radio free mount airy

Travel Notes #1

Payola doublespeak

According the the Washington Post, the "big four" have negotiated a $12.5 million payola settlement with the FCC as a result of taking bribes from record companies to push music onto the airwaves. Quoting from the article:

Andy Levin, Clear Channel's executive vice president, said in a statement that his company has "devoted tremendous resources" to preventing payola at its stations. "While no violations were found," he said, "we are pleased to announce that Clear Channel has agreed to settle this longstanding payola investigation with the FCC. We believe it is time to close the door on this ongoing inquiry and move forward."

So, let me get this straight. Clear Channel pays the FCC $3.5 million to settle, and yet no violations were found? What's going on here?

WGMS flips to 'George' and WETA gets back into classical

I noticed this morning that WETA 90.9 has indeed dropped all news/talk and switched to classical, and that the former WGMS 103.9//104.1 has adopted a Jack-like format called 'George' and is playing nonstop crappy pop hits from the eighties and nineties.

There's no sign of change on WAMU 88.5 as yet. However the shuffle has only just started, since a number of people lost their jobs at both 103.9//104.1 and WETA yesterday.

WGMS’s owners had been in talks with upcoming media mogul and Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder recently. Snyder's Red Zebra sports network has gobbled up a number of lower powered AMers with weak DC metro signal coverage and Snyder is seeking to expand this drivel onto the FM band. However word is that WGMS gummed up the deal by asking too much money for WGMS and blabbing to the Washington Post as negotiations continued. So the new 'George' format may only be a temporary stunt while the real goal is to further destroy the FM band here with non-stop meaningless testosterone talk about the intricacies of professional sports bordered by commercials for all sorts of junk. After all, we already have a classic-rock station in WARW 94.7, a pop-leaning classic rock WBIG 100.3, and a “hot AC” WRQX 107.3, all which would appear to compete in some way with the new WXGG.

All this gossip is documented on the very fine dctrv.com website.

I’m glad to see classical survive on WETA. I was always baffled at why WETA switched to exactly the same news/talk format as WAMU, especially since we also have WCSP 90.1 doing non-stop “public affairs” programming as C-Span Radio on 90.1 (not to mention the liberals on Pacifica’s WPFW 89.3). However the realization that a stupid sports network may take up all that bandwidth on the FM dial is very disillusioning, and such an outcome makes sense only for the megabucks corporations that own the public airwaves here.

Oh, and I thought WETA was a public broadcasting station. Sure, they don’t run “commercials,” but they’re engaging in “cross-promotion” with the former WGMS? I guess you need to consult a lawyer as to the definition of what constitutes a “commercial” on a “non-commercial” radio station.

New Howard County TIS

Wednesday, Novemver 29, 2006, 1430, 1700. One of the new Howard County TIS services is sending out a reasonable signal into north-central Montgomery County. WQMV923 noted here with call letters and ID "Howard County Government AM 1700" and a tape loop of emergency preparedness PSAs. The station's putting out a fair to good signal from home to work at an average distance of around 8 miles.

FCC data for this station puts it off of Tridelphia Road south of MD 144 with an EIRP of 10 watts.

This is part of a cluster of stations run by Howard County's Office of Emergency Management, as reported in DX Listening Digest 6127 and 6117.

Howard's TIS has a better sounding signal in neighboring Montgomery County than either of the Montgomery County's TIS stations, WPBJ222 AM 570 and WPDD643 AM 1070. Nothing is generally heard on 570, and 1070 is always weak, bothered, and frequently putting out bad audio, even though I drive within a couple of thousand feet of one of 1070's transmiiters twice every day.

I've questioned the utility of the Montgomery County system a couple of times in the past. Montgomery County's two TIS clusters say they provide up-to-date traffic and travel information for the I-270 corridor (570) and US-29 corridor (1070) and they claim to broadcast in parallel. It seems silly and wasteful to have tax dollars funding twelve scratchy, weak and unlistenable stations broadcasting traffic information, when every commercial news station in the metropolitan area has up-to-date and regular traffic reports once every five minutes or so.

Howard County's system is providing a good public service as a standby network. Monkey County's needs some work. I say give both networks to the public school system, and let the high schools develop future broadcast professionals by running the public airwaves.

More FM repeaters, given to commercial interests

Fron the outstanding dcrtv.com:

Bethesda Boost For WGMS - 11/28 - DCRTV hears that the Federal Communications Commission has approved a 25-watt Bethesda repeater for WGMS on 104.1 FM. "Starting this morning, Bethesda has its own licensed classical music station," says an area radio source. "It should make for a much stronger WGMS all around downtown Bethesda, maybe some of the surrounding areas as well." The WGMS signal has suffered in lower Montgomery and northwest DC since January, when owner Bonneville flipped the classical station from DC-based 103.5 (now all-news WTOP) to Waldorf's 104.1 and Frederick's 103.9.....

While I applaud efforts to get classical music station to more listeners, I can reliably receive the existing 104.1 and 103.9 here with reasonable signals from both. I find it dismaying that WGMS can get a license for a commercial repeater in the dense Washington suburbs, but available airspace for non-commercial low power community FMs is non-existent anywhere in the region.

Hero

R. E. Lopez

Kook radio on medium wave

I was awfully surprised to hear programming from the Genesis Communications Network on the AM dial here yesterday, as I always associated GCN with the type of fringe programming more suitable to the shortwave band. But, clear and strong on Gaithersburg's WMET 1160 appeared a discussion with an author of a new book on how to impeach President Bush, and some typical GCN paranoid conspiracy theory snake oil commercials. Further digging reveals that this show is called Culture Shocks which is indeed on CGN's schedule.

WMET is running all brokered programming now, which explains how fringe GCN programming has appeared on the schedule. It's not all Bizarro Radio, though; we have the Greaseman show weekdays from 6 to 10am eastern time, and Best of the Greasemen Saturday from 6 to 8pm eastern time.

The station does have a webcast, as well as podcasts for some of the shows.

Yet another silly radio gimmick

As documented on The Denver Channel and The Fresno Bee, KFYE, a 16 KW FM station in Kingsburg, California, has switched from a religious format to something called "Porn Radio," "all sex, all the time." KFYE was formerly running the K-LOVE religious network, which is one of those outfits that abuses the FCC's translator rules by squeezing out potential community radio frequencies with it's bland, generic drivel on hundreds of translators.

Porn Radio is quite a novel use for the airwaves. One can only wonder what people tuning in to 106.3 for a healthy dose fo preaching or some hymns think when they hear "Strokin'" by Clarence Carter.

This is better than shortwave kook/religious nutball station WWRB playing disco music.

Fowler Beach: DXing the FM band

We had quite a few surprises from our FM band scan at Fowler Beach on Monday, including a couple of low power translators and booming signals from many Philadelphia FMs.

1530-1615 UTC FM bandcsan. Monday, July 24, 2006, Fowler Beach, Delaware.

