On 4/24/2016 11:22 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 24 Apr 2016 02:58:30 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/24/2016 1:12 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 23 Apr 2016 16:05:49 -0500, amdx wrote:

On 4/23/2016 1:37 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


I was reading the other day that most of the AM stations are being shut
down or sold to special interest broadcasters. Affected is the first
commercial radio station in the USA ... WBZ in Boston. I used to
listen to 'BZ all the time as a kid ... Red Sox games and then Dick
Summer and Larry Glick at night. Too bad to see them being shut down
but they are another casualty of the Internet and technology.



I listened to WBZ in the 80's and part of the 90s. I lived in Michigan
at the time and WBZ came in very well in the evening. I enjoyed Larry
Glick in the middle of the night, starting at 1 or 2 am. Glick had some
hilarious skits. Anyone recall him calling the Hawaiian pay phone? I
also listened to David Brudnoy earlier in the evening, around 10 or
11pm, Brudnoy was very intelligent and did more serious interviews.
After I moved to Florida and got up an antenna, I only received
WBZ very clear for about 30 seconds one evening and then never again.
I sent a letter to them asking if the were going to put their
programing on the internet, I got a response, "not at this time", some
CBS rules as I understood it. Years later, I received an email saying
their programing was now on the internet. They must have saved all the
emails asking about internet programming.
Sorry to hear they are shutting down. Good Memories.
Mikek

When I was in DC we went the other way and listened to Dick Biondi on
WLS in Chicago. A good super het radio connected to a 100' antenna
locked it in like it was local at night.

We used to have one good AM talk station here that was all local
during the day and went to syndicated shows like Dr Dean and that
travel/money guy.
The local show was good because it was mostly local stuff and they got
the real guys on. I called in one day, talked to the Lee County DOT
director and got the light at the end of my street retimed within a
week.
That was also where we heard the real story about James Billie (indian
chief and casino manager) and the panther he killed. We also heard the
real story about Reahart and his fight with Lee County that made it
all the way to the steps of the SCOTUS who let his ruling stand (the
government has to pay if they rezone your property)
Both of them just quietly went away in the news.

Rush Limbaugh killed local talk. He started giving his show away and
it was cheaper than paying local people for a bigger audience.

I looked and we have 16 AM stations that you might be able to hear.
Half are spanish, 1 adult contemporary, 1 country, 2 news and the rest
are sports talk.


WBZ is one of the "clear channel" stations meaning there are very few
other AM stations that broadcast near WBZ's frequency assignment. Last
I knew it was a 50,000 watt station and at night it's signal is
listenable over a good part of the country, especially the mid-west.
I have a friend who occasionally co-hosts a call-in talk show on WBZ
that runs from midnight to 5 am. She gets calls from listeners from
Minnesota, Colorado and other states across the nation.

Yup, when we were doing "AM DXing" there were 3 or 4 far away stations
we could get at night if the atmospherics were right. I have picked
up WLS on I-95 in the Carolinas while I was on my way to Florida. It
is weird because it will pop up as clear as a bell and a while later
it just fades away. The old Childrens Band worked that way too.
Occasionally you would hear someone from 1000 miles away but they just
came and went. Whether you could actually respond was another thing.
(although it was technically illegal to do so)


During the CB craze of the 80's I specifically bought a certain model
base station sold through Radio Shack because it could be easily
modified. When I finished the "mods", a push of a button could change
the frequencies to what was called the "upper" set. No local chatter
there. Of course you could only talk to someone who also had a modified
radio.

The other major modification was to increase the power output that could
be controlled with an added external potentiometer. Straight AM went
from the regulation 4 watts up to a max of 16 watts. Sideband could be
adjusted from the regulation 12 watts PEP to about 30 watts.

I used to be able to talk to a guy in Italy on Sunday mornings from our
house on the shoreline of MA. At night I could talk to people as far
away as CA. Skip, of course.

On Sun, 24 Apr 2016 13:03:12 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/24/2016 11:22 AM, wrote:

Yup, when we were doing "AM DXing" there were 3 or 4 far away stations
we could get at night if the atmospherics were right. I have picked
up WLS on I-95 in the Carolinas while I was on my way to Florida. It
is weird because it will pop up as clear as a bell and a while later
it just fades away. The old Childrens Band worked that way too.
Occasionally you would hear someone from 1000 miles away but they just
came and went. Whether you could actually respond was another thing.
(although it was technically illegal to do so)


During the CB craze of the 80's I specifically bought a certain model
base station sold through Radio Shack because it could be easily
modified. When I finished the "mods", a push of a button could change
the frequencies to what was called the "upper" set. No local chatter
there. Of course you could only talk to someone who also had a modified
radio.

