As we get closer
to actually turning on our HD signal, I though I’d
share my experiences with HD, so far. I’ve had an
HD tuner in my stereo at home for about a year, and I get
about a dozen or so good HD signals using just the ordinary
twin-lead dipole supplied with tuners and receivers. The
whole radio industry is still learning about HD radio,
so the digital readouts of the song playing, or artists’ names
sometimes aren’t quite right, but the experience
of HD is worth the effort. I recently put my Miata back
on the road after a five year time out, and I decided to
replace the radio with a new HD unit. I paid $170 for a
unit with about 25 watts per channel, and an auxiliary
input (in case I get REALLY 21st century and get an Ipod)
and I’m very happy with it.
There are absolutely
no technical skills required. You just tune to your favorite
station, and the radio does the rest. At first, you’ll
hear the normal analog signal you’re used to, but
if the station has added HD capability, it “tells” your
HD receiver, and in less than ten seconds, smoothly moves
into the digital mode.
Even in a moving
Miata, the improvement in sound is dramatic. The average
analog FM station now sounds no better than a good cassette
deck from the ‘80’s, but HD radio delivers
true CD-quality sound. As I’ve mentioned before,
satellite radio is also digital, but the fidelity is sharply
reduced compared to HD radio.
After your radio
has switched to the digital mode, the readout will indicate
that you’re in digital mode, and if the station has
a second or even third channel. In our case, WAPS HD2,
as your radio will show, will be a very cool retro 80’s
and 90’s format similar to what we played at that
time. Except for another public radio station, all the
local HD2 and HD3 channels are automated, with no disc
jockeys. You can find Spanish language programming, comedy
24 hours per day, jazz, and lots of rock on HD2 channels
right now, and they’re commercial free.
But for me, the real beauty
of HD radio is that I’ll be able to listen to my
favorite station with much better fidelity. There is a
total lack of background noise, much better high frequency
response and much better separation. Thanks to all the
individuals and foundations who helped us get our HD project
off the ground. We’re coming into the home stretch
now!
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Once again, The
Summit has been recognized as “One of the Best”.
Radio and Records magazine has nominated your radio station
as one of the best non-commercial AAA stations in the nation.
We are competing against stations in markets #51 and over.
In our case, our competitors are in Anchorage, Alaska,
Durango, Colorado, Monmouth/Ocean City, New Jersey, Albany,
NY and Louisville, KY. We didn’t win last time, and
I have no idea if we’ll win this time, but it’s
always nice to be recognized by your peers in the industry.
Even more meaningful to me,
though, was an email our Program Director, Bill Gruber,
passed along to the staff, and which I will pass on to
you.
"I just wanted to send
a note to express how fantastic your format is...I am
a Floridian visiting Barberton and found you...the Summit
is an example of what radio should be and once was...I
lived near Youngstown in the late seventies and recall
a station out of Akron u. and other mainstream stations
like the wizard and mms...I went home to Florida and
of course there is nothing but commercialized crap...
It's
been 25 years and upon my arrival here, I began to
explore the current Ohio radio stations...WMMS is awful,
WSRD no longer exists and the other stations are identical
to those everywhere else I've been...finding the summit,
gives me hope that radio can still be innovative and
reflect a unique personality of the community it serves...eclectic
is a favorite word and you fit it perfectly!!! Glad
you are on-line as you have become my favorite radio
station...I haven't said that since I was a teenager
nearly 30 years ago...best wishes to all of you and
don't change format please."
Impressing the
staff of an industry bible is great, but giving a guy a
station he knows he can rely on for the music that enhances
his life really makes me feel like I’m doing something
worthwhile.
Now all we have to do is convince
him to become a member! Back
to top
As I was reading
the latest copy of Akron Life & Liesure, and noting
that The Summit is the favorite music station of their
readers again, I began to think about Akron radio stations.
There are several, and I’ve worked for most of them,
and they all have to compete not only with each other,
but with stations in Cleveland, Canton, Kent and, to a
lesser extent, Youngstown.