88.1 Unid. religious, Jesus music. excellent.
89.1 WWCJ Cape May NJ. classical music, Aaron Copeland. excellent.
89.5 WSCL Salisbury MD. "WSCL classical music from delmarva." announced Mozart, Strauss, List, Handel coming up. excellent.
90.1 WRTI Philadelphia. classical. good.
90.3 WNJZ Cape May NJ. NPR, Diane Rehm show. excellent.
90.7 WSDL Ocean City MD. NPR, Diane Rehm (//90.3). excellent.
91.3 WRTQ Ocean City NJ. classical. good.
91.7 WRTX Dover DE. //91.3. excellent.
92.1 WLBW Fenwick Island DE. motown music. good.
92.3 W222AL Cape May NJ (55 watts!). religious music. good.
92.7 WGMD Rehoboth Beach DE. seemingly endless commercials for beach shopping, sterling optical, etc. excellent.
92.9 WDSD Smyrna DE. country music. excellent.
93.1 WDTH Wildwood NJ. urban contemporary music. excellent.
93.3 WMMR Philadelphia. music by Led Zeppelin. bothered by 93.1. fair.
93.5 WZBH Millsboro DE. "The Beach." active rock music. excellent.
93.7 WSTW Wilmington DE. commercial for storm windows, mentioned web site delmarva.com. good.
94.1 WYSP Philadelphia. morning zoo-style radio show. lots of discussion about penises associated with a virgin mary statue. "people are so eff-ed up." "Jeezus!" wiped out by 94.3, fair.
94.3 WILW Avalon NJ. commercial for New Jersey blueberries. excellent.
94.7 WRDX Dover DE. music by The Beatles, "Let It Be." excellent.
95.1 WAYV Atlantic City NJ. "95 point 1 WAYV at work rocks." excellent.
95.3 WKDB Laurel DE. music by the Red Hot Chili Peppers "Dani California." excellent.
95.7 WBEN Philadelphia. many commercials. slightly scratchy audio. excellent.
95.9 WOSC Bethany Beach DE. music by Peral Jam. excellent.
96.1 WTTH Margate City NJ. "WTTH the touch." urban contemporary music. good.
96.5 WRDW Philadelphia. rap music. excellent.
96.7 WCEI Easton MD. light contemporary. bothered by 96.9. good.
96.9 WFPG Atlantic City NJ. "lite rock 96 point 9 WFPG." excellent.
97.3 WXKW Millville NJ. call in with jersey-accented caller. "NJ 101.5 and 97.3" ID. nj1015.com mentioned. excellent.
97.7 WAFL Milford DE. country-flavored contenporary music. excellent.
98.3 WTKU Ocean City NJ. music by Dionne Warwick. //AM 1490. excellent.
98.7 WCZT Villas NJ. adult contemporary dance music by Cher. excellent.
98.9 WSBY Salisbury MD. urban contemporary music. underneath 98.7. fair.
99.3 WZBZ Pleasantville NJ. commercial for New Jersey contemporary mortgage. excellent.
99.5 WJBR Wilmington DE. music by Loggins and Messina (odd for an oldie to be on what appears to be an AC station). excellent.
99.9 WWFG Ocean City MD. country music. excellent.
100.1 W261AE Camden DE (170 watts). preacher. good.
100.3 WPHI Philadelphia. "da hottest midday show." "new 100.3 the beat." rap, program sponsors in "Philly." excellent.
100.7 WZXL Wildwood NJ. commercial for Michelob Ultra beer, rock music. excellent.
101.1 WBEB Philadelphia. 80s music, "Don't you want me baby." underneath 101.3. fair.
101.3 WNCL Milford DE. commercial for delawarestatefair.com. Beach Boys tomorrow at the fair. interview with Mike Love tomorrow morning. cool1013.com. excellent.
101.7 WEZB Ocean View DE. commecial for various cosmetic products, "free refining face mask." excellent.
101.9 Unid. talk. underneath 101.7. fair.
102.3 WAIV Cape May NJ. commercial for Shop Rite. excellent.
102.7 WJSE Petersburg NJ. alternative/metal/active rock music. good.
102.9 WMGK Philadelphia. music by Steve Winwood "While You See A Chance." "number one classic rock station." House ad for a Saturday morning sixties show this weekend focusing on the Jefferson Airplane. "102.9 MGK." excellent.
103.5 WJKI Bethany Beach DE. music by Michael Jackson "I have been a victim of this savage kind of love." excellent.
103.7 WMGM Atlantic City NJ. music by Journey "Don't Stop Believin'" excellent.
103.9 WOCQ Berlin MD. rap/hip hop music. good.
104.1 Unid. country. fair.
104.5 WSNI Philadelphia. music by Rick James "Brick House." scratchy audio. good.
104.7 WQHQ Ocean City MD. music by Sting "If I ever lose my faith in you." excellent.
104.9 WSJO Egg Harbor City NJ. South Jersey traffic. "SOJO 104 9." excellent.
105.3 WDAS Philadelphia. smooth jazz. excellent.
105.5 WGBZ Cape May Court House NJ. rap music. "993thebuzz.com" excellent.
105.9 WXJN Lewes DE. "cat country." Delaware state fair mentioned. excellent.
106.1 WJJZ Philadelphia. "smooth jazz WJJZ 106.1." excellent.
106.3 W292CF Dover DE (55 watts). contemporary religious. "the reach fm." mentions WXHL and WVBH. "reaching out to 8 states." excellent.
106.7 WSJQ North Cape May NJ. "Hottest Jams." "Old School Lunch Hour" at 1602. "Q-107." excellent.
107.1 WTDK Federalsburg MD. music by the Hollies "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress." excellent.
107.3 WPUR Atlantic City NJ. country. excellent.
107.5 WKHI Fruitland MD. music by Jackson Brown "Running On Empty." good.
107.7 Unid. news. fair.
107.9 Unid. music. A couple of reasonably nearby LPFMs here, but not able to ID. fair.

Fowler Beach: DXing the AM band

Fowler Beach is a nice isolated beach on the Delaware Bay in the state of Delaware. It's bordered by the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, and is miles from any power source. This is a wonderful place to chill out and listen to the radio. On Monday we were treated to very good daytime reception across most of the bands. Here's the AM log.

Monday, July 24, 2006. Fowler Beach, Delaware.

1457-1530 UTC AM bandscan.

540 WGOP Pokomoke City MD. talk with mx underneath. good.
560 WFIL Philadelphia. Chester PA charity PSA. excellent.
570 WTNT Bethesda MD. talk. good.
580 WHP Harrisburg PA. commercial, talk. poor.
610 WIP Philadelphia. sports. excellent.
640 WWJZ Mount Holly NJ. "Radio Disney Philadelphia" ID at 1500. excellent.
660 WFAN New York. sports talk. excellent.
680 WCBM Baltimore. right wing talk. "Talk Radio 680 WBCM" ID. excellent.
710 WOR New York. news. excellent.
730 WXTR Alexandria VA. talk/news. fair.
740 WVCH Chester PA. religious. good.
750 WBMD Baltimore. religious. fair.
770 WABC New York. news. excellent.
790 WAEB Allentown PA. poor.
800 WTMR Camden NJ. religious. excellent.
830 WEEU Reading PA. news. excellent.
840 WKDI Denton MD. commercials. excellent.
860 WWDB Philadelphia. Fox news. good.
880 WCBS New York. news. excellent.
900 WJWL Georgetown DE. open carrier, fast untelligible spanish ID, music. excellent.
910 WSBA York PA. commercials, "WSBA News live and local." good.
930 WYUS Milford DE. hispanic rap. excellent.
950 WPEN Philadelphia. commercials, sports. excellent.
960 WTGM Salisbury MD. commercials, sports, good.
970 WBLF Bellefonte PA. talk, music underneath. fair.
980 WTEM Washington DC. golf coverage. good.
990 WNTP Philadelphia. commercial, "York Commercial System." good.
1010 WINS New York. local news, "midtown" mentioned, commercials. good.
1020 WIBG Ocean City NJ. religious. excellent.
1040 WCHR Flemington NJ. religious. good.
1060 KYW Philadelphia. news, Expedia commercial. excellent.
1090 WBAL Baltimore. news. excellent.
1100 WHLI Hempstead NY. news, sports, "Newark Bears" mentioned. good.
1120 WUST Washington DC. religious. good.
1130 WBBR New York. talk, business news, stock market. good.
1150 WDEL Wilmington DE. talk. excellent.
1160 WOBM Lakewood Township NJ. big band music. good.
1190 WBIS Annapolis MD. talk, with another station underneath. fair.
1210 WPHT Philadelphia. pitch for TV show called "the calling of the messiah." good.
1230 WCMC Wildwood NJ. commercial for nutrition supplement called "synergen", nostalgia. good.
1240 WSNJ Bridgeton NJ. talk about garden flowers, call ins. good.
1260 WAMS Newark DE. music "Everyday People." good.
1270 WMIZ Vineland NJ. hispanic music. good.
1280 WJWK Seaford DE. country song by Elvis presley. good.
1290 WWTX Wilmington DE. sports talk. good.
1300 WJFK Baltimore. sports talk. good.
1310 WEMG Camden NJ. hispanic music. good.
1320 WICO Salisbury MD. talk. Rush Windbag on at 1716 recheck. excellent.
1330 WJSS Havre de Grave MD. mortgage commercial. religious program at 1716 recheck. good.
1340 WMID Atlantic City NJ. music. "Classic oldies WMID." excellent.
1360 WNJC Vineland NJ. spanish news/talk, mentions Venezuela and Puerto Rico. good.
1370 WPAZ Pottstown PA. music. fair.
1380 WTMC Rehoboth Beach DE. Delaware Department of Transportation, Kent and Sussex County road info, state fair info. "WTMC 1380 DelDot with transmitters in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach." excellent.
1400 WOND Pleasantville NJ. talk. good.
1410 WDOV Dover DE. talk. excellent.
1430 WNAV Annapolis MD. music, John Cougar "Ain't that America." good.
1440 WMVB Millville NJ. talk. excellent.
1450 WENJ Atlantic City NJ. sports. fadey, talk underneath, poor/fair.
1470 WJDY Salisbury MD. gospel music. fair.
1480 WDAS Philadelphia. contemporary religious music. good.
1490 WTKU Pleasantville NJ. Al green-like song, then ID "cool town 98 3 motown monday," and into John Lennon's "Imagine." //FM 98.3. good.
1510 WFAI Salem NJ. gospel music. excellent.
1540 WNWR Philadelphia. french/russian news/talk. mentions "hezz boo lah." excellent.
1560 WQEW New York. "radio disney" good.
1570 WISP Doylestown PA. commerical for "inspiring music" with scary speakover using phrases such as "flesh rips open with each scourge," presumed bible tapes, lhla.org mentioned, and into "women in praise" live talk show. good.
1590 WFBR Glen Burnie MD. talk, asian language. good.
1600 WRJE Dover DE. gospel music. excellent.
1680 WTTN Lindenwold NJ. mellow hispanic music. excellent.

Satellite radio FM loggings

This is from fmqb.com via DX Listening Digest 6082:

Report: XM & Sirius May Halt Radio Production, May 30, 2006

Due to a small issue with FCC transmitter compliance rules, both XM and Sirius Satellite Radio may have to temporarily halt production on certain radios in order to address recent inquiries from the FCC. "The FCC issue could be more pervasive than previously believed," wrote analyst Jonathan Jacoby, according to a report from Forbes. "We believe that XM and Sirius could temporarily suspend retail shipments of certain radios, but the fix would be relatively quick and inexpensive and likely would not lead to stock-outs at retail."

