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124-457: WBEZ (91.5 FM ) – branded WBEZ 91.5 – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Chicago , Illinois, and primarily serving the tri-state region of the Chicago metropolitan area . It is owned by Chicago Public Media and is financed by listener contributions, corporate underwriting and some government funding. WBEZ is affiliated with both National Public Radio (NPR) and

248-461: A "tattooed, twenty-seven-year-old stripper" writing a late-night party column. "The feeling was the Reader had to be reinvented ... and change its character." After being owned by the same four founders since 1971, ownership of the Reader changed several times between 2007 and 2018. The precipitous decline in profits from 2004 to 2006 prompted owner-founder Tom Rehwaldt to file a lawsuit against

372-474: A debilitating public dispute between publisher Tracy Baim and then-editor in chief Karen Hawkins on one side, and co-owner Leonard Goodman on the other, in 2021 and 2022. Goodman, who had submitted a semi-regular column for the Reader since he and Higginbottom acquired the newspaper, wrote one (edited by Hawkins) in November 2021 about his hesitancy to vaccinate his young daughter against COVID-19. After

496-600: A five-year plan for Chicago-oriented programs to cover all seven hours between the national news programs. Other program changes happened in October 2012, with various programs being reshuffled. At the same time, Smiley and West from PRI was dropped from the Sunday afternoon line-up. The last day WBEZ aired locally-produced international programming was October 4, 2019, with the final broadcast of Worldview with host Jerome McDonnell, which aired weekdays since 1994. The news on

620-657: A low-power translator in Elgin, Illinois (W217BM at 91.3). In 2013, Chicago Public Media purchased 91.7 W219CD in Elgin from LifeTalk Radio for $ 52,500, and W217BM moved to Chicago the following year and changed its frequency to 91.1 as W216CL. Listeners can also receive the broadcast online with streaming audio , MP3 download or by podcast . As of 2013, the station drew an estimated 400,000 listeners each week. Several other radio stations also are or were affiliated with Chicago Public Media . FM broadcasting Throughout

744-514: A monophonic broadcast, again the most common permitted maximum deviation is ±75 kHz. However, some countries specify a lower value for monophonic broadcasts, such as ±50 kHz. The bandwidth of an FM transmission is given by the Carson bandwidth rule which is the sum of twice the maximum deviation and twice the maximum modulating frequency. For a transmission that includes RDS this would be 2 × 75 kHz + 2 × 60 kHz  = 270 kHz . This

868-406: A new generation of young readers. "Alternative weeklies are expected to be eternally youthful", McClelland wrote. "The Reader is finding that a tough act to pull off as it approaches forty." He also suggested the Reader had grown complacent "because it was still raking in ad profits through the early 2000s" and its troubles were aggravated by a 2004 makeover that included "features on fashion" and

992-464: A new kind of journalism, ignoring the news and focusing on everyday life and ordinary people. The Reader was founded by a group of friends from Carleton College , and four of them remained its primary owners for 36 years. While annual revenue reached an all-time high of $ 22.6 million in 2002, double what it had been a decade earlier, profits and readership then went into steep decline, and ownership changed several times between 2007 and 2018. In 2022,

1116-627: A pioneer among alternative weeklies for both its creative nonfiction and its commercial scheme. Richard Karpel, then-executive director of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies , wrote: [T]he most significant historical event in the creation of the modern alt-weekly occurred in Chicago in 1971, when the Chicago Reader pioneered the practice of free circulation, a cornerstone of today's alternative papers. The Reader also developed

1240-557: A program feed for AM transmitters of AM/FM stations. SCA subcarriers are typically 67 kHz and 92 kHz. Initially the users of SCA services were private analog audio channels which could be used internally or leased, for example Muzak -type services. There were experiments with quadraphonic sound. If a station does not broadcast in stereo, everything from 23 kHz on up can be used for other services. The guard band around 19 kHz (±4 kHz) must still be maintained, so as not to trigger stereo decoders on receivers. If there

1364-408: A program of interviews with persons who have overcome various addictions. The station was also once the flagship station of Steve Cushing's nationally distributed Saturday night blues music program Blues Before Sunrise, which started in 1979 and has been independently produced and distributed by Cushing since 1995. Blues Before Sunrise, was eliminated from WBEZ's lineup in the 2007 restructuring, but

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1488-537: A public high school basketball team for a full year. Published in two parts, a total of 40,000 words, it was reprinted in the anthology Best American Sportswriting 1993 . Contributor Lee Sandlin 's two-part 1997 essay, “Losing the War,” was later adapted for broadcast by the public radio show This American Life and it was anthologized in a 2007 collection, The New Kings of Nonfiction . The Reader has won 30 Alternative Newsweekly Awards since 1996. Another element of

1612-433: A robust page count, innovations in social media and reader engagement, and strong commitment from advertisers. " The Straight Dope ", by the pseudonymous Cecil Adams, was the Chicago Reader 's first weekly column and one of the first features to be widely syndicated in the alternative press, at one time appearing in 35 papers. It was started on 2 February 1973 by Michael Lenehan and later written by Dave Kehr. In 1978 it

1736-554: A shake-up of midday programs, which had not drawn as large an audience as the NPR morning and afternoon news programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered . Programming on WBEZ includes international news and local news including Curious City , world music , and quiz shows. Notable national programs offered by WBEZ include All Things Considered , Marketplace , Morning Edition , Weekend Edition , PRI's The World and Live From Here . Generally, news and talk programming

1860-585: A short-lived TV series, produced by Andrew Rosen, on the A&;E Network; and a Web site , Straightdope.com, which was named one of PC Magazine 's Top 101 Web Sites and as of January 2010 was drawing nearly 1.2 million users per month. The Los Angeles Reader began publishing in 1978 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Reader, Inc. It was the first newspaper to publish Matt Groening 's comic strip Life in Hell and David Lynch 's strip The Angriest Dog in

