Oddity Archive: Episode 243 - In Search of AM Stereo (or, How I Spent My Summer IX)
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- Опубліковано 20 лип 2022
- …or, the OA’s (slightly-belated) 10th Anniversary Special.
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Remember discovering your channel the summer after my freshman year of high school in 2014, watching first your Max Headroom video and other content you had at the time. Been an on and off watcher since. Good job with ten years.
@Devin Smith Why can't you just say *first year* of high school instead of using that pretentious *BULLSHIT* term, freshman?
Same! But for me it was after graduating high school in 2016.
Similar story here. Also "freshman" year of high school (I'm from Europe, I don't know American culture as much as I pretend I do) but 2016. The old signal jamming stuff and video logos stuff is what got me interested. I've been watching on and off ever since, binge watching old episodes, and checking out the new stuff. Love and good fortune for the 10 years and beyond. And yes I know I'm making a comment on a several month old video. College is work intensive.
If they ever need driving B-roll for a MANOS remake, there you go.
I am entirely convinced that the VAST majority of people have no idea what the term "stereo" actually means. Most people think it's just a better form audio, like HiFi, or Digital, or something like that, and if they've even heard the term "mono", they think it's "the kissing disease".
Back in the 90's, our local radio station (it's a small town, so there's only one), which was an AM only station for decades, decided to broadcast in FM Stereo as well. After listening for a few weeks in my car, I was convinced it was only in mono, and I noticed some of the instruments were missing in songs that I knew well. Worst than broadcasting in mono, they were broadcasting only one of the stereo channels on both FM channels. I called up the station, and when I told them they weren't actually broadcasting in stereo, they asked "how can you tell?" I answered "because I have ears." They eventually put their chief engineer on the phone, and he assured me that if the stereo light was lit on my radio, the broadcast was in stereo. After trying to tell him that wasn't true, and explaining what stereo was (which I shouldn't have to do to an audio engineer), he eventually admitted he was deaf in one ear. He had never actually heard stereo, ever. I suggested checking the path of the audio (I have no idea how audio at a radio station is fed to the transmitter), and looking for any point where the audio might be split, or combined. A few days later, I noticed the station was broadcasting in true stereo, so I guess they found the problem. I wouldn't be surprised if they fed one of the stereo channels to the AM transmitter, and the other one to the FM.
A lot of people can't tell the difference between two-speaker mono and true stereo. In the early years of stereo record players, some manufacturers preyed upon this ignorance by calling two-speaker mono "Stereomonic" and marketing it as a lower-cost alternative to true stereo systems.
@@vwestlife I'm convinced that the vast majority of people don't even know that stereo is. They think it just means the sound is better. To them, it's just a term like HiFi, or Digital Audio. Even when I was telling the people at the radio that that they weren't broadcasting in stereo, they'd ask "how can you tell?" The only answer I could give was "because I have ears."
And the guy at the radio station is not the only technician I had to explain stereo to. One of the TV channels on my dish had the stereo audio channels reversed. I eventually got into an email conversation with a technician at the satellite company where I had to explain what stereo was, and why it was a problem to reverse the channels. I had to dumb it down to if a car drove off the screen to the right, you'd hear the car in the left speaker. He blamed the network that was providing the signal, but emailing the network lead nowhere. I eventually just split the audio and video to Line 1 and Line 2 of my VCR, and reversed the audio channels on Line 2. I just had to remember to switch to Line 2 whenever I watched that channel, which was annoying.
@@vwestlife There's a ton of cheap Bluetooth devices out there that do two speaker mono.
That’s exactly what they did. WION in Ionia does AM Stereo right.
Holy sh"t… but I'm not surprised.
I like how the AM Stereo radio Ben got has the text "It's a Sony" in one of the corners, just to remind you who made it.
Some of my Betamax gear still has that sticker as well.
They put those stickers on everything they made in the 80s
I'm happy to see you do a video on AM stereo! That was a fun episode. However, a stations sound (CQUAM or not) is only going to be as good as it's engineers are. WION 1430 puts their stream on the web via an AM tuner in the office that feeds it out to the web. Of course the best way to hear it is terrestrial. I'm glad you gave them a shout out. They work VERY hard to make it sound the best it can. It takes passion and skill, and their AM engineer is one of the best in the country.
Hey, I enjoyed this one a lot. Nicely shot and done, despite haven't found the AM Stereo you were looking for. But I'm gonna say that these AM stations sounded pretty clear and crisp.
Congrats on ten seasons! You always give me a reason to care about technologies and oddities I never even realized people cared about. Here's to ten more! Also I love the intro music, big Nurse With Wound / Yume Nikki vibes.
