Lincoln J. King-Cliby wrote:

snip
My question, though, is this: While flipping between KFMB and KIIS
I've noticed on several occassions that the actual transmission from
KIIS sounds much clearer, livelier, richer... just plain better; KFMB
on the other hand and in comparison sounds... well, hold music was one
of my first thoughts. It's muddy, lacks real rande definition and
clarity and sounds like someone has their compressor wrenched up to 12
on a 1-10 scale.

snip

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

Processing can have something to do with it, but another thought is that
the KIIS signal is stronger where you're driving and the radio remains
in full stereo while the KFMB signal being somewhat weaker is being
blended as car radios tend to do. There's too many variables to tell
for sure unless you can talk to the engineers at the stations involved.

Charlie