Rennie Bishop from Trinidad and Tobago,I think took over from Billy Reece and hosted Projection 3 Mon-Fri 1pm to 4 pm where Harold Thompson was the immediate DJ and on Saturday mornings 9-12am on 95.1 FM. Rennie and James Sutherland hosted The J&R Show. Christopher Boines on the turntables (Echo/Reverb) sounds.Rennie B also called the "Ice man the nice man" Piscesborn revolutionized music in Trinidad and Tobago and became the Top DJ around. The best sounding voice of all tme.... by B.Diaz
I sort of miss cassettes, and 8 tracks believe it or not. AM has alot better stuff, but I can never get any thing decent to come in. On rare occasions I can get WBZ 1030 (listening on and off at night since 1995. I'm in ohio), KYW 1060, and 1140 WRVA. The local stations are overpowering, and they have garbage talk programs scheduled, unlike the stations I mentioned above.
This is the first time I've heard AM Stereo, I do wish I could hear a recording on media better than cassette, I will watch more of this vid later, but at least now I know what I've been missing.
I never heard AM stereo but that does sound good, now if AMs didn't smash their sound with such heavy compression it would be even better. See the meters hardly move during most of it. I'm in Pittsburgh and used to hear WWRL or K-Wide on 1600 late at night. In Pittsburgh the soul station is WAMO and you might be able to hear them on 860, and sadly they might be changing format soon too. Thanks for the post!
FM Stereo actually needs to be processed even more heavily than AM Stereo to achieve the same level of loudness. AM Stereo is processed as L+R and L-R instead of the L and R channels individually, so with wide stereo separation material (like 1960s music) it has up to a 6 dB modulation advantage.
Well I know FM has the extra bandwidth above 10khz to deal with, pilot and other carriers. I guess what you're saying is that adding stereo to AM doesn't cause a penalty to the to the total loudness like it would with FM? I really have to study this more. I was with a pirate AM and at the time stereo seemed to be so far out of reach, so I didn't study it that much. The only C-QUAM item I read was in Radio or Popular Electronics, build an AM stereo decoder. No doubt that WWRL does sound good!
AM stereo was mainly aimed at commuters who had to drive beyond the range of most FM stations. I don't know if any new cars have stereo AM radios. My 1992 Dodge Monaco is the last car I've seen with one. My '05 Honda Accord doesn't, but it wouldn't matter; it has the worst AM reception I've ever seen in a car radio.
As of a few years ago, Ford and Chrysler still had AM Stereo in some of their radios. I don't know about their current models.
I live in a hilly area and I still mostly listen to AM in the car because all the static on FM gets annoying. We have a few Oldies music stations on AM here, including one in AM Stereo, so at least it's not all talk radio!
Good sound, and why does AM stereo have to be SO RARE! I have never got an AM stereo tuner before or saw one in real life (unless maybe I might have one and there be no AM stereo stations in my area). I've always liked that bassy warm sound AM has, although the high frequency sound here on the AM stereo here is the only problem. Can the Realistic TM-102 AM/FM tuner get AM stereo?
AM Stereo was and still is a real thing, a very good thing!!!
Unfortunately, this recording was made in a cassette tape so we're hearing the tape sound quality. I bet you the direct sound from the tuner is greatest!!!
There is no reason to get a bad sound from an AM (mono or stereo) station. The today bad sound is a tuners issue. Don't blame the system itself.
AM stereo? I didn't think suck a thing could exist! I head of this before but just thought it was a joke. How does it work, do you know, does it use 2 tuners with 2 seperare frequencies or is it processed some way to put both channels in one signal?
AM Stereo puts both audio channels into one signal, just like FM Stereo. Motorola C-Quam AM Stereo uses regular Amplitude Modulation to transmit the L+R mono audio, combined with phase modulation (very similar to Frequency Modulation) transmitted in quadrature on the same signal to transmit the L-R stereo difference audio. Ordinary mono radios will ignore the phase modulated L-R component, while AM Stereo receivers decode the L+R and L-R components into the Left and Right channels.
I wish I had thought to record the AM stereo station I had worked for off the air. I do have some airchecks but I made them on the reel-to-reel in the control room from the mixing board output.
There are AM music stations around here but none of them except one seem to use AM stereo.
There is a station around here in Big Spring, TX. which comes in weakly but activates the AM stereo on the Dodge van radio.
AM Stereo is fully analog, so there is no "bitrate". The audio bandwidth depends on the regulations of the country it's transmitted in; in North America, AM stations are allowed to transmit up to 10 kHz audio. In this case, WWRL "cheated" by disabling the 10 kHz NRSC filter in their Optimod 9100 audio processor, resulting in FM-quality 12.5 kHz audio bandwidth. They transmitted like that for several years before re-engaging the NRSC filter!
It's because AM stations are spaced 10 kHz apart on the dial (in North & South America; the rest of the world uses 9 kHz spacing). That's also why you hear a high-pitched whistle on wide-bandwidth AM tuners, especially at night; you're actually hearing the carrier signal of a neighboring station that is 10 kHz above or below the one you're listening to.
