I've had a few emails from folks wanting to know if we were doing our annual Musical Greeting Card program with music from Portland area schools. Yes, we are! It's five hours long this year and it started airing at midnight Sunday night. It will run until 2am Wednesday morning. If you don't have a chance to hear it on the air (or you live out of the area) here are links to the individual hours posted on mediafire.com. Enjoy!

KBPS-AM MUSICAL GREETING CARD HOUR ONE
http://www.mediafire.com/?39mdg50jggt

Vestal Elementary School
Franklin High School
Fernwood Middle School
East & West Sylvan Middle School Orchestra
Maplewood Elementary School
Boise-Elloitt Elementary School

KBPS-AM MUSICAL GREETING CARD HOUR TWO
http://www.mediafire.com/?azxg94onz1t

Grant High School
Cleveland High School Bands
Parkrose High School
Rigler Elementary School

KBPS-AM MUSICAL GREETING CARD HOUR THREE
http://www.mediafire.com/?5tndnwjmunj

Wilson High School
East Sylvan Beginning Band
East & West Sylvan Bands and Choirs

KBPS-AM MUSICAL GREETING CARD HOUR FOUR
http://www.mediafire.com/?bv0mwmlsmnx

Lincoln High School Choir
Beaumont Middle School Jazz Band
Benson High School Stage Band and Jazz Band
Sellwood Middle School Bands
Lincoln High School Orchestra

KBPS-AM MUSICAL GREETING CARD HOUR FIVE
http://www.mediafire.com/?5i5nvtlgnyz

Jackson Middle School
David Douglas High School

Was just gonna post on this. Got a listen on a long drive today.

This program is fun and brings back some good memories. Appreciated as always!

Merry Xmas Bill!

Once again this year I must chime in and say: thank you for this great program!
I live in Vancouver not far from the 1150 transmitter; the KBPS signal is not very consistent so the links you posted for the audio are great!
This program is once again the music I'll be listening to on my Christmas.

Dave
KE7PGK

I was listening to the KBPS Christmas Card earlier today, while driving around Portland. It sounds really nice in AM Stereo!

how come 750,860,and 1190 music was NOT AMStereo???.don't they have up-to-date equipment???

KEX is full stereo in HD! I was under the impression it wasn't compatible with C-Quam.

> KEX is full stereo in HD!

You fell for the bait...

the KEX1190,1180,2000HD is not backwards compatible with AM stereo cquam exixting receivers,nor is it compatible with existing mono receivers because of all the noise!!!!It's.time to go back to the lab and re-design it!!!Are they technicallysmart enough to do that?(y/n)???

Everyone knows that the current HD AM radio system is not compatible with the old C-Quam stereo system.

There are audio purists that swear that the best audio listening is with vacuum tubes and not transistors/semiconductors. It is softer and not as harsh they say. If that is what they believe, fine. However, with the exception of them, nobody cares or wants them. We are in today's realm, not yesterday's. For whatever reason, AM stereo never caught on with the public. Whether it was receivers or programmers does not matter at this point. Will the current AM-HD-stereo work and survive? I don't know. I do know that it does sound good and when KEX played their Christmas music, it sounded as good or better than what I heard on the same radio on KHITS non HD FM stereo. We can talk about going back to the lab and redesign all we want, and you may be technically correct. But it does not matter. We are where we are and that is the path we will be on for a while.

I like the 50's-early 60's music best. Were there some lemons? Sure. But overall, I still prefer it, regardless of which medium it is on... AM or FM. Given a choice, I will listen where it sounds best. But, all my desires don't matter. We can't have one station/service for 50's or even partial 50's but we can have 3-4 for 60's and 70's and more....
It is not right or wrong, it is what is and you go with the flow and adapt or just sit around and talk about the good old days, which may not have been that good and they aren't going to come back.

In Portland and surrounding area, there wasn't anything I could listen to on 1180 or 1200 anyway and with digital tuners it doesn't matter if there is noise there. And other than a few hold-ons on this board, the general public doesn't care, or even know, about the noise on 1180, 2000, 1320, 1340, 1630, 1650. The noise on 1520 from KFBK doesn't seem to matter, either. Can't tell the difference between it and the programming on 1520 in east county anyway.

It is great that KBPS is still broadcasting in AM stereo that the 5 or 10 out there with receivers that you have to look far and wide to find in an old car still possess.

does not matter how many different people know about the noises on 1180 ,1200,etc.the noise IS indeed therehere and now,so they should do whatever it takes to get rid of it,rathher than to try to convince some of us to IGNORE itThat's poor engineering practice!!!!kind of like if you walk into a bank and tell the teller to ignir the gun and just hand over the money!!! Same differenceif you go to the dentist and he/she says just ignore the pain, and it won't bother you much after awhile, right??

nforgot to mention the on-channel noise at 1190which distracts listenersfrom the programmingthat noiseshoul be eliminated also!!!!nnew years resolution#1= turn oOFF the HD!!!!!!!!

new years resplution#2= put oldies and live DJ's back on 910 and 620!!!!!!!!!
#3=turn the AM Stereo back on!!!!!!!!!!!
#4 turn OFF 800 at night,Please!!!????