That was a labor intensive episode, and it was well worth it. I'd say the most relaxing of the episodes thanks to that scenery and your own compositions. Here's hoping the music copyright bots don't banish this video to the wastelands for 2 seconds of things.
"..music copyright bots.." THREE WORDS that ARE the scourge of the WORLD!
@@jamesslick4790 Bots that don't understand the ≤30 sec fair use rule. :/
Congrats on ten fine years of OA Ben and what a way to celebrate it - a nice travelogue video to find AM stereo. :)
I love AM Stereo. Often, I would listen on a factory car radio, FORD and Chrysler types. One of the best listens is a talk program mixed for stereo. Haven't heard one for a long time, but the AMS frequency response curve works very well for voices. Noise and other things get added to the signal, and unlike FM, there is not a jarring mode switch and or fuzz mixed in. My last rig was a Ford Expedition with a solid AMS capable radio. I just got to the first sample you played for us. That's a nice station, and notice the emphasis curve? Yes, we are missing the highs above 8Khz, but in the car, with things happening, road noise, etc... the sound will be full and not tiring. Again, nice! Thanks for this oddity. Was a fun lark.
Re: Mono
Yes, my local station here KBPS does transmit real AM Stereo in stereo. But, even the mono stations get a benefit in that the wider receiver bandwidth is triggered by the pilot tone. One gets a nice 8Khz --ish signal, instead of the usual, and awful nasal sounding 5Khz. Some receivers will go as high as 10Khz, though few to no stations do.
If they're transmitting in AM Stereo, they're more than likely transmitting the full 10 kHz audio bandwidth as allowed by the FCC (or the CRTC in Canada). But many AM Stereo receivers roll off the audio above 8 kHz to filter out the 10 kHz adjacent carrier whistle. The AMAX specification required receivers to have an audio bandwidth of at least 50 Hz to 7.5 kHz on AM.
@@vwestlife Interesting. Perhaps the one receiver I had capable of ~10Khz wasn't.
Now that I think about it, listening on my GE Super Radio, which isn't AMS, but does have a nice wide mono mode, does seem to deliver more highs.
So many stations are basically doing what? 5Khz now? It's terrible for voices.
And modern AM radios are just terrible. Some I've heard are not even old school phone quality 5Khz. More like world radios with a 3.5 'ish roll off.
That little Sony seemed to deliver pretty great sound.
Probably the best Part-15 AM transmitter with built-in C-QUAM AM stereo encoding capability is the ASMAX 2 by Aspisys. Paired with a proper transmitting antenna with 50-ohm impedance matching, the ASMAX 2 is the little transmitter that sounds BIG with beautiful clarity and lots of stereo separation. That would be the Part-15 C-QUAM stereo transmitter I would recommend.
Unfortunately Tony, the guy in Greece who was building the ASMAX transmitters, passed away a few months ago due to COVID. But his brother worked with him and said he's going to continue making them soon. Sean Cuthbert also makes AM Stereo transmitters and they work OK, but due to him making them on perfboard instead of a proper printed circuit board, they're more prone to hum getting into the signal.
I’ve been watching this channel since elementary school, so I kinda grew up watching OA. Always been one of my favorite channels. Congrats on 10 years Ben!
I found your channel in 2015 right as I was starting high school and I genuinely think it has had the one of the biggest influences towards my personal interests today. So much of my love for the weirdness of the 60s and 70s I heard about for the first time from this channel. My favourite episodes off the top of my head are kiddie disco, elvisploitation and early sound in films. I know you think we hate the history lessons but those have always been my favourite. Congrats on the 10 years and thanks for all of the great content!
As a Saint Cloudian, I find the music on WXYG to be about the only good music to be found on the radio dial here. Didn't know that it was AM stereo, but I don't have an AM stereo receiver anyway. There's also a station here known as 'Ring-a-Ding Radio' on AM 1010 which plays just what it sounds like, music of the Rat Pack. It can be interesting on occasion.
Congrats on the Archive's 10th anniversary, Ben! Thanks for the heads up about WXYG The Goat, too. I've added it to my TuneIn favourites. BTW their stream is in stereo and sounds decent.
That Best Western looked incredible for a Best Western.
This video is giving me the push to venture out into greater Minnesota. I think it'd be a good thing to do considering I've only ventured a couple of times away from the Twin Cities in the 13 years I've lived here.