So far, the devices in question are XM's SKYFi2 and Audiovox Xpress. The FCC has said that the transmitter for these devices is not in compliance with the operating bandwidth specifications of the commission's rules or the related emission limits. Other XM devices along with some from Sirius could possibly have compliance problems as well, says Forbes...

I was in Germantown, Maryland last Friday afternoon to run some errands, and as I've learned in this somewhat upscale and overdeveloped suburban area, there are many Part 15 FM transmitters that are continuously spewing forth all kinds of interesting programming onto the airwaves. While exiting the Box Store Lot onto Maryland 355, I caught something rare for the local FM broadcast band: profanity Yes, it was horrible, evil, profanity: Howard Stern's Sirius radio show spewing forth on FM 87.9 with a nice strong, clean signal. As I trudged my way up Frederick Road from Germantown to Frederick, I listened to the banalities of Howard's radio show for a half hour or so, about 20 miles up the highway until my satellite-equipped fellow commuter in traffic nearby made a turn and went quickly out of range.

Now this was a serious little so-called Part 15 transmitter. There were no fuzzies or fadings for the whole drive, just a smooth, clear and solid signal of Howard and his stories about trophy models and getting wasted and having hangovers in the big city at various parties and night clubs and feeling sorry for himself because his wife was on the west coast and he was all in a tizzy because he just spent eight million dollars on a house.

This had to have been the worst radio program I've listened to in a long while, not because of the frequent use of the word "fuck" and other profanities, but because the subject matter was incredibly stupid, banal, and utterly lacking in content of any type. Somehow, though, it was strangely compelling -- an escape, if you will -- from the endless sad stories of death, destruction and horror about the stupid meaningless war and the endless depths that Randi Rhodes goes to every weekday trying to make people wise up about the evil behind it.

Stern, it seems, is now the ultimate in junk food radio, kind of like Doritos for the mind. He can discuss absolutely nothing with his cronies and synchophants for hours on end and people are entertained, simply because his show's content is largely disposable. It's easily heard, easily forgotten, is absolutely meaningless, and largely irrelevant. It seems his broadcast does have a place. I'm not sure it's worth what Sirius paid for it, though.

Whiny billionaire causes idiotic local government to waste time

I've been watching this stupid story for some time now, and it's getting so incredibly ridiculous that I thought I'd take a moment to rant about it and clear my head.

Bill Requires Comcast To Broadcast Nats Games

(AP) WASHINGTON A bill that would require Comcast to put the Washington Nationals on television in the District was signed by Mayor Anthony A. Williams on Tuesday.

The measure would require the city and Comcast to enter into negotiations to explore getting the team's games on the air unless Comcast starts airing the games on Wednesday.

Most of Washington's games are shown on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which is owned by Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos.

Comcast is refusing the carry MASN because of a dispute with Angelos over the television rights to the Orioles.

The last two paragraphs tell the story. Peter Angelos, who has never done anything except for bitch, moan and whine as Major League Baseball moved the Expos to Washington, was thrown a bone by Baseball and was given control of his competitor's television coverage? Now that makes a hell of a lot of sense.

Angelos plans to move Orioles telecasts to MASN next season after their deal with Comcast SportsNet expires. Comcast is suing Angelos, contending that its contract was improperly terminated.

"This standoff was not created by Comcast, and I am not taking sides in the legal dispute that centers on the broadcast rights for these games," Williams said in a statement.

However, Williams said that having the games on television locally would help the team "build a broad fan base."

DUH! That would make a lot of sense. A lot more than giving control over the team's television rights to a whiny old bastard who was always openly hostile to the very creation of the team. Too bad it's an empty gesture, and like many legislative wastes of time perpetuated by the "DC Government" (a contradiction in terms), has no legal standing and is about as effective as the amazingly self-righeous morons who talk about DC politics on WAMU on Friday afternoons.

Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen said in a statement that the cable company "is working to find a solution that will put the Nats' games on TV immediately."

MASN was created by Angelos and Major League Baseball as compensation to Angelos for sharing television territory with the Nationals after they moved from Montreal last year. Angelos receives 90 percent of MASN's revenues this season.

I suppose Angelos "needs" a few more tens of millions of dollars, given that his Orioles revenue is shrinking. This might have something to do with the fact that he has never been able to field or sustain an Orioles team that was actually worth a shit.

The House Government Reform Committee had previously called on representatives from both Comcast and MASN to enter into negotiations and settle the television dispute.

Like that's gonna have any impact. This situation is a joke and is unbelieveably stupid. It smacks of whiny billionaires all bent out of shape because they got their weiner smacked because of competition. MASN? Comcast SportsNet? Who needs another cable television channel with more brain dead infomercials than actual content? I guess that 0.2 percent of the population who are your run-of-the-mill sports-is-everything jock types actually cares about this nonsense. The rest of us are disgusted. There's much better things to think about and act upon in this community and this world instead of caring at all about Billionaire Angelos, his crappy team, and his crappier television network.

Let's not forget that this is the same Peter Angelos who charged the state of Maryland a billion dollars for his representation in the corrupt tobacco settlement.

WTMD adds Grateful Dead

I wonder how long this has been on? Last evening at 8pm local time I caught the sounds of David Gans' Grateful Dead Hour on Towson's WTMD FM 89.7. This is the first time I've ever heard the GD Hour on a local station. Tonight they featured some Bill Kreutzman music that was very un-deadlike but still interesting.

Unfortunately I'm in WTMD's fringe zone so reception is marginal south of Mount Airy. This gives me another reason to complete construction of the Yagi.

WTOP Moves to FM (yawn)

Yeah, so the great DC radio switcheroo of 2006 happened and WTOP displaced WGMS and it's nice Class B 103.5 and demoted the classical station to the weaker 104.1 and 103.9, killing the pseudo-rocker Z-104 in the process. And even more, WTOP will be giving up AM 1500 and FM 107.7 to Washington Post Radio, what I've seen described as "NPR on caffeine."

Even though WTOP consistently ranks first in the Washington DC area radio market, it sucks. Okay, so they have great timely traffic reports, which really makes me realize even more the utter uselessness and wastefulness of the various weak and garbled Montgomery County-owned and operated traffic information AM stations. But come on, people! I listened to a news report on WTOP a couple of days ago that was so brief and cut up that it reminded me of one of Mr. F. E. Lemur's "PR Gnus" cut-ups of NPR News he posts on occasion to alt.binaries.slack. The typical WTOP news byte goes something like this:

Talking head: President Bush voiced criticism of Democrats this afternoon.

President Bush: They're wrong.

Talking head: He spoke from the steps of the Capitol. WTOP news time, eight oh four.

And this is a threat to National Public Radio on WAMU 88.5? As annoying as the stupid music in between news items on NPR is, it's nowhere near as annoying as the thirty commercials an hour crammed into WTOP. Hell, even Diane Rehm's delivery isn't as annoying as the incessant commercials on WTOP. WTOP's move may threaten WETA on 90.9, though. Who in the hell thought it was a good idea to put another NPR station on the dial so we could have dueling NPR's, especially when they sometimes have the same programming on at the same time? Maybe there's a market for it like there is for the non-stop wonking on C-Span Radio WCSP 90.1.

I suppose I should be thankful that The Washington Post may provide a more, say, balanced view of news when they arrive on the air, being as they're a bunch of commie liberals and gawd only knows we could use some balance to the idiots and morons like Rush Limbaugh and his many imitators who pollute the airwaves here (as if Amy Goodman's twice-weekdaily Democracy Now! on Pacifica's WPFW 89.3 doesn't qualify for a whole day's worth of left wing goodness all by itself). But a threat to NPR? NPR on caffeine? Unless you like spam with your caffeine this is going to be a hard sell. I seriously doubt that the new WTWP 1500/107.7 will have any less commercials rammed down our throats than the king of the hill, WTOP.

Is this a massive change in the terrestrial radio market that foments a new revival of the medium? Yawn.

Bring back bluegrass music on the drive home from work. Then maybe I'll start to give a crap whether of not WTOP kicks WAMU's butt.

Actionably indecent

From the good ol' FCC we have the following gem, extracted from Industry Guidance On the Commission's Case Law Interpreting 18 U.S.C. § 1464 and Enforcement Policies Regarding Broadcast Indecency (File No. EB-00-IH-0089) Policy Statement, dated March 14, 2001.

KGB-FM, San Diego, CA “Sit on My Face” Song

Sit on my face and tell me that you love me. I'll sit on your face and tell you I love you, too. I love to hear you moralize when I'm between your thighs. You blow me away. Sit on my face and let me embrace you. I'll sit on your face and then I'll love you (?) truly. Life can be fine, if we both sixty-nine. If we sit on faces (?) the ultimate place to play (?). We'll be blown away.

Indecent - NAL Issued. KGB, Inc. (KGB-FM), 7 FCC Rcd 3207 (MMB 1992), forfeiture reduced 13 FCC Rcd 16396 (1998) (forfeiture paid). The song was found to be actionably indecent despite English accent and “ambient noise” because the lyrics were sufficiently understandable. 7 FCC Rcd at 3207.