There are still plenty of country, oldies and nostalgia stations still on AM in Texas and Oklahoma along with a few adult contemporary stations, although the majority of AM stations seem to be talk.
Are there still some AM Stereo stations left in the USofA?
In the UK we can recieve France Bleu after dark in AM stereo on 864, but I've never seen any receivers for sale in the shops, neither here nor in France :(
AM Stereo stations are still around, but not as many as there used to be in the 1990s. AM Stereo was never widely used in Europe due to the tight spacing between neighboring stations; there just wasn't enough bandwidth to make it sound good.
WILD-FM is now gone as well. It was only for a brief period of time, on 97.7, which was previously a CHR/Rhythmic station, competing with Jam'n 94.5. Since then, WILD went off the air, and has since been replaced with a simulcast of 107.3 WAAF (I actually have a tape of WAAF recorded on 4/1/87).
That station was out of Boston? Incredible sound. But people don't realize how good AM Can sound. Most of the time it's compressed down to crap or just has talk on it now days, and on the listener end, the typical receiver is some clock radio or poorly made unit.
In my area, we didn't get AM Stereo till 1990, although VOCM in St. John's had it in 1986 and it wasn't long after 90 that allot of the AM Stations up here in Canada started going FM or just turned off their stereo broadcasts.
Do you have the theme song...WWRL Radio Station......Rev. Del Sheilds
(gospel)....called "Nearer the Cross" ?
dale5224 1 year ago
@dale5224 No.
vwestlife 1 year ago
Rennie Bishop from Trinidad and Tobago,I think took over from Billy Reece and hosted Projection 3 Mon-Fri 1pm to 4 pm where Harold Thompson was the immediate DJ and on Saturday mornings 9-12am on 95.1 FM. Rennie and James Sutherland hosted The J&R Show. Christopher Boines on the turntables (Echo/Reverb) sounds.Rennie B also called the "Ice man the nice man" Piscesborn revolutionized music in Trinidad and Tobago and became the Top DJ around. The best sounding voice of all tme.... by B.Diaz
TrinBagoBillosNeros 1 year ago
Comment removed
TrinBagoBillosNeros 1 year ago
Can you post any more of the Earlier wwrl 1600 Rennie Bishop shows
albe1001 1 year ago
I sort of miss cassettes, and 8 tracks believe it or not. AM has alot better stuff, but I can never get any thing decent to come in. On rare occasions I can get WBZ 1030 (listening on and off at night since 1995. I'm in ohio), KYW 1060, and 1140 WRVA. The local stations are overpowering, and they have garbage talk programs scheduled, unlike the stations I mentioned above.
RacerE7773 1 year ago
This is the first time I've heard AM Stereo, I do wish I could hear a recording on media better than cassette, I will watch more of this vid later, but at least now I know what I've been missing.
weasel2htm 2 years ago
I never heard AM stereo but that does sound good, now if AMs didn't smash their sound with such heavy compression it would be even better. See the meters hardly move during most of it. I'm in Pittsburgh and used to hear WWRL or K-Wide on 1600 late at night. In Pittsburgh the soul station is WAMO and you might be able to hear them on 860, and sadly they might be changing format soon too. Thanks for the post!
boomermutt 2 years ago
FM Stereo actually needs to be processed even more heavily than AM Stereo to achieve the same level of loudness. AM Stereo is processed as L+R and L-R instead of the L and R channels individually, so with wide stereo separation material (like 1960s music) it has up to a 6 dB modulation advantage.
vwestlife 2 years ago
Well I know FM has the extra bandwidth above 10khz to deal with, pilot and other carriers. I guess what you're saying is that adding stereo to AM doesn't cause a penalty to the to the total loudness like it would with FM? I really have to study this more. I was with a pirate AM and at the time stereo seemed to be so far out of reach, so I didn't study it that much. The only C-QUAM item I read was in Radio or Popular Electronics, build an AM stereo decoder. No doubt that WWRL does sound good!
boomermutt 2 years ago
@vwestlife Nice Vintage Panasonic Cassette Tape Deck
JohnnyStereo487 1 year ago
AM stereo was mainly aimed at commuters who had to drive beyond the range of most FM stations. I don't know if any new cars have stereo AM radios. My 1992 Dodge Monaco is the last car I've seen with one. My '05 Honda Accord doesn't, but it wouldn't matter; it has the worst AM reception I've ever seen in a car radio.
lrd9999 2 years ago
As of a few years ago, Ford and Chrysler still had AM Stereo in some of their radios. I don't know about their current models.
I live in a hilly area and I still mostly listen to AM in the car because all the static on FM gets annoying. We have a few Oldies music stations on AM here, including one in AM Stereo, so at least it's not all talk radio!
vwestlife 2 years ago
The station sounded GREAT!
Lockemeister 2 years ago
It is a remix of "Trapped" by Colonel Abrams... the first ever "House" style song, from 1985!
vwestlife 2 years ago
Good sound, and why does AM stereo have to be SO RARE! I have never got an AM stereo tuner before or saw one in real life (unless maybe I might have one and there be no AM stereo stations in my area). I've always liked that bassy warm sound AM has, although the high frequency sound here on the AM stereo here is the only problem. Can the Realistic TM-102 AM/FM tuner get AM stereo?
