Tough to find good music on commercial radio

[W2NBC]

Tired of "talk" radio? No problem!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPOpCGttGvE

change the settings to 720 HD

Maybe not a great idea.. 

[Steve - K4HX]

Sounds like the old days on 75 meters. Good audio. Did anything follow this? I haven't heard a music QSO in a long time.

[flintstone mop]

It brings back the beginning days of my radio listening. Listening to the music stations from the 60's. The big 50kw stations and that nice sound.
The 75M station was exceptional audio. Nice balance of EQ and good processing.
I bet there are a large number of radio listeners that would love to listen to music like that again without a lot of chatter and commercials.
How would the Feces react to a request from Amateurs to be able to play music, commercial free. It might renew interest in SWL. The Ham op is allowed two songs and signs off....how 'bout that??...
Thank you Ham op on 3873. I prefer the radio sound on AM. FM is not interesting and the internet MP3's are boring. Good AM audio takes a lot of work!!!!
But if it is wasn't regulated that nice audio from 3873 would have been jammed or covered over by a carrier. It was a surprise performance that accidentally got through.
I liked the gentle fading. I grew up on the AM BC band and listening to music stations out of town. Washington DC had horrible sounding radio stations. At night it was difficult to receive them coz they were 5kw stations protecting other AMers and were un-listenable. So, I tuned to out of town stations. WKBW, CKLW, WOWO, KYW ( Cleveland) and a few others.
The 50kw stations had that nice big sound. I'm nut about audio and good sound. That's why I'm rambling on about the 3873 station link.
Fred

[kb3ouk]

I believe South Africa lets their hams play music, I know there are some rules as to what bands and how often, they can't just play it continuously, there's a limit to how many songs over a period of time.

[VE3AJM]

I suppose that the music heard on 3873 was preferable to the commonplace nightly held QSOs there, often laden with profanities and intentional interference, and 25kc+ wide audio bandwidth.

I'm certain that those in the QSO on 3885  or QSOs lower down the band weren't as gleeful about the music, since their QSO was getting torn up by the music trash. But who cares about that. Its all about the music and the guy spinning the tunes.

Al VE3AJM

[Steve - K4HX]

Anytime anyone hits the transit button, it's all about them. 

[KA0HCP]

When I was stationed in Bermuda (VP9) in the mid-80's the regulations permitted an amateur to play one side of a record per day, as many times as desired!  Presumably that was a 78 record, with the purpose of doing audio checks. 

[K9DXL]

AM radio from my youth:  WLS all day, CKLW and "Seventy-Seven" WABC with Cousin Brucie at night.  Hot tunes, hot signals!

[Jeff W9GY]

Yup, good 'ol top-40 AM radio.  Especially W-L-S - in Chicago. Sure miss the stuff and I can't take the current political diatribe that exists the BCB 

[K9DXL]

Oh yes, I DO agree about that.  Sometimes I listen to "Zoomer" radio 740 out of Canada.  Great programming, but it has to be late at night for my QTH.

[WA2ONK]

I listen to Zoomer quite a bit lately. When the off air reception isn't so great, I listen on the computer.... http://www.zoomerradio.ca/

[n1ps]

Its been WW3 of late on early evenings on 75 in the northeast.   Nice music though  .  Very strong signal with no fading.  Which SDR software is it showing? 

[flintstone mop]

Flex Radio software 2.0.2???

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Flex Radio software 2.0.2???

It's V2.0.22 released March 28, 2011: http://support.flex-radio.com/Downloads.aspx?id=363

[Steve - K4HX]

V2.0.22 sounds so much better than V2.0.21.

[AJ1G]

..which Is why I pretty much use Pandora from my iPhone and into the vehicle sound system via a Bluetooth link now for music on the  road.  Generally just use the radio for local news and sports content.

The vast amount of content and ability to tailor your statons to a particular genre on Pandora blows away anything available over the air...its really amazing the new artists and content you get exposed to when you set up your channels.  And no selective fading...although I kind of miss that sometimes.

[kb3ouk]

And no selective fading...although I kind of miss that sometimes.

That was my favorite part of listening to music on shortwave was the selective fading, it just adds something to each song that I can't describe. Listening to the same music on FM or the internet just doesn't feel the same after hearing it on shortwave and AM.

[K1JJ]

That was my favorite part of listening to music on shortwave was the selective fading, it just adds something to each song that I can't describe. Listening to the same music on FM or the internet just doesn't feel the same after hearing it on shortwave and AM.

For a double dose of selective fading and phasing, listen to "The Big Hurt" on AM radio.

This was the first record (1959) that used two recordings staggered in time to produce a trippy Loran-type phasing sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlE6eHEENg4

T

[Jeff W9GY]

I think that scheme used on "The Big Hurt" is called 'flangeing'  having to do with using your had to slow the tape recorder reel flange causing phase changes.  Now can be done electronically, no need for a tape machine.

[kb3ouk]

Well you're both right. One way of doing flanging involved two copies of the same recording being played in sync on two serperate players (like what Tom said). By slowing down one of them just slightly, that caused the audio to go out of phase, which created the flange effect. Another way was to just slow down the tape as it was being recorded (like Jeff said).

[K9DXL]

"Think of how we'd lay down together
We'd be listening to the radio so loud and so strong
Every golden nugget coming like a gift of the gods
Someone must have blessed us when he gave us those songs "
-- from Rock And Roll Dreams by Meatloaf

Remember a college or high school summer night parked in that spot all the kids knew about... someone special with you as you listened to those great songs clawing their way through the skywave with maybe a lightning crackle from a storm 500 miles away... a little distortion, a fade but then back stronger than ever with a message from Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge, a quick time check and here come The Doors with "Riders on the Storm" as that mighty 50KW carrier blankets car radios and transistor sets hidden under pillows everywhere... hope, heartbreak, love, and youthful optimism.

Yes, my friend, we may understand the physics, but real radio is mystical and magical still.  Internet streaming may be easier and more convenient but the wonder is missing.

[Steve - K4HX]

Riders On the Storm was much better on FM and a set of headphones. That said, there's nothing like some AM BC band fade with just a hint of a 10 kHz heterodyne way in the background.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I still have Riders On the Storm on Quadradisc. For those that don't remember, that's 4 channels per track on a vinyl record. Used the thunder sequence in one of my son's high school plays. One of our future leaders was manning the audio board and cranked up the volume and scared the heck out of the audience in the first dozen rows or so.

[Opcom]

How many channels were used for that audience? Was it a large hall?

Still trying to figure out why more than two channels are advantageous in a home environment, since quad was brought up. It was popular for a while, then not so.. and the gear and media is prized today, in the face of even more speakers in 'home theater' sound systems.

Can someone explain why rear channels are an improvement?

Let alone the weird setup on a modern PC where it has front and rear channels which are the regular 'quadrophonic' 4 channel setup, plus a front center speaker and a subwoofer, and also two 'side' speakers.

Can an ear tell if the sound is from the front or back? I have never been able to really judge it but I think no.

[flintstone mop]

Quadraphonic was a multiplexed signal on the vinyl disc. I cannot remember if there had to be a special pick up or phono cartridge. The supersonic signals were decoded in a separate box to split the audio into four channels.
I do not think it went over well for music.
The 5.1 sound was surround sound for movies. left/right front, left/right rear for sound effects and some dialogue, center channel for dialouge, and the .1 sound for effects...subwoofer.
The Quadraphonic sound was not split up like 5.1 with a bass channel

for your reading pleasure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadraphonic_sound