[BC] Running mono on FM...

[Burt I. Weiner]

At one time there were car radios that would skip stations not 
running a pilot.  I assume that is no longer a problem.  That was one 
of the issues that caused the FCC to not enforce the "rule" that if 
you were not running stereo material you had to turn the pilot 
off.  That rule went away four or five hundred years ago.  There are 
some stations in L.A. that are full time talk and are mono.  Just a 
word of caution - if you simply turn off the pilot be sure you are 
not leaving the L-R channel running.  One L.A. station was leaving 
the L-R on and only feeding mono to the left channel.  The L-R 
channel was gobbling up modulation.

Burt

At 10:00 PM 1/16/2006, you wrote:
>From: Goran Tomas <goran.tomas at email.htnet.hr>
>Subject: Re: [BC] Mono Expands on the FM Band
>To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID: <7.0.0.16.2.20060116234015.04076f18 at email.htnet.hr>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>--- At 16.1.2006 17:27, Rich Wood wrote: ---
> >------ At 11:49 AM 1/16/2006, Goran Tomas wrote: -------
> >>I wouldn't have a problem running talk station in mono at all!
> >>
> >>Music is something completely different, though.
> >
> >I would. Given the option of stereo I'd use it. There are many
> >things one can do with stereo talk. It's another one of those little
> >details that sets one station apart from another. More and more
> >we're listening in confined spaces like cars (rolling headsets) and
> >with portable devices using headsets. There are all kinds of
> >positioning possibilities in those listening situations.
>
>Yes, I know. We have a lot of various talk programing and shows
>during the day and we also do panning and other spatial tricks to
>make things a bit more interesting and atmospheric. How much an
>average listener cares for this is debatable, but average listener
>has never been my reference anyway...
>
>But if you have low power and/or multipath problems and need for your
>station and information to be clearly heard and your coverage
>maximized, going mono on talk is the least compromise there is.
>
>
>Regards,
>Goran Tomas

Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, California  U.S.A.
biwa at earthlink.net
K6OQK