PMLOL! You'd at least think they'd get the lyrics right.

There is still hope on the FM dial

I had to run an errand to down to Snow Hill on Maryland's eastern shore today. The FM band is sure getting crowded in this area, even though the vast majority of the area is still largely undeveloped and rural. Wading through all of the plastic overprocessed clear channel muck, I came across WCTG 96.5 from Chincoteague, Virginia. I listened to a mix of mostly pop and rock music from the sixties through the nineties, with occasional IDs, community events, and weather. In over two hours I didn't hear a single commercial! There is no crossfading between songs; in fact quite the opposite -- a couple of seconds of silence between every song. The signal was nice and strong all the way up route 50 to past Vienna. It was kind of weird hearing a Linda Ronstadt song followed by a Zeppelin tune from Physical Graffitti, but this is a very interesting and listenable station.

More technical details and background on WCTG can be found at the excellent VARTV site.

He's a sick Republican sleazeball with the face of a horse's ass

Thanks to the Pab Subgenius Project and RNI's rebroadcast of Pab's most recent show, I came across a cute little ditty attributed to WNNX in Atlanta. The song is entitled "I'm A Nazi" and is sung by none other than Rush Limbaugh himself.

FCC Gives Mouse Co the Entire Electromagnetic Spectrum

A wonderful sound byte from WBCQ's late, lamented "You Are What You Think," originally broadcast on June 7, 2003 provides inspiration on the current state of radio industry regulation.

Boat Drinks Radio

For archival purposes, documented here is the current active 'island' playlist from Boat Drinks Radio on Live365.

Shortly we will begin a variant Boat Drinks Radio program on weekends on our 975 Pirate Radio webcast.

'Island' Playlist:

Beach Boys - All Summer Long
Beach Boys - God Only Knows
Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
Beach Boys - Kokomo
Beach Boys - Surfin Safari
Blondie - The Tide Is High
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Buffalo Soldier
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Could You Be Loved
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Exodus
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Get Up Stand Up
Bob Marley and The Wailers - I Shot The Sheriff
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Is This Love
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Jammimg
Bob Marley and The Wailers - No Woman No Cry
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Redemption Song
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Satisfy My Soul
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Stir It Up
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Three Little Birds
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Waiting In Vain
Brian Wilson - South America
Brian Wilson - Your Imagination
Carrick High School - Steel Drum Paradise12
Gipsy Kings - Caminando Por La Calle
Gipsy Kings - El Camino
Gipsy Kings - Liberte
Gipsy Kings - Mosaique
Gipsy Kings - Nina Morena
Gipsy Kings - Passion
Gipsy Kings - Serana
Gipsy Kings - Soy
Gipsy Kings - Trista Pena
Gipsy Kings - Vamos Bailar
Gipsy Kings - Viento Del Arena
Gipsy Kings - Volare
Harry Belafonte - Angelina
Harry Belafonte - Come Back Liza
Harry Belafonte - Jamaica Farewell
Harry Belafonte - Jump in the Line
Harry Belafonte - Kingston Market
Harry Belafonte - Matilda
Harry Belafonte - Sweetheart from Venezuela
Jimmy Buffett - A Pirate Looks At Forty
Jimmy Buffett - African Friend
Jimmy Buffett - Ballad Of Spider John
Jimmy Buffett - Biloxi
Jimmy Buffett - Boat Drinks
Jimmy Buffett - Brown Eyed Girl
Jimmy Buffett - California Promises
Jimmy Buffett - Changing Channels
Jimmy Buffett - Cheeseburger in Paradise
Jimmy Buffett - Christmas in the Caribbean
Jimmy Buffett - Coast Of Marseilles
Jimmy Buffett - Coconut Telegraph
Jimmy Buffett - Come Monday
Jimmy Buffett - Cuban Crime Of Passion
Jimmy Buffett - Defying Gravity
Jimmy Buffett - Distantly in Love
Jimmy Buffett - Domino College
Jimmy Buffett - Elvis Imitators
Jimmy Buffett - Everlasting Moon
Jimmy Buffett - Fins
Jimmy Buffett - First Look
Jimmy Buffett - Frank and Lola
Jimmy Buffett - Grapefruit - Jucy fruit
Jimmy Buffett - Havana Daydreamin
Jimmy Buffett - He Went To Paris
Jimmy Buffett - I Have Foune Me a Home
Jimmy Buffett - I Heard I Was In Town
Jimmy Buffett - Incommunicado
Jimmy Buffett - Island
Jimmy Buffett - Jolly Mon Sing
Jimmy Buffett - Kick It In Second Wind
Jimmy Buffett - Knees of my Heart
Jimmy Buffett - Little Miss Magic
Jimmy Buffett - Livingston Saturday Night
Jimmy Buffett - Love And Luck
Jimmy Buffett - Lovely Cruise
Jimmy Buffett - Manana
Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville
Jimmy Buffett - Middle Of The Night
Jimmy Buffett - Money Back Guarantee
Jimmy Buffett - Nautical Wheelers
Jimmy Buffett - On A Slow Boat To China
Jimmy Buffett - One Particular Harbour
Jimmy Buffett - Pencil Thin Mustache
Jimmy Buffett - Pre-You
Jimmy Buffett - Ragtop Day
Jimmy Buffett - Sending The Old Man Home
Jimmy Buffett - Son Of A Son Of A Sailor
Jimmy Buffett - Stars Fell On Alabama
Jimmy Buffett - Stars on the Water
Jimmy Buffett - Steamer
Jimmy Buffett - Survive
Jimmy Buffett - Take It Back
Jimmy Buffett - Tampico Trauma
Jimmy Buffett - The Captain And The Kid
Jimmy Buffett - The Great Filling Station Holdup
Jimmy Buffett - The Pascagoula Run
Jimmy Buffett - The Wino And I Know
Jimmy Buffett - They Don t Dance Like Carmen No More
Jimmy Buffett - Tin Cup Chalice
Jimmy Buffett - Treat Her Like A Lady
Jimmy Buffett - Twelve Volt Man
Jimmy Buffett - Volcano
Jimmy Buffett - When Salome Plays The Drum
Jimmy Buffett - When the Coast is Clear
Jimmy Buffett - Who s the Blonde Stranger
Jimmy Buffett - Why Don t We Get Drunk
Steel Drum Classics -Jamaica Farewell
UB 40 - Can t Help Falling In Love
UB 40 - Red Red Wine
UB 40 - The Way You Do The Things You Do
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - A Who A Say
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - Beautiful Day
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - Conscious Party
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - Dreams Of Home
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - Have You Ever Been To Hell
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - New Love
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - Tomorrow People
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - We A Guh Some Weh
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - We Propose
Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers - What s True

Eric Idle's FCC Song

This little ditty I found on Usenet yesterday summarizes what I feel about the current administration, which shall go down as one of the most miserable failures of an American presidency in the last hundred and fifty years.

You may download this song directly from the Monty Python site, or else from a mirror site.

The FCC Song

Here's a little number I wrote the other day while out duck hunting with a judge.

Fuck you very much the FCC
Fuck you very much for fining me
Five thousand bucks a fuck
So I'm really out of luck
That's more than Heidi Fleiss was charging me

So fuck you very much the FCC
for proving that free speech just isn't free
Clear Channel's a dear channel
So Howard Stern must go
Attorney General Ashcroft doesn't like strong words and so
He's charging twice as much as all the drugs for Rush Limbaugh
So fuck you all so very much

So fuck you very much, Dear Mr. Bush
For heroically sitting on your tush
For Halliburton, Enron, all the companies who fail
Let's send them a clear signal and stick Martha straight in jail
She's an uppity rich bitch
and at least she isn't male
So fuck you all so very much

So fuck you dickhead Mr. Cheney too
Fuck you and fuck everything you do
Your pacemaker must be a fake
You haven't got a heart
As far as I'm concerned you're just a pasty-faced old fart
And as for Condoleeza she's an intellectual tart
So fuck you all so very much

So fuck you very much, the EPA
For giving all Alaska's oil away
It really is a bummer
When I can't fill my hummer
The ozone's a nogozone now that Arnold's here to say:
"The nuclear winter games are going to take place in LA"
So fuck you all so very much

So what the planet fails
Let's save the great white males
And fuck you all so very much

The Commie FCC

The following is from Larry the Cable Guy, and reflects our viewpoints on the current state of free speech impairment being promulgated by the politically-controlled and election-year political machine that the FCC has become.