An Australian radio station with "VL" ahead of its callsign was a remote regional station. Warwick(Toowoomba) & Gympie in the Australian state of Queensland were hardly "remote". They were sizeable cities in their own right and were down in the south-east quarter of the state. A station on Norfolk Island, of the coast of New South Wales will have VL ahead of its call-sign but the Warwick(Toowoomba) and Gympie stations would've been simply 4WK and 4GY respectively.
4WK being the only current AM Stereo commercial station in Australia as far as I know.
@@mihali9655 Station 2HD-Newcastle still transmits AM-Stereo but it's wasted because the station hardly plays any music anymore. It's all yap-yap these days.
@@neilforbes416 disappointing to hear, my local “Triple M” Bendigo is all yap yap. At least 2HD kept the proper name unlike the Hit or Triple M virus.
@@mihali9655 That's the thing. Call-signs should be FIXED. The only amendment is if they switch from AM to FM or vice-versa.
In Australia, AM-Stereo is *well-and-truly cactus!* Those stations that tried it eventually switched to the FM band and those that remained on AM changed to a news & talk format, getting right away from music altogether, so stereo radio was impractical. Thus they removed the encoders and packed them away in their "junk" rooms.
today I learned a good idiom. Cactus. Kaput. ex-alive. Finito. Yes good.
@@shannon9993 It's a term that has been around for quite a while, often used by Australians to describe something or someone that has met with an untimely end.
@@neilforbes416 IIRC it's short for "cactus fuctus". Not sure where the "fuctus" part came from tho. But yeah, it's Aussie as and I get a bit of a chuckle when I hear/see non-Aussies using "cactus" to mean something that's broken.
@@TheKnobCalledTone. The term "cactus" can mean something is broken, but things broken can sometimes be repaired, often it means something is defunct, or someone has died.
What a relaxing episode! Congrats on 10 years and keep up the great work.
I actually did get a real honest to goodness stereo recording of the theme song from my own at the moment 25 mW AM stereo transmitter. AM stereo has to be processed differently than normal AM and the way it is done is strange. The method is known as matrix processing where the left and right audio channels are converted into L+R (sum) and L-R (difference) signals and then processed separately. What happens is the L-R signal is clipped so the modulation levels peak at 70% for both positive and negative peaks while the L+R signal is clipped at 125% positive and 75% negative. Because my computer's sound card is AC coupled despite it being an audiophile card I can't do asymmetrical peak limiting so as a result limit my audio at 100% positive and negative for the L+R portion and 70% or so for the L-R portion.
Most standard (analog mono) AM stations peak the - at 99% and the + at 125%.
The odd thing about cQuam is that the L+R is standard AM and the L-R is phase modulated.
Matrix processing isn’t that unusual. Stereo vinyl records and FM stereo use it, too.
Damn, been 10 years already. Thanks for building one of the most valuable and entertaining YT channels, here's to 10 years more.
Watching and Reading Dune: or, How Andrew Spent His Summer IX
Congrats on reaching ten seasons of OA, Ben!
Thank you for doing the video. Perhaps a "bigger" view of things would be to ask the stations you recorded to show you how they are set-up in engineering to broadcast C-Quam. We'd gladly show anyone our engineering who is interested, and many are! Recently had 30-plus engineers at our station from the Society of Broadcast Engineers visiting for an event. Not only did our "sound" raise eyebrows, but our engineer will likely be helping a few of them to return to AM stereo "because they CAN." A station has to CARE about it's full air chain from source (mic/music) all the way to the towers to do this properly. It takes owners who care, and engineers who want to have fun and be given the leeway to improve the station to make a station sound GREAT. Engineers who get handed a processor by "corporate" and told to hit "preset #3" (for instance) are not being allowed to take an (AM) station to it's full sound potential, and there's way too much of that in the corporate radio world. It is entirely possible that some stations run their stereo carrier on permanent mono programming. If o, they're also not dong any favors to those of us who work hard to put REAL AM STEREO out there. Once you run AM stereo, it also is the job of PROGRAMMING to promote the fact it's ON and being broadcast! We include the phrase "AM Stereo" in all of our imaging.
There's so much used equipment out there for independent operators that most any of them can improve their sound with the use of that equipment, and some CARE in their engineering with an engineer who wants to have fun. Once it's set, AM stereo needs little or no maintenence, and when properly set up does NOT hurt a station's range at all! (before somebody tries to tell that lie in the replies.)
Shame it's such a long trek to Ionia from here (around 800 miles). I'd love to see WION's setup in person.
@@OddityArchive You'd be welcomed anytime! Just let us know!
Congratulations on 10 years, Ben. What better way to celebrate than with a road trip in search of AM stereo.
