAM stereo receivers produced, and for several pretty good reasons. There are still C-QuAM stereo radios available. I don't know of any Kahn radios presently for sale. Nearly every digital "HD Radio" is capable of decoding C-QuAM stereo. ... and most of the early ones produced did [decode C-QuAM]. On more recent HD Radio production, however; the AM stereo pilot detection has been disabled. I'm not sure why, but I assume some lawyers figured out that they were actually supposed to be paying royalties to Motorola for that. I don't think Motorola has ever asked for it, though. Leonard Kahn hated my guts, BTW. We were on an NAB panel together years ago, and when I challenged him on a couple of his claims, he stood up, and told me he would make sure I'd never work in radio engineering again. That was the early 1980's. He even had some of his lawyers following me around at the convention, to make sure I wasn't slandering him. What a wind-bag! Kahn is also the reason the FCC withdrew their standardization for C-QuAM. ... he and his lawyers sued them. He also sued receiver makers, who incorporated C-QuAM stereo. And that is absolutely what killed AM stereo."
4WK IN DARLING DOWNS, QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA LAUNCHES FULL STEREO SEPARATION TO THEIR BROADCAST DAY
Marc McCreadie, who is 2CA’s program director, is very pleased to report that Australia now has a new AM stereo station in operation, due to the enthusiasm, efforts, and hard work of 4WK Manager Paul James Batchelor, Brandon Gordon (VK4VIP), Andrew Chapman, and others. AM stereo card was added to Broadcast Electronics transmitter model AM6A to make it happen. Marc was the former announcer at 7AD Devonport.
WATCH FRONT PANEL LIGHT UP !!!
Play the video by clicking here>>
BROADCAST ELECTRONICS AM6A TRANSMITTER PLAYING DOOBIE BROTHERS.
"BATTLE OF THE BANDS"-- DIGITAL DAB+ VERSUS ANALOG C-QuAM
HIGH QUALITY PRO1k AND AMX2000 TUNERS WERE FEATURED IN Australian hi-fi MAGAZINE JULY-AUGUST 2011 ISSUE !!
Australian hi-fi magazine is Australia's number-one premiere guide to home audio and home theatre technology. In the Australian hi-fi July-August 2011 magazine issue, beginning on page 82, Timoshenko Aslanides discusses analog AM stereo C-QuAM broadcasting to the more recent broadcasts from AM medium wave stations using the new DAB+ digital stereo technology in Australia. Timoshenko listened to 2CA from Canberra using his meduci AMX2000 tuner, and he directly compared those analog stereo signals to the simultaneous DAB+ digital audio stereo broadcasts. Can you guess which technology format was victorious in the listening wars, and which won the battle of the radio bands? Read this feature article here>> by clicking on this link. 2CA, as heard at 1053 kHz in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, later discontinued their analog C-QuAM stereo broadcasts to their listeners in October 2017, due to some fault in the audio chain, and/or with their Harris C-QuAM stereo exciter. 2CA Program Director Marc McCreadie said that he did not have the knowledge to repair the fault. He requested for some technical assistance. Please contact Marc to get 2CA returned to analog AM stereo.
WOAP "STEREO 10-8-0 THE O" RETURNS AM STEREO MUSIC IN C-QuAM FORMAT TO THEIR MANY LISTENERS IN OWOSSO, MID-MICHIGAN!
WOAP HAS "SEEN THE LIGHT" (THE STEREO LIGHT, THAT IS) -- THEY DECIDED TO DEPLOY THE STEREO CARD AT THEIR TRANSMITTER AND TO REWIRE THEIR ENTIRE SOUND STUDIO FOR LOCAL STEREO ORIGINATION!
WOAP station management confirms that on Monday, February 2th, 2015 "SUPER HITS WOAP STEREO 1080" stereo music is broadcasting again from their huge tower in Owosso, Michigan USA. WOAP has a very wide listening range, serving Owosso, Corunna, Shiawassee County, and approximately 475,000 potential listeners during the day. If you love super hit music, you will be crazy about SUPER HITS WOAP STEREO 1080!
According to reception reports -- from Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, and Flint, to other Michigan cities -- they have not lost any coverage and signal strength since their AM stereo signal was re-launched! They conducted a two-week test to prove it.
You can also stream in stereo world-wide at>> SUPER HITS WOAP STEREO 1080. Their full program schedule is also on display.
We received a very nice note from Tony Burkhead (Operations Manager/Co-Owner at Modulation Media Group) on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 confirming that WOAP(AM) was broadcasting BIG oldies stereo music, which lasted for approximately one year, until brokered mono programing returned to the air. Congratulations WOAP on your successful re-launch for your AM stereo station in 2015! Thank you for sharing this fantastic grand news! Your music format is ideal for AM stereo. Please let the stereo music stay ON-AIR this time!
CONGRATULATIONS TO WOKR(AM) IN ROCHESTER, NEW YORK -- NOW BROADCASTING CBS SPORTS RADIO NETWORK IN C-QuAM STEREO !!