1984-429: A showcase for independent radio producers, and the producer of the weekly program Re:sound . WBEZ stopped broadcasting Re:sound circa 2019.". WBEZ was also the flagship station of The Annoying Music Show! , a 3-minute program that showcased generally annoying songs. The program was produced by former WBEZ program director Jim Nayder. Nayder Communications also produced the somewhat more serious Magnificent Obsession,

2108-415: A staff writer since the 1980s. Though the staff was much smaller than it was before the sale, many other key figures remained as of June 2010, including media critic Michael Miner, film critic J.R. Jones, arts reporter Deanna Isaacs, food writer Mike Sula, theater critic Albert Williams, and music writers Peter Margasak and Miles Raymer. In November 2009, James Warren , former managing editor for features at

2232-473: A studio-to-transmitter link system. In April 1935, the AM subcarriers were replaced by FM subcarriers, with much improved results. The first FM subcarrier transmissions emanating from Major Armstrong's experimental station KE2XCC at Alpine, New Jersey occurred in 1948. These transmissions consisted of two-channel audio programs, binaural audio programs and a fax program. The original subcarrier frequency used at KE2XCC

2356-541: A weekly basis include Latino USA from NPR; Canadian CBC Radio shows Q , Ideas , and Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly ; and Radio Netherlands: The State We're In . Other programs that air weekly include Snap Judgment with Glynn Washington , a story-telling show from PRX and NPR. In addition to its main transmitter on 91.5 FM, WBEZ extends its signal by operating full-power satellite WBEQ/ Morris, Illinois (90.7 FM). The station also formerly operated

2480-406: A weekly print schedule. The Reader was designed to serve young readers, mostly singles in their 20s, who in the early 1970s lived in distinct neighborhoods along Chicago's lakefront, such as Hyde Park , Lincoln Park , and Lake View . Later this demographic group moved west, to neighborhoods like Wicker Park , Bucktown , and Logan Square , and the Reader moved with them. The paper's appeal

2604-514: Is a founding member of the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), a programming cooperative for public radio stations and independent producers. The rock music talk show Sound Opinions , which moved from WXRT in 2005, was distributed nationally by American Public Media until 2010, when its distribution was transferred to PRX. PRX also distributes the film show Filmspotting . News and news discussion/documentary programs aired on

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2728-525: Is added. VHF radio waves usually do not travel far beyond the visual horizon , so reception distances for FM stations are typically limited to 30–40 miles (50–60 km). They can also be blocked by hills and to a lesser extent by buildings. Individuals with more-sensitive receivers or specialized antenna systems, or who are located in areas with more favorable topography, may be able to receive useful FM broadcast signals at considerably greater distances. The knife edge effect can permit reception where there

2852-422: Is also known as the necessary bandwidth . Random noise has a triangular spectral distribution in an FM system, with the effect that noise occurs predominantly at the higher audio frequencies within the baseband . This can be offset, to a limited extent, by boosting the high frequencies before transmission and reducing them by a corresponding amount in the receiver. Reducing the high audio frequencies in

2976-408: Is amplitude modulated onto a 38 kHz double-sideband suppressed-carrier (DSB-SC) signal, thus occupying 23 kHz to 53 kHz. A 19 kHz ± 2 Hz pilot tone , at exactly half the 38 kHz sub-carrier frequency and with a precise phase relationship to it, as defined by the formula below, is also generated. The pilot is transmitted at 8–10% of overall modulation level and used by

3100-422: Is authorized for "hybrid" mode operation, wherein both the conventional analog FM carrier and digital sideband subcarriers are transmitted. The output power of an FM broadcasting transmitter is one of the parameters that governs how far a transmission will cover. The other important parameters are the height of the transmitting antenna and the antenna gain . Transmitter powers should be carefully chosen so that

3224-482: Is dated every Thursday and distributed free on Wednesday and Thursday via street boxes and cooperating retail outlets. As of June 2020, the paper claimed to have nearly 1,200 locations in the Chicago metropolitan area and circulation of 60,000, a fraction of what circulation had been in the mid-2000s. The Reader remains among the largest and most successful alternative newspapers in the country. Weekly readership had once been put at 450,000. The Chicago Reader

3348-596: Is designed to be capable of use alongside ARI despite using identical subcarrier frequencies. In the United States and Canada , digital radio services are deployed within the FM band rather than using Eureka 147 or the Japanese standard ISDB . This in-band on-channel approach, as do all digital radio techniques, makes use of advanced compressed audio . The proprietary iBiquity system, branded as HD Radio ,

3472-486: Is heard weekdays and evenings with music and entertainment talk programming on the weekends. WBEZ is best known nationally as the producer of This American Life through Public Radio Exchange . This American Life began in 1995 as the local show Your Radio Playhouse ; it was renamed in March 1996 and has been national since June 1996. In addition, Chicago Public Media founded Third Coast International Audio Festival ,

3596-470: Is largely comparable to Chicago's major commercial FM stations. Even so, some inner suburbs such as Waukegan , Aurora and Elgin only get a grade B signal. On January 4, 2007, the station's long-time overnight jazz programming was eliminated. The music program remaining on the schedule was the world music program Radio M (formerly Passport and in 2019 re-titled Radio Z) on Friday nights. All other music hosts were to be reassigned to other positions at

3720-480: Is mainly the preserve of talk radio, news, sports, religious programming, ethnic (minority language) broadcasting and some types of minority interest music. This shift has transformed AM into the "alternative band" that FM once was. (Some AM stations have begun to simulcast on, or switch to, FM signals to attract younger listeners and aid reception problems in buildings, during thunderstorms, and near high-voltage wires. Some of these stations now emphasize their presence on

3844-671: Is no direct line of sight between broadcaster and receiver. The reception can vary considerably depending on the position. One example is the Učka mountain range, which makes constant reception of Italian signals from Veneto and Marche possible in a good portion of Rijeka , Croatia, despite the distance being over 200 km (125 miles). Other radio propagation effects such as tropospheric ducting and Sporadic E can occasionally allow distant stations to be intermittently received over very large distances (hundreds of miles), but cannot be relied on for commercial broadcast purposes. Good reception across