CassetteMaster 2 years ago
The Realistic TM-152 is an AM Stereo tuner (only; no FM). It is the same style as their AM mono/FM stereo TM-150.
vwestlife 2 years ago
Also look up my two videos of 1190 WOWO in AM Stereo. It was recorded from a Realistic TM-152 tuner.
vwestlife 2 years ago
AM Stereo was and still is a real thing, a very good thing!!!
Unfortunately, this recording was made in a cassette tape so we're hearing the tape sound quality. I bet you the direct sound from the tuner is greatest!!!
There is no reason to get a bad sound from an AM (mono or stereo) station. The today bad sound is a tuners issue. Don't blame the system itself.
jotape1960 2 years ago
AM stereo? I didn't think suck a thing could exist! I head of this before but just thought it was a joke. How does it work, do you know, does it use 2 tuners with 2 seperare frequencies or is it processed some way to put both channels in one signal?
CoolDudeClem 2 years ago
AM Stereo puts both audio channels into one signal, just like FM Stereo. Motorola C-Quam AM Stereo uses regular Amplitude Modulation to transmit the L+R mono audio, combined with phase modulation (very similar to Frequency Modulation) transmitted in quadrature on the same signal to transmit the L-R stereo difference audio. Ordinary mono radios will ignore the phase modulated L-R component, while AM Stereo receivers decode the L+R and L-R components into the Left and Right channels.
vwestlife 2 years ago
That sounds so good!
I wish I had thought to record the AM stereo station I had worked for off the air. I do have some airchecks but I made them on the reel-to-reel in the control room from the mixing board output.
There are AM music stations around here but none of them except one seem to use AM stereo.
There is a station around here in Big Spring, TX. which comes in weakly but activates the AM stereo on the Dodge van radio.
retrochad 2 years ago
What is the bitrate of AM Radio's audio?
Leafblower29 2 years ago
AM Stereo is fully analog, so there is no "bitrate". The audio bandwidth depends on the regulations of the country it's transmitted in; in North America, AM stations are allowed to transmit up to 10 kHz audio. In this case, WWRL "cheated" by disabling the 10 kHz NRSC filter in their Optimod 9100 audio processor, resulting in FM-quality 12.5 kHz audio bandwidth. They transmitted like that for several years before re-engaging the NRSC filter!
vwestlife 2 years ago
Why would they limit it to 10Kz only? It seems dumb.
CassetteMaster 2 years ago
It's because AM stations are spaced 10 kHz apart on the dial (in North & South America; the rest of the world uses 9 kHz spacing). That's also why you hear a high-pitched whistle on wide-bandwidth AM tuners, especially at night; you're actually hearing the carrier signal of a neighboring station that is 10 kHz above or below the one you're listening to.
vwestlife 2 years ago
Isn't AM like just news and radio Disney?
Leafblower29 2 years ago
There are still plenty of country, oldies and nostalgia stations still on AM in Texas and Oklahoma along with a few adult contemporary stations, although the majority of AM stations seem to be talk.
retrochad 2 years ago
Are there still some AM Stereo stations left in the USofA?
In the UK we can recieve France Bleu after dark in AM stereo on 864, but I've never seen any receivers for sale in the shops, neither here nor in France :(
Jamiep84 2 years ago
AM Stereo stations are still around, but not as many as there used to be in the 1990s. AM Stereo was never widely used in Europe due to the tight spacing between neighboring stations; there just wasn't enough bandwidth to make it sound good.
vwestlife 2 years ago
Yep it's amazing how good AM can sound with a decent bandwidth.
Some of those old obscure TV systems used AM sound in the VHF band, and the recordings I've heard of them sound indisinguishable from FM. :)
Jamiep84 2 years ago
That is a great example of just how good sounding C-QUAM AM Stereo can be. :) JC
BadEditPro 2 years ago
Oh my bad, Boston was 1610 and at one point (90-91) was an urban station.
traxonwax 2 years ago
Boston did have an Urban AC station in AM Stereo for many years, 1090 WILD. The WILD format is now on FM.
vwestlife 2 years ago
WILD-FM is now gone as well. It was only for a brief period of time, on 97.7, which was previously a CHR/Rhythmic station, competing with Jam'n 94.5. Since then, WILD went off the air, and has since been replaced with a simulcast of 107.3 WAAF (I actually have a tape of WAAF recorded on 4/1/87).
NEUDude 2 years ago
That station was out of Boston? Incredible sound. But people don't realize how good AM Can sound. Most of the time it's compressed down to crap or just has talk on it now days, and on the listener end, the typical receiver is some clock radio or poorly made unit.
In my area, we didn't get AM Stereo till 1990, although VOCM in St. John's had it in 1986 and it wasn't long after 90 that allot of the AM Stations up here in Canada started going FM or just turned off their stereo broadcasts.
traxonwax 2 years ago