1) No experience with other peoples' car radios. I understand that MY car
radio may have problems dealing with the strength of this particular signal.

2) The distortion occurs ALL the time, and NONE of my travels are in the
vicinity of high-rise buildings. However, I'm always within 3-5 miles of the
transmitter, which is on the highest point in this city.

3) I understand all the other possible causes you mention, including the
times when you stop your car and seem to be in a "node" of lousy reception
which is gone when the car moves.

The only other non-scientific clue I have comes from an acquaintance who's
been involved with the radio biz in this city for about 20 years. His highly
rigorous analysis: "They compress the CRAP out of their signal so they can
tell advertisers they'll be heard 90 miles away".


"Paul_Morphy" wrote in message
...

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

Assuming for the moment that the radio isn't at fault, why on earth
would
a
radio station run their equipment this way?

You've designed an imperfect experiment. It is unlikely that the
most-powerful station would sell advertising if their signal sounded as
bad
as you describe. If the discussion is about the quality of the signal,
other
causes, such as equipment, location (which could result in multipath
interference, such as is observed in urban areas with tall, steel-frame
buildings, or mixing-product intereference caused by proximity to other
strong radio emitters), and user perception must be eliminated. Eg, do
other
people using other receivers in other locations in the Rochester area
report
similar characteristics of this station's signal? If so, then your
conclusion is valid. I think you're going to find, though, that your
receiver is at fault. It may not be tuning to the station's frequency;
off-frequency tuning of fm signals results in distortion. As it is a car
radio, I assume you are in motion while listening, which would tend to
make
multipath, front-end overload, or mixing product interference problems
intermittent and variable.

Laypersons frequently overlook the necessity for scientific rigor when
constructing hypotheses, leading to all sorts of wild ideas and stupid
laws.
It may in fact be the case that your local rocker is broadcasting a
distorted signal, but you have not presented sufficient evidence to make
that assertion. Therefore, further discussion of "why" is pointless.

"PM"