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3968-496: Is only suitable for text. A few proprietary systems are used for private communications. A variant of RDS is the North American RBDS or "smart radio" system. In Germany the analog ARI system was used prior to RDS to alert motorists that traffic announcements were broadcast (without disturbing other listeners). Plans to use ARI for other European countries led to the development of RDS as a more powerful system. RDS

4092-442: Is open to anyone who does not carry a prohibition and can put up the appropriate licensing and royalty fees. In 2010 around 450 such licences were issued. Chicago Reader The Chicago Reader , or Reader (stylized as ЯEADER ), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago , Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The Reader has been recognized as

4216-504: Is performed by a decoder, built into stereo receivers. Again, the decoder can use a switching technique to recover the left and right channels. In addition, for a given RF level at the receiver, the signal-to-noise ratio and multipath distortion for the stereo signal will be worse than for the mono receiver. For this reason many stereo FM receivers include a stereo/mono switch to allow listening in mono when reception conditions are less than ideal, and most car radios are arranged to reduce

4340-557: Is related to the transmitter 's RF power, the antenna gain , and antenna height . Interference from other stations is also a factor in some places. In the U.S, the FCC publishes curves that aid in calculation of this maximum distance as a function of signal strength at the receiving location. Computer modelling is more commonly used for this around the world. Many FM stations, especially those located in severe multipath areas, use extra audio compression /processing to keep essential sound above

4464-630: Is stereo, there will typically be a guard band between the upper limit of the DSBSC stereo signal (53 kHz) and the lower limit of any other subcarrier. Digital data services are also available. A 57 kHz subcarrier ( phase locked to the third harmonic of the stereo pilot tone) is used to carry a low-bandwidth digital Radio Data System signal, providing extra features such as station name, alternative frequency (AF), traffic data for satellite navigation systems and radio text (RT). This narrowband signal runs at only 1,187.5 bits per second , thus

4588-427: Is used. This applies to both mono and stereo transmissions. For stereo, pre-emphasis is applied to the left and right channels before multiplexing . The use of pre-emphasis becomes a problem because many forms of contemporary music contain more high-frequency energy than the musical styles which prevailed at the birth of FM broadcasting. Pre-emphasizing these high-frequency sounds would cause excessive deviation of

4712-511: The Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Reader from Wrapports, beating out Chicago-based publishing company Tronc for ownership. Effective October 1, 2018, Sun-Times Media sold the Reader to a private investment group, which formed an L3C to make the purchase. The major investors were Chicagoans Elzie Higginbottom and Leonard Goodman. Tracy Baim was named publisher and Anne Elizabeth Moore editor. Moore's tenure as editor

4836-548: The Builders Building . In 1949, the station's transmitter was moved to Marshall Metropolitan High School in Chicago's East Garfield Park neighborhood. As of 2021, it is atop the John Hancock Center . In 1970, WBEZ joined National Public Radio as a charter member and began general programming outside of school hours. Initially, most programming outside of the instructional programs and NPR programs

4960-483: The Chicago Reader invested in the Washington paper in 1982 and eventually controlled 100 percent of the stock. In 2007, they sold their interest in both papers to Creative Loafing, Inc. The Reader's Guide to Arts & Entertainment was published as a suburban extension of the Chicago Reader in 1996. Before then, the Reader had avoided distribution in all but the closest suburbs of Chicago. The Reader's Guide

5084-492: The Chicago Reader . Although Holman briefly owned shares in the Chicago paper, none of the Chicago owners had an interest in the San Diego paper. Holman used the Reader format and nameplate with the blessings of his friends in Chicago. Various other Reader s have been published, but the San Diego and Los Angeles papers are the only ones affiliated with the Chicago Reader . In the late 1970s, Chicago Reader, Inc. (CRI) sued

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5208-517: The Chicago Tribune , was named president and publisher. In March, 2010, Warren resigned. In June, longtime editor Alison True was fired by acting publisher Alison Draper and Creative Loafing CEO Marty Petty, sparking outrage among the paper's remaining audience. In July, Draper was named publisher, managing editor Kiki Yablon was promoted to editor, and Geoff Dougherty was named associate publisher. Dougherty had founded and subsequently closed

5332-602: The John Hancock Center on North Michigan Avenue . It broadcasts over two HD Radio digital subchannels . It operates full-power repeaters WBEK (91.1 FM) in Kankakee and WBEQ (90.7 FM) in Morris , as well as several FM translators . WBEZ-HD2, carrying a user-generated content format focused on " urban alternative music " and branded Vocalo.org , is also relayed over WBEW (89.5 FM) in Chesterton, Indiana . WBEZ

5456-595: The Light Programme , Third Programme and Home Service . These three networks used the sub-band 88.0–94.6 MHz. The sub-band 94.6–97.6 MHz was later used for BBC and local commercial services. However, only when commercial broadcasting was introduced to the UK in 1973 did the use of FM pick up in Britain. With the gradual clearance of other users (notably Public Services such as police, fire and ambulance) and

5580-501: The Public Radio Exchange (PRX). It also broadcasts content from American Public Media and the BBC World Service . It produces several nationally syndicated shows for public radio stations, including documentary program This American Life , and co-produces news and politics quiz program, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! with NPR. WBEZ has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 5,700 watts with its transmitter atop

5704-481: The Reader ' s appeal was its free classified ads to individuals. Ads were seen as another source of information alongside the journalism and listings. The original look of the Chicago Reader in 1971 was devised by owner-founder Bob McCamant. In 2004, a redesign by the Barcelona , Spain, firm of Jardi + Utensil introduced a new logo and extensive use of color, including a magazine-style cover. In 2007, under

5828-429: The Reader , citing a 90% drop in advertising revenue due to COVID-19 shutdowns , announced that it was pivoting from a weekly to a biweekly print schedule, with a renewed focus on digital content and storytelling and a refreshed special issues calendar. On May 16, 2022, ownership of the Reader was transferred to the new non-profit organization Reader Institute for Community Journalism. The transfer had been delayed by

