Stirling Country 1070 WKMB hi-fi aircheck 2/9/01

This is a "scoped" aircheck of 1070 WKMB (Stirling, NJ) recorded February 9th, 2001 from my Radio Shack Optimus 12-603 "GE Superadio III clone" radio.

WKMB was a "Mom and Pop" locally owned, operated, and oriented station for over 30 years, best known for its country music format that aired from 1979 to January 18th, 2003. They called themselves "The Greatest Little Country Music Station This Side of Texas," and with a homebrew audio processor built from Radio Shack parts, they had a totally unique sound on the dial to match.

After the station's founder passed away in 2002, his three sons continued to run WKMB's Stirling Country format for about six months, before deciding to sell the station to a church in nearby Plainfield, NJ, who built new studios for the station and took over in January 2003, switching the format to Black Gospel. However, WKMB's long-time morning DJ Bob Hunt remained with the station and still is their primary "voice" today, adapting like a true radio pro to the new format.

1070 WKMB is a daytime-only station transmitting 250 watts non-directional. The homebrew "Rontimod" audio processor has since been retired, now back in the posession of its creator, and has been replaced with various components including an Inovonics 222 limiter, which still gives them a bit of wideband "kick," although not nearly with the same texture and density.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• lq5+hq18
• 1070
• wkmb
• stirling
• country
• format
• nj
• new
• jersey
• radio
• am
• music
• texas
• daytimer
• local
• air
• optimod
• omnia
• crl
• aircheck

[xmare]

Indeed wide band am sound, i love it!

[vwestlife]

It sounds especially good considering that I made the original recording onto regular Type I cassette tape with no Dolby NR!

[77slipkid]

Ahh that's good ol Bob Hunt, the morning jock at KMB... do you have any airchecks of Brian Zimmerman who was KMB's afternoon host?

[weasel2htm]

While it definably does not sound FM, it almost sounds too good to be AM! Amazing!!

IT would be cool to see that home built processor.

[MrFgcfgcfgc]

@vwestlife Can you make more recordings of this? i love it.

[bratina501]

Ah yes, the Radioshack 12-603 super radio clone. I had one myself it along its the successor which was the 12-903 and the Sony SRF-42 are three of the best AM tuners I have ever had. Its a real treat to hear an AM music station with the full 10 KHz band width and I say this from experience as in my area there are a few music stations including a country one which all broadcast wide band AM and one of which used to be stereo using C-QUAM of course as well.

[Amishman35]

I gotta get my 555 timer longwave transmitter working and try to transmit a few feet to a nearby wire hooked to my bt878 tuner ADC and see if I can get sound anywhere near this good. This video sounds quite clear. Too bad they didn't broadcast C-QUAM stereo.

[moorhead24]

I grew up listening to WKMB and it was one of the stations that inspired me to pursue a career in radio. Nice to hear that 'KMB sounder again! Thanks for this post.