Happy 10th anniversary, OA! I think I started watching your channel shortly after Ep 26, I think. Stuck around because you're demented enough.
Unfortunately you will rarely hear a DJ's voice on the radio anymore since everything has been taken over by automation and syndication. It totally sucks because I worked in radio in the mid-90s and it was awesome! We knew about stereo AM but we didn't know of any stations that broadcast using it. We had an AM station but it was mono and mostly talk.
Happy 10th, dude! Hope you enjoyed your stay in St. Cloud
Off to a great start of regular archive videos this year!
I recall KYW 1060 in Philadelphia in the mid 1980s-late 1990s would advertise the station as being AM stereo but I never heard it as such being that my family nor anyone I knew had a compatible receiver. Given that it was and still is an all-news format, I really don’t know how they took advantage of the format.
Happy 10th Anniversary!
Back in the day, I had basically stumbled into AM Stereo bored, sitting in a car, tuning the dial and was surprised to hear an AM Station pop up in stereo! Of course, I had to get a receiver right away and did.
There were some talk programs in stereo. I've listened to one and the AM emphasis curve is just great. In my opinion, the news / talk formats missed out! A little bump in the production values would have been noticed.
Of course, that station could run their imaging, bumpers and other elements in stereo, along with whatever stereo material they happened into.
Some of that has moved onto FM now, and they are basically still running mono.
Today, I rarely listen unless I am somewhere interesting with a receiver I want to play with and a bit of free time. My in car listening is largely podcasts, many of which are in stereo and they are quite enjoyable.
Opportunity missed on AM, if you ask me.
Happy 10th Anniversary Oddity Archive! According to Wikipedia, there are, supposedly, only 2 AM Stereo stations left in Missouri, KYMO 1080AM, East Prarie, MO & KXEO 1340AM, Mexico, MO. I do remember seeing some old Yellow Page phonebook ads for KTTN 1600AM, Trenton, MO, back in the 90's, saying that they broadcast in AM Stereo (They used the branding "Soft Hits, AM 16 Stereo".). I don't know if they still do or not. I also think that KROL 1430AM in my hometown of Carrollton, MO, may also be broadcasting in AM Stereo (I have a SDRPlay RSP1A Software Defined Radio that I play around with occasionally & I can seem to get AM Stereo quality sound out of that radio station.). I may be wrong about that though.
Congratulations on ten years! This was a fun episode, too bad all the AM "Stereo" stations have mono mixing boards (apparently).
Happy Anniversary! The clip at the start from KLST brought back memories. I worked with reporter Jim Thomas back in the day in San Angelo. (And it was at KQSA!)
AM Stereo or not. It's still the best AM radio sound I've heard.
Congratulations on 10 years. I have to admit I have been unsubscribed for a few years because I ventured elsewhere into other topics. I recently started wondering if the channel was still going but I couldn't remember the channel's name. Then the Max Headroom topic came across my path and I remembered I first heard it here. Did a search and I'm back with plenty to binge. And just in time for the road trip!!!! Yay
I can't and can believe it has been 10 years. Wow. I started watching not long after the first episode and was subbed for a long time. Glad to be back far away from the political BS I can't seem to escape from now. Again CONGRATULATIONS
I know this is a late comment, but congrats on 10 years, OA! I remember I discovered this channel a few years ago. The first OA vid I watched was the one on TV sign-offs. Have been watching ever since. Keep up the good work! 🙂
I love the ambient rendition of your theme song!
Came here from VWestlife. I have one of those and it works well. The only problem with mine is bad capacitors. When I say bad, they are a different level bad. They've leaked all over the PCB and the electrolyte eats things. In the 5 years I've had mine, it has gotten progressively worse. I doubt I'll ever have time to fix it as long as I live in my current state of residence. Be careful with it. They are fragile.
For a time, our state had the most AM stereo stations on line (most of them never reported they were in stereo, so the numbers are skewed). Then a broadcasting legend passed away and his stations were sold. The one's he signed on all eventually went back to mono as the equipment died and parts for them went NLA. There's one left that still broadcasts C-QUAM, but the audio is not in stereo. I know the owner and the general manager. I had a thought to lease it out for a stereo classic hits format, but unless it's on a full power FM, no one will listen to it. It'll be too hard to sell a daytime only AM and a marginal translator with no coverage in a money market.
After I got my A100, I went on a 2100 mile road trip and while I was driving, looked for wild C-QUAM stations. As you found out, the A100 cannot detect pilot tones. I threw the radio in one of my bags and kept going.
Yeah, that carpet is hideous.
