Alan Rock's Trivia questions for Friday, Jan.27

Q. What was the first state university in America? And when did it occur?
A. 1785, the University of Georgia was chartered in Athens, Georgia.

Q. In what country was the first instant coffee produced?
A. In 1938 Nescafe was introduced by Nestle of Vevay, Switzerland.

Alan Rock's Trivia Questions for Thursday, Jan.26

Q. On this date one hundred years ago, a steam powered automobile set a new land speed record. How fast?

A. 127 miles per hour

Q. In 1980 Frank Sinatra held a concert in Rio de Janeiro, how many people paid to attend?

A. 175,000

Alan Rock's Trivia Question for Wednesday Jan. 25

Q. This date in 1949 was a big day in the history of television. Why?
A. The first Emmy Awards


Q. On this date, the first presidential news conference was carried live on radio and television. Who was the President, and what was the date?
A. 1961, President John F. Kennedy

Alan Rock's trivia questions for Friday, Jan. 20

Trivia Question #1...
Q: A historic sports event took place in Springfield, Massachusetts on this date 114 years ago, what was it?

A: The first officially recognized and umpired basketball game.

Trivia Question #2...
Q: It happened in 1929. What was the first full-length talking movie show entirely outdoors?

A: It was "In Old Arizona," and Warner Baxter won an Oscar for his role in the film.

Alan Rock's trivia questions for Thursday, Jan.19

1. Q: How many children did U.S. President John Tyler have?

A: 15

2. Q: A presidential new conference was filmed for television for the first time, with the permission of which U.S. President?

A: President Dwight Eisenhower

Alan Rock's Trivia Question for Wednesday, Jan.18

What was Kevin Costner’s first movie, and what role did he play?

The movie was "The Big Chill," and he played the corpse.

First time for HD?

A friend, radio engineer Steve Fluker, first demonstrated high definition radio to me in his car outside my house. I knew it would be a moment I would remember and I think it will be a common recollection of "the first time you heard high def radio." Steve set the scene by saying, you may think it's not a big deal when you hear about it, but when you listen to it, you will realize what it's all about. Indeed, it is a whole different world. Within minutes I heard a WUCF-FM I had never heard before or even imagined possible.

One of my lifetime best friends, Chris Hicks, is one of the top radio engineers around; he directs a very prominent radio group in California. When we worked together at Y106 in Orlando, Chris included me in all of his "sound adjustments" to the station. He also taught me about something he called "presence," which is how a station displays when you lock into its dial position. Chris is also big on psychoacoustics, the psychological aspects of sound. Everything that Chris had taught me over the years about radio sound came together in an instant, it was like a Zen Moment when Steve tuned in his HD radio for me. With the HD tuner, the sound was pristine, front and center -- ultra-presence. Friends who took LSD in the '70's used to describe how music came to life and how they could almost see it. I finally had a way to grasp what they were saying. This, I guess is just a dramatic way of saying HD radio is way better and way different that I expected. The immediacy, clarity and "sense-surround" quality is overwhelming. - Ken Rabac, WUCF

Howard Stern kicks iBiquity into gear?

Has it been all the media attention directed to Howard Stern and his crossover to satellite radio that has finally gotten the Ibiquity company into gear with promoting HD radio and getting consumers onboard with HD radio tuners? In a move that may be just a little too late - in Las Vegas on Jan 6, at the Consumer Electronics Show - Ibiquity Digital unveiled a blueprint for an HD Radio tuner box that could turn a satellite-ready receiver into an HD Radio enabled unit. The tuner box can be installed in an automobile dash and is compatible with more than 200 existing receivers from OEMs as well as aftermarket manufacturers such as Pioneer and Sony. The box would allow car owners to receive HD Radio signals without having to remove their car's existing receivers and sound systems. Remember, these HD units allow listeners to receive digital radio signals, and all their accompanying perks - for free.

The iBiquity news is reported like it's a big accomplishment, but in reality the satellite radio guys are already WAY ahead. As a station manager of a public radio station I need to know what the competition is about and that's why I asked Santa for a satellite radio receiver and a year's subscription to Sirius satellite radio. I was apparently a good girl last year so Santa got it for me. My Sirius "starmate" cost $79 and it works with my car's existing receiver. The easy install was completed in 5 minutes by me. I powered it by plugging it into the car's lighter, then the magnetic antenna was stuck on the roof, I turned it on and immediately got over 120 channels of programming. Yes, there's wires hanging down, and that bothered me for about a day. Now I don't even notice it.

HD radio stations broadcasting in Orlando currently include 4 Cox-owned stations, and, WUCF. None of these stations are offering more than one programming stream yet, thus WUCF is on a path to be the FIRST station in Orlando streaming multiple channels of programming, for free, over the digital radio airwaves. Stay tuned! - Kayonne Riley, Station Manager

Terrestrial Radio vs. Satellite Radio

I read with great interest this morning of the push that iBiquity is making to increase HD radio awareness in the auto industry. They have hired KGPR, a public relations agency, to communicate the advantages and importance of digital HD radio to today's carmakers. The importance of getting HD radios into listener's cars (and lives) is a real concern that I and my fellow terrestrial broadcasters have. I believe that until automakers begin building cars with HD radio receivers as standard equipment, no real shift in digital radio listenership will occur.

A couple questions to illustrate... Do you have an HD radio? Does anyone you know have one? I don't own one, and I work in the broadcast industry. I do however have a Sirius satellite receiver, as noted in my last posting.

HD radio can offer for FREE, multiple streams of programming, artist and title on-screen information, and, a sound quality that far surpasses regular analog broadcasts. It is a great service. We just need to have radios in peoples hands. - Kayonne Riley, Station Manager

Santa brought me Sirius Radio!

Greeting from the studios of WUCF-FM in beautiful sunshiney Central Florida. Today we should reach the mid-70's and all should be great until this weekend when we'll get some colder temperatures. If it sounds like I'm all too familiar with the weather forecast this morning, it's because I am VERY familiar with it since I had to finish up the second half of Alan Rock's morning jazz show here on 89.9 FM. Always a fun time. Especially since I only had to get here by 8:30, rather than 6 am. No extra coffee required.

So. The big news is that my best Christmas present from a couple weeks ago was a Sirius satellite receiver for my car, and a year's subscription to the service.Wow. Over 80 channels of commercial-free music, and 184 channels in all, with news, sports, public radio and international programming. The song titles and artists are displayed on the receiver's face, so I never have to wonder who, or what I'm listening to. The "dj's" keep their spots brief, and upbeat. There's a lot of famous guest hosts making appearances as well.

To my mind, the radio playing field has been changed. And I am all-the-more motivated to continue our work in moving WUCF up a few notches in the HD Digital broadcast world. With our HD Digital signal we have the capability to broadcast multiple channels of programming, so listeners with HD Digital radios can select from our jazz broadcast, or our public radio talk broadcast, or, our music variety broadcast, etc. And, WE will be streaming artist and title information as a part of the service as well. This large project will take more equipment, and a lot of work.

That being said, I've got to get back to work now! Don't forget to tune us in on the web at wucf.org ---- Cheers! - Kayonne Riley, Station Manager