#5 could be moving KGW back to 610 @ 500 watts!

#5 is remove the treble filters,whichever AM stations are doing that!put 1520 back to Sunny 1520/ AM stereo!!!!
#6 is put KXL back to daytime only
#7 is put Art Bell on at consistant days/times
mayby I should call Art Bell's new year Prediction show tonite and predict this stuff?Perhaps that would work better than posting messages here???

I am between a rock and a hard place; this is why:

On the one hand, the Internet has enabled a lot of bitching and moaning. This message board is not the only place where people come to vent or to use other participants as punching bags. I became involved in the Libertarian Party a few years ago, and in the course of that, I was asked to subscribe to a number of mailing lists that were created for conducting internal party business and coordinating projects. Guess what? Even on those lists, there are flame wars, ad-hominem attacks, and people who spam the lists with multiple posts and excessively verbose pontification on their interpretation of political theory. It is bullshit, just like liberals that complain about the Bush administration but don't actually do anything. It is bullshit, just like when Steve Wingate K6TXH goes on one of his drunken "FUCK YOU ART BELL" tirades on 80m. It seems that the only electronic forum that is generally free of these issues is internal e-mails at my job.

On the other hand, there is a lot of homogenization going on today, which in my opinion is the result of MBA-types and accountants desperately looking to save money through a streamlining strategy that involves laying people off, consolidating job functions, and putting in company-wide policies designed to limit employees' freedom to find different or better ways to do their jobs. This stuff makes me pretty uncomfortable. In a radio context, why is it that we see program directors hired by conglomerate stations, but then given very little latitude in creating programming to suit local tastes. Does the company not trust their abilities? Or, why do we see company-wide engineering mandates, such as:
+ Clear Channel & Crawford Broadcasting Co. -- 5kHz AM audio response
+ Clear Channel (and later others) -- turn off AM Stereo
+ Citadel -- All AMs to shut off HD-Radio at night
Why is it that the engineers at the local level aren't trusted to make decisions like these on their own?

So, I plaintively ask, why (or how) is it that there is stuff going on like the "absentee landlord" style operation of Bustos, wherein the stations are bought, programming is largely piped in from out of town, and it shows that the stations are only being minimally maintained? In my opinion, there are just too many businesses and organizations like that, where the people have been cut out of the equation to the point that it shows in whatever it is that they make or do. On a personal note, I still have several decades of employment to worry about. If things keep up as they are, what will there be for people like me to do 20 or 30 years from now? Or will every job that I am able to find be unbearable because the job functions will all be reduced to being a computer operator, sending e-mails, writing reports, running statistical analysis software, and working with computer models, all removed from doing anything hands-on and being forbidden from coming up with anything that is too "out-of-the-box"?

I hear that!

The really smart people, truly interested in doing the right things, are never in charge.

Why?

Doing the right things generally costs more than just doing the minimum thing, whatever that may be.

Adding value has been transformed into building profit centers, with baseline profits being a given, and the expectation for growth being the norm.

While not bad, combined with growth expectations for every single quarter, it's a recipe for disaster! It's simply not possible, in fact, not even lawful, to make investments for the longer term, because the shareholders won't get paid according to their (maxed out) expectations!

As much as I want to villify large corporations, I must say the current market based system, where dollars are not checked with the common good, is slowly doing us a lot of harm, on a lot of levels, not just media.

Address that dynamic and suddenly it will make "business sense" to do the right things more of the time. That's the issue, period, and almost nobody talks about it. (likely because the venues are owned by the very corporations, who would be impacted by such a change --chicken and egg)

You and I are in similar positions employment wise, and it does not look good!

Me?

I'm doing two things:

1. Scale back personal expectations, live small and wear that monthly nut down to the smallest stub.

That brings considerable work / hobby freedom as the fewer dependencies one has, the harder it is for large corporations to control behavior with dollars.

It also allows one to tolerate economic swings to a greater degree than would be the case otherwise.

2. Build relationships --personal ones where ever I go. Sure, there is work, and it's gotta be done. But, every contact made outside the scope of that will lead to opportunities that are likely to prove quite valuable.

Brush up on the people skills. No amount of downsizing will eliminate those people, who have relationships, can shake hands and express technology in business terms. Do what it takes to get better at being one of those people.

As for out of the box, the key is those business terms. Expressing the right thing, in terms of dollars, packs a far greater punch, than just expressing it with reasoning alone. Lesson learned the hard way for me personally. Maybe you will have it easier!

There is always consulting, and if one is living lean, it's easier to establish than not.

I shouldn't write this, but I'm gonna.

Who you are and what you believe is quite different from who you work for and what they believe.

I have found, if I let people know that, we may end up doing the short term deal, and we may find it may well suck, but nobody involved, other than those short sighted people in charge, gets held accountable. In short, they know, had we been able to call the shots, things would have been different. That matters.

