[NU Sports] mostly off-topie political thread

[Roy Lamberton]

They were talking about satellite TV and by extension Radio back in the Late
60's, when Telstar first was launched and the idea of sending a signal down
became an idea waiting for the technology. 

Right after the radio stations started getting their network stuff off the
satellite - circa 1980, the goal was to shrink the dishes, something that
happened in the 90's. 

The issue was always getting enough power from the bird and enuff
selectivity on the receivers to allow a stereo signal.

When I went back to Rochester in 1969, to try to become an Electrical
Engineer, I was interested in stereo AM, but Harris/Gates and some other
equipment biz was already working on that. The solid state transmitter was
the real savior of AM, followed by resurgence of talk radio.

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.
Computer Applications & Support Associates
-------------------- Also ----------------------
Publisher: Purple Reign (Scout.com/Fox Sports)
Commissioner Delaware American Legion Baseball
Retired Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician [R]
Northwestern University - Sp 1974 - 
Chi Phi: Pi74, KD68
==========  Go Cats -  Beat 'em All  ===========
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-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Joe Thiegs
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 3:30 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] mostly off-topie political thread

I would guess you might be able to pick up WBBM at night from Indianapolis.
I know late at night (particularly on a clear night with a straight shot to
the ionosphere) I can pick up WBBM, WGN, WSCR, and WLS on the car radio in
varying degrees of clarity, depending on where I am around the Twin Cities,
~400 miles away.  I do get nostalgic listening to things like the traffic
reported in minutes from the Post Office.  :)  Similarly, when I was in
college, I could pick up WCCO (830-AM) and--less frequently or clearly--KSTP
(1500-AM) late at night too.  I remember listening to a few Gopher games on
'CCO from a boombox in my room at Sig Ep.  Gotta love those clear-channel
(not "Clear Channel Communications") stations.

I like to claim credit for the satellite radio idea, but don't think that I
will get any.  My freshman year at NU ('92-'93), I started missing the
morning show from a Twin Cities station (KQRS-92.5 FM, a/k/a KQ92), since
there was nothing quite like it in Chicago--and, I have since found, nothing
quite like it anywhere.  I started thinking about ways that favorite local
radio shows could be broadcast to people wherever they were and came up with
satellite signals and mobile receivers as the solution (mind you, this was a
couple of years before graphical web browsing--e.g., using NCSA Mosaic--and
well before any kind of streaming online media).  As an electrical
engineering major at the time, I really should have pursued the idea but
didn't.  I think the patent rights for Sirius and XM go back to 1995 or so,
as I believe I recall from having checked a couple of years ago . . . .
C'est la vie, I guess.

-Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Michael Vance
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 10:31 PM
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] mostly off-topie political thread

One of the things that I grew up with in Detroit (WWJ-950) and still 
spent a lot of time with in Chicago (WBBM-780) is the CBS Newsradio 
stations.  You could -- and still can for the most part -- get traffic 
and weather on the 8s, sports at 15 and 45, business news at 25 and 55, 
national network news at the top of the hour, and mix of local and 
national highlights at the bottom.  It was almost like comfort food when 
driving back to Chicago from Michigan, and was especially frustrating 
when they have carried various sports teams over the years and that 
disrupts the traffic report schedule.  But I think that even those have 
changed some just in the six years that I've been in Indianapolis.  I 
don't get a chance to listen to WBBM enough when I'm back up in Chicago 
(my wife missed WXRT too much) to really put my finger on it though.

-Michael

Mike Nolan wrote:
>> Conservative Talk Radio only survives as a viable format because it draws
>> listeners. 
>>     
>
> Isn't that true about ANY media?  If nobody is reading, listening or
watching
> it dies.  I'm not sure if the Internet quite follows that rule yet.
>
> I pretty much stopped listening to AM radio a good 10 years ago, because 
> there wasn't anything I wanted to hear, certainly no music.  Even the
local
> morning drive-time block isn't worth listening to any more, except maybe 
> for traffic reports.  (Just TRY to get a weather report on an AM radio
> at 6:30 AM!)
>
> These days when I'm in my car (not as much as before 1999, since I now
> work from home) I listen to Sirius satellite radio, usually Broadway 
> show tunes.   Memory, all alone in the moonlight....
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>   

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