Lincoln J. King-Cliby wrote:

For my own curiosity what is really the likely cause of this vast
difference in quality?

Different processing chains. Both stations are most likely compressed to
the hilt. One station is clearly better at it than the other, though.

[BTW - If anyone has any tips to score a tour of either of these
stations (or any stations in the LA or San Diego area from an
engineering/behind-the-scenes perspective, I would be VERY interested]

Call up the station, ask to talk to the engineer, and ask for a tour.
They'll probably be quite delighted to do it, if they actually have a
staff engineer. It's so hard to get new people interested in the field
these days that interested young people are usually quite welcome.

You might not be allowed to look at the processing rack, though. In
a lot of places there are covers over some of the processing gear so
nobody can steal the processing secrets that make the stations sound
so awful...
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."