[BC] FM Stereo Question

[ChuxGarage at aol.com]

I'm trying to maximize my newly acquired 2500 watt FM station.  The good news is it is on a 495 foot tower. The bad news is it's no flame-thrower and the 60 dbu contour goes right through a town that I consider essential to the financial health of the station.  On some radios, it is no problem. On others the signal it is quite noisy, or even nonexistent.  I'm sure that there is nothing I can do to help the $11.96 drug store radios, but for folks with decent stereos, I'd like to have as good a signal as possible. 

I'm considering taking the station mono to see if that helps, but before I do that, I'm wondering if experimenting with the 19 kHz pilot level would make much difference? Right now it is at 9%.  I'm pretty sure lowering it would make things nosier, but how about increasing it to 10% (which I think it the edge of "legal")?

Has anybody experimented with this?  I realize that I'd sacrifice a little loudness for the increased pilot level.  I'm not interested in being the loudest signal on the air, but I'd like it to be one of the best sounding signals.  I know that isn't fashionable, but it's my station, and I think there is a place for decent quality.

That said, I think going mono would help more than messing with pilot level, but I'm not sure.  I think good mono is better than bad stereo.  I doubt that many people would notice the difference. I do run RDS on the station, so I'd have to fool my RDS encoder into thinking there is a 19 kHz pilot to lock on to. Has anyone done that?  It might be easier (and cheaper) to just buy one of the Pira-CZ RDS encoders, which does not require an external pilot. 

Any suggestions are appreciated.

TIA

Chuck Conrad
KZQX Radio
www.kzqx.com