The other major modification was to increase the power output that could
be controlled with an added external potentiometer. Straight AM went
from the regulation 4 watts up to a max of 16 watts. Sideband could be
adjusted from the regulation 12 watts PEP to about 30 watts.

I used to be able to talk to a guy in Italy on Sunday mornings from our
house on the shoreline of MA. At night I could talk to people as far
away as CA. Skip, of course.

I thought about buying a foot warmer for the one in my truck but I was
never sure why I would want it. I really only used it for finding
smokey and I didn't care about it, if he was 100 miles away.

I did get to know a lot of the truckers running the I-95 corridor at
night and I actually rescued a couple of them when they broke down on
270 or 495. Having that relationship was handy when I was making a
midnight run to Florida ;-)
My record was just a tad over 14 hours, Clinton to St Pete. (910
miles). The hammer was definitely down that night in my E-150.

The good old CB days. When I bought my last CB radio which I still have I took it to a person who called himself Dr. Detroit. He would tune and tweak CB radios. I had him tweak mine. When he was finished I was putting out 29 watts just a few more than a marine VHF.

One night I was on the radio when a call came in. We chatted for about a half hour or so. I finally asked his 20 and he said some streets I had not heard of. Finally I asked him what city are you in. He said I am in St. Louis Mo. I was in Trenton Mi. We were about 500 miles apart. Of course it was at night and skip had to play into it but it was neat talking to someone that far away.

As to Sirius/XM radio I do have it in my 2016 Ford Escape. Since every Detroit station that used to play 60's music has moved away from the oldies format having Sirius and the 60's or 6 station fill my need for music from those years. I plan to keep it but know that the price is very negotiable. A year ago before I traded in my Taurus I got a year for $59. I think the normal price is around $195 or so and I would never pay that much.

I do have a USB drive loaded up with close to 1900 songs so if I get rid of Sirius I will have a way to listen to my music.

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 01:32:20 +0100, RGrew176
wrote:

I do have a USB drive loaded up with close to 1900 songs so if I get rid
of Sirius I will have a way to listen to my music.

I have found it is better to make up smaller play lists so you can
pick what you want to hear right then. Think of it is just different
radio channels. Depending on the capability of your player, that might
be as simple as just putting them in different directories on one
stick. The one in my car has 3 different media for MP3 so I exploit
that.
When I am running a DOS player I do it with batch files

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 01:32:20 +0100, RGrew176 wrote:


The good old CB days. When I bought my last CB radio which I still have
I took it to a person who called himself Dr. Detroit. He would tune and
tweak CB radios. I had him tweak mine. When he was finished I was
putting out 29 watts just a few more than a marine VHF.

One night I was on the radio when a call came in. We chatted for about a
half hour or so. I finally asked his 20 and he said some streets I had
not heard of. Finally I asked him what city are you in. He said I am in
St. Louis Mo. I was in Trenton Mi. We were about 500 miles apart. Of
course it was at night and skip had to play into it but it was neat
talking to someone that far away.

As to Sirius/XM radio I do have it in my 2016 Ford Escape. Since every
Detroit station that used to play 60's music has moved away from the
oldies format having Sirius and the 60's or 6 station fill my need for
music from those years. I plan to keep it but know that the price is
very negotiable. A year ago before I traded in my Taurus I got a year
for $59. I think the normal price is around $195 or so and I would never
pay that much.

I do have a USB drive loaded up with close to 1900 songs so if I get rid
of Sirius I will have a way to listen to my music.

I guess I lucked out. The original owner of my truck must have bought a lifetime subscription. Mine
has been playing for five years now, and I've never heard from them. Only place to get 'Bluegrass
Junction'!
--

Ban liars, tax cheats, juvenile name-callers, and narcissists...not guns!

