CD music versus FM radio audio; why no more classical FM in Lake County?
In my area, I get most of the FM stations from Cleveland fairly well on all my radios. However, the programming on almost all but the NPR stations (I can get two, one being a translator for an NPR affiliate 70 miles south of here, the other being the NPR affiliate in Cleveland) is...well, I don't want to say terrible, but I've heard better. The point is, I don't listen to FM much anymore since I recently ripped many of my CDs onto my computer's hard drive. I have the computer's sound card hooked into the aux inputs of my stereo and use MusicMatch Jukebox Plus software to organize the files into playlists, as well as using the volume leveling function to even out the variations in level between tracks. Another advantage of MM+ is it converts the tracks on CDs to MP3 files, which are supposed to be much higher fidelity than standard CD recording techniques produce; however, having less than perfect hearing, I honestly cannot tell the difference between standard CD encoding and MP3. To me, the sound of FM radio and that of CDs, either with standard digital encoding or MP3, are one and the same.
The other thing I don't like about FM radio in this area (northeastern Ohio) is that there is hardly any variety of music anymore--most stations here play rock or some variation of it. There are two country stations I can hear here, but other than that, nothing but rock. Cleveland had a classical station for years, but the owner, for reasons I have never understood, decided about three years ago to move the station from 95.5 MHz to 104.9. I cannot hear the station now because one of the country stations is on 104.7--just 0.2 MHz down the dial--which neatly cuts out the classical station all across Lake County, where I live. The station has an arrangement with a small AM station in the next town south of me (5 miles away) to have that station simulcast its programming so residents of my county can hear it. However, I don't think AM radio is suited for broadcasting classical as the fidelity of most AM stations is far too poor; besides, few AM stations broadcast in AM stereo these days. Honestly, what hard-core classical-music fan with an elaborate stereo installation wants to listen to Beethoven's symphonies (for example) in mono? Witness what happened in New York City recently with its WQXR and WQXR-FM stations. For years the AM simulcast the FM (AM 50kW on 1560, FM 96.3), but several years ago the AM station changed its calls to WQEW and format to Radio Disney. The reason, I think, was just what I mentioned above--WQXR's current owners may not have thought that AM radio was good enough, fidelity-wise, for classical music; that or else they found that more people were listening to classical over WQXR-FM than the AM, so the next logical step was to change then-WQXR-AM's format to something more folks would listen to, while leaving the FM as it is.
Speaking of "leaving the FM as it is", I cannot for the life of me understand, as I said above, why Cleveland's classical FM was moved to a frequency just 0.2 MHz away from a powerful station which is heard well all through Lake and eastern Cuyahoga counties of Ohio, rather than leaving it where it was at 95.5. The station's owner (who has owned the station since it first signed on as WDGO-FM in 1962) either does not seem to realize or does not seem to care that, by moving the transmitter 50 miles away into another county and transmitting on 104.9, he is effectively losing a large portion of his listening audience. If I were a betting man (which I'm not), I'd be willing to bet that the classical station will find itself off the air before long unless something is done to get the signal back on an FM station that can be heard all through Lake County, such as by means of using a low-power translator station located at a high point in the county. In an area such as northeastern Ohio which already has too many rock stations, that the only classical station cannot be heard in fully half the area is, IMO, downright inexcusable. After all,this sort of thing would not be tolerated for long in other, more important cities such as Detroit, Chicago, New York or Los Angeles, et al., all of which have had FM classical music stations; the owners of these stations obviously have more than enough sense not to chop up their audiences by virtue of making the stations' signals inaccessable in half the metropolitan area. What on earth is the problem in Cleveland? Is rock and roll more important to the city than serious music? Are classical-music listeners in Lake County going to have to resort to putting up big antennas and getting their classical from stations in Erie or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or Youngstown, Ohio, getting this sort of music over the Internet or cable or, worse come to worst, buying classical CDs, bypassing radio altogether?
BTW, I realize there are small low-power NPR stations that broadcast classical music, but the range of these stations is limited, and not all NPR affiliates play classical. The NPR station in Cleveland is a case in point. This station plays jazz all night, not classical. The other NPR affiliate 70 miles from where I live (the one I can hear only via their translator at 89.1, which is only about ten miles away)
does program classical music, but again, the range of the translator is very limited. The only way one can hear that station directly is if the person lives in greater Cleveland or in the city where the transmitter is actually located (Kent, Ohio, a suburb of Akron). There are some areas which neither the translator nor the station's direct signal will reach. What are classical listeners in these areas to do? :scratch2: Oh, I suppose they can bypass radio entirely and listen to their favorite music on CDs (as I mentioned above); in fact, I understand, from reading posts in the audio forums, that some AK members don't even have FM tuners in their stereo systems, preferring instead to listen to cassettes and/or CDs. Speaking for myself, I rarely listen to local FM anymore, having ripped many of my CDs into my computer and having access to Internet and cable music channels. In this area at least, these are much better ways to get music than on FM (the computer arrangement, the CD player in my stereo, and my extensive CD/cassette library lets me listen to music of my own choosing rather than having to listen to branded-in-stone playlists on local FMs, almost all of which in Cleveland are owned by either Infinity Broadcasting or Clear Channel--both operating and programming their stations with iron hands). I wonder how I ever got along without my CDs/cassettes and cable music--these have allowed me to enjoy music again. Isn't modern technology wonderful?