5952-608: The Twin Cities Reader for trademark infringement, arguing that the Chicago Reader had given special meaning to the name "Reader". The federal appeals court ultimately ruled that the term was "merely descriptive" and thus could not be protected as a trademark. The East Bay Express , which serves the San Francisco Bay area, was co-founded in 1978 by Nancy Banks, a co-founder of the Chicago Reader , and editor John Raeside. Chicago Reader owners invested in

6076-492: The 1970s and 1980s: A commercially unsuccessful noise reduction system used with FM radio in some countries during the late 1970s, Dolby FM was similar to Dolby B but used a modified 25 μs pre-emphasis time constant and a frequency selective companding arrangement to reduce noise. The pre-emphasis change compensates for the excess treble response that otherwise would make listening difficult for those without Dolby decoders. A similar system named High Com FM

6200-495: The 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago) reported that the Reader was "an enormous financial success. It's now as thick as many Sunday papers and is published in four sections that total around 180 pages." This report put the circulation at 138,000. The Reader began experimenting with electronic distribution in 1995 with an automated telephone service called "SpaceFinder", which offered search and "faxback" delivery of

6324-701: The Cubs. They are closer to home." In its early years the Reader was published out of apartments shared by the owner-founders, Roth, McCamant, Rehwaldt and Yoder. The first apartment was in Hyde Park —the University of Chicago neighborhood on the south side of Chicago—and the second was in Rogers Park on the far north side. Working for ownership in lieu of pay, the owner-founders ultimately owned more than 90% of

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6448-610: The FCC announced the reassignment of the FM band to 90 channels from 88–106 MHz (which was soon expanded to 100 channels from 88–108 MHz). This shift, which the AM-broadcaster RCA had pushed for, made all the Armstrong-era FM receivers useless and delayed the expansion of FM. In 1961 WEFM (in the Chicago area) and WGFM (in Schenectady, New York ) were reported as the first stereo stations. By

6572-705: The FCC rules do not allow this mode of stereo operation. In 1969, Louis Dorren invented the Quadraplex system of single station, discrete, compatible four-channel FM broadcasting. There are two additional subcarriers in the Quadraplex system, supplementing the single one used in standard stereo FM. The baseband layout is as follows: The normal stereo signal can be considered as switching between left and right channels at 38 kHz, appropriately band-limited. The quadraphonic signal can be considered as cycling through LF, LR, RF, RR, at 76 kHz. Early efforts to transmit discrete four-channel quadraphonic music required

6696-579: The FCC. The original Dorren Quadraplex System outperformed all the others and was chosen as the national standard for Quadraphonic FM broadcasting in the United States. The first commercial FM station to broadcast quadraphonic program content was WIQB (now called WWWW-FM ) in Ann Arbor / Saline, Michigan under the guidance of Chief Engineer Brian Jeffrey Brown. Various attempts to add analog noise reduction to FM broadcasting were carried out in

6820-456: The FM carrier . Modulation control (limiter) devices are used to prevent this. Systems more modern than FM broadcasting tend to use either programme-dependent variable pre-emphasis; e.g., dbx in the BTSC TV sound system, or none at all. Pre-emphasis and de-emphasis was used in the earliest days of FM broadcasting. According to a BBC report from 1946, 100 μs was originally considered in

6944-520: The FM band.) The medium wave band (known as the AM band because most stations using it employ amplitude modulation) was overcrowded in western Europe, leading to interference problems and, as a result, many MW frequencies are suitable only for speech broadcasting. Belgium , the Netherlands , Denmark and particularly Germany were among the first countries to adopt FM on a widespread scale. Among

7068-979: The FM radio band from 87.5-108.0 MHz to 76.1-108.0 MHz to enable the migration of AM radio stations in Brazilian capitals and large cities. FM broadcasting began in the late 1930s, when it was initiated by a handful of early pioneer experimental stations, including W1XOJ/W43B/WGTR (shut down in 1953) and W1XTG/ WSRS , both transmitting from Paxton, Massachusetts (now listed as Worcester, Massachusetts ); W1XSL/W1XPW/W65H/WDRC-FM/WFMQ/WHCN , Meriden, Connecticut; and W2XMN , KE2XCC , and WFMN , Alpine, New Jersey (owned by Edwin Armstrong himself, closed down upon Armstrong's death in 1954). Also of note were General Electric stations W2XDA Schenectady and W2XOY New Scotland, New York—two experimental FM transmitters on 48.5 MHz—which signed on in 1939. The two began regular programming, as W2XOY, on November 20, 1940. Over

7192-599: The Family" used an apartment-building fire as the starting point for a 15,000-word chronicle of life among the underclass, following three generations of a west-side family and touching on urban issues such as addiction, discrimination, crime, and teen pregnancy . It won the Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism, awarded by the Chicago Headline Club. Ben Joravsky's "A Simple Game" followed

7316-463: The L+R signal so the listener will hear both channels through the single loudspeaker. A stereo receiver will add the difference signal to the sum signal to recover the left channel, and subtract the difference signal from the sum to recover the right channel. The (L+R) signal is limited to 30 Hz to 15 kHz to protect a 19 kHz pilot signal. The (L−R) signal, which is also limited to 15 kHz,

7440-642: The US, but 75 μs subsequently adopted. Long before FM stereo transmission was considered, FM multiplexing of other types of audio-level information was experimented with. Edwin Armstrong, who invented FM, was the first to experiment with multiplexing, at his experimental 41 MHz station W2XDG located on the 85th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City . These FM multiplex transmissions started in November 1934 and consisted of

7564-547: The World . Groening worked at the Los Angeles Reader for six years, first in circulation and then as a critic and assistant editor. In 1989, the paper was sold to a company headed by its founding editor, James Vowell. In 1996, it was sold to and closed by New Times Media, which later became Village Voice Media . The San Diego Reader was founded in 1972 by Jim Holman, one of the original group who established

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7688-454: The assigned frequency. There are other unusual and obsolete FM broadcasting standards in some countries, with non-standard spacings of 1, 10, 30, 74, 500, and 300 kHz. To minimise inter-channel interference, stations operating from the same or nearby transmitter sites tend to keep to at least a 500 kHz frequency separation even when closer frequency spacing is technically permitted. The ITU publishes Protection Ratio graphs, which give