I don't mean, up front, in the open. This is the kind of thing that happens at lunch, after hours, via personal e-mail, etc... Getting to know people, finding common ground, establishing trust, all are continuing to grow valuable.

This is, bluntly, selling your own self --always. There is nothing wrong with this, despite considerable pressure to do otherwise. When the opportunity for it exists, take it.

Also, there are times when that relationship can punch through the cheap ass solution. When it does, it's not always pretty, but it's worth it, YMMV.

Sorry all for the digression:

I appreciate the analog AM signal from KBPS. Sounds great!

out-of- state owners come in many flavors.most are really interested in recouping their investmeny, but somecontinue to let the locals proceed with preexisting stratagiesperhaps even with additional funding,,while others bring in a hatchet man, to eut expenses and do staff reductions,move valuable items to th eastern headquarters office.sometime best thing to do is wait couple yearsfor them to give up,thenfor the next sale and hope the next group of owners are more reasonable, which does happen sometimes!!!!these transitions are very stressfull,keep your resume up to date!!!

> I shouldn't write this, but I'm gonna.
>
> Who you are and what you believe is quite different from who you work for and
> what they believe.
>
> I have found, if I let people know that, we may end up doing the short term deal

Amen! This is one of the top taboos. The first time that I got a hint about this was in tenth grade English, as the teacher was trying to explain the concept of double-think in the book _1984_. She said something like, "this is like when a person works for a company...that person will say that his company makes the best product and eventually he will actually believe that his company does, indeed, make the best product..." Of course, hearing that wasn't as powerful as seeing it in action at the office some years later.

Another interesting taboo is showing any kind of uncertainty about the company's potential for growth around anyone higher than your immediate manager. Around 2000, I was at a pub with some process engineers and managers, and the subject of the production ramp up entered the conversation. I watched in horror, as one engineer asked the process engineering manager, "So we have this ramp-up, but what if someday there's not enough demand for our capacity. Is there a ramp-down?" The manager replied, "There are no ramp-downs, only ramp-ups." (Yeah, right!??)

during one buy-out, thee new management wanted to set up production at the headquarters office back east.they specifiec they had to begin at full production,no ramp-up or graduletransition period was allowed.zero to full.no discussion was allowed
what an idiot.but he as the new workers back there were not allowed any training phase.begin production at full speed.if any problems, just send more equipment there asap customers concernsnot importantthe only concern was to tto be sble to report to the new owners that the production was moved to headquarters rapidly and ahead of the close of the quarterand to rapidly shut down the Oregon fscility.!the newbossewass a idiot.ouch.ouch,ouch!!!!

62KGW, you want to take 1 of 2 successful AM stations and fling it into bankruptcy!

Semoochie,
I am amazed that you even understood anything 62kgw said in order to comment on it. I don't understand what you said based on what he wrote but that is ok.

Even DJFresh is more readable than 62. And that ain't saying much.

He said he wanted to make KXL a daytimer.

Oh, you were referring to an earlier one that was readable. I thought you were replying to the last two.

do wi-fi radiosor internet realaudio recieve AM stations programs in stereo?just curious!how about Hzd2 on FMHDIBOC,are those stereo???

resolution #11:kex 1190, change programming format from news-talk back to full Service (i.e. music,news,talk, personalities,local,live!!!,AM Stereo,
observation:last evening I was listening to Kex,sssssssssssssssssssssss1190 center tuned Kloss model one table radio-unmodified. ssssssssssssssss my spouse came in the ssssssssssssssssroom and asked what was sssssssssssssssssssthe sssssssssterrible noisesssssssssssssssssss,I turned the volume down she was complaining ablut the iboc noise on topp of the newscaster,she probably thought the water was left running!!!!sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

ZZZZZZHD TRANSMISSIONS ARE ADDONG TO GLOBAL WARMING.TURN IT OFF PLEASE,OR GET APPROVALS FROM AL GORE!!!!

...and any of this has what to do with the KBPS holiday music program?????? Maybe it time to for someone to start a new thread?

Thanks Bill! But do we really need another thread about the fact that IBOC sidebands cause noise to analog receivers? More beating of that dead horse is as big a waste of bandwidth as the IBOC noise.

Back on topic...the Christmas music special on KBPS was another home run this year! And thanks for posting the files on MediaFire.

IF KBPS CAN DO AM STEREO, THEN THE OTHER AM STATIONS THAT MAKE MONEY SHOULD ALSO BE ABLE TO DO AM STEREO ANALOG!!!KENT CAN PROBABLY HELP SET THEM UP!!!!!

This year, I've got kids at Parkrose. Was cool to play their school for them on the radio!

(yes, 62, it was an AM Stereo one!)

This year featured some very good choral performances also. Got some nice talent coming through at this time, IMHO.

SATB, or SAT choral arrangements are some of the very best holiday ones. I think just knowing they are gonna be aired, brings out some of the best.

Thanks for your comments Doug. Its fun putting the program together. I had originally expected to have a four hour show this year (the same as last year) but there was just so much good stuff from the kids that it went a full five hours! There is some great music out there in the schools. Thanks for all the positive comments about the program. I can hardly wait until next year!