Vintage HiFi Audio Forum
PoLiTiCs => What's on your cranium??? => Topic started by: confused on August 03, 2011, 07:19:04 PM
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I am sitting here fondly recalling FM in the old days, especially before it went commercial. In those days I was a budding audiophile and loved the stereo and better frequency resxponse. Programming was unbelieivable in those days, since there was no commercial incentive to play to any specific audience. Often you would get whole albums uninterrupted. Today, FM plays the same dreck as AM did in the old days. Music is sliced and diced and categorized to death, then interrupted by puerile DJs and obnoxious commercials.
This whole train of thought was started when a buddy told me that a friend of his was dumping his tuner collection, because there are no more radio stations in Chicago worth listening to. All the programming has been taken over by the syndicates with the music coming from hard drives, heavily compressed to save space.
Finally if this is the fate of Chicago, how much longer until PGH ends up in the same boat! We already lost DUQ. :'( Is QED or YEP next? :(
I will finish with a plea to support local radio while it still exists.
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My Dad broadcast a classical music show from MIT in Cambridge, MA back in the early 70's called Cantate Domino. It was WTBS back before the Superstation took over the call letters from MIT. He played actual albums, whole albums and actually discussed what was to be heard. No commercials other than a public service announcement here and there.
It's sad, all this commercialism, and I agree; support local radio!
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We already lost DUQ. :'(
What is worse, it will become a propaganda source for the left wing progessives. Public radio unbiased my ass! >:
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YEP bought DUQ. YEP is great and they aren't going anywhere any time soon.
@ schwarcw: public radio used to be unbiased until Dubya installed Kenneth Tomlinson. Now NPR leans slightly right though I give DUQ a lot of credit for remaining neutral. The only place in Pittsburgh to hear "left wing propaganda" is on a two hour morning show carried by one of the college stations (perhaps CMU, but I don't recall for sure) called "Democracy Now". Given the abundance of fascist propaganda on both dials, I can't see what you have to complain about.
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BTW, typing in big letters doesn't make you correct. Just thought you should know.
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I have no problem with talk radio, left or right. No matter which way you lean, it is important to know what the other side thinks. I listen to both and find that I occasionally agree with "the other side". BUT, why waste the quality of the FM band with talk!! Put it in on AM where it belongs.
And while I am on the subject, digital radio sucks too. If I want to listen to MP3, I will turn on my computer, or listen to what passes for "CD quality" music on theTV.
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I completely agree. I had a rental recently with XM in it. I literally couldn't even listen to the thing.
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BTW, typing in big letters doesn't make you correct. Just thought you should know.
Of course it don't me correct, my response is large and bold to express my emotion and some frustration. I believe the Country as a whole is center leaning right. WYEP new broadcast and some of their special programs are far from center. The Environmental Front, Gay and Lebian programming and some of the news stories are too skewed. I don't think that Christian or orthodox Hebrew music and programming need to be there either. Nor do I think that Rush and Glen Beck should be there. The news and special programming should report a balanced perspective My concern is the new owners and management continue some fo the WYEP programing. Which in my opinion, is not balanced. Only time will tell.
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I have no problem with talk radio, left or right. No matter which way you lean, it is important to know what the other side thinks. I listen to both and find that I occasionally agree with "the other side". BUT, why waste the quality of the FM band with talk!!
I agree also! Currently, WYEP does a poor job of this. The Board and Chairman of WYEP are now running the programming and I assume the content of the news programming at WDUQ.
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LOL
That's why there's a dial. Don't listen to what you don't like. ;D
Bill Cain
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WYEP is independant and run by Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation, while DUQ was bought out by a conglomerate Essential Public Media (EPM) in a partnership with WYEP. From what I understand EPM has control over programming, and modeled it after WBEZ in Chicago.
I think Ferraro has almost ruined WYEP, removing all the cool late night programming. If they stop broadcasting blues, that will be the end of the station.
I was an avid listener and a member for years before they went off the air, and have not been a really big fan since their return. Hell, I still miss Buck Bryce in the morning! (Anyone remember him?)
At least they still broadcast a listenable signal.
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Yeah, and those damn duck-tailed hoodlums wanna play that race music and jump around like a bunch of monkeys. Why, that'll be the end of western civilization, as we know it!!!! It's them damn Commies, plotting to take us over. We never had problems like this when real Americans listened to real American music, like Glenn Miller. I'll never understand why we have to have 45 and 33 1/3 rpm records. Everyone knows that 78 rpm is superior, cause it's faster. They just want to cheat us. Did you see the size of the hole in a 45 record? It's shameful.
Bill Cain
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I believe the Country as a whole is center leaning right.
