It's Like Thunder ...

I got a call from a KTI listener who wondered if the snow was affecting our signal. She was referring to yesterday's storm and told me about country music coming over our position on the dial.

And No - I'm not speaking about Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Bon Jovi or any of the other artists that pop radio is sharing with country. She heard a full fledged radio signal and described it as trying to over-ride ours.

While I am no engineer and honestly I don't really understand how the sound gets from here to there. I do know how the FCC licenses radio stations to broadcast in the FM band on available frequencies. They are sure to put adequate separation so you would not have a station in say Milwaukee and Madison both broadcasting at 94.5 FM. There would be a long corridor in between the two cities where all you would hear are the two stations competing for signal strength (a new reality show?).

But Michigan is another story. Grand Rapids and Milwaukee are far enough apart so each city has a station at 94.5 FM. The station in Grand Rapids is Thunder Country 94.5 FM and there are certain atmospheric anomalies that carry each of our signals across the lake. I have heard it referred to as 'skipping,' like a rock would skip across the surface of water.

I know this was happening yesterday because I got three messages from people in the Grand Rapids area asking why we were interrupting their country music with Green Day, Kelly Clarkson and Rob Thomas.

I should have told them it was for their own good - huh?

For the record, the Wisconsin person asking me about interference was writing from the northern part of Ozaukee County. From about Mequon south to Racine - and all the way west, our signal is too strong to be knocked out by them. Again - I don't profess to know anything about engineering, but both our tower and theirs are right on Lake Michigan. I think that accentuates the skipping factor.

For radio nerds like me - it's kind of fun. I was picking up 4 or 5 stations from Michigan for a brief amount of time. It's amazing: some sound so clear you would think they are local. I know the same is true for KTI in Grand Rapids because one of the inquiries was about our "8 to 5 Bribe."

"They just don't do that here" - lady in Michigan.

I'm hoping she meant that in a good way - like "Boy ... I wish they would do that here". Not like, "Man, we would never stoop to that."