adam
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Post by adam on Apr 30, 2009 20:01:14 GMT -5
dbsteff, I believe this has been the norm for years for 'most' station in Louisville metro, many if not most of the FM and TV towers sit high atop the hills over here in Floyds Knobs Indiana, I know DJX, VEZ, WHAS11 and Fox41 for certain are up there. They have excellent coverage over the area. I believe 93.1 and LRS are over in Louisville in the valley somewhere. Might be time for them to switch to a new location.
The sticks up in the knobs are hard to miss from a lot of metro Louisville in the eveing and night hours, there's probably 10-15 red lit towers glowing
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Post by dbsteff on May 1, 2009 6:28:19 GMT -5
Thanks for the info, Adam. I've been away from the Louisville area for a very long time, and don't know what the heck is going on in that market.
My years at WLRS were among the most fondly remembered. Though it was a very long time ago, I remember those days as if they were recent.
Having been a DJ and a station engineer for WLRS in those days, I have a particular fondness for the call sign WLRS. I have always feared that, at some point that call sign might go defunct. I'd hate to see that happen, but I'm not naive regarding such things, either.
Again, thanks for the info regarding the transmitting locations, I appreciate it.
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on May 1, 2009 8:55:07 GMT -5
Oh...for you technical types; one piece of technical info: The common transmitter facility that I mentioned is refered to by the engineers as:
"Circulator City"
because so many FM stations share a few antennae.
For the non-technical types: A circulator is a device that allows one to combine the outputs of multiple transmitters such that they can share a common transmitting antenna.
Should the place ever burn down or something...the Dallas Ft. Worth listeners would be in a reral quandry
Just a piece of anecdotal information.
Dan
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adam
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Post by adam on May 7, 2009 21:00:16 GMT -5
I have a feeling DJX and VEZ share the same tower, seems from what I can figure, the locations on the internet and in person fall about the same place. Some of the towers are alot bigger than others, and the facilities at the base of them are bigger than others. I believe WHAS-TV has had theres up there since atleast the 60's. may have been one of the few then.
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Post by dbsteff on May 8, 2009 6:25:19 GMT -5
Thanks again Adam; I appreciate being kept abreast of what's going on in Louisville and the area. The two years or so that I spent at WLRS are those I look back upon with much fondness. I was the proverbial "starving student" as all my money went to tuition and basic essentials, leaving no real "mad money"...but, still, I met many wonderful people and had many memorable times...some of which I have shared in the form of the stories I have penned here on LKYRadio.
Dallas has been good to me, career-wise and such, but I will always remember Louisville fondly. Having lived in Dallas for almost 40 years, I have watched it grow and change greatly...not always, in my opinion, for the better. The old Texas Charm and hospitality have long since been replaced with an air of the metropolitan, more like NY City, or one of the other big cities of the North. In the desire to achieve a multicultural Nirvana, we have, instead created a cultural cacophony. In short, it's a stressful place to live, filled with the land-mines of stepping, however unintentionally, on someones sensitivities.
Dallas is still a "boom town" and there are opportunities galore, still, at 60 years old...I've had a full career and have finished with ladder-climbing and chasing the almighty buck. Now, showing my age, I long for a more laid-back and slow life in a less complicated region of the country. Who knows, perhaps, I'll get to see Louisville once again and those towers you have enlightened me about.
I appreciate you taking time to write me about Louisville and the common transmitting faciltiy...or location. I find it interesting.
FYI...a few years ago, one of the towers here at the Cedar Hill location had an unhappy run-in with a small private plane, it brought down one of the towers knocking several FM stations off the air at the same time. Luckily, the fallen tower didn't land on Circulator City, so the down time for the impacted stations was a matter of days, not weeks or months. Only one of the stations was not able to recover, revenue-wise, and never returned to the air. I hope Louisville never encounters such a catastrophe.
Best of Luck to you, Adam. I hope I will hear from you again.
Dan
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adam
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Post by adam on May 31, 2009 23:18:37 GMT -5
Thought I'd add a little bit here. I've been tuning into 105.1 WLRS now and then lately, I guess they have that all things that rock format, alot of it is the older hard rock and the newer alternative sounding stuff I'm unfamiliar with..seems everything in between in filler and WLRS ID spots. I haven't heard a jock yet, I'm guessing they are full automation. that signal sounded a little muffled to, and thats from Louisvilles downtown out to the edge of New Albany. LRS's old spot at 102.3 is the 90's-today station..its seriously a loud and clear signal. I can see why it worked so well back in the day. It sounded pretty good save for alot of the music they play. and for fun I was driving around Louisville Saturday night and was right next to the 800 building. So I gave it my respects. I remember when i was a kid going over the Kennedy bridge at night and seeing the Big 4 bridge lit up with the LRS102 logo...cool stuff, I tell some people about it now and they are like "huh?"
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Post by dbsteff on Jun 1, 2009 6:45:34 GMT -5
Thanks for the info, Adam. I really enjoy knowing what's going on back in my old stompin' grounds of Louisville. I think your impressions are borne out by the WLRS web-site. If you go there, they have a "Jocks" tab....if you click on it, NO pics appear. It would seem that they are, as you suggest, totally automated. I've been out of the business for a very long time, but I've never known a fully automated station that succeeded, not in the long run. As for transmission quality. I don't know if they still operate with the old, now...new at the time...RCA BTF-10D transmitter or if they've upgraded. In my days, the signal was of extremely high quality even to the furthest reaches of our coverage area.
