"news.verizon.net" wrote in message
...
Does anyone in the Washington, D.C. area know why Bonneville has recently
turned off the RDS and the stereo pilot pn both WWZZ and WWVZ? It also
sounds like someone has been mucking with the processing; they sound
"thinner". Is the rumored format flip finally in the works?

One could assume that they turned off the stereo in order to get better
coverage. RDS could have been turned off to get back the few-percent of
modulation it consumes.

WWZZ is a WAY-out rimshot, and has coverage problems in DC and northern
suburbs. Turning off the stereo gives them quite a few more dB signal to
noise ratio in poor signal areas.

WWVZ is only Class A, and was bought to try to help in the northwestern DC
suburbs. But it's way out on the hill west of Frederick, MD, so every
little bit of signal improvement helps - thus turn off stereo.


And don't think that I'm anti-stereo, after all I put on the first FM stereo
station in the DC area - 102.3 Bethesda. We suffered severe coverage
problems due to being just Class A, and compounded by being stereo. Rules
have changed and 102.3 now has 12-times the power we had, and a much better
antenna location at American U. They cover very well these days - in
stereo.


Long ago I characterized the present FM-stereo system as being the best mono
system among the various proposed stereo systems. By that I meant that it
degrades the mono coverage less than most of the other proposed stereo
systems. But it takes a beating in stereo coverage because of this.