WEEI-FM transmitting in Mono

[John Francini]

Is there really any point to a talk station -- which by definition is a monophonic activity -- broadcasting a stereo pilot?  They'll be listenable a lot further out in the fringe areas without it.

Maybe they could turn it on for Celtics games and back off again...

By the way: what's the real benefit of having game audio in stereo?  Unless you're going to mix the sounds from the field/rink/court/diamond so that they're spatially correct (so that, say, if the Bruins are in the right-hand end of the rink all the skating/crashing/player noises come from the right speaker), why bother?  "Surround" crowd noise?

j



On 9 Jan 2012, at 19:30, James Duffy wrote:

> Hi.  To borrow and modify the oldest talk radio Cliché; “first time emailer,
> long time reader”.
> 
> Has any one noticed that WEEI-FM has not been transmitting in stereo for
> well over a week?  Is this temporary in order to rectify technical issues or
> is Entercom purposely doing this to either improve reception, cut cost or
> some combination of both?  If this is permanent, its very unfortunate
> because I honestly believe a great part of 98.5 the Sports Hub’s success is
> derived from producing Patriots and Bruins games in stereo, combined with
> there use of music to create what I believe is a superior production value.
> 
> I’m not in the industry at all, but I still follow it passionately, despite
> how its being slowly brought to the ground each day and I still believe
> Boston is more fortunate than a lot of cities in both the choice and quality
> of our radio stations.  If WEEI wants to remain competitive and perhaps
> dominate again, they can learn a lot from the Sports Hub when it comes to
> both talent and the subtleties of production.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Jim
>