Congrats on a DECADE of Oddity Archive. We have ducked, covered and have been cool about fire safety thanx to this channel. Bring on the NEXT decade! 👍😊👍🍺🍺🍺
🎉CONGRATS ON 10 years Bennie Boy!!!! You’ve come a long way baby! Who thought you’d still be here? Not me! Jk sure I diddd
Remember when I first discovered the OA, way back in 2012, when there was only about ten episodes on this channel. Been a fan ever since and have had the privilege of interviewing Ben many a few times on my old pirate station WHAR. Ben, the OA remains a hallmark of UA-cam and one of the greatest continuing series this site has ever produced. Thank you so so so much for your dedication for all things odd!
Locals: So what brings you here?
Ben: I'm here to listen to a radio station.
Wow...A "roadtrip" Archive episode! Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that!
But, like so many others, I'd stumbled across your channel in late 2012 or very early 2013. I was looking for the real, original Captain Midnight footage (which apparently was uploaded back in about 2007 or so, but mysteriously disappeared in 2008). I ran across episode 10 instead.
I would keep on running across your channel until about 2016, when I subscribed properly on one boring summer weekend (after binging the Record Ripoffs series to that point).
Things have been hectic, so this video was really nice. Here's to 10 years :)
I worked at two AM Stereo stations: KJAS Jackson, MO, and KBOA Kennett, MO., between 1982 and 1998. Both had Harris C-QUAM units in the audio chain. Sound frequency was nearly as good as FM; separation almost as good as well. There were problems with both C-QUAM and Kahn-Hazeltine, especially on multi-tower AM's. Because FCC could not get it's head out of it's arse and set a standard (mostly because Leonard Kahn threatened to sue), AM Stereo has died a quiet death.
"The Great Drain Robbery" sounds really good, Ben.
🎊CONGRATULATIONS ON 10 YEARS BEN🎉
Dang, that thing sounds pretty good on AM
You're telling me you went to my state and I didn't know? :O
Anyway, once again, happy 10th anniversary to the Oddity Archive
WCTC here in NJ was AM Stereo for awhile. vwestlife has plenty of airchecks. Figures that when I actually move close enough to get the station in stereo they turned off their C-QUAM transmitter.
First of all, happy anniversary. Secondly, man it's pretty up north. Third, what with all the driving, this episode seems to have four times the effort of most! And, as usual, good job!
... and while I don't often stray from my preferred local radio station (hi KOSU, Stillwater/OKC). I went to see if WXYG had a feed purely from your description: Classic rock like it was 20 years ago. Impressed by a lot of their selections in the time I've been listening ... deep-cut stuff, but of course, it's after 11 p.m. on a Friday night ... easy to like and it's not even "my music," which is more the kind of stuff that Michael Azerrad wrote about in his book 'Our Band Could Be Your Life.' Thanks for the suggestion! Of course, if I hear one bar of "Stairway to Heaven" I'm gonna be really disappointed ...
I’m from Minneapolis and even I’m laughing at the pronouncing of dot-cahm
Loving the new opening theme!
I must say thats pretty damn good audio for AM for KSUM OTA!
We still have a semi-local station with AM stereo. CFCO, a country station, broadcasts in the format on their AM transmitter, although since taking on their country format, they barely acknowledge their AM transmitter, even though their FM transmitter is only a couple hundred watts. They used to be a wonderful oldies station. I miss that, as due to CanCon regulations, I got to hear some interesting songs I never heard anywhere else!
Although I've only been watching for a few years, Happy 10th anniversary Benny Boy (can i say Ben-ster?)
The new theme music makes me want to load a bowl and expand my mind!
...and here I was merely hoping it would get people to go back and (re)watch Episode 200. :D
I vote that we all pitch in and buy Ben a vintage Woodsy the Owl costume for his next sojourn.
Road trip with Benny Boy. LETS GOOO!
The audio from that Sony is amazing. Still sounds good even through the whole UA-cam stuff. I haven't heard an AM Radio with that wide a bandpass in memory. Sounded like FM.
I had great AM stereo in my 98 Ford but not much to listen to. Newer cars since then dont have it. Thanks.
The older GE Super Radios are pretty great. Might not be quite as good as that Sony, but the wide setting on an AM Station broadcasting a wider signal is nice on the ears.
@@DougDingus I've had 3 versions of the Super Radio and they sounded great. The 3rd one had lousy dial tracking though. Thompson also branded some as RCA, but I've not seen one.
@@hugh007 Mine has a lousy dial tracking, but is otherwise a great radio! For those AM stations playing music, I enjoy it. For me, some good audio in the corner of the room is nice, but not tiring.
Having too many highs is actually a detriment for that use too.
