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In Reply to: I must be lucky. posted by sjb on March 16, 2007 at 14:21:16:
sjb,Or, it's possible I'm unlucky!
For me, the programming on KUSC is not terrible- is not the problem, and there are sometimes pleasant surprises, it's the "top 100" attitude and repetition and the overall nature of the announcing and talk/promotions ratio that bothers me more. The partial pieces seems to be fairly rare, the last one I remember was about three days ago when thye played jsut one section of "Carmina Burana".
I really recommend KCSN 88.5 during weekdays. The announcers keep a nice balance of talk to music and I hear something new often. It's not a powerful station, but when the repeater on the Westside is going, KCSN sound quality should be good. KSCN has streaming too if recetion is marginal. I live in the hills in the Valley and reception can be a problem. I have very poor reception of KCRW for example.
I should have mentioned that KMZT still existed on HD radio and I think they somehow piggy back that onto the 105.1 signal. Also, I ommitted to mention they broadcast the Classical on 1260 AM. - Not quite so bad as I made out, but a sign of the times being shoved around.
Cheers,
Follow Ups:
a
I think today was the 4th time in the last 3 or 4 weeks that they played LVB's Leonore Overture (#2 twice and #3 twice). I mean of all the things to repeat that often (not to disparage the piece(s)... but come-on). It must be a handy length.
as it's rarely heard, and play the Klemperer Philharmonia. Or Konig Stephan or Creatures of Prometheus overtures. Just musing.Thanks for the information, guys.
I'm in Santa Monica and don't have a tuner right now.I listen in my car or streaming at home (mostly in my car though). I've been listening to KUSC a lot lately because I've been doing a LOT of driving... which is unusual since I work 6 blocks from home.
I've been mulling over tuners for a while now. Was thinking seriously about a "certified used" MD FT101A (a great deal for $500) but with HD on the verge of taking over I've been thinking about one of these...
Don't piss on my shoe and tell me it's raining.
and Mr Swejda played a live Barenboim Beethoven 9th. For a long time, the station was pretty dead quiet in my main system (Hafler DH 330 with filter on, stereo on with lousy attenna in a notoriously difficult situation under the foothills of Claremont/Upland). At times, it would become noisy and I switched to mono.What do you guys think of the Godar that Gene Rubin and others sell for around $60? Is it much better than my old Parsec LS 4 stick (electronic) attenna?
sjb,I was wondering where I might see an HD add on tuner.
If I might ramble a bit, for your $500, instead of the Magnum 101, which is not bad, how about a McIntosh MR67 tube tuner or MR77 solid state? I have to say, the MR67 just bowls me over every time I hear it and I suppose the Sangean or similar could just run parallel to capture the HD.
For a small investment with good results and carefree modern stuff, the Marantz 6000 is just fine at under $300 new and I see these used fairly often at $140 to $180.
I suppose the radio in Los Angeles is really quite impressive and still worth hearing properly, but the braodcast standards for a place with 10,000,000 people should be higher.
Thanks for those recommendations.The MR77 might be just what I'm looking for (that includes plug-n-play and don't worry-ness). Of course the Marantz is all that and more but the Mac just looks so damn good.
I've also considered a Mapleshade restored and modified Scott tube tuner (I think it's a 110) for $500.
And I agree, the broadcast standards here could and should be higher. For anyone who likes other than clearchannel pop music the choices are limited (but thank goodness we have choices).
I would love it if KUSC could at least be close to on par with the L.A. Phil when it comes to championing more modern and interesting music but it's still pretty darn good. I noticed that Boston's WGBH and NYC's WNYC are preloaded into my iTunes for streaming classical. It'll be interesting to listen to them for a while and see how KUSC stacks up.
Thanks again for the tuner recs.
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