We received a very nice e-mail from Brian P. McGlynn (President / CEO at Genesee Media Corporation) on Sunday, February 22nd, 2015 confirming that WOKR(AM) "THE TEAM 1310" is now broadcasting sports from national CBS Sports Radio Network in Canandaigua, New York USA. Brian says, "This year, I hope to switch WDNY and WRSB to stereo as well. The equipment is in place for WDNY, whereas WRSB needs some custom equipment to boost the PWM modulator to 72vpp to interface with the Nautel rig." WOKR also operates their mono FM translator station, temporarily being fed off-air from WRSB-AM using Carver TX-11a tuner. Conratulations, Brian and WRSB staff. Keep up the great work.
KYET AM STEREO 1170 BROADCASTS C-QuAM STEREO WITH CLASSIC TRADITIONAL COUNTRY MUSIC FORMAT INTO MOHAVE COUNTY ARIZONA!
KYET(AM) in Kingman, Arizona signed on for the first time at 1170 kHz on October 14th, 2012. KYET is owned by broadcast veteran Joe Hart and Route 66 Broadcasting company. They have Harris DX-10 transmitter combined with the ever elusive Harris STX-1B AM stereo C-QuAM exciter. KYET is licensed by the FCC for 6kW days and one-watt nights into an omni-directional antenna pattern.
KYET's Chief Engineer says that they experienced very little difficulty in making their Harris transmitter play with the Harris stereo exciter. Rather, it was much more challenging to get the stereophonic sound from the studio to their transmitter site. "Most AM stations only need either a single narrow-band STL channel, or a dry telco circuit, or even in some cases, a POTS [plain old telephone service] line. But because we are an AM stereo music station, we need the best sounding dual-channel STL possible." KYET's transmitter is approximately 2.5 miles from the studio, and it sits on the other side of a mountain pass. So not even the tip of the 190-foot tall tower, near the junction of US93 and SR68, is visible from the roof. "Because there was no [telephone] service to our area, and the nearest telco junction box is 7,500 feet away, the local phone company wanted $42,000 to run a single residential grade phone line, with no guarantee DSL would work on it. About the only thing we could do was to partner with Datamax Wireless, who brings us 20Mbps up and down to make the I.P-based STL run. And that is actually better than the DSL connection we have at the station," says KYET's Chief Engineer. "We are currently using a pair of Barix Exstreamer 500's running MP3 compression 16-bit Stereo 48kHz, at about 256kbps, and it sounds pretty good when it hits the air. ... We are using the built-in limiter, typically running at six to 10dB of compression, and there is no other audio enhancement gear in the air chain." Since the exciter sat unused for about 12 years, the power supply required some initial repair, and the exciter was also recently modified to provide the proper NRSC pre-emphasis curve, with 10 kHz low-pass filtering.
KYET claims to be heard in Barstow, California, Wickenburg, California and loud and clear to north Las Vegas, Nevada. KYET will originate local news and talk, while maintaining the traditional country music format.
ALBUM ROCK 540 WXYG LAUNCHED AM STEREO IN SAUK RAPIDS, MINNESOTA!
WXYG "THE GOAT" now broadcasts magnificent C-QuAM AM STEREO to their many listeners in St. Cloud and all of central Minnesota, as of Friday, May 3, 2013. WXYG formats album oriented rock music, playing from a large library of deep classic rock album cuts. WXYG is locally owned and operated, not a satellite feed from somewhere. WXYG's goal is to make the music they play an (un)boring listening experience. There is so much great music from the golden age of the progressive rock era. Therefore, this is not a classic rock station where they play the same 200 songs over and over again. Now presenting a new age in broadcast radio - WXYG returns the power of great music to the people. WXYG was officially launched at 5:40 A.M. on June 25, 2011 -- which was owner Herb Hoppe's 77th birthday! WXYG has Nautel ND1 transmitter with Gates BC-1G as back-up transmitter. WXYG power is 250 watts day/night using four towers from their daytime pattern, as well as three towers on their night transmission pattern.
WYLD IN NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA BROADCASTS URBAN GOSPEL FULL TIME AM STEREO IN THE "BIG EASY"
AM stereo has returned to the New Orleans, Louisiana "Big Easy" USA radio market !! Chris Boone, an avid medium wave stereo lover, wired the WYLD(AM) 940KHz station studio and transmitter for full stereophonic C-QuAM sound on April 27, 2020. Chris placed the existing tired Broadcast Electronics 10,000-watt AM10 medium wave transmitter into secondary service, after ordering and deploying the new Nautel NX10 STEREO READY "out of the box" transmitter. This new transmitter had to be un-crated from its wood shipping container outside, in order to fit it into the door of the WYLD transmitter room! That took the crane crew three minutes, at most. Chris took the time to check the directional transmitter arrays with the OIB, wired the new remote control, and prepared the studio-to-transmitter link in stereo.
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