BFL to RSB

The Carne Asada burrito is the breakfast of champions. Choco's made the best burrito I ever ate in a parking lot. Bakersfield was a wash otherwise. Buck Owens was from Bakersfield, but he's dead. In his honor I listened to rockabilly mix for much of the drive.I made a decision. Knowing that I-5 from Bakersfield to Riverside crosses the worst traffic snarl in America. I decided to go out Route 58 to Route 395 South. Route 58 was mostly mountains, scenic and idyllic. The roads meet in a town called Boron. It's on the western edge of the Mojave desert. It's not Death Valley, there are no sand dunes. It's scrub brush and Joshua trees. But it's hot, flat and dry. In that stretch of road I found no new radio stations, most signals petered out to nothing. On Route 58 West hugs Edwards AFB so there are no stations there, just two very creepy looking desert hotels. At Kramer Junction where 58 South crosses 395 I just started to get two Barstow stations: KODV and KDUC. Down 395 there's nothing but static locally until Victorville where KPFK, and KUSC come in from L.A. 910 KRAK-AM runs adult standards out of Hesperia but their playlist is very soft. I stopped at an antique shop in Kramer Junction and was fixated on a engine mounted so it's fan spun in the wind.



In the middle of 395 is the Manzanar National Historic Site. The place where the U.S. maintained a concentration camp from 1942 - 1945. As we I re-enter civilization a.k.a. San Bernardino, 88.3 KUCR comes in, then 94.3 KJVA-LP a local spanish station. KSPA 1510 nostalgia, KSWD 100.3 AAA.... and of course at night XETRA-AM 690 the infamous border blaster.

Mope-itty mope mope de mope mope

It was utterly senseless. Stunts are absurd at times, some completely obtuse. But this is one for the annals of the great book of radio strangeness.

For three days XETRA-AM the Mighty 690 of Tijuana (but serving greater San Diego and far far beyond) played a 3-second sample of the chorus of a single song non-stop. The lyric was "Mope-itty Mope de mope mope mope" Yes, it was utter gibberish.



The song was by the Boss-Tones a Philadelphia-baseed Doo-wop troupe. The song was released on the Boss label in two years prior to the stunt.

The year was 1961. The Mighty 690, being licensed in Mexico was running at a truly tremendous wattage for it's day: 100,000 watts ERP. They covered the Western half of the United States and ran a popular rock format. In those days before the dominance of FM they were a big deal. They maintained a downtown LA studio,and ruled the waves in a way in which no US transmitter could hope to compete.

They run News/Talk these days and bore me to tears: http://www.wradiousa.com/

AM Stereo Time Line

Ironically Stereo AM produces higher quality audio than IBOC AM. Yet Am stereo died struggling like Betamax did, in front of everyone and there was nothing we could do to save it. Stereo sound reproduction was first experimented with in the early 1900s, and was put into use in motion pictures around 1930. However, Stereo sound did not gain real market penetration until the introduction of the Stereo LP in 1957. More here.

Early experiments with Stereo radio broadcasting involved two separate stations broadcasting the Left and Right audio channels. Consumers did not accept this This Rube-Goldberg set up as it was just as ridiculous as it sounds.

In the early 1980s four competing AM systems went on air. These were:

1. Motorola (C-QuAM)
2. Magnavox (PMX)
3. Kahn-Hazeltine (ISB)
4. Harris Broadcast (V-CPM)
5. Belar System 

AM Stereo timeline Highlights:

• 1960 - AM Stereo first demonstrated on XETRA-AM, Tijuana, MX, using the Kahn ISB system.
• 1963 - WHAZ runs a stereo program on eight AM stations, four on each channel.
• 1984 - The FCC begins AM Stereo testing with five systems. Initially they select the Magnavox system. Their research is immediately accused of being flawed and incomplete.
• 1993 - FCC makes Motorola's C-QUAM the AM stereo standard. This sets off another series of lawsuits and accusations resulting in the FCC deciding that the marketplace should decide. The marketplace decides to continue fighting like children and this becomes a death blow to the possibility of AM stereo.

There are still over 100 stations still chugging along with stereo broadcast...
one that no one can receive, they are listed here.