Or... not so crushed ones. Either works for me.
There are so few engineers left that know how to align, let alone understand and maintain AM stereo equipment. In addition, the necessary modulation monitors required for alignment seem to be missing from most of the stations that once were stereo. That said, there are low power transmitters available to AM hobbyists, and a few stereo HF pirate stations as well.
All you need for proper alignment is a good 'scope, really. It tells you more than the modulation monitor does. The Mod Monitor can still be "mono" and show the actual total mod (in glorious mono) after a system is set up. There are also quite a few Orban newer (I believe model 8400's) processors that can, indeed run AM stereo, but...with much less sound tailoring than the classic Orban 9100''s . We have Two Orban 9100's in stereo and a CRL "AM Stereo 4" set of processors we can switch-between at WION, the modified Orban's sounding the best and putting the most energy into the air for people's enjoyment. When all we had was the CRL's, we had no stereo mod monitor, and had great sound by following the setup instructions for the CRL's with a scope to properly get L+R and L-R to work as they should.
@@RadioAnnouncer You obviously have never done an AM stereo install on anything but a Nautel or BE transmitter calibrated at the factory.
@@joshjones3227 Actually, our B-E did need readjustments, but again, the mod monitor is the last of the things needed AFTER everything else is set up, via scope, and a mono Mod monitor is fine if stereo is not available once all the processing is set properly. You mention B-E and Nautel. Most broadcasters with anything over 20 years (My B-E is now 17) are not going to try to push their older transmitters like we do to PLUS 120 percent and MINUS 95 modulation (give or take) consistently. B-E and Nauitel are probably the only two manufacturers in the market today with the option to HAVE C-Quam, so your statement leaves me questioning it's relevancy to the topic of broadcasters pushing C-Quam TODAY.
The fact our setup is done with only a scope is irrelevant to the fact that it is properly done, and (whatever, mono or stereo) mod monitor is properly calibrated to monitor when finished. No regulation says broadcasting in C-Quam has to have a stereo mod monitor (referring to external) as long as we meet the NRSC for our bandwidth and can show we are are not overmodulating and operating with a properly set-up system.
whenever I send my dad one of your videos, he always calls me with an interesting little related story: this time, he told me about how they listened to AM more at night because the heat of the day made the signals weak, and how he was first introduced to ice hockey when he got a fm/am radio for Christmas and he could pick up the hockey games out of NY (he lived in Central VA) at night!
Are you aware of those online web based KiwiSDR's? They have a C-QUAM AM-stereo decoder built in. If you find the public list/map of those receivers, there is one located in Minneapolis. You can (weakly) hear 540 WXYG (assuming there is no noise all over the receiver, which I notice occasionally there is). On the KiwiSDR, click the SAM button until it says QAM (which is the C-QUAM decoder), you should hear stereo separation. If you zoom all the way in on the waterfall, you can see the 25Hz pilot tone in both sidebands. WXYG powers down at night and CBK out of Canada often takes over, so try this during the day. Signal should be better on that receiver if you check back in during the winter months.
That's nice, but it kinda defeats the purpose of a period-accurate, analog AM Stereo test.
@@OddityArchive I didn't mean it as a substitute to your travels, just something else to check out. I thought the video was great, I'd actually like to see you do it again someday. I don't know if you saw my other comment (UA-cam was failing to post my comments yesterday), but I'm not so sure your radio was decoding AM-stereo properly.
That’s the big concern right now.
AM stereo is a perfect example of a good technology killed by lousy hardware support and consumer indifference. As the comments here show, lots of people don't even know what stereo is. For Christmas '84 I got Sony's Walkman radio with AM stereo. 2 years later I was able to record KFRC's final hours in stereo with it, though there are better quality recordings of that online now. The companies SHOULD have just put at least one of the AM stereo formats in all their equipment right away, but they didn't. You had to search out equipment that got AM stereo and most people just didn't bother.
I later got that same Carver tuner shown at 31:11 - cost me about $600 as a high school student! But I was nuts enough to want a real component tuner with AM stereo, even though I didn't listen to it much. I mainly got it for its exceptional FM performance- I wanted to get "Live 105" from San Francisco on 105.3 but it was sandwiched between two local stations on 105.1 and 105.5- most tuners couldn't tune that discretely but this would usually get it in. Sadly that station eventually went to crap and there's little left on the radio worth listening to anymore. With internet radio it almost isn't needed now anyways.
HD Radio is another technology with promise that's had pretty bad hardware support. A few AM stations use it and it sounds great, and it lets FM stations add one or two sub-channels similar to digital TV- but there still hasn't been anything really notable on it.