7812-518: The background noise for listeners, often at the expense of overall perceived sound quality. In such instances, however, this technique is often surprisingly effective in increasing the station's useful range. The first radio station to broadcast in FM in Brazil was Rádio Imprensa, which began broadcasting in Rio de Janeiro in 1955, on the 102.1 MHz frequency, founded by businesswoman Anna Khoury. Due to

7936-402: The carrier, with its frequency remaining constant. With FM, frequency deviation from the assigned carrier frequency at any instant is directly proportional to the amplitude of the (audio) input signal, determining the instantaneous frequency of the transmitted signal. Because transmitted FM signals use significantly more bandwidth than AM signals, this form of modulation is commonly used with

8060-405: The column appeared in print, objections from the editorial staff and a public outcry prompted Baim and Hawkins to first defend the column (Hawkins tweeted in defense of it and privately assured Goodman the column was "bulletproof") before changing their minds and commissioning a post-publication fact-check that found multiple inaccuracies and errors. Baim proposed publishing the fact-check online with

8184-522: The column, but Goodman and allied board members accused Baim of censorship and demanded her resignation before allowing the transfer to a nonprofit; she refused. Baim, Goodman, and the board remained in a stalemate for months, unable to reach an agreement. In April 2022 the newspaper's editorial union, saying the dispute threatened the future of the newspaper, mounted a public pressure campaign that culminated in protests outside of Goodman's mansion, and after two weeks, he agreed to give up ownership and allow

8308-778: The company was sold to New Times Media, which became Village Voice Media and renamed Ruxton as the Voice Media Group. Index Newspapers is the company that publishes The Stranger in Seattle , Washington, and the Portland Mercury in Portland, Oregon . In 2002, CRI invested in Index and took a minority interest. Quarterfold, Inc. is a company formed by most of the former owners of Chicago Reader, Inc. to succeed that company and hold assets that were not included in

8432-672: The company. In 1975 the paper began to earn a profit, incorporated, and rented office space in the downtown area that later came to be known as River North . In 1979, a reporter for the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Illinois , called the Reader "the fastest growing alternative weekly in the U.S." In 1986, an article in the Chicago Tribune estimated the Reader' s annual revenues at $ 6.7 million. In 1996, Crain's Chicago Business projected revenue of $ 14.6 million. The National Journal's Convention Daily (published during

8556-653: The company. This lawsuit led to the sale of the Reader and its sibling, Washington City Paper , to Creative Loafing in July 2007, publisher of alternative weeklies in Atlanta , Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina ; and Tampa and Sarasota, Florida . Creative Loafing filed for bankruptcy in September 2008. In August 2009, the bankruptcy court awarded the company to Creative Loafing's chief creditor, Atalaya Capital Management, which had loaned $ 30 million to pay for most of

8680-431: The country is one of the main advantages over DAB/+ radio . This is still less than the range of AM radio waves, which because of their lower frequencies can travel as ground waves or reflect off the ionosphere , so AM radio stations can be received at hundreds (sometimes thousands) of miles. This is a property of the carrier wave's typical frequency (and power), not its mode of modulation. The range of FM transmission

8804-625: The display advertisers who accounted for much of the paper's revenue. By 2007 the PDFs were gone and all of the paper's content was available online, along with a variety of blogs and Web-only features. A 2008 article in the Columbia Journalism Review by Edward McClelland, a former Reader staff writer (then known as Ted Kleine), faulted the Reader for having been slow to embrace the Web and suggested that it had trouble appealing to

8928-485: The end." It explained the rationale behind free circulation and the paper's unconventional editorial philosophy: "Why doesn't the Reader print news? Tom Wolfe wrote us, 'The Future of the newspaper (as opposed to the past, which is available at every newsstand) lies in your direction, i.e., the sheet willing to deal with "the way we live now. " ' That sums up our thoughts quite well: we find street sellers more interesting than politicians, and musicians more interesting than

9052-567: The extension of the FM band to 108.0 MHz between 1980 and 1995, FM expanded rapidly throughout the British Isles and effectively took over from LW and MW as the delivery platform of choice for fixed and portable domestic and vehicle-based receivers. In addition, Ofcom (previously the Radio Authority) in the UK issues on demand Restricted Service Licences on FM and also on AM (MW) for short-term local-coverage broadcasting which

9176-490: The final episode aired on June 5, 2015. Another local program heard Monday-through-Friday was Worldview , a global issues program that began in 1986 as Midday with Sondra Gair . After Gair's death in 1994, her producer Jerome McDonnell took over the program and hosted it since. It was heard nationally on Sirius Satellite Radio 's now-defunct PRI channel from Sirius' inception until 2006. Worldview aired its last program after 25 years on October 4, 2019. Chicago Public Media

9300-408: The first issue, 16 pages, on October 1, 1971. One year later, in its first anniversary issue, the Reader published an article titled "What Kind of Paper is This, Anyway?" in which it answered "Questions we've heard over and over in the past year." This article reported that the paper had lost nearly $ 20,000 in its first ten months of operation but that the owners were "confident it will work out in

9424-513: The high import costs of FM radio receivers, transmissions were carried out in circuit closed to businesses and stores, which played ambient music offered by radio. Until 1976, Rádio Imprensa was the only station operating in FM in Brazil. From the second half of the 1970s onwards, FM radio stations began to become popular in Brazil, causing AM radio to gradually lose popularity. In 2021, the Brazilian Ministry of Communications expanded

9548-470: The higher ( VHF or UHF ) frequencies used by TV , the FM broadcast band , and land mobile radio systems . The maximum frequency deviation of the carrier is usually specified and regulated by the licensing authorities in each country. For a stereo broadcast, the maximum permitted carrier deviation is invariably ±75 kHz, although a little higher is permitted in the United States when SCA systems are used. For

