Musicbox 1610 Update

It has taken me several months to do it, but I have scrimped and stashed some funds into the radio account, and tonight, I'm completing my order for the new Part 15 AM transmitter that will
allow Musicbox 1610 to get on the air - at last.

The transmitter I've chosen is the Hamilton Rangemaster. This little box is, in my opinion, the safest way to broadcast legally under the Part 15 rules and still have maybe enough range to
attract a few listeners.

In a future post I'm going to post a sample selection of music that will be played just to give you an idea of how the "Musicbox" moniker occurred to me - and why I decided to use it.

The control rooms are ready. Yes - rooms. There are two operating broadcast booths. I can
broadcast from one while doing production in the other; I can patch studio B through the board
in studio A, resulting in running the signal through both studios; I can use everything from reel-to-reel tapes, carts, turntables, cassettes, CDs and such - or simply play mp3s from the computer in studio A. I can also patch over and broadcast live on WJJD/Internet from the same rooms. BUT..broadcasting two formats live - one on 1610 and one on the Internet - is harder.
Doable..but takes more engineering work.

Musicbox 1610 will feature a format, that honestly, I don't know if it would be commercially viable if I were to attempt selling time on it. SeaCoast Media Specialists is already planning to place a few spots on with me. But I don't want to put it on just to try to sell spots on it. I want to
put it on to have the enjoyment of being on the air again.

Only one Tallahassee AM station - WNLS 1270 - has any ratings left at all. I'm told that 96%
of the radio audience here has abandoned the AM band because there is nothing left that appeals to them. You'd think an owner somewhere would get a working brain cell and fill some voids. But the owners have $ in the forefront and nothing else. Arbitron themselves have rated Tallahassee as "possibly the worst AM market in the U.S." although I have not seen that chart for some time. I have seen it, however, and yep - there we were, on the "worst markets" list.

Will Musicbox 1610 actually make a difference? I don't know. Probably not much really, other than personal satisfaction.

Maybe that's all I need from it. I'm ordering the Rangemaster tomorrow.