We occassinally get calls about reception, especially from our Terre Haute listeners.  Well, the WSDM-FM tower is in Brazil, 15 miles east of Terre Haute.  WSDM-FM has 6000 watts, not 50,000 watts, so while our range is pretty good, about 40 miles in most directions, one can experience "multipath" distortion in parts of Terre Haute...that's where the signal bounces off buildings and other obstructions.  It is also difficult to get WSDM-FM inside commercial buildings.

The answer to better reception is always a better receiving antenna.  Make sure you have the whip up, if your radio has one.  Or better yet, hook it up to an outside TV or FM antenna.  Many radios simply use the line cord as an antenna and this is not adequate.  If you can get your radio close to a window facing east, this may help a lot.  And those $10 clock radios just won't cut it.  If your are in downtown Terre Haute, WTHI-FM bleeds into us pretty badly.  Nothing we can do about it, but a good radio with an antenna will bring us in fine.  We have a Bose Acoustic Wave radio in our office and it brings in WSDM-FM very well.  (Yeah, I know, they're $350!)  We also recommend the GE Superradio III, available for about $40 to $50 for excellent reception on both FM and AM.  Boston Acoustics has just come out with a new radio for $160 that's getting rave reviews.  And CambridgeSoundworks has a new one for $250 that's outstanding.

If you are a WAXI listener, this same advice applies, but remember WAXI's tower is about 20 miles north of Terre Haute.  AM listeners to WSDx or WBOW need to try to get good radios like the GE mentioned earlier, and keep them away from those pesky computer monitors!  E-mail or call us with other specific problems...maybe we can help!

WSDM-FM uses a Harris 3.5k transmitter, installed in January of 1997. We use the Harris Digit-Exciter, and an Optimod 2200. The transmitter is located in a 15x15 building at 1740 West White Rock Road in Brazil, IN. It is about 200 feet south of a 300-foot tower containing an ERI Rototiller 4-bay antenna installed in 2005. WSDM-FM has 6000 watts effective radiated power and is on 24 hours a day.

Signals are received from Terre Haute via a  Moseley composite STL system, puchased and installed in November, 1997 for WSDM-FM.

WSDM FM, WAXI-FM, WBOW-FM,and WSDX-WBOW AM,  share studio facilities at 1301 Ohio Street in downtown Terre Haute. The studios were constructed in 2002 by engineer Tom Mulvihill.  Studio "A," the main studio, contains a Dynamax 12R console, six Shure microphones, a Symetrex microphone processor, Mackie mic mixer, headphone amp, 2 CD players, a dual-cassette deck, a Sony Mini Disc player,a Comrex digital studio phone system plus a small phone coupler,  monitor amp and speakers, and a computer with Cool Edit Pro and other production tools on it.

The stations all operate with Scott System models networked to the traffic system, and to a central server. All local audio is stored on the hard drives and played back on demand.

Studio "B," is used mainly for the news studio, and our AM stations when studio A is in use. It contains an Arrakis console;  CD player, Sony Mini Disc, Tascam Cassette Deck, 1 Shure microphone,  a distribution amp, and monitors, plus a computer for news writing, internet updating, and it has Cool Edit Pro for news cut editing.

Studio C is used for WAXI and is much studio A, except that the console is a Dynamax 8R, and there are only 2 mic stations.

Studio D is used for WBOW and is a close of studio C, except that the console is a Dynamax 12L.

Studio E is used for the CROCK and is similar to Studio C, using a Dynamax RL 8 console.

The STL tower in back of the building in which we are located is 120 feet tall and has four Scala Paraflector antennas, an antenna for the Weather Radio, and an antenna for our Marti RPU. We also a 12 foot Solid Satellite Dishe for ABC as well as other networks, a 10 foot mesh dish for Cubs Baseball, and a KU dish for our state news network.

Equipment in a room behind the studios contains microwave transmitters, processors, routers, switchers, the Scott server(s), satellite receivers, EAS equipment, and so forth.  It is contained in three racks, and all interconnected with a punch block system.  WAXI and WSDM use Optimod 2200s.  WBOW uses an Optimod 8200.  WSDX and WBOW use Innovonics AM processors.

Our contract engineer is Kevin Berlen.