9672-469: The hour at noon stopped being BBC news October 4, and started being NPR news on Monday October 7, 2019, the start of a week of transition. A daytime hour of Newshour from the BBC World Service began Monday October 7, 2019, replacing The Morning Shift . Beginning Monday October 14, 2019, a new local talk show called Reset started. It was originally hosted by Jenn White . This was considered

9796-503: The import of vehicles, principally from the United States, with radios that can only tune to these frequencies. In some parts of Europe , Greenland , and Africa , only even multiples are used. In the United Kingdom , both odd and even are used. In Italy , multiples of 50 kHz are used. In most countries the maximum permitted frequency error of the unmodulated carrier is specified, which typically should be within 2 kHz of

9920-524: The late 1960s, FM had been adopted for broadcast of stereo "A.O.R.—' Album Oriented Rock ' Format", but it was not until 1978 that listenership to FM stations exceeded that of AM stations in North America. In most of the 70s FM was seen as highbrow radio associated with educational programming and classical music, which changed during the 1980s and 1990s when Top 40 music stations and later even country music stations largely abandoned AM for FM. Today AM

10044-526: The late 1990s that it added a suburban edition, The Reader's Guide to Arts & Entertainment, but by 2006 it was operating at a loss. It faced severe competitive pressure starting near the turn of the century, as some of its key elements became widely available online. Websites offered entertainment listings, schedules, and reviews. Classified ads, a major source of revenue in the 1990s, migrated to Craigslist and other online services that published ads for free and made them easily searchable. By 2000 much of

10168-527: The main channel audio program and three subcarriers : a fax program, a synchronizing signal for the fax program and a telegraph order channel. These original FM multiplex subcarriers were amplitude modulated. Two musical programs, consisting of both the Red and Blue Network program feeds of the NBC Radio Network, were simultaneously transmitted using the same system of subcarrier modulation as part of

10292-568: The main channel signal-to-noise ratio. The GE and Zenith systems, so similar that they were considered theoretically identical, were formally approved by the FCC in April 1961 as the standard stereo FM broadcasting method in the United States and later adopted by most other countries. It is important that stereo broadcasts be compatible with mono receivers. For this reason, the left (L) and right (R) channels are algebraically encoded into sum (L+R) and difference (L−R) signals. A mono receiver will use just

10416-405: The minimum spacing between frequencies based on their relative strengths. Only broadcast stations with large enough geographic separations between their coverage areas can operate on the same or close frequencies. Frequency modulation or FM is a form of modulation which conveys information by varying the frequency of a carrier wave ; the older amplitude modulation or AM varies the amplitude of

10540-477: The mix. Reader articles by freelance writer David Moberg are credited with helping to elect Chicago's first black mayor, the late Harold Washington . Staff writer John Conroy wrote extensively, over a period of more than 17 years, on police torture in Chicago; his reporting was instrumental in the ouster and prosecution of Commander Jon Burge, the leader of a police torture ring, and in the release of several wrongly convicted prisoners from death row. The Reader

10664-540: The next few years this station operated under the call signs W57A, W87A and WGFM, and moved to 99.5 MHz when the FM band was relocated to the 88–108 MHz portion of the radio spectrum. General Electric sold the station in the 1980s. Today this station is WRVE . Other pioneers included W2XQR/W59NY/WQXQ/WQXR-FM , New York; W47NV/WSM-FM Nashville, Tennessee (signed off in 1951); W1XER/W39B/WMNE , with studios in Boston and later Portland, Maine, but whose transmitter

10788-478: The online Chi-Town Daily News and its successor, the print-and-online Chicago Current, which he closed to take the Reader job. In 2012, the Chicago Reader was acquired by Wrapports LLC, parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times . Managing editor Jake Malooley was formally named Editor-in-Chief in July 2015. In February 2018 Malooley was fired by phone at O'Hare Airport as he returned from his honeymoon by newly appointed Executive Editor Mark Konkol. Konkol

10912-433: The originating station. The Crosby system was rejected by the FCC because it was incompatible with existing subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services which used various subcarrier frequencies including 41 and 67 kHz. Many revenue-starved FM stations used SCAs for "storecasting" and other non-broadcast purposes. The Halstead system was rejected due to lack of high frequency stereo separation and reduction in

11036-577: The owners transferred the Reader to a new non-profit organization, the Reader Institute for Community Journalism. On June 22, 2020, the Reader , citing a 90% drop in advertising revenue due to COVID-19 shutdowns, announced that it was pivoting from a weekly to a biweekly print schedule, with a renewed focus on digital content and storytelling and a refreshed special issues calendar. The Reader returned to weekly publishing in June 2024. The Reader

11160-535: The ownership of Creative Loafing, the paper was converted to a single-section tabloid. In 2010, Publisher Alison Draper hired Chicago-based redesign consultant Ron Reason to help revamp the publication. Among changes introduced were a revitalized and rebranded music section titled B Side, an improvement in the paper's advertising design, quality glossy paper stock for covers and key inside spreads, and editorial destinations shepherded primarily by new editor Mara Shalhoup. A post-redesign checkup several months later revealed

11284-406: The paper and eventually CRI held a major stake. The paper was sold in 2001 to New Times Media, which became Village Voice Media and in 2007 sold it to editor Stephen Buel and a group of investors. Washington City Paper was founded in 1981 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch, who had founded Baltimore City Paper in 1977. Originally named 1981 , the name was changed the following year. Owners of

11408-532: The paper's apartment rental ads, one of its most important franchises. Later in 1995 the paper's "Matches" personal ads were made available on the Web, and in early 1996 the SpaceFinder fax system was adapted for Web searching. Also in 1996 the Reader partnered with Yahoo to bring its entertainment listings online and introduced a Web site and an AOL user area built around its popular syndicated column " The Straight Dope ". The Reader became so profitable in

11532-549: The paper's content was available online, but the Reader still resisted publishing a Web version of the entire paper. It concentrated on database information like classifieds and listings, leaving the long cover stories and many other articles to be delivered in print only. In 2005, when many similar publications had long been offering all their content online, the Reader began offering its articles in PDF format, showing pages just as they appeared in print — an attempt to provide value to

