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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Friday Feedback for August 28, 2015

Aaaaand ..... we're back with your questions and comments.

Listener James in Supply wrote:

The board made a big mistake in going from your core competency, [i.e. a] classical station to news. The airways are full of talking heads.

Anonymous wrote:

Love 91.3! Glad to have the classical music separated; I enjoy the jazz every night (except Saturday). I like most of the news/talk except for People’s Pharmacy and a couple of others, but people with lots of different tastes listen to the station, so it’s OK!! But please don’t try to bring in more contemporary music. Ever other station in Wilmington offers that!!

In that connection, Morning Edition listeners know that the program experimented this past Monday with having a live band, Yo La Tengo, provide music during segments and the program’s breaks. The letter I just read was written before that, and I’ve seen no other reaction to what NPR is calling an experiment.

Longtime supporter John of Sunset Beach wrote on August 17th:

Lately, we're often getting an annoying amount of signal interference and static on 91.3. This morning around 9:35, I was able to hear "Performance Today" from APM for about a half-hour while tuned into 91.3, even on my sets that usually receive well... At station ID time, it was evident that we had been listening to the South Carolina [ETV Radio] system. . . Previously, over recent months there has been an almost overwhelming increase of interference with listening to WHQR, something I used to do with great regularity. It is particularly difficult on those "low signal strength" days you seem to have lately, even on days when it's not raining. It's bad enough that we have no direct way to listen to 96.7 due to the weak transmitter you are using for that service, now the loss of a clean signal on 91.3 is a real blow to our continuing with being a Sustaining Member.

I wrote back to John:
Thank you for your message and your long-time support of WHQR. Your letter arrived while Friday Feedback and I were on vacation. The SCETV Radio station you heard is almost certainly from Columbia, SC, which also broadcasts on 91.3. Occasionally, weather conditions interfere with our 91.3’s reception in outlying areas, and Columbia can come in. Also, we recently discovered that a loose cable had been hanging from higher up the tower where our signal originates. And simultaneously we discovered a problem with 91.3’s transmission of its HD signals which may also have hampered some people’s receptions. Both of these problems have been addressed. Sunset Beach is well beyond the signal limits for our 96.7 service. My best advice for John to hear classical music is an HD Radio. The HD2 signal of 91.3 is identical to the 96.7 service.

Listeners Susan and Bill of Whiteville wrote a couple of weeks ago:

Those of us … in Columbus County would appreciate a segment on the proposed sales tax distribution changes from the viewpoint of the 80 counties who have been losing out since the beginning of the NC sales tax… The money Columbus County shoppers spend in New Hanover or any of the 20 urban NC counties is our money. The urban counties get the benefit of our shopping dollars, jobs, profits, taxes on businesses, etc. - we now get a tiny 20% of our sales tax dollars back to our county… Please tell your local reporters that there are issues that matter on the west side of the bridge! We listen, we contribute, please give us a fair shake.

I’m pleased to note that just this past week our News department did a story that looked at the impact of the proposed sales tax re-distribution on both New Hanover County and other counties in our region. Thank you for your comment, Susan and Bill.

We’d love to hear from you on Friday Feedback. You can always leave a message via email to feedback@WHQR.org. Our Feedback Phone is 910-292-9477. And thanks for your feedback.