What the hell is this Russia? The FCC is really getting as outta control as my grandma's bladder after going down a gravel road. So Janet Jackson shows her tits at the Super Bowl and everybody now has to watch what they say on radio. Like radio jocks are responsible for this whore's titty tragedy. Thanks alot Janet for ruining it for everybody. Ya might as well have stripped naked and let Timberlake jackhammer yer ass with a Louisville Slugger since everybody else is paying for it. And the FCC sure is a bunch of hypocrites. What's worse, somebody talking about naked chicks on the radio or huge corporations monopolizing the airwaves and deciding what people hear. Look, the radio is different than that saggy tit skank Jackson. If ya don't like a radio show ya can turn the dial. That's the great thing about free airwaves. Janet Jackson has nothing to do with radio other than playing one of her songs every now and then to torture people who have misbehaved. And besides that... It was a fricken boob. Skanky yes, but enough to fine radio people left and right for fart jokes and saying the word "sum-bitch". The FCC is the new Washington Hitler. They have no common sense. This is a case of punishing people that have nothing to do with activities of somebody else. That's like your sister saying the "F" word at breakfast and your Dad kicks the crap outa you just cause your related. Granted, some radio is a little racy but thats why ya have radio dials. TURN THE FRICKEN CHANNEL. Just cause you think listening to some skank have a live orgasm is disgusting don't mean that guy listening while dry-walling a house with a boner listening don't. Thats why radio has choices. Unlike the Super Bowl when Janet slipped a gear in her fat head and thought popping out her fat plastic charcoal tits would be amusing. Don't punish other people for what somebody else does! Like a DJ said after getting fired, "Janet Jackson's a whore!"

Sweepers, jingles, and special programming

The default playlist rotation scheme in SAM provides for weighted rotation of musical selections using a mini-PAL script inside the "Category Playlist Rotation Logic Module." This can be viewed and changed under SAM's config menu, under "Playlist Rotation Rules." The default rules are as follows:

In "Auto" Mode (unattended operation), SAM will run each line of this script in order to fill the queue with selections. Notice that the second and third lines do not restrict picking selections from the "Tracks" category. This explains why special programming assigned to a different category than "Tracks" will show up in the queue if one forgets to assign the selections a type besides the default "S" (for Songs == Music).

To play a jingle after every third song, first add all your station jingles to the playlist and assign them type "J". Next, add a line to the playlist rotation module config like this:

This directs SAM to "grab a random jingle, ignoring any rotation rules, and place it in the queue."

If you have only a few jingles you will want to use the prNoRules directive or else a global rotation rule may prevent a jingle from being played. The default rotation rules are

• Do not play the same artist within 120 minutes
• Do not play the same song within 240 minutes

The GUI in SAM config makes adding to and changing the playlist rotation module logic really easy, and all kinds of creative things can be dreamt up using custom defined categories.

When we bring to de world dis order

Tonight during Rabbi Spivak's show on WBCQ, a caller was extorting all of the "good things" Adolph Hitler did, in response to an earlier discussion about allegtions of Arnold Swartzenegger's admiration of said dictator. Suddenly the audio stream shifted to a snippet from Spike Jones and the City Slickers' immortal "Der Fuehrer's Face."

If this was an intentional act by the Rabbi to squelch the caller's words, it was performed masterfully. As you can tell by the audio track, Rabbi Spivak never lost a beat, and even thanked the caller, who had obviously gone beyond credibility with his discussion. You can tell after the caller had parted that Rabbi Spivak was barely containing his laughter. This is talk radio at it's best.

County Cable on AM

I noticed this afternoon that the Montgomery County traffic service transmitter on AM 1070 was playing a county cable broadcast instead of the boring "when conditions change this station is updated" tape loop. I caught the end of a PSA show for the Humane Society or SPCA, then a half hour interview show about efforts to plant disease resistant Elm trees at a couple of local middle schools. Signal strong but audio quality scratchy and raw.

I heard what I think was a traffic tape loop underneath, but this was completely covered by the county cable broadcast as I got closer to the transmitter site in Damascus. This station runs on several low power transmitters, so perhaps a distant 1070 was running the traffic loop.

11L-RNI

While web surfing I came across a new streaming media source originating from 11l-rni.com that's featuring, among others, Radio NewYork International, A Different Kind of Oldies Show, and The Alan Sane Show. They're running a 32K Shoucast stream for our listening enjoyment.

Canvas Prog Hour

We're catching up here on internet activity, after three days on the road and 22 hours without power or internet. Matt's just uploaded two new Canvas Prog Hour shows. Canvas Prog Hour is a two hour journey into the state of progressive rock that is always enteratining and very cool. We may sneak in a couple of Canvas Prog Hours this weekend on our radio free mount airy stream, as well as after hours on the WBCQ console feed stream.

Local medium wave snapshot

Here is a survey of the medium wave (AM broadcast) band audible there this afternoon. This survey was done between 1930 and 2050 (3:30PM to 4:50PM ET) on Sunday August 31 using Icom IC-R75 and Grundig YB-400PE receivers.

Reference sources used include DCRTV DC/Baltimore area AM Radio and Central Pennsylvania Area Radio and TV stations.

• 550 WSVA Harrisonburg "news radio 550 WSVA" 333
• 560 "am 560 and am 1450" 60s music 323
• 570 WTNT "am 570 WTNT around the clock talk and CNN news" 555
• 580 WHP Harrisburg, discussion about home computer networking 455
• 590 222
• 600 WCAO gospel music. bothered badly by co-channel tone 322
• 610 WTFX Winchester sports talk 344
• 620 nostalgic music 222
• 630 WMAL talk, bothered by tone 433
• 670 mellow John Denver-like music 323
• 680 WBCM talk slight whine 544
• 700 WGOP talk 555
• 720 commercial for a hair regrowth drug called abacore, mellow music 333
• 730 spanish, squashed underneath tone
• 740 talk 333
• 750 possibly WBMB Baltimore, religious, squashed by tone 211
• 780 possibly WABS Arlington, religious, squashed by interference 311
• 790 WSVG Mount Jackson, mellow religious music, 222
• 800 Pirates Baseball, 333
• 820 WXTR Frederick simulcasting WTOP 555
• 840 possibly WKDI Denton, 222
• 860 WBGR Baltimore sermon 555
• 900 WILC Laurel spanish 333
• 930 WFMD Frederick 555
• 950 WCTN Potomac 555
• 960 country music 323
• 980 WTEM Washington Orioles baseball, slight whine 544
• 1000 WIOO Carlisle PA Racing "nrn radio the voice of nascar" and Carlisle car commercial 333
• 1010 WOLB Baltimore talk "WOL 1450 AM and WOLB 1010 Baltimore" 555
• 1030 WWGB "our 1030" gospel music
• 1040 WZSK Everett PA ABC news, commercial for the landmark restaurant in Bedford 'news talk 1040 WZSK" 322
• 1050 WPLC talk bothered by tone 433
• 1070 WPDD montgomery county "when conditions change this station is updated" 333
• 1090 WBAL Baltimore Orioles baseball 555
• 1120 WUST Washington ethnic music, unable to determine language 555
• 1150 WMET Gaithersburg Indian music, followed by a commercial in english advertising money transfers to India 555
• 1190 WBIS Annapolis Bowie Baysox baseball "business radio ww90 WBIS" 333
• 1200 WAGE Leesburg UCF/Virginia Tech college football 555
• 1220 WFAX Falls Church religious bothered by 1230 322
• 1230 WITH "contemporary gospel music" on "105.1 WAVA" Baltimore urban music 444
• 1240 WJEJ Hagerstown easy listening 333
• 1260 WWRC CNN News, bothered badly 423
• 1280 WHVR "your home town favorite 1280 WHVR" Hanover PA slight whine 444
• 1300 WJFK Baltimore racing 555
• 1320 "sporting news radio" and estate planning commercial, no ID heard 333
• 1340 WEPM Martinsburg commercial for Ramones Catering in Martinsburg "sports radio 1340" espn fluttery 333
• 1340 WYCB Washington underneath WEPN
• 1350 WOYK York PA commercial for penis enlargement/viagra clone, followed by a mack truck commercial, nascar racing "espn sports radio 1350", whine 433
• 1370 WWLG Baltimore Kraftmatic adjustable bed commercial "the sounds of sinatra" show 433
• 1380 mountain dew southern 500 racing 444
• 1400 WINC Winchester sports very fluttery, bothered by 1410 323
• 1410 WHAG Hagerstown nostalgic music 544
• 1420 WKCW Warrenton redneck music and "northern virginia community news" at 2040, 333
• 1430 WNAV Annapolis Orioles baseball whine 322
• 1450 WTHU Thurmont "original hits WTHU" sinatra and similar mellow music slight flutter 322
• 1460 WKDV Mannassas spanish music 322
• 1470 WTTR Westminster? Orioles baseball bothered badly by some interference 311
• 1490 WARK Hagerstown Orioles baseball 555
• 1500 WTOP Washington news 555
• 1520 WTRI Bunswick? dead air on a strong open carrier 555
• 1530 WCTR Chestertown, ad for an upcoming event at Kent County High School 333
• 1540 WACA Wheaton Spanish music 444
• 1550 WMRE Charles Town Elvis "Lonesome Tonight" 555
• 1570 WNST Towson sports talk bothered by noise 423
• 1580 WPGC Morningside financial talk
• 1590 WCBG Greencastle PA "star 92.1 and 1590 WCBG" Darlington racing, Carlisle Martin John Deere commercial, slight flutter 433
• 1600 WLXE Rockville, religious programming in english 433
• 1680 ethnic music 222
• 1690 WPTX Lexington Park MD talk 333

Chestertown radio

Friday July 25, 2003, 1717 UTC (1:17 PM ET), 1530. Chestertown's 1000 watt AMer WCTR is coming here in with a nice signal this afternoon. Sixties music, ID, local weather forecast, and ads for the Queen Anne's Bowling Center, Centreville's Edward's Pharmacy, and various Rock Hall and Chestertown businesses at 1725. Slightly bothered Korean programming on Brunswick's WTRI 1520. Signal 333.

