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Thursday, July 16, 2009

HD Radio: Interesting...

Normally, I try not to respond to press releases Pavlov-style, but there was a little blurb that passed through Tuesday about Best Buy putting out a portable HD radio for $50. Like a good little consumer, I got in my car, drove to Best Buy, convinced the sales guy that such a thing existed, helped him hunt through the store to find it, and left the store one HD radio richer.

Thus, earlier today, I used the radio to hear XTC's "Senses Working Overtime" (which rarely if ever got played on NYC radio) on K-Rock (which isn't on NYC radio anymore - at least, not on your old FM radio) in my office, about 25 miles from the transmitter.

Of course, one can also hear 90.5 The Night, the station you can hear Altrok Radio's FM Showcase on every Friday night at 10pm, in CD-quality HD sound. Not that I'd have any vested interest in you doing that.

But the expansion in available radio programming is promising, and it doesn't require any sort of subscription - just tune in and go.

Some tips if you'd like to get your HD Radio feet wet:

  • Like most portable FM radios, the headphones double as an antenna. If you'd like to use it on your stereo system at home, try getting a headphone jack splitter (the kind you need if you want to plug two headphones into one headphone jack.) Use one of the two lines to supply the sound to your stereo, and plug the headphones they include into the other line, then use those headphones as though they're the antenna.
  • Upstairs is better for listening than downstairs. You're more likely to have a clear shot between you and the antenna.

Okay, that's it for now - K-Rock's playing Husker Du.

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Welcome to Altrok.com, also available at AltrokRadio.com and AltrockRadio.com. Here's where the remaining listeners of several fine radio stations have retreated, regrouped, and built a replacement strong enough to stand on its own. It builds on the independent legacy of New Jersey's FM106.3, New York's WPIX and WLIR, Oklahoma's 105.3 The Spy, the pre-buyout mindset of KROQ, WBCN and WHFS and of every other alternative station that was destroyed at a moment's notice - not because they weren't making money, but because there was bigger money to be found elsewhere.
 
We've stood by as truly independent alternative rock radio died. Sure, something called "alternative" took its place, but we know for sure that anything that "tests well" with soccer moms just ain't alternative. (Even if some of us happen to be soccer moms.) So we've taken matters into our own hands.
 
This really is independent alternative rock radio, visible here at Altrok.com and audible at our web radio station. It has the classic music that fired our passions back in the day - or that we maybe only heard about from our elders - but it's mostly made of the new music that does precisely the same for us now. We're paying attention to scenes all over the world, watching the energy build, and waiting to see what it creates. Wherever it happens, we'll make sure you can hear about it here. We've been slowly building all this since 2001, and now that you've noticed us, we're glad you're here.
 
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