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Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Topics of general interest that just don't fit anywhere else.
radioandtventhusiast
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Location: Toledo, OH

Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by radioandtventhusiast »

What do you believe are the worst sounding radio stations of all time? This means any station that has/had very low volume, music that's excessively pitched/sped up, stations with little to no bass/treble, music that sounds like it's played from a tin can, etc.
sfpcc
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Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:05 pm

Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by sfpcc »

I would assume the first radio stations that sprung up in the circa 1921 sounded pretty rough, so maybe KDKA.
sfpcc
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by sfpcc »

[quote=sfpcc post_id=609809 time=1590262418 user_id=4168]
I would assume the first radio stations that sprung up circa 1921 sounded pretty rough, so maybe KDKA.
[/quote]
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Radio Chili
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Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:28 am
Location: Way down in the sunny South.

Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by Radio Chili »

A more modern horror story might well be the radio station in Rockford, MI on 810. Under the original owner and licensee, Jack LePayne it was the most distorted, low-mod, tinny sounding, low-budget thing ever! And that's speaking only of the audio quality! Programming was worse! It was goofy as Hell! He signed on with 500 watts in 1965 and held on to it until 1993 when he sold it off, 'retiring' and in drunken boredom beat his own Mother, whom he lived with. Awful story.
CK-722
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by CK-722 »

WWWS 107.1 Saginaw was the worst sounding FM for the first two or three years it was on the air. It had almost no bass at all. Some said it was double preemphasis. Some said it was the phone line STL which was not properly equalized. HGR1290 and I think Ed Joseph and tvbobn also said this as I recall.

I met Jack Payne once, outside the WJPW studio. I told him the station didn't sound good. He said that they had a capacitor on order that hadn't come in yet. He also said that that WJPW got out farther with 500 watts than WOOD did with 5000 watts. He was right about that, at least when they were at full power.
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matt1
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by matt1 »

WCHW FM Bay City Central high school (91.3) late 70's through the 90's because it was in MONO.
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by Deleted User 15342 »

WGPR late 60’s and through the entire 70’s the sound quality was terrible. They had church service programming on from Saturday evening and throughout Sunday, the sound coming out of the speakers would literally cause an earache and give you a headache it was pure torture.
ftballfan
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by ftballfan »

Any station that's primarily running dead air
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Colonel Flagg
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by Colonel Flagg »

1340 WMTE, after Chuck Hedstrom sold it. Pitiful.
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ChrisWL1980
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Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2019 2:36 am

Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by ChrisWL1980 »

I haven't heard them lately, but WKYO 1360 in Caro sounded downright awful (audio wise) during its Oldies format, and IIRC during the previous Real Country era as well. I liked the music, but you had to turn the volume all the way up to hear it.
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Art Van Damme
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by Art Van Damme »

1090am WCAR Livonia. Waste of electricity and real estate.
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WOHO
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by WOHO »

SuperStation 910 when the HD kicks in will destroy what's left of our DX-impaired hearing.
All of the Sirius-based stations and 1/3 of the XM-based stations.
Half of the satellators that have an FM translator use a $3.99 AM radio to feed the audio to the FM, and that is not a complement.
And yes, whatever happened to CKLW- used to be the king of modulation, now the queen of dilution.
CKWW is sounding puny now.
And stations +/- 30KHz of HD stations like WWJ, WRDT Monroe and 910.
WC8KCY
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Re: Worst-sounding radio stations of all-time.

Unread post by WC8KCY »

WMQT (Q107), in the mid-eighties, played maybe a third of its programming off-pitch by a full semi-tone. As a musician with perfect pitch, it was akin to fingernails on a blackboard...

WMTE 1340 had a godawful buzz in the audio for its last few of years on the air from Radio Hill. When it was briefly resurrected under STA from another site using a long-wire antenna, it actually sounded pretty good.
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