WZUM adds WRRK HD3 to its outlet list
March 8, 2024HD radio owners who are fans of the jazz format on WZUM will be excited to learn the station has an additional home on WRRK’s 96.9 HD3 channel as of today. Pittsburgh Public Media President, Chuck Leavens, tells PBRTV, “WRRK contacted us as they were looking for more Pittsburgh-centric programming for their HD channels. WZUM, as a nonprofit public broadcaster, fits the bill with programming with a growing dedicated Pittsburgh audience. WZUM has been growing every year since we have been on the air, and the response to our programming has been tremendous.”
Leavens began Pittsburgh Public Media soon after Duquesne University sold WDUQ (90.5) and the format was dropped in favor of all-news WESA. Initially it had its home on the web and eventually found an FM home in Bethany, West Virginia at 88.1 which eventually became WZUM-FM. It found its AM home on 1550 Braddock which had the WZUM calls already from the previous ownership. 1550 has a translator at 101.1 FM.
Pittsburgh Public Media also distributes 24/7 jazz programming through its PubMusic network via NPR’s satellite system and has 70 affiliates nationwide.
Steel City Media owns WRRK along with WLTJ (92.9). Each station has 4 HD channels available with a variety of different programming.
I’m glad to hear this if only that it might get more exposure for the station. HD primary stations don’t sound quite as good as their FM counterparts. I’d take AM over the other HD subchannels any day – they’re a compressed mess. So… I’ll still be listening at 1550.
]The programming is quite enjoyable!
Maybe WZUM could get another translator out of it, that’s what many stations are doing, getting a translator on FM sourced from an HD subchannel, and it’s allowed by the rules. With most Pittsburgh stations concentrated north of the city, one could say there’s a need for more stations on the south side of Mount Washington.
I’m disappointed with HD radio so far, I thought it might be like a second coming of FM for the 2000s. The claims were noiseless high fidelity sound, superior range to FM stations, metadata, and several more stations per broadcaster. With digital clarity, they could compress and process their audio less. Sounded good, worthwhile.
I got a Sony HD mini tuner, and a few years later a Directed bookshelf system, that locked on to the HD signals faster and I thought sounded better. This is almost 20 years ago now, not exactly sure, but mid-2000s. Now both radios have broken computer entry, and I haven’t replaced or repaired them.
The two best stations I found back then were WDVE’s blues channel, and WQED’s HD-2. There was only one subchannel on each station, and they used the full bandwidth for it, better fidelity. The blues channel sounded like it had CD quality dynamic range, and that was impressive. I imagined that the program director must have been a blues fanatic and they let him loose on the subchannel!
When stations started to add HD-3 and HD-4, that’s when I thought HD audio quality took a dive, and fast. It led to watery sound, like a Certron cassette being played on a deck with not the greatest alignment, and an echo effect on voices, like talking in a small metal room.
Coverage is also an issue in the car, on HD-3-4, along Saw Mill Run or lower Robinson and a station can sputter and then drop to dead silence for short periods, like your ears are suddenly in a hole with no sound and it can be jarring.
I don’t hate HD, but these problems should be fixed already, but the radio industry doesn’t seem to be that interested in taking action. Some of it may be that Xperi HD radio licensing issues and fees, where the AM and FM formats are free to use.
I’ll agree that AM radio can sound good, especially with jazz, which uses fundamental frequency instruments, compared to the high upper harmonic content in pop and country music, as examples. That can sound clean on a bandwidth reduced system like AM radio.
I have some fine old AM radios that would have played the very same jazz in the 1950s and 60s, and when WZUM 1550 is sounding their best, it’s a pleasure to listen to.
Boomer