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:25:00 -0400, Keine Keyserscheiße
wrote:

I guess I lucked out. The original owner of my truck must have bought a lifetime subscription. Mine
has been playing for five years now, and I've never heard from them. Only place to get 'Bluegrass
Junction'!
--

.... and he forgot or just did not know he could transfer that to
another receiver

On 4/25/16 10:35 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:25:00 -0400, Keine Keyserscheiße
wrote:

I guess I lucked out. The original owner of my truck must have bought a lifetime subscription. Mine
has been playing for five years now, and I've never heard from them. Only place to get 'Bluegrass
Junction'!
--

... and he forgot or just did not know he could transfer that to
another receiver


Maybe that's why he got rid of the truck.
I don't "get" the concept of Sirius unless you happen to live in a
really ****ty media market with limited choices of radio programming or
you don't have a little player that holds hundreds or thousands of your
selections you can play through your car radio. My truck's radio came
with about a half dozen of these subscription services pre-programmed
that you have to sign up and pay for...not likely I'll choose any of them.

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:34:00 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 4/25/16 10:35 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:25:00 -0400, Keine Keyserscheiße
wrote:

I guess I lucked out. The original owner of my truck must have bought a lifetime subscription. Mine
has been playing for five years now, and I've never heard from them. Only place to get 'Bluegrass
Junction'!
--

... and he forgot or just did not know he could transfer that to
another receiver


Maybe that's why he got rid of the truck.
I don't "get" the concept of Sirius unless you happen to live in a
really ****ty media market with limited choices of radio programming or
you don't have a little player that holds hundreds or thousands of your
selections you can play through your car radio. My truck's radio came
with about a half dozen of these subscription services pre-programmed
that you have to sign up and pay for...not likely I'll choose any of them.

These satellite radio stations are good for people who want to just
hear music and not commercials. There are lots of different channels
with some that just play obscure stuff like all Elvis, all Buffett or
all Grateful Dead. I understand it for folks who are not willing to
figure out the MP3 thing or just don't want to fool with it.

BTW I am sure your truck has ports for a couple kinds of flash media
and if you got the good radio it probably has a hard drive. I am not
sure how big the drive is but the Dodge I rented ate 4 gig and didn't
even bump the "gauge" off of empty.

On 4/25/16 2:47 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:34:00 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 4/25/16 10:35 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:25:00 -0400, Keine Keyserscheiße
wrote:

I guess I lucked out. The original owner of my truck must have bought a lifetime subscription. Mine
has been playing for five years now, and I've never heard from them. Only place to get 'Bluegrass
Junction'!
--

... and he forgot or just did not know he could transfer that to
another receiver


Maybe that's why he got rid of the truck.
I don't "get" the concept of Sirius unless you happen to live in a
really ****ty media market with limited choices of radio programming or
you don't have a little player that holds hundreds or thousands of your
selections you can play through your car radio. My truck's radio came
with about a half dozen of these subscription services pre-programmed
that you have to sign up and pay for...not likely I'll choose any of them.

These satellite radio stations are good for people who want to just
hear music and not commercials. There are lots of different channels
with some that just play obscure stuff like all Elvis, all Buffett or
all Grateful Dead. I understand it for folks who are not willing to
figure out the MP3 thing or just don't want to fool with it.

BTW I am sure your truck has ports for a couple kinds of flash media
and if you got the good radio it probably has a hard drive. I am not
sure how big the drive is but the Dodge I rented ate 4 gig and didn't
even bump the "gauge" off of empty.


Ports it has, but I haven't probed deeply enough to determine if it has
a hard drive. It also has a wireless charging pad for a cell phone and
an AC electric receptacle in the bed.

On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:34:00 -0400, Keyser Söze wrote:

On 4/25/16 10:35 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:25:00 -0400, Keine Keyserscheiße
wrote:

I guess I lucked out. The original owner of my truck must have bought a lifetime subscription. Mine
has been playing for five years now, and I've never heard from them. Only place to get 'Bluegrass
Junction'!
--

... and he forgot or just did not know he could transfer that to
another receiver


Maybe that's why he got rid of the truck.
I don't "get" the concept of Sirius unless you happen to live in a
really ****ty media market with limited choices of radio programming or
you don't have a little player that holds hundreds or thousands of your
selections you can play through your car radio. My truck's radio came
with about a half dozen of these subscription services pre-programmed
that you have to sign up and pay for...not likely I'll choose any of them.

DC is a great media market, but the media is full of commercials. I'd rather listen to music without
a commercial every two to three minutes.

If I were you, I'd stick with your little player.
--

Ban liars, tax cheats, juvenile name-callers, and narcissists...not guns!