"Brenda Ann" wrote in message
...

The last
holdouts for un-compressed signals were the classical stations. This was
because classical listeners expected both pianissimo and crescendo, and
everything in between. The more plebian formats don't matter so much,
since average listeners only seem to care that they can hear something,
not what that something may contain.


Every classical station I have known had peak limiting and some degree of
AGC leveling. First, the legal requirment to not overmodulate comes into
play. And then the fact that the dynamic range of much classical is not
enough on the low side to overcome ambient noise where radios are listened
to. So the dynamic range is reduced, while being greater than that of a CHR
station, it is still reduced significantly. I've owned a classical station
and managed another, and in the process visited many, ranging from KMZT to
WCLV.