Incidentally did you call the stations and ask if they were still broadcasting in stereo? (It annoyed me on the Walkman there was no Stereo indicator.) In Sacramento the best-sounding AM station was country (which I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to in the 80s), it eventually switched to sports talk and is probably in mono now on its regular signal.
CJBQ AM 800 Belleville Ontario was, and possibly still is, AM Stereo. They were advertising it as recent as 2008.
Bonjour de France, my old Frend ! I follow since first video Max Headroom and another. This allows you to discover the deep American culture. In France, we didn't have these different technologies but your videos are instructive and funny. Know that French people watch your channel and they are still watching your videos, 10 years later. All my friends from France.
One can walk right up to the transmitter for KKMO-AM on the beach at Browns Point, Tacoma. There the average consumer's Walkman FM will be overloaded with the station, and you can hear how much fidelity really is put into the signal.
Interesting bit of trivia, you mentioned using multiple radios to have more than just mono, Disney did the same thing when it came to broadcasting surround sound back in the 60s, pretty neat imo, tuning in both your tv and your radio
29:18 OMFG was that one of those "Clean" remotes? I remember my former job trying to use those for their guest rooms and programming them was an absolute nightmare, to the point we just gave up and just put the stock LG remotes in the guest rooms.
It definitely wasn't a stock remote.
meduci is definitely not on “some kind of unspoken and indefinite hiatus,” as mentioned in this recording. Another manufacturing run is planned for August 2022. New “through-hole” component parts have been very difficult to obtain since March 2020. Prices for remaining parts have skyrocketed, between twice to ten times the prices now, compared to a few years ago.
We have gathered some very recent high fidelity stereo air checks, notably from WBLQ and WJIB in the northeast. In fact, I met the owner of WBLQ in June 2022 at a live remote broadcast. He put me on his radio station for three minutes in AM stereo with reverb. WBLQ is about local community broadcasting, and the owner is very technical and knowledgeable in the broadcast field.
Thanks for the update. :)
WGN radio in Chicago used to broadcast in AM stereo back when I used to listen to it but I didn't have the type of radio. I started listening in the late 90's because I would hear music and TV talk and other stuff that would interest me unless it was something boring.
I had AM Stereo on the 1986 Cadillac Delco head unit I put in my 86 Buick. Never found a station when I had it but I've been wondering about it since.
I had AM stereo in my car years ago (a Ford product), when WGN in Chicago broadcast Cubs baseball games in AM stereo. The first time I heard some fans who were near the ambient crowd noise mic, it sounded like they were in the back seat. 😃
WEKY 1340 AM here in Richmond, Kentucky used to broadcast in AM stereo. I worked for the station from 1993-1997, and I don't think they were still broadcasting in stereo at that time. Not sure how long they broadcast in that format, but they used to play some good music back in the 80's. 840 WHAS in Louisville, Kentucky was broadcasting in AM stereo up until maybe the mid 90's.
As a kid I vividly remember hearing in the NYC area WINS do IDs promoting that it was in stereo. Now who would want to listen to news in stereo is beyond me, but they did also cary Mets games so maybe thats why. THIS IS 1010 WINS W-I-N-S New York, A Westinghouse station, Broadcasting in Stereo.
This may be your best video! Congratulations on 10 years! :)
Woah! St Cloud, Sauk Rapids, MN! About 30 minutes away from me.
Archive field trip!
Sounds like only one of the 2 audio channels is being fed into the signal. The receiver has a great sound.
Here in Edmonton, Alberta, CHED and CHQT heavily promoted themselves as AM stereo for years, but I never heard it. You couldn't get AM stereo on a regular radio or stereo, and I never saw a radio with AM stereo in a store anywhere.
Listening while cooking.
Congratulations on your anniversary! Unless I miss my guess, this is the first road trip episode, apart from Archive Thrifting and the big move from Beautiful Downtown Aurora. So you've got a new milestone there. :) It's not surprising you missed the state line between Minnesota and South Dakota - I think sometimes the state line isn't marked well on backroads. I know when I've traveled from Florida to South Carolina I've missed the line between Georgia and South Carolina more than once.
You may not have found real AM stereo, but it sounds like you had a nice getaway for awhile. And you got to stay in nicer hotels than you did as a child. I know what that's like. :) And I liked that little bit of Steely Dan on there. I'll actually be going to a concert with the surviving member of Steely Dan and his band tonight. I'll let you know if they play Rikki.
I was on the interstate. I just didn’t expect Highway 23 to dump me back onto I-90 almost right on the SD border.
