keithe@sri-unix (07/27/82)
Commercial-free doesn't mean they have no source of income. There are the SCA channels (for Subsidiary Carrier Authorization, I think) which can be carried on standard FM signals which send other signals around; one of their (ab)uses is the Muzak (tm?) you hear in grocery stores, elevators and wherever. I think some paging-systems signals for doctors, computer technicians and other healers are also transmitted on these signals. Southwest Technical Products will sell you a kit to receive them - at least they used to - and it wasn't too expensive, either. But the musical quality of the signal is nothing to write home about, since it has to be bandlimited to prevent over-modulation problems. And it won't be in stereo. You can find stations broadcasting SCA in your area by using a spectrum analyzer (a Tektronix 7L12 or 7L13 will do just fine; so will some others but I don't know their model numbers) and observing the sidebands on the signals in the FM band. With some practice you'll be able to differentiate the L-R sidebands (which are at carrier +/- 38kHz) from SCA signals which will be located further away from the carrier. These sidebands are more easily distinguishable during periods of silence on the main channel. keith ericson at tektronix
trb (07/29/82)
Commercial free isn't limited to Muzak either. There are fine non-commercial stations all over the US in the FM region below 92. These are often college stations and other stations who work for love rather than money. They are often listener sponsored and the quality of programming usually far exceeds that of commercial radio. A few in the greater NYC area: 91.1 WFMU (All kinds - my favorite) Upsala College, East Orange, NJ 90.9? WNYU (New Wave) New York University 89.1? WFDU (American Folk) Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ 88.1? WBGO (Jazz) Newark The categories are sweepingly general, each station has variety. Look around on the low end of the FM dial, you should be pleased. Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491
notes@zeppo.UUCP (10/24/83)
#R:teklabs:-129900:zeppo:9500002:000:918
zeppo!mes Jul 29 08:23:00 1982
Just for information, as of the last time I looked (about a month ago),
WAPP-FM 103.5 NYC (the station that started this commercial free talk)
did not apply to the FCC for SCA authorization -- no, you do not have to have
a special permit endorsement for sca, but you do need to inform them that
you are running it... same for stereo, too...
Also... has anyone noticed that to grab and keep its market share, WPLJ-FM
is running 'more commercail free hours than ever'... I wonder if this
applies to all the ABC-FM rock affiliates , i.e., WYSP Philadelphia, WPLx
(i forgot) in Miami, WPLx (forgot again) in Boston, et al... Usually, anything
that PLJ does is corporate-wide, and you can find the same television
commercials in all the markets... Any comments?
Mike
...harpo!zeppo!mes
BTL Whippany NJ