11656-464: The program as "a live talk show featuring in-depth interviews and conversations with [mostly local] newsmakers, artists, writers, and innovators". Original host Steve Edwards left the station after a few months, and longtime Chicago Tribune journalist Rick Kogan temporarily replaced him. As of 2013 and the conclusion of Kogan's interim stint, WBEZ introduced Niala Boodhoo as the show's permanent on-air host. In 2015, WBEZ canceled "The Afternoon Shift";

11780-617: The purchase price for the Reader and the Washington City Paper . In late 2007, under a budget cutback imposed by the new owners at Creative Loafing, the Reader laid off several of its most experienced journalists, including John Conroy, Harold Henderson, Tori Marlan and Steve Bogira. The paper had de-emphasized the tradition of offbeat feature stories in favor of theme issues and aggressive, opinionated reporting on city government, for example its extensive coverage of tax increment financing (TIFs) by Ben Joravsky, who has been

11904-559: The reasons for this were: Public service broadcasters in Ireland and Australia were far slower at adopting FM radio than those in either North America or continental Europe . Hans Idzerda operated a broadcasting station, PCGG , at The Hague from 1919 to 1924, which employed narrow-band FM transmissions. In the United Kingdom the BBC conducted tests during the 1940s, then began FM broadcasting in 1955, with three national networks:

12028-456: The receiver also reduces the high-frequency noise. These processes of boosting and then reducing certain frequencies are known as pre-emphasis and de-emphasis , respectively. The amount of pre-emphasis and de-emphasis used is defined by the time constant of a simple RC filter circuit. In most of the world a 50  μs time constant is used. In the Americas and South Korea , 75 μs

12152-521: The receiver to identify a stereo transmission and to regenerate the 38 kHz sub-carrier with the correct phase. The composite stereo multiplex signal contains the Main Channel (L+R), the pilot tone, and the (L−R) difference signal. This composite signal, along with any other sub-carriers, modulates the FM transmitter. The terms composite , multiplex and even MPX are used interchangeably to describe this signal. The instantaneous deviation of

12276-570: The required area is covered without causing interference to other stations further away. Practical transmitter powers range from a few milliwatts to 80 kW. As transmitter powers increase above a few kilowatts, the operating costs become high and only viable for large stations. The efficiency of larger transmitters is now better than 70% (AC power in to RF power out) for FM-only transmission. This compares to 50% before high efficiency switch-mode power supplies and LDMOS amplifiers were used. Efficiency drops dramatically if any digital HD Radio service

12400-400: The resulting signal is that it alternates between left and right at 38 kHz, with the phase determined by the 19 kHz pilot signal. Most stereo encoders use this switching technique to generate the 38 kHz subcarrier, but practical encoder designs need to incorporate circuitry to deal with the switching harmonics. Converting the multiplex signal back into left and right audio signals

12524-480: The sale to Creative Loafing. Quarterfold's chief asset is its ownership interest in Index Newspapers. Amsterdam Weekly was a free, English-language weekly published in the Netherlands from May 2004 through December 2008. As of May 2010 , it exists in limited form online. The paper was started by Todd Savage, who had been a writer and typesetter for the Chicago Reader in the late 1990s. The Reader

12648-415: The separation as the signal-to-noise ratio worsens, eventually going to mono while still indicating a stereo signal is received. As with monaural transmission, it is normal practice to apply pre-emphasis to the left and right channels before encoding and to apply de-emphasis at the receiver after decoding. In the U.S. around 2010, using single-sideband modulation for the stereo subcarrier was proposed. It

12772-507: The station, according to a March 2006 article in the Chicago Reader . The replacement of music programming, which management said was due to the prevalence and popularity of other music delivery systems, caused outrage amongst many in the Chicago jazz scene . Protest sites were organized but were unsuccessful. Legendary jazz disc jockey Dick Buckley retained a time slot Sunday afternoons until mid-2008. Station management announced

12896-507: The station. Goli Sheikholeslami, formerly of The Washington Post , was appointed as CEO. She took office in April 2014. Goli Sheikholeslami left WBEZ to head New York Public Radio in fall 2019; Steve Edwards, back on staff at WBEZ since 2017, was named interim CEO as of the end of September 2019. WBEZ broadcasts at 5,700 watts, which on paper is somewhat modest for an NPR member on the FM band. However, with its transmitter being located atop Chicago's second tallest building, its coverage area

13020-531: The top 25 U.S. radio markets to transmit in Quadraplex. The test results hopefully would prove to the FCC that the system was compatible with existing two-channel stereo transmission and reception and that it did not interfere with adjacent stations. There were several variations on this system submitted by GE, Zenith, RCA, and Denon for testing and consideration during the National Quadraphonic Radio Committee field trials for

13144-469: The transfer to a nonprofit. In return, Baim agreed to keep the column at the center of the dispute online. In June 2022, Hawkins left the Reader . In August, Baim announced that she would resign by the end of the year. Solomon Lieberman was hired as new CEO and publisher in February 2023. Salem Collo-Julin was named editor in chief in March 2023. In May 2024, the newspaper announced it would return to

13268-423: The transmitter carrier frequency due to the stereo audio and pilot tone (at 10% modulation) is where A and B are the pre-emphasized left and right audio signals and f p {\displaystyle f_{p}} =19 kHz is the frequency of the pilot tone. Slight variations in the peak deviation may occur in the presence of other subcarriers or because of local regulations. Another way to look at

13392-537: The use of two FM stations; one transmitting the front audio channels, the other the rear channels. A breakthrough came in 1970 when KIOI ( K-101 ) in San Francisco successfully transmitted true quadraphonic sound from a single FM station using the Quadraplex system under Special Temporary Authority from the FCC . Following this experiment, a long-term test period was proposed that would permit one FM station in each of

13516-629: The world, the FM broadcast band falls within the VHF part of the radio spectrum . Usually 87.5 to 108.0 MHz is used, or some portion of it, with few exceptions: The frequency of an FM broadcast station (more strictly its assigned nominal center frequency) is usually a multiple of 100 kHz. In most of South Korea , the Americas , the Philippines , and the Caribbean , only odd multiples are used. Some other countries follow this plan because of