Good to know the old "800 Building" is still hangin in there. I spent many an hour up on the 9th floor, in the studio, and on the roof in the transmitter shack. You know from my "Early Days" articles that I had many an experience at the WLRS of my day. I've often wondered if the huge coil springs that the 800 Building rest upon would give out and have to be replaced. That would be quite the undertaking. I was much impressed in 1967, when I first used the parking garage, before I determined I couldn't afford it, and began parking a little bit down 4th St. in a Church parking lot, to see that the entire superstructure of the 800 Building rested on these springs. They were to render the building earthquake-proof. The caused the building to sway quite noticeably, however, in the one earthquake-related episode I remember, scaring the beejeezers out of the residents and the jock on duty...my buddy Don, once again, when the occurrence happened. I'm still trying to get Don to write that story for LKY Radio, but so far, no luck.
I know from web articles, that they had considered a new facade for the 800 Building, to get rid of the turquoise exterior. Last I checked, and the last time my buddy, Don, was in Louisville, they had NOT done so. The WLRS web-site still has my pics and "Early Days" article posted on the "Locals Only" / "Old School" tabs....so, as odd as it seems, at this time, I'm the only (former) Jock, whose pic appears on the web-site. That gave me quite a chuckle.
I appreciate the info, Adam. Thanks for providing it. I'm always interested in what's happening in Louisville.
Best Regards
Dan
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adam
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Post by adam on Jun 3, 2009 0:03:06 GMT -5
Yeah the 800 still has the turquoise paneling. And still has a tower or 2 pirched atop it.
As far as LRS, I'm not in radio but have the interest obviously, but since they are on 105.1 now, and I believe a different incarnation from the 102.3 days..they wouldn't be using the same transmitter?
I would believe though that the station currently on 102 (The Max) is using that same eqipment. because it certainly is high quality signal. In fact when i was down down just a few blocks from the 800 I could swear the audio quality was at it's peak, very clean and the sound has an "edge" to it.
I'm unsure of what used to be on 105.1 years ago but it's just a very flat signal to me wherever I've been, and the sound level is much lower than that of the other FM's
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Post by dbsteff on Jun 3, 2009 11:11:41 GMT -5
I understand that since WLRS moved to 105, they have to be operating with new equipment, thet are at an entirely new location, etc.
So I am glad to know that whatever station is still operating at 102.3 is producing a strong crisp signal.
You do seem interested in radio, Adam, ever thought of giving it a try?
Dan
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adam
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Post by adam on Jun 6, 2009 1:42:43 GMT -5
I have thought of it, my speech has some errors though..haha i tend to yammer words together or stumble over them, speech patterns and such. I can do a lot of imitations and voices and I have thought of making a demo tape and sending it to someone for commercial/skit work my sound card right now thought is down and I haven't had to time to get it straightened out, I'd like to make a nice one with some decent software
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Post by dbsteff on Jun 6, 2009 13:50:43 GMT -5
Practice makes perfect, my friend. Record some articles from the paper, or elswhere, and listen to your playback. After you discover that you sound differently on tape than how you hear yourself in your own ear, you'll put that distraction behind you and can begin to develop an "Air Voice" It's not magic...just takes some practice. In the beginning, you might even want to over enunciate your words...it'll sound silly on playback at first, but it will coach you to enunciate properly, eventually. There are some other tricks, too. Have you ever taken any formal Speech" classes in school?
Maybe we can find some way for you to stream or send me a copy of your demo. Don't let too much time go by, if you're serious about this, though. Another common part of the "bug" is to start hanging around at real stations, if you can make contact with anyone at a station who can arrange it. If you find a DJ who is not a complete egomaniac, he might even coach you a bit.
Good Luck!!!
Dan
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Post by greghahn on Jun 13, 2009 20:42:10 GMT -5
I have a feeling DJX and VEZ share the same tower, seems from what I can figure, the locations on the internet and in person fall about the same place. . That's not correct. The two sites are both up there, but about a mile apart. WHAS, WAVE, WLKY, WKPC, WDRB, Big 58 (whatever that call sign is) and a few others are up there, along with WDJX, WVEZ, WFPL, WFPK, and WUOL. WAVE moved off the hill in the early 90s with their "$5 million Mistake"...a 1700' tower in Oldham County. But when they went digital, they put it back in the knobs. Now that analog is dead, everyone is back up there where they should be.
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Post by dbsteff on Jul 15, 2009 6:55:11 GMT -5
SOMETHING NEW AT WLRS.COM
I went to the WLRS web site (wlrs.com) to discover that they have a new "splash page" referring to FM TALK
I assume that means that they are, as the splash would indicate, a talker.....anyone know what precipitated this morph?
They have been in a state of mindless flux for sometime now. I'm baffled at it all. I suppose that the automated experiment failed for them. In any case, I'd be interested in any inside scoop.
Regards to ALL
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jul 15, 2009 10:47:26 GMT -5
OH...I forgot to mention....the new splash page doesn NOT say WLRS....only 105.1. I do hope they aren't about to drop the call sign!!!
Dan
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adam
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Post by adam on Jul 16, 2009 21:49:46 GMT -5
I just turned it on and it sounds like talk to me...I'll try and gather a top of the hour ID and see what they say...
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