Akron has two
non-commercial stations, the University of Akron’s
student-operated station WZIP, and The Summit. The Rubber
City Radio group operates WQMX, WONE and WAKR, the only
AM station in Akron. That’s it. Every other station
you hear is somewhere else, despite where they say they
are. “The Talk of Akron” is in Portage County,
east of Kent. WHLO, WKDD, and the remnants of the once-proud
WADC and WSLR packed up and left Akron a few years ago
for new digs in Stark County. Geography alone doesn’t
mean much, but I began to think about how involved in Akron
the people at those other stations really are. Unless they
live within the city limits, they’re not paying taxes
to support Akron services like police and fire, street
maintenance, schools and economic development. The owners
of the buildings in which they operate don’t pay
any taxes to the city of Akron, nor support Akron Public
Schools.
Of course, in some
cases, the disc jockeys you hear aren’t even in the
same area code, much less city or county. They pick up
extra money at their real stations by voice-tracking a
shift at a distant station, sending the program over the
internet. In fairness to the jocks, with wages in radio
they way they are theses days, I can’t fault them
for doing that.
Any how many of
these “radio carpetbaggers” regularly come
in to Akron? How aware are they of the positive things
happening in our admittedly shrinking city? When making
the commute from Stow to North Canton or Twinsburg to Kent,
do any of them eat downtown at the amazing array of good
restaurants? Apparently not many stopped by Inventure Place.
Do they ever bump into people who work at any of the dozens
of new businesses that are cropping up, exploiting exciting
new technologies?
I have nothing
against the suburbs. I live in Bath, but pay income taxes
to Akron, supporting vital services, some of which I actually
benefit from, and I have no problem with that. I also frequent
stores and restaurants, the library, the Art Museum, I
tip servers who work in the city, and I’m happy to
do so. I’m the third generation of Hall men to come
to work in downtown Akron every day, and I’m proud
of it. Akron has an important place in the history of this
country, and I’ve never been ashamed to admit that
I’m from Akron.
Hey, maybe that’s
why those out of town stations pretend they’re really
here.
Back
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First, the analog
signal from The Summit is not going anywhere. In fact,
because of improvements necessary to add a digital channel
to our signal, (new antenna and transmitter, among other
upgrades) reception on your regular radio should get better,
very soon.
Unlike with HDTV,
where your old TV’s will become useless for over-the-air
reception next year, the F.C.C. has not announced any plans
to get rid of analog FM. You current car radio, portables
and home tuners will work just fine for many years.
However, just as
in the past, you’ll never get all the sound that
is on a CD over the air and out of your speakers, at least
in the analog mode. As good as FM quality has become, it
still can’t reproduce a vinyl record with exact fidelity,
much less a CD with well over 100 dB of dynamic range.
Digital broadcasting
on the Summit will be able to faithfully
reproduce the best music on CD, and digital radios offer
a display showing song title and artist name, and anything
else a station wants you to know.
It sounds
like satellite radio
Sort of, but there
are some important differences. Satellite radio’s
fidelity is no match for terrestrial digital (HD) radio.
Satellite broadcasters compress the digital signal down
to something resembling an mp3 file. It’s good for
moving and storing music, but not for reproducing it faithfully,
the way the artists want you to hear it. And the
digital music from The Summit and other FM stations is
free. It’s an added service that is free,
and in our case, of course, commercial free as well.
Downside?
Those on the fringe
of our current coverage area are not likely to receive
the digital portion of our signal. The F.C.C. limits the
power we can use for the digital signal to a fraction of
the analog signal, so not everyone will be able to get
us in digital, without an external antenna.
Obviously to get
the digital signal, you’ll need an HD radio. There
are dozens of models available, from clock radios for under
$100 to HD Radio-ready home theatre receivers for more
than $7,000. Many new cars, including BMW. Ford, Volvo,
Mercedes, Mini and Scion offer HD radio options, and you
can replace your current car radio with an HD deck for
as little as $100.
Our HD signal
will be available soon. I hope you check it out! Back
to top
The staff at The
Summit is still on a natural high, from the great response
to our Spring
Membership campaign.