I suspect this is probably true, but I don't think it beckons broadcasters to follow suit. Truth, rather than public opinion, should be the guide. Just as in the 1960s most Americans favored segregation, now most Americans favor unequal marriage rights, etc.. I think a good, responsible media (like the one I've heard from DUQ and seems to have remained largely in tact through the transition) has done a nice job of factually presenting both sides of a given debate.
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My concern is the new owners and management continue some fo the WYEP programing.
http://www.essentialpublicradio.org/sites/default/files/program_schedules/July2011.pdf (http://www.essentialpublicradio.org/sites/default/files/program_schedules/July2011.pdf)
Allegheny Front is in their line up but The Homo Show seems to have disappeared. That should make you happy.
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Who is paying for WDUQ now ?
It can't be listener supported.
Jazz is important to Pittsburgh.
I say bring it back!
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HD radio may not live up to it's potential from a signal quality standpoint, but there is some 1970s style limited commercial broadcasting and a deeper play list on many of the channels (that aren't rebroadcasting KDKA AM). Analog FM mostly sucks as noted, but if one is patient, there is some decent programming during the off hours, or with a decent antenna, in the fringes. We are lucky to have three "public" stations in a market the size of Pittsburgh, regardless of the nature of the programming.
If any one is tired of FM and wants to sell their tuners, please let me know.
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The three public broadcast stations are nice. To lose one that had great jazz programming to become a talking head format of any content is a loss. The commerical stations drive me nuts with the advertising. I've got Sirrus in the car but the quality is not that great. I think I read somewhere the bit rate is like 128. Maybe somebody can confirm that. A good tuner, Yagi antenna on the roof and a commercial free or limited commercial station with good music is great to have. But is becomming a thing of the past. Let's hope WQED and WYEP can stay away from becomming commercial radio or 24 hour talk of any kind.
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My Jazz station is gone. I don't want to hear verbal spew from either side. Time to start making cassettes for the van.
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Still listener supported, just no longer college affiliated.
Maybe jazz could move to 104.7. That frequency isn't being used for anything worthwhile.
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My Jazz station is gone. I don't want to hear verbal spew from either side.
My sentiments exactly.
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I think i'll keep my tuners even if there's nothing to listen to just like i'm keeping my antique TVs that no longer receive anything.
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I'll keep my tuners as well. However, unlike the antique TVs that can still be fed a signal (even if RFd from some other source), once the FM band is gone, so will be the need for the tuners (why convert phono or CD signals to play through a tuner-at lease old TVs can serve as monitors)
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now most Americans favor unequal marriage rights, etc..
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? ? ?
like in a divorce? where the women gets 90% and the guy gets sent unto the dark frozen barren wastelands of financial prison for years..... >:( >:( >:(
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I know we are going way off topic here, but since you brought it up...
I don't believe in divorce. Everyone who opposes gay marriage because "the Bible tells them to" (which it does, I just don't think that is the true motivation for most people) should also push for an abolition of divorce. The scripture has much more to say about divorce than it does about homosexuality.
markshan - married for 21 years. (Sixteen of them happily!)
BTW, I also am convinced that about 90% of the time a divorce is the man's fault.
(Everyone here is going to hate me before they have even met me.)
now most Americans favor unequal marriage rights, etc..
[/quote]
? ? ?
like in a divorce? where the women gets 90% and the guy gets sent unto the dark frozen barren wastelands of financial prison for years..... >:( >:( >:(
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Still listener supported, just no longer college affiliated.
Maybe jazz could move to 104.7. That frequency isn't being used for anything worthwhile.
Amen to that!
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Regardless of our differing political views, 104.7 does have sports on the air. Sometimes I find it more enjoyable to listen to a baseball game than to watch it on TV.
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Well, hang on...I did stumble upon the Kim Komando show not too long ago, which is a great show. I also catch the occasional Bucco game on there. But otherwise, yeah, their programming is crap.
And let's be honest...you'll never get "CD quality" sound over the air - it just won't happen. If you're a music lover, satellite is the way to go. So much variety, decent sound quality, and (on the Sirius side anyway) little to no commercials. Commercial radio, on the other hand, is a vast wasteland these days.
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You might be surprised at how FM can sound with a 5 gang tuner and an external antenna. 91.9 is only a few thousand watts, as is 103.1. Both sound phenomenal at my parents house near Uniontown.
That being said, I don't listen that often. :)
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You might be surprised at how FM can sound with a 5 gang tuner and an external antenna.
No static at all.
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And let's be honest...you'll never get "CD quality" sound over the air - it just won't happen. If you're a music lover, satellite is the way to go. So much variety, decent sound quality, and (on the Sirius side anyway) little to no commercials. Commercial radio, on the other hand, is a vast wasteland these days.
I think that an average FM broadcast sounds significantly better than my experience with XM radio. I found it absolutely unlistenable, fingernails on a chalkboard bad. I wish it weren't so, as a commercial free Americana station is of strong appeal to me.