tophour.com

Up in the California desert

Scott — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:41:37 +0000

Our recap of a 2010 ride up and down California 14 and US 395 north of Los Angeles continues this week - here on Toppy with an ID update from the Antelope Valley and the northern fringe of the Los Angeles market, and over at Tower Site of the Week with a look at one of the stations featured this week, KHTS 1220 in the Santa Clarita Valley. Enjoy!

Bill's Big Trip 2011 -Part 2.3 -Seattle

Bill — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:55:43 +0000

This time we start with the lower end of the FM band in the Seattle Market. Stations new to Toppy includes a triad of low powered stations on 89.9 - KGRG in Auburn, KASB in Bellevue, and KGHP in Gig Harbor.

We also feature KPLU HD2 88.5 in Tacoma, KMIH 88.9 in Mercer Island (frequency change), and KUPS 90.1 in Tacoma.

As a side note, we spent Thanksgiving Day in Gig Harbor (That is how I got good reception of KGHP.) Gig Harbor is a neat little town across the Tacoma Narrows from Tacoma proper. I had fun with my other interest, botany, collecting specimens of Sword Fern, Big-leaf Maple (largest leaf of any maple species), and the Pacific Madrone. But I digress.....

Till next time,

Bill

Ridgecrest, California

Scott — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:25:21 +0000

It's a new market on Toppy!

It's a Tower Site of the Week installment!

It's...um...well, it's there in the desert, anyway.

(My apologies to the Ridgecrest/Indian Wells Valley Chamber of Commerce for not being able to come up with anything much more exciting to say about their town...)

Bill's Big Trip 2011 -Part 2.2 -Seattle

Bill — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:59:27 +0000

Well, after surviving a HDD crash with my laptop pancaking on the floor and getting my data recovered after a thinner wallet, I am back.

This time we continue with more AM stations from the Seattle area. Most of the clips are refreshes, but we have a handful of call changes and a neat station that is new to Toppy - KKXA 1520

Bill

Bishop, California

Scott — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:28:41 +0000

It's a long way from everywhere...but I lived there, long ago, and I finally made it back in 2010 to get some IDs, which you can hear here...and see pictures (lots of them!) over at Tower Site of the Week.

Mild Winter

Lou — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:43:52 +0000

Here's hoping that 2012 is off to a great start for everyone. It's been a strange winter here in the greater Nashville area where I live, with mild temperatures (fine by me) and today a rare January storm system that came through producing tornadoes (not so good). Luckily, since I work from home, I was able to reassure my girlfriend's yellow lab Clyde, who was nonplussed with the blaring from the warning siren and the barometric pressure change that he very clearly was able to recognize.

Luckily all is well here, though it was a bit troubling to be under a tornado warning and then see my neighborhood pulled up on the weather map on TV as an area where a tornado strike might be imminent. We dodged a bullet on that, but some others weren't so lucky. The only positive: no injuries or fatalities.

But you didn't visit this site to read about the weather. So, with a big thanks to Chris Cuomo, here are some legal IDs from the Tuscaloosa, AL and Selma, AL markets.

Sounds from the road

Scott — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:40:09 +0000

We're back! It's been a somewhat longer-than-planned New Year's break, in part because one of our editors is recovering from a serious hard-drive crash (best of luck, Bill!) - and because I was traveling just before New Year's.

Tonight's update takes us up and down the highway between Rochester and Fort Wayne, with new sounds from Erie PA (Family Life's WCGM 102.7 and Dan Geary's new oldies format at WWOW 1360), Columbus OH (Catholic radio on WVSG 820 and oldies on WODC 93.3), Indianapolis ("My 107.9" WNTR) and Fort Wayne itself ("ClickHop Radio" on WHPP 106.3 and religion on WFCV-FM 100.1). We'd have had another new 100.1 ID, too, but newly-flipped FM talker WMAN-FM in Mansfield, Ohio didn't have the legal ID machine working right on New Year's Eve day as we drove through.

And there's a bonus cut: our first ID of 2012, a New Hampshire Public Radio eight-station ID from last night's primary coverage.

The edge of St. Louis

Lou — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:59:33 +0000

New tonight here on Toppy are some of the IDs I recorded during a visit to Staunton, Illinois earlier this month, a town where some members of my girlfriend's family live. Staunton is close enough to be able to get most (but not all) of the St. Louis radio stations, at least on the FM dial.

Picking up HD2/HD3 stations from distance can be a hit-or-miss proposition. But, thanks to having made multiple visits to Staunton, I've been able to record and extract the IDs from most of the available HD2/HD3 stations -- at least the ones that bother to do a legal ID.

With that in mind, there are a couple of HD2/HD3 stations from the St. Louis market making their debut on here tonight. Listen, enjoy, and have a great Christmas everyone.

Bill's Big Trip 2011 Part 2.1 -Seattle

Bill — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:42:15 +0000

This is the second installment of Bill's Big Trip 2011. This week we start with some AM stations in the Seattle market. For the first time they include some HD IDs simulcasting with the AMers as well as KJR 950 parallel to KNBQ 102.9 and KOMO 1000 simulcasting with KOMO-FM 97.7.

Hope you enjoy them, and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah.

Till Next time!

Bill

UPDATE SPECIAL -WASHINGTON-BALTIMORE-ANNAPOLIS

Bill — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:49:57 +0000

This is an update of the recent changes on 99.1 and 107.9 in the Washington-Baltimore-Annapolis area. Thanks to Lance's heads-up, I managed to record another change earlier today 12 December. This time we have WNEW-FM 99.1 Bowie stunting with Christmas music and announcements of the upcoming format change to all-news and 107.9 WLZL Annapolis not in simulcast with 99.1. Finally, Family Radio on 860 is still using the WBGR calls.

I also cleared out my Annapolis archives - 97.5 WRYR-LP Sherwood, 107.9 WFSI Annapolis from October 2011, and 1430 WNAV Annapolis with an translator ID W260BM Annapolis.

Bill