Playlist automation and scheduling

We're slowly assembling and configuring all the building blocks to automate the WBCQ console stream. Starting with an audio stream point on the internet, add a radio station broadcasting live on the air from about 3:30PM through about 1:00AM seven days a week, more or less. When the station's off-air, we will be providing programming from a variety of archival and internet sources. The tools we've assembled thus far to make this happen include the following

• Winamp 2 media player
• Shoutcast streaming source and server
• Tobor the CD server
• Streaming Audio Manager (SAM2)
• MySQL
• PHP
• Various internet connections

Now, the key to this whole bag of tricks is SAM, the cool software developed by our friends at Spacial Audio Solutions. SAM is designed for automating broadcast streams for the internet broadcaster, and it includes a number of nice features and building blocks itself to make this happen. SAM includes a Delphi-based scripting language called PAL that one can use to automate all kinds of back end tasks, such as downloading and scheduling news updates from an internet site. SAM uses the MySQL database, and can be integrated with the web through HTML, PHP, and other web scripting environments.

So, we have our WBCQ console stream, and we're building a substantial library of archived material to stream when WBCQ 7415 is off the air. The first thing to develop then is a scheduling mechanism to drop on top of SAM. In it's simplest form, it should work like this

SAM does not contain a scheduling mechanism, but it's got all the tools we need to develop it. Taking a look at the pseudo code above, we see we're going to run a loop that checks the state of the stream every so often. The first thing that's done is

This means we should look at the schedule and determine what's supposed to be broadcasting. Okay, but SAM doesn't have a schedule feature built in. So, we need to create a SQL table to implement our schedule, and a nice web front end to make it easy for us to update it, and give our listeners a chance to see what's on and when. There's two ways to implement a schedule. The simplest is to have a single table

This will certainly handle our needs, but it's not the most elegant implementation. Some programs will be run every day, with various start and end times. Why duplicate the program entries for each instance? A better schedule consists of two tables

A program be live input from the sound card, a relay of another internet hosted stream, or a file or group of media files hosted locally or at some host on the network. The easiest way to group content into "programs" with SAM is to use it's native media arrangement scheme, by divising program content into categories in playlist. Individual playlist entries in category folders can be a file or a URL. (I've also discovered that even though there are different SAM functions for OpenFile() and OpenURL(), OpenFile() does not care if you're opening a file or URL).

So, we're able to check the current state of our broadcast. There must be a variable that keeps track of the program_id of the currently running program. If the stream's active and the program_id matches, we'll assume all is well. If something's wring, like network problems preventing a particular relay stream from being accessed, we will try and launch an alternative source (the infamous "filler material").

Now, when the schedule indicates that a new program needs to be started, we will attempt to start it up, reset the current program_id, and wait for the next check. That completes a run through our main automation loop.

This application can be implemented with

• a relatively simple SAM script,
  
• some MySQL database hacking,
  
• a PHP application to allow viewing and updating the schedule.
  

Greaseman's back

As reported by DC Radio and TV, WGOP 700 came back on the air on April 28. The Greaseman show was noted back with a strong signal this morning.

Lubavitcher Radio

Just by chance skimming across the medium wave band tonight I noticed Lubavitcher Radio, the unlicensed orthodox Jewish station from Brooklyn, on 1710 tonight at 0155 UTC (9:55PM ET) with a reasonable signal. As usual, programming consists of heavy theological discussion and occasional music.

WGOP running open carrier

Friday April 18, 2003, 8:40am, 1240 UTC. Instead of the usual weekday morning Greaseman show WGOP AM 700 ("DC Radio 700") is running a strong, stable, and silent open carrier. Whoops!

Tobor Radio

We're putting the final touches on Tobor, our big CD server project. Earlier today I replaced a failed power supply and installed and verified the last two CD-ROM drives. Tobor now has 23 CD-ROMs online, all powered by OpenBSD 3.2 running on a vintage Pentium 133 with 32 megs of memory.

The final burn-in test consists of wiring Tobor to a LAN and streaming music off his many CD-ROMs. Next to him, I have a P266 running Windows 2000 acting as a shoutcast source, and the P266 sends a stream back to my main machine in the basement running a shoutcast server, which is then available for testing from the internet.

Tobor and his companion external CD tower are very large and heavy, which makes it difficult (if not impossible) to move him to the basement for tinkering. And I'm sure that Jane would not appreciate a CD server in the dining room. So, Tobor lives in the garage. Tobor has a 3com 10/100 ethernet adapter, which we crosswired to the P266. The P266 has a nifty Linksys USB 802.11b wireless LAN adapter, which is used to communicate back to the basement and internet via an equally nifty wireless access point.

Tobor serves up tunes very well in a streaming environment. I observed CPU utilization between 2 and 5 percent streaming MP3s and no higher than 12 percent streaming a compressed waveform. I believe the unit will handle at least five simultaneous streams with no problem, and probably more.

Beware of dirty CDs. If a CD-ROM in Tobor is dirty or has bad tracks, the system hangs as the SCSI system starts generating media errors on the console. This can be extremely annoying when selecting a dozen selections from one directory on a CD-ROM that Tobor does not like. Winamp will scan each file as it adds it to the playlist, and the system shuts down while it's processing a chain of SCSI media errors.

Here is the output from mount(8):

And here is Tobor's boot message:

Low budget webcasting redux

For the past couple of days I've been watching the WBCQ live studio feed while Dr. Becker's away on a transmitter job. On Tuesday evening, I noticed that the live studio feed, transmitted from WBCQ's studio in Monticello, was down during prime time, not a good sign. I called Monticello, and Allan let me know that the power supply on the computer that feeds the web stream had finally failed miserably and stunk up the place.

What to do? I could simply take over the dead stream server with some cool Radio Free Mount Airy alternative free form music programming, but whereas that's a cool thing to do while WBCQ's main transmitter is off air, it's missing the point and is contrary to WBCQ's free speech mission. So, I established an alternate broadcast feed using my trusty Icom IC-R75 from my listening post here in Maryland.

I have my shortwave receiver tied to my computer. If anything is coming on that cries out to be recorded, it can be recorded with minimal effort. I've completely eliminated analog audio tape since hard disk drives and recordable compact disc media have become commodities. It should be easy to sample the audio coming from my nice shortwave receiver and automagically stream the audio to servers elsewhere on the 'net.

The low budget webcasting setup I set up earlier refused to work on my base computer here in Mount Airy. I kept getting a nasty error from the "Shoutcast Source" plug-in giving me a cryptic "error encountered connecting ACM stream" error. After a bit of debugging, I gave up and installed the more recent Shoutcast source plug-in. We used an older version of this plug in because we wanted to use the 16K/11 "extremely low bandwidth" stream to optimize bandwidth over the dial-up, which the newer versions of the plug-in does not support. I also found it impossible to sample the sound card input using the older plug-in, which made it impossible to sample the audio from my shortwave receiver and send it directly to a web stream source, which is our ultimate goal for this project.

So, I gave up on the older Shoutcast source plug-in and installed the latest version from the source. Settling for it's lowest bandwidth 24kbps/22050KHz mono setting, I opened up the line input from the shortwave receiver and told the plug-in to connect to the WBCQ off-air feed. And amazingly this worked. Even more amazingly I was able to fire up Winamp3 on the same computer and monitor the stream I was originating with Winamp 2 from the same system.

I called Monticello again to let Allan know that I'd been able to restore the web stream with an off-air stream that was (reasonably close) to the studio feed. In the time it took me to configure, test and run my shortwave monitor, Allan had fixed the stinky power supply, and the console feed was back online.

However, now we have a nice backup to the console feed in case Allan's sudio feed fails. As long as we can receive a reasonably strong signal from the transmitters in Maine that aren't disturbed by a solar event, we can now originate an off-sir feed from Maryland in a minute's notice.

Kulpsville redux

This year's SWL Winterfest in Kulpsville, Penisvlvania proved to be an awe-inspiring spectacle. I was greatly impressed by all the good vibes I encountered during my first visit to Kulpsville.

Noted highlights and tidbits include:

• WDCD Radio on FM 91.3 non-stop during the fest, playing the complete collection of WDCD shows with the exception of the traditional Pancho Villa broadcast, aired at midnight on Saturday. My off-air recording of Pancho Villa is chopped at the beginning. I will try and get a clean MP3 later.

• FM 89.5 was also noted sporadically all weekend. Signal not quite as strong as WDCD. On Friday afternoon, heard a Glenn Hauser parody with lines like "The propagation outlook is.. shit." They also played a lot of Captain Ganja material. IDs heard on Friday afternoon included "Maximum power this is K 2000 worldwide," "K 2000 p o box 146 stoneham mass 02116," and "K 2000 listener driven radio."

• At around 0400 Saturday Jay Smilkstein arrived at the show, and wandered into the hosptiality keg area just after Dr Tornado and El Nino from Radio Metallica Worldwide arrived. Surreal.