Having spent most of my career at commercial stations,
it is astounding to witness people giving their money to
the
station, because they like and value what we do. The industry
is all about “the competition for ears”, with
IPODs and terrestrial radio battling with satellite radio
and internet alternatives, but, because of our listeners
and underwriters, The Summit can still be all about the music.
Whether it’s a cool new act that Bill Gruber discovers
at an industry showcase, a local artist Heather sees in a
live performance one night, a buried treasure that I bring
in from home, a live Summit event with a band like De Sol,
or an intimate live on-air performance, it’s all about
the music, and it’s all due to our members. And underwriters. They get kind of forgotten
during a membership campaign, but they are our partners,
too. Although I can’t
urge you on the air to patronize the businesses that help
bring us great music, I can do it here. It’s funny;
one of our volunteers, Cat, and I were talking during a lull
on the phones during the campaign, reminiscing about the
radio we listened to when we were kids. For a time, the big
station for teen music was WHLO, and their big advertiser
was Maddox Fabulous Furniture. She and I both remembered
thinking that if we ever needed furniture, we’d go
to Maddox, because Maddox paid for the music and disc jockeys
we listened to. Likewise, later, with J B Robinson. As it
turned out, Maddox went out of business before I had any
need for furniture, and I never bought jewelry from the Diamond
Man, either, but I still have fond feelings for them, as
I do for our underwriters. Legally, I can’t tell you
on the air how good the food is at Moe’s, or what a
cool place Flurry’s Café is, that I’ve
known Mike Lewis at Tri-City Nissan for decades, or how I
can’t leave Don Drumm ‘s gallery empty-handed,
but I am proud to do so here, and I try to patronize all
of our underwiters.
Finally, a big Thank You to the members of our Advisory
Board. They serve in a volunteer capacity, offering up their
expertise without compensation, and as we saw again in this
campaign, their personal money, as well.
I couldn’t be working for, and with,
nicer people, and the love we feel from our members really
does provide
an incredible incentive for us to do our jobs as well as
we can.
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In radio, the
pay is in the perks. You get to share great music with
people several hours per day, you get to meet and know
lots of new friends and you get to meet artists, sometimes
referred to as Rock Stars.
Last weekend, I got to meet a singer/songwriter whose
music I have loved since the early 1970’s, Dave Cousins. Best known for being the leader of the
British band The Strawbs, Dave played a solo show at the Kent Stage March 22nd.
I had seen the band at the Allen Theatre in Cleveland back in ’75, but
hadn’t caught up with them again until a few years ago when they played
three times at The Winchester in Lakewood. I was curious as to what Dave would be like solo, but
more curious to actually talk with him. Joey and
I had said a brief hello after one of the Winchester
dates, and he gave her a memorable kiss, but I got the chance to talk with
him
this time, for 20 minutes or so backstage. We talked about radio, into which he plunged after giving
up on music in the ‘80’s,
and touring (including horror stories about TSA agents ruining guitars and electronic
equipment when coming into this country) and various people who had been in the
band over the years. Perhaps I should thank Alex Bevan for lubricating Dave up
a bit, but he was gracious and didn’t seem to mind my questions. Because so many of his songs are rather dark, sometimes
downright wonderfully depressing, I have often wondered
about his off-stage life. Just blurting out, “So,
Dave, are you married?” “Got any kids?” didn’t seem appropriate,
but luckily, as he introduced songs from his new solo album “Secret Paths”,
bits and pieces of his personal life came out. He told a story and sang a song
to which any parent could relate, about his young daughter getting very sick,
and he dropped a bombshell as he admitted leaving his wife and two small children
to reacquaint himself with a lover from his college days. He spoke of something
that happened to him at an AC/DC concert in London, which made all of us long-time
fans chuckle. While we were trying to imagine why Dave would go see that band,
he reminded us of his rock and roll roots.
He will be displaying those (progressive) rock and roll roots at the Kent Stage
June 13th, and this time he’ll be bringing with him the exact five member
line-up which created the 1974 masterpiece “Hero and Heroine” and
its 1976 follow-up “Nomadness” for a full-blown Strawbs show. I’ll be there.
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