KFTK: ANALOG vs. IBOC

Their slogan says: “Younger, smarter, better.” But, with their conversion to so-called “HD Radio”, their slogan should be “Younger, dumber, worse.” The station, known as “97.1 FM Talk”, is just the second Emmis station to go low-definition digital instead of staying with exclusively a high-definition analog signal. While the station is licensed to Florissant, MO, KFTK’s transmitter site is in O’Fallon, MO. This further illustrates the damage so-called “HD Radio” (which should be called “LD Radio” because the audio quality is worse than analog); KFTK is the tenth FM station and thirteenth overall to convert to this spectrally inefficient, unproven and destructive technology.

Frequency Station Heard (before conversion) Station Heard (after conversion)

96.8 MHz Clear Digital sidebands from KFTK

96.9 MHz WLBH-FM Mattoon, IL (occasional signal) Digital sidebands from KFTK

KZBK Brookfield, MO (occasional signal)

97.0 MHz Analog sidebands from KFTK Analog and digital sidebands from KFTK

97.1 MHz KFTK Florissant, MO (center frequency) KFTK Florissant, MO (center frequency)

97.2 MHz Analog sidebands from KFTK Analog and digital sidebands from KFTK

97.3 MHz WTIM Taylorville, IL (occasional signal) Digital sidebands from KFTK

WRUL Carmi, IL (occasional signal)

97.4 MHz Clear Digital sidebands from KFTK

KFTK’s digital sidebands also cause minor interference to the signals of KCMQ (96.7 MHz) Columbia, MO, WCXO (96.7 MHz) Carlyle, IL and WDMJ (97.5 MHz) Breese, IL. Is it really worth it to waste all this spectrum space to degrade the signal coverage and audio quality of the station? It’s not worth it in the long run.