• Traffic on 6955 was sporadic. Noted lots of transmitter testing between 1800 and 1900 with various voice checks and Captain Ganja material, e.g. "Man am I ripped". Big band music from 2300 with killer sound. Free form content and Pink Floyd music all night.

• Watched Allan Weiner Worldwide, Radio Timtron Worldwide, and the Real Amateur Radio Show all live with Allan and Tim at the helm in Room 412 (What's a 412? Tim revealed the secret hidden answer on one of the many carts comprising his show bits). Tim cound not locate the cart containing the theme to the Real Amateur Radio Show, so we were treated to an a capella Timtron version. Look for Tony T-O-N-Y Straka S-T-R-A-K-A on Tim's show, as well as me.

• Very interesting live tests of DRM technology, and a corresponding technical presentation, during the conference portion of the show.

• Dr Adrian Peterson, from Adventist World Radio, gave a fascinating presentation of his sixty year history of monitoring worldwide radio and the thousands of QSL cards in his private collection. In the thick binder marked United States the cards are arranged by call letters and date from the 1930s to the present. Many cards from pre-war stations and World War II stations. He even has three WGTG QSLs signed by Dave Franz. And KBCQ, Roswell, New Mexico.

• A brand spanking new Captain Ganja Show documenting Moe and the Captain's journey from New York to Kulpsville and all the entertaining characters they encounter along the way.

• Thanks to the kindness of certain fest participants, I was given thirty six episodes of Juliette's Wild Kingdom (Saturday 130AM ET on WBCQ 7415), including episode 34, "Dr Becker's Car". These and are on their way to Dr Becker so they can be streamed worldwide over the internet.

Freedom of information, Iraqi style

The following came to our attention from Glenn Hauser's DX Listening Digest, no. 3024. This comes from Tariq al-Sha'b, Arbil, in Arabic, 11 Feb 03, via BBC Monitoring.

"The command of the First Army Corps circulated a document within its units, No 12633, dated 12 December 2002, saying:

"All military officers and soldiers should be informed that they should not have a radio set in their brigade because of the hostile information broadcast by the enemy of the nation, the United States, regarding the anticipated outbreak of war. This may lower the morale of the military personnel and cause defection."

In the same DXLD, it's noted that the Iraqi government is also busting people who use high gain television antennas to try and take a break from the three state-run TV stations.

Complete synchronization acheived

Tasha wasn't able to deliver her show this evening, which is a bummer. But instead, we were treated to a rebroadcast of last week's show. This time we're grabbing Tasha's wonderful audio enlightenment from the web stream that Complex Variables Studio presents, and it's a rebroadcast of last week's show. So, once again, we're nostalgic for Key West -- when we heard this show as it was originally broadcast, we were there.

Key West FM Loggings

My FM loggings from Key West were aided by the search engine at radio-locator. Again, we were aided by great conditions and the excellent FM receiver in our Grundig YB-400PE.

Detailed logs follow.

Tuesday January 7, 2003, 1700 UTC, Key West, FL

88.7 music 2 [WAYJ Ft Myers]
88.9 WDNA Miami, BBC News 4 [WDNA Miami]
89.7 music, F talk 2 [WMCU Miami]
89.9 talk 2, buzzed by music on 90
90.5 talk 5 [W213BF (WJFM) Key West]
90.9 religous 5, obliterating nearby station on 91 [WJIR Key West]
91.5 religous 5 [WJYO Ft Myers]
92.3 Sp F talk, AT&T Wireless commercial in Spanish 2 [WCMQ Hialeah]
92.7 pop music 5 [WEOW Key West]
93.1 dance music 2 [WPYM Miami]
93.5 pop music 5 [WKEY Key West]
94.1 classical 2
94.5 "Airo 94.5" Bob Marley vall in request, J Geils Band request, Ft Myers 3 [WARO Ft Myers]
94.9 Sp talk 3
95.3 "Oldies 95" 2 [WOLZ Ft Myers]
95.7 Sp mellow music 3 [WXDJ Miami]
96.1 Rock music, Pink Floyd "Us and Them" 3 [WRXK Bonita Springs]
96.7 Sp talk 5
96.9 Mellow pop music 4 [WKEZ Tavernier]
97.7 Pop 3 [WWWK Marathon]
98.3 Sp music 2 [WRTO Goulds]
98.7 Pop "Smooth jazz 98 7 Conch FM" 5 [WCNK Key West]
99.1 Rap 2 [WEDR Miami]
99.5 Rock ZZ Top 5 [WAIL Key West]
99.9 Country "99 9 Kiss Country" 2 [WKIS Boca Raton]
100.1 Music, bothered by 100.3 2 [WRLR Port Charlotte]
100.3 talk 4 [WCTH Plantation Key]
101.1 Mellow music 2 [WAVV Marco]
101.3 Classic rock, Eagles' New Kid In Town, "WKYZ 101.3" 4 [WKYZ Key Colony Beach]
101.5 Very faint, time pips? 2 [WLYF Miami]
101.9 Religous country music 3 [WWGR Ft Myers]
102.1 Urban 4 [WKLG Rock Harbor]
102.5 Redneck music 5 [WPIK Summerland Key]
103.1 Rock Outlaws "Green Grass and High Tides", REO "Heard it from a friend" 5 [WFKZ Plantation Key]
103.5 Very faint 1 [WMIB Ft Lauderdale]
103.85 Urban, obliterated by 104.1 [WXKB Cape Coral 103.9]
104.1 Pop, Billy Joel 5 [WWUS Big Pine Key]
104.7 talk "Mix 104.7 The Gulf Coast's Best Mix" 3 [WSGL Naples]

Great commercial on 104.7: "How do you know you're roofing company isn't going to close it's doors and open under a new name when the going gets rough?" (There must be a problem with shady roofing companies in southern Florida :)

105.1 Mellow pop 2 [WHQT Coral Gables]
105.3 Very faint 1
105.5 Pop, mellow music, Journey 2 [WAVK Marathon]
105.9 Pat Benetar 2 [WBGG Ft Lauderdale]
106.3 Mellow Sp music 5 WZMQ Key Largo]
106.7 Mellow Sp pop music 3 [WRMA Ft Lauderdale]
107.1 Grungy metal alternative music 5 [WIIS Key West]
107.9 Sp music, Abba in Spanish 5 [WMFM Key West]

Key West Medium Wave Loggings

I was really surprised at the number of medium wave stations our Grundig portable received clearly in the middle of day in Key West. I logged about seventy stations, and I've been able to cross-reference their probable calls and locations using the excellent search tools at radio-locator.com.

There are a lot of UNIDs. It is likely that many are Cuban in origin, as I was getting clear daytime reception of stations in Florida 150 miles away (and Cubs'a only 90 miles from Key West).

Detailed logs follow.

The format of this log is as follows:

frequency description, overall SIO [ID or probable ID]

Tuesday January 7, 2003 1639 UTC, Key West, FL

530 Sp F talk, 3
540 News 4 [WFLF Pine Hills?]
560 "Sports Radio 560 QAM" 5 [WQAM Miami]
590 Sp talk muffled 5
610 Paul Harvey 4 [WIOD Miami]
620 Sp music 4
640 Sp F talk 5
660 Sp, nuked by 670, 2
670 Sp music, fluttery, 4 [WWFE Miami]
710 Sp F talk 4 [WAQI Miami]
750 Sp F talk 2
770 Sports "WWCN Ft Myers" 3 [WWCN North Ft Myers]
790 Talk 3 [WAXY South Miami]
810 Sp music fluttery 3
840 Sp music 4
860 "WGUL" 3, splatter from 870
870 WGW861, "City of Key West Information Radio", mentions www.keywestcity.com 5
890 Sp M talk, muffled 3
910 Sp music 3
950 Sp talk 5, co-channel time pips
960 music 2
970 WFLA talk 3
980 oldies music 3
1020 Sp F talk 2
1040 "WWBA news talk 1040" fluttery 3
1050 music, very faint 1
1070 "America's best music WKII" 3 [WKII Solana]
1080 Sp M talk muffled 2 [WVCG Coral Gables]
1100 Sp talk 2
1110 Bible beater 2
1120 Sp carribean music 2
1140 Sp talk, another station underneath 2 [WQBA Miami]
1150 music 2
1180 Sp talk 5
1200 talk 4 [WINK Pine Island Center]
1210 Sp music 2 [WNMA Miami Springs]
1240 Sp talk 3 [WTLQ Ft Myers]
1250 talk, bothered by 1260 2
1260 easy listening smooth jazz 4
1280 talk very faint 1
1290 Sp talk, carribean music, bothered by 1300 2
1300 talk 4 [WFFG Marathon]
1310 music 3
1320 talk 3 [WLQY Hollywood]
1330 Sp F talk 3
1340 Sp M talk 2
1350 very faint 1 [WCRM Ft Myers]
1380 banjo music, nostalgia? //1410 2
1390 Sp F talk 4
1410 banjo music, nostalgia? //1380 2 [WMYR Ft Myers]
1430 Sp dance music 2 [WOIR Homestead]
1450 talk 2
1470 Sp music 3
1480 talk 2 [WVOI Marco Island]
1500 Sp music 5 [WKIZ Key West]
1520 "ancestors of the rich and famous" genealogy show 2
1540 Sp talk 4
1550 Sp talk 2
1600 talk 5 [WKWF Key West]
1660 talk 4 [WCNZ Marco Island]

Key West HF Observations

Conditions were great this week. There was also very little noise in most of the band, which was surprising as we were right at the southern end of the city of Key West (more accurately, about four blocks north of the southernmost point in the US).

