Being ten miles from Sab Francisco, there are some great sounding
stations here - all my life "Broadcast Quality" meant *almost* better
than playing records...
But note that Bob says "in mono" which has stunningly low noise floor
with good signal. Stereo FM can be a bit like MP3s today, and airing
MP3s on stereo FM is the lower standard for most commercial radio today.
I have been restoring some broadcast tapes from KMPX and KSAN from
the 60s and 70s and the sound of their studios when they open the mic
is like no other noise I've heard... Can't hear their breathing but
the AC is powerful...
<L>
Lou Judson • Intuitive Audio
415-883-2689
On Oct 6, 2008, at 8:48 AM, Michael Shoshani wrote:
Bob Olhsson wrote:
Some of the most stunningly beautiful audio I ever heard was
Chicago's WFMT
picked up in mono around 1965 from my college dorm room in Olivet
Michigan.
(Top notch mono hi fi gear was available really cheap at that
time.) I had
no idea what FM was capable of before I heard that station.
WFMT still sounds well today, as does the "news/public affairs/Wait
Wait Don't Tell Me" public radio station WBEZ. Catch either station
on something like a mid-to-late 1950s Telefunken Opus and you can
feel the announcers breathe. The late WNIB, Chicago's other
classical music station until the founder/owners retired and sold
the station, also had very good audio.
Especially with good hi-fi gear, it still sounds as though most
classical and jazz stations (old-fashioned jazz, not "smooth jazz")
employ much less noticeable compression and limiting than do the
hotter-signal pop stations. Just as with many FM stations of yore,
you still get a very slight hum of "room tone" on these stations
when the announcers get potted up; for me, that room tone WAS the
sound of FM when I was a lad. Gave it depth and made the signal
breathe, but I can't explain why....it's intangible, yet palpable.
Michael Shoshani
Chicago