@@OddityArchive My apologies. It was hard to tell from the video. I guess I'm used to crazy-busy Florida traffic.
By the way, they didn't play Rikki, but it was still great.
I dig this person on the street style video! Huge fan and 73's from a fellow ham in VA! KC2VSP
Great. We’ll done
I work at an AM radio station in Australia, and those "so-called" AM Stereo stations sound so much better than our station does. Admittedly, there's no stereo separation on those stations, but they sound much more treble-y and easy to listen to than AM sounds here.
We did have a handful of AM stereo stations in the 80s and 90s, but I think in the end the population here is so small, and FM was already making inroads, that companies just didn't bother trying.
15:20 Welcome to Scandinavia. Gomsrud.
Starship trooper! Wish we had a station that played Yes where I live
This video has actually gotten some attention on the AM stereo Facebook group and there are people saying that your SRF-A100 might not be working correctly and I agree. One giveaway is the TUNED indicator is not lighting up like it is supposed to on strong signals, it is bright enough to be seen in full sunlight normally. A common problem as cliche as it might seem is bad capacitors and that is one way they can manifest themselves with a worst case scenario being a leak causing damage to the board. My particular SRF-A100 has had its capacitors replaced and I did it myself in fact. It is not too difficult of a job and from how the radio is behaving now there is hope to get it back to fully operational status. It might also need to be realigned but usually that is not the case and the original factory alignment is more than good enough.
See the pinned comment thread.
Anyway, I’ve been talking to VWestlife and HobbyBroadcaster about it for several days now. I’m gonna be shipping the radio off to VWestlife for, if nothing else, a better test than I was able to give.
You dodged a bullet by 50 rooms.
Here are my takes from this:
First ever OA: On Location episode. (I can confirm that as I finally got caught up on all regular OA episodes)
Second, it isn't the rural Midwest without seeing a HUGE piece of farm machinery driving on the streets.
Also, I couldn't tell whether it said GM/Delco stereos had it, because I recall in the late 80s/early 90s GM was the only one of the Big 3 to have AM Stereo head units, and I remember it saying their stereos picked up C-Qualm stations.
One more thing. What kind of car do you drive? It also should have the vanity plate: OABENNY or BENYBOY
I really wish AM Stereo took off just like FM Stereo.
AM stereo only has a frequency range of 75Hz to 10KHz
lol The closest Stereo station is also Fairmont for me. I was able to just slightly pick it up at night, and think my 2001 Dodge Ram is able to play AM stereo. If I go back to visit my parents ill be closer to Fairmont. Hopefully I remember to try it out again. It was also strange seeing Sioux Falls on video in the beginning
I went to my local Radio Shack store back in 1987 when they were bailing out some unsold out of date stock and had a NOS 1984 standalone Realistic AM stereo tuner for $10 dollars and I bought it There were a few Vancouver oldies and top 40 stereo stations. probably the best AM stereo sound was from a Vancouver alternative rock format station Coast 1040 AM in the early 90's which sadly went silent and I lost interest in AM stereo after that.
The Realistic TM-152 is an excellent AM Stereo tuner. It's not so sensitive with the built-in ferrite bar antenna, but really perks up when connected to an outdoor antenna.
I had a 200 foot long wire antenna and a homemade variable tuned passive ferrite coil placed near the Realistic AM stereo ferrite about 1/2 inch or so and could get much cleaner sound especially for that Vancouver alternative rock station with its exceptional high quality stereo sound compared to a few other mediocre AM stereo stations. Check out my CKST Spirit of radio Coast 1040 AM UA-cam video with AM stereo recordings. Sadly the Alternative Coast went silent in September 1993 switching to a big band/crooners nostalgia format. Today in 2022 AM 1040 is a comedy format (wtf).
Theme songs... from the hearts... of space.
Here is proof that WXYG did broadcast in true AM Stereo at one point in time. I believe something got mucked up with their feed recently. 94.3 and 107.3 are usually in proper wide stereo: ua-cam.com/video/EuR6ys0PZEY/v-deo.html
That hotel hallway would be perfect for r/LimimalSpace
To think a piece of artwork by your room nearly compromised the integrity of your famously obscured face (via reflection).
An extra cozy video for an already cozy channel.
31:07 Also known as Santa Claus, Arizona.
Ben, here's to 10 years of one of the most intriguing UA-cam channels out there.
Thanks for all the great content.
AM Stereo is on its deathbed? I thought it was buried already. I’m surprised so many stations still use it. I remember hearing it on a few stations in the ‘90s, but they were mono. You were right; the bandwidth was much better with it, even in mono.