I noted all three WBCQ frequencies (7415, 9335, and 17495) as good to excellent during daily broadcast checks.

Disappointingly, there was very little on the tropical bands but static and noise -- of course this could be the sensitivity of the Grundig combined with the fact that there aren't too many nearby tropical band stations from Latin America creeping through the airwaves any more.

Radio For Peace International on 15038 was very strong and clear in the afternoons and provided for some enlightening listening.

Mid-afternoon broadcasts from Europe, and broadcasts targeted at Africa on the higher frequencies in the 17MHz area were very strong, clear and listenable.

I logged the "fishermen" on the pirate bands a couple of times, with some lively two-way talk in Spanish on upper sideband.

During the daytime, I noticed a wide ban FM-like splatter in the following ranges on 17MHz:

• 17490--17560, sounded like talk in Spanish
• 17800--17855, sounded like a religous broadcast?

More detailed logs follow below.

This isn't an HF logging, but since there's not much of interest on long wave I include my only notable longwave logging here:

Tu 1/7/3, 2300, 333 KHz, a beeping beacon pattern ".._. .. ..." The next day, we visited Porky's Dockside BBQ in Marathon, at mile marker 47.5. Great food here, and we highly recommend Porky's. The tablecloth was an aeronautical map of the Florida Keys that confirmed the frequency and pattern as Key West's Aero Beacon.

HF notables:

Tu 1/7/3, 1730:

5025 Carribean music in Spanish. Most likely R. Rebelde, Cuba. 333.

12689.5 USB. AFN from Key West (Boca Chica), sounded like Rush Limbaugh, 555.

W 1/8/3, 0117:

R. Prague International with good signal on 6200//7345, 323/333.

9745, HCJB, Excellent signal, 555.

4845, UNID. Weak modulation, fair signal, Sp F talking, religious service? 312.

Fr 1/10/3, 1545:

6950 USB. "Fishermen" lively conversation, 333.

11715, KJES Vado NM. Still playing with the mixer. F chanting with large audience f children repeating every phrase, and a song sung by YF mixed in, 344.

12689.5 USB//6458.5 USB, AFN from the Keys and Puerto Rico, respectively, 444/333.

11815 R. Marti jammed badly, SIO 411. 11930 also jammed but not nearly as bad, 422.

Fr 1/10/3, 1901:

15385, KJES Vado NM, typical programming, 333. I thought this was beamed to Australia/Pacific. Strong and clean here, 333.

Fr 1/10/3, 1950:

15038, RFPI, Costa Rica: World of Radio 1164, ended at 2005. 444.

A breath of hope on the radio

I have to admit, I don't listen to FM radio at all anymore, unless I'm in my vehicle. But, like most of my peers, I'm in traffic on the way to and driving away from work every weekday -- at least seven and a half hours a week. I try to keep calm from the ever persistent road rage tendencies by listening to music. There's nothing like a crufty Dead show from 1969 in rush hour traffic.

But sometimes I don't have a disc to spin, so I try and spin the dial to see what's on.

Kirk, Mark and Lopez are okay in the morning. I've been listening to Lopez doing news on the morning ride for at least twenty five years. Larry the Cable Guy's call-ins are almost always hilarious.

But these guys don't play any music, and worse, they're so popular with the "young adult male" demographic that they play, like, six or seven minutes of the most annoying commercials ever heard, in blocks two or three times an hour. I've heard that stupid Microsoft certification training commercial so many times, that even now the people making the commercial are saying "you've heard this commercial a thousand times, but..."

And as interesting as KML often is, they unfortunately have really stupid and annoying sidetracks into topics like wrestling and nascar, with commentary from classic people-who-need-to-get-a-life.

As the father Owl said in the classic cartoon I Love to Singa, "Enough is too much!"

So, what do we have left to listen to? I have de-programmed all Clear Channel-owned stations off my car radio (like DC-101 in Washington and B-104 in Baltimore), not just because Clear Channel has, in many ways, contributed to the destruction of American commercial radio, but because the Clear Channel-owned stations play a continously sterile playlist of highly programmed shit you've heard a thousand times before, and/or shit they'd like to cram down your throat because the record company that owns the music has paid them a lot of money to do so.

What's left to listen to?

The Greaseman is back; even though he's only on AM, his home-studio-produced show via WGOP is strong and steady on my commute to work, and he never fails to entertain.

Then I heard that Towson University's FM station was dropping their new-age jazz format for "adult album alternative".

I couldn't make WTMD's transition, because I was in-transit to Orlando and Melbourne to learn about some cool secure wireless networking technology. But on my first commute back to work after the snow day last week, I tuned to FM 89.7.

Wow.

I have a new favorite on my dial, even though their signal's right on the border here in Montgomery County. WTMD is doing an all-music format, liberally mixed with local music. Way cool. They're public radio, and not feeding from the slop mindlessly programmed by the commercial radio clones.

HFS is a far away memory, now -- there's not a personality on that station that's not an annoying boob. I zapped 99.1 for 89.7 on my car radio in a heartbeat, and I will send WTMD a couple of bux for the holidays. In fact, I will send them some bux every time they ask for contributions from now on, as long as they continue the format they're playing today -- the format they're basing their future on -- the format that I optimistically hope knocks the Clear Channels off the air. WTMD's rebirth is truly a breath of fresh air and hope for the FM band.

When conditions change, this station will be updated...not

So, we're taking a little trip down to Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with the family, and as soon as we get onto Interstate 270 in Germantown, the traffic stops dead and is backed up as far as we can see. Naturally, I tuned to AM 1070, one of several so-called travellers advisory radio systems run by Montgomery County, Maryland. Did we hear anything about what later appeared to be a major traffic incident on the interstate? Of course not.

There's never any useful information on AM 1070. What's on there is a distorted loop of driving tips for complete morons, such as "there will be extra traffic on the road because of the holidays," DUH! Oh, yeah, there is more "useful" information for the traveller -- you can listen to this station on county cable TV. That bit of knowledge does a hell of a lot of good when you're stuck in a seven mile backup on the interstate.

You're invited to check it out for yourself, via the county's Traffic and Parking Division web site.

I have always checked this station whenever I encounter abnormal traffic conditions, and I have never heard the station updated with any information related to the event I happened to drive into. Oh, Georgia Avenue southbound between Olney and Norbeck (a major commuter artery that I use along with tens of thousands of others on a daily basis) has been closed for the last four or five hours during the morning rush hour because of an accident that wiped out an electric pole? You think you'll hear about this on the county's radio network? No way. The same, stale "when conditions change, this station will be updated" over and over.

WTOP AM 1500 does traffic "on the eights" all day long, and within two minutes after tuning to WTOP we learned that there was a major accident on southbound I-270 before 124 and that all but the leftmost two lanes were closed. So, what do we need the county system for? To tell us there's a new stop light on Father Hurley Boulevard?

The county-run stations are one of the most blatant waste of taxpayer dollars I've ever come across. I believe these stations should be converted into something useful, such as

• Student-run radio communications training in our high schools
  
• Montgomery College student radio
  
• Open access for the public to play music or bring a voice to their views
  

Towson State's FM to go AAA

The DC Radio/TV site is reporting that Towson State University's WTMD FM 89.7 will switch from it's hokey new-age-smooth-jazzy music format to Adult Album Alternative (AAA) on Monday December 2. This is good news for those of us who enjoy the music on Annapolis' WRNR, but can't receive it because of the Ugly Music Station that blocks out WRNR's 103.1 here.

WTMD transmits at 10,000 watts. It's signal barely makes it to the DC line 20 miles southeast of here, though. I fondly remember the old days when this station was WCVT and had a mixed format of classical and rock music. Good riddance to "The Breeze".

The only other station besides WRNR that comes close to this cool eclectic rock format is WKHS's simulcast of the University of Pennsylvania's XPN, but alas, Kent County High School's 17.5KW on FM 90.5 is too weak to make it to Mount Airy.

Update (December 2, 2002 5:40am): DCTRV points us to an article with an opposing viewpoint in the Baltimore Sun that bemoans WTMD's format change.

It was thirty nine years ago today

This evening, on the drive home from work, our local NPR outlet was playing a retrospective narrated by Walter Cronkite, where he shared his insights into President Kennedy's assassination, and his unique position at the televison news desk on that day. What was most interesting was the interpolation of ground-to-air tapes of communicatons between government aircraft and Washington in the time immediately following the tragic events in Dallas (not to mention Mr. Cronkite's always compelling presence--almost forty years later he is as sharp as ever).

This is another fine bit of radio journalism from All Things Considered. I'm still a little pissed at WAMU for cutting bluegrass in favor of news/talk, but at least the news/talk is of the highest caliber.