Re: WBZ stereo?

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

My understanding is that WQEW switched off the Kahn 
stereo at midnight on the last day that the FCC allowed 
US stations to transmit in the Kahn format. Use of 
PowerSide was legal after that date (and to my knowledge 
is still legal), although I don't think WQEW has a lot 
to gain from PowerSide. CBE may put a slightly stronger 
signal into WQEW's nighttime service area than the 
various 1570s do, but CBE's signal is not huge anywhere 
along the east coast. And where CBE's skywave is solid, 
WQEW's is not.

I was under the impression that sometime after WQEW 
stopped broadcasting Kahn stereo, it began transmitting 
c-QAM but never publicized the fact--perhaps because, in 
the minds of most listeners, "stereo" equates with FM 
and an AM station that advertises that it is 
broadcasting in stereo utterly confuses its listeners. 
They go looking for the signal on the FM band and give 
up on the station when the signal is nowhere to be found 
on FM.

--
dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205
eFax 707-215-6367
> <<On Mon, 05 Nov 2001 20:00:46 +0000, dan.strassberg@att.net said:
> 
> > uplinks stereo audio, but they _might_. When I heard 
> > that the Dallas station ran stereo, I thought that 
> > surely WQEW would run Disney in stereo. From what you 
> > say though, apparently it never happened.
> 
> Remember that WQEW used the Kahn POWERside system, which is
> incompatible with C-QUAM stereo.  Probably they haven't updated their
> transmitter plant recently and thus don't have C-QUAM-capable
> facilities.
> 
> -GAWollman
>