13640-766: Was 27.5 kHz. The IF bandwidth was ±5 kHz, as the only goal at the time was to relay AM radio-quality audio. This transmission system used 75 μs audio pre-emphasis like the main monaural audio and subsequently the multiplexed stereo audio. In the late 1950s, several systems to add stereo to FM radio were considered by the FCC . Included were systems from 14 proponents including Crosby, Halstead, Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd ( EMI ), Zenith, and General Electric. The individual systems were evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses during field tests in Uniontown, Pennsylvania , using KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh as

13764-529: Was a scaled-down version of the Reader , printed as a one-section tabloid meant to satisfy suburban demand for Reader content and advertising. In 2007, it was closed and distribution of the complete Chicago Reader was expanded to the suburbs. The Ruxton Group, originally called the Reader Group, was formed by CRI in 1984 as a national advertising representative for the Reader , Washington City Paper , and other large-market alternative weeklies. In 1995

13888-502: Was among the earliest FM stations in Chicago. first went on the air on April 7, 1943, carrying instructional programming for the Chicago Public Schools . However, initially only a few classrooms were able to tune in, because most did not have FM receivers. It originally broadcast at 42.5 MHz, before moving to 91.5 MHz in 1947. Its transmitter was located atop Chicago's Morrison Hotel and its studios were in

14012-616: Was atop the highest mountain in the northeast United States, Mount Washington , New Hampshire (shut down in 1948); and W9XAO/W55M/WTMJ-FM Milwaukee, Wisconsin (went off air in 1950). A commercial FM broadcasting band was formally established in the United States as of January 1, 1941, with the first fifteen construction permits announced on October 31, 1940. These stations primarily simulcast their AM sister stations, in addition to broadcasting lush orchestral music for stores and offices, classical music to an upmarket listenership in urban areas, and educational programming. On June 27, 1945

14136-459: Was based on a variety of elements. Most obvious early on was a focus on pop culture for a generation who were not served by the entertainment coverage of daily newspapers. Like many alternative weeklies, the Reader relied heavily on coverage and extensive listings of arts and cultural events, especially live music, film, and theater. As the paper prospered and its budget expanded, investigative and political reporting became another important part of

14260-532: Was fired by Sun-Times Media only 19 days after his appointment, following the publication of a controversial editorial cartoon that was deemed to be race baiting . On July 13, 2017, a consortium consisting of private investors & the Chicago Federation of Labor , led by businessman & former Chicago alderman Edwin Eisendrath , through Eisendrath's company, ST Acquisition Holdings, acquired

14384-603: Was founded by Robert A. Roth , who grew up in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. His ambition was to start a weekly publication for young Chicagoans like Boston's The Phoenix and Boston After Dark . Those papers were sold on newsstands but were also given away, mostly on campuses, to bolster circulation. Roth believed that 100-percent free circulation would work better, and he persuaded several friends from Carleton College , including Robert E. McCamant, Thomas J. Rehwaldt and Thomas K. Yoder, to join him in his venture. They scraped together about $ 16,000 in capital and published

14508-407: Was jazz music. The Board of Education sold the station to the current license holders, the not-for-profit WBEZ Alliance, Inc., in 1990. In September 1995 the parent company and station moved from its old offices to its current location at Navy Pier . The corporate name was changed in 2010 to Chicago Public Media, Inc. Torey Malatia , the general manager, stepped down in July 2013 after 20 years with

14632-695: Was perhaps best known for its deep, immersive style of literary journalism, publishing long, detailed cover stories, often on subjects that had little to do with the news of the day. An oft-cited example is a 19,000-word article on beekeeping by staff editor Michael Lenehan. This article won the AAAS Westinghouse Science Journalism Award , awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science , in 1978. Steve Bogira's 1988 article "A Fire in

14756-565: Was seen as another service which licensees could use to create additional income. Use of SCAs was particularly popular in the US, but much less so elsewhere. Uses for such subcarriers include radio reading services for the blind , which became common and remain so, private data transmission services (for example sending stock market information to stockbrokers or stolen credit card number denial lists to stores, ) subscription commercial-free background music services for shops, paging ("beeper") services, alternative-language programming, and providing

14880-404: Was short-lived; she abruptly departed in March 2019. In June 2019 Karen Hawkins and Sujay Kumar were announced as new editors in chief, previously managing editors who had been serving as interim editors in chief following Moore's departure. In November 2020, the Reader announced co-editor Hawkins would also serve as co-publisher with Baim, while Baim was also made president. On June 22, 2020,

15004-410: Was taken over by Ed Zotti , who continued to serve as Cecil's "assistant" as of January 2010. In 1984, Chicago Review Press published The Straight Dope , a compilation of columns; the cover named Cecil Adams as author and Zotti as editor. The title was picked up and republished by Ballantine, which published four more volumes between 1988 and 1999. In 1996, The Straight Dope became a user area on AOL ;

15128-429: Was taken over by public radio station WDCB in nearby Glen Ellyn . Its morning magazine program Eight Forty-Eight was initially named after the postal address of the station, 848 East Grand Avenue. The show was renamed to The Morning Shift , and was dropped in October 2019 in favor of a two-hour local talk show midday, called Reset . The corresponding afternoon program was called The Afternoon Shift . WBEZ touted

15252-656: Was tested in Germany between July 1979 and December 1981 by IRT . It was based on the Telefunken High ;Com broadband compander system, but was never introduced commercially in FM broadcasting. Yet another system was the CX -based noise reduction system FMX implemented in some radio broadcasting stations in the United States in the 1980s. FM broadcasting has included subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services capability since its inception, as it

15376-424: Was theorized to be more spectrum-efficient and to produce a 4 dB s/n improvement at the receiver, and it was claimed that multipath distortion would be reduced as well. A handful of radio stations around the country broadcast stereo in this way, under FCC experimental authority. It may not be compatible with very old receivers, but it is claimed that no difference can be heard with most newer receivers. At present,

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