Wednesday, February 01, 2006

This Just In! WNIR Embraces Modern Technology!

OK, so maybe it's not QUITE a "hold the presses" moment.

But it sounds like WNIR/100.1, at least for tonight's broadcast of Kent State men's basketball, has discovered the wonders of modern technology. For the first time we've ever heard, a remote broadcast on the Akron market talk station hasn't sounded like it is being phoned in from a phone booth. And we mean "ever", as in, "the entire history of the radio station". Here at OMW World Headquarters, we had to keep checking our radio to be sure it was actually tuned to WNIR.

The near-studio quality of tonight's Kent State Golden Flashes game vs. Ohio University at Athens, to our ears, has to come from one of those modern, new-fangled devices that squeezes much better quality audio via a phone line. You know, it's one of those things called a "Vector" or a "Bluebox" or in its older incarnation, a "Hotline".

Or maybe WNIR blew past all that older technology, and picked up one of those new "Access" systems that promises to deliver wideband audio over an Internet connection?

Whatever it is...we barely recognize Golden Flashes play-by-play voice Bill Needle if he's not on a low-quality phone line. We suppose the test will be Saturday, when Howie Chizek is live from one of the Klaben dealerships...or maybe if Bob Golic is live from Detroit for his Saturday show. We're still not sure if Kent State hasn't forced this on WNIR...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

WNIR is up; 1350 is down.

WNIR has new technology (I still don't believe it), while 1350-AM gets old technology (Joe Finan).

F

Anonymous said...

It's ISDN. Been installed there for two seasons of Kent Basketball. This week was the 1st time they've gotten it to work, despite numerous attempts and evn consulting a PD down the road at those "low rated AM stations" they seem to be fond of mentioning.

Meanewhile kent uses ISDN for WOMENS basketball games on WHLO.

Remote ACCESS said...

Very nice! Send us pictures and stories of your Comrex remote and we'll add them to the new road warriors blog.