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Nautel Memorable Radio
WFMT
WFMT Chicago Commences HD Radio™ Broadcasting with Nautel NV40
A fine-arts station since its debut, WFMT-FM Chicago has always had a reputation for classical
music and utmost audio quality. Station engineers once designed their own audio processors because
nothing on the commercial market was acceptable to them, nor did they air commercials on tape cartridges.
Launched in 1951 by classical music lovers Bernard and Rita Jacobs who guided the station its first
15 years, Chicago Educational Television Association/WTTW has operated WFMT since 1970. Over the
years, the station has grown to offer some of its programming nationally, such as Jazz with Bob
Parlocha, The Beethoven Network, and syndicates many other short-form products such as symphony
orchestras and operas.
Today WFMT is equally concerned with audio quality and has chosen the Nautel NV-40 to upgrade and
initiate HD Radio™ transmission. Chief Engineer Gordon Carter, who celebrated his 40th anniversary
with the station this year, has an industry-wide reputation as an expert on audio and processing, and has
made numerous industry presentations on the subject.
Why did WFMT choose Nautel's NV-40 transmitter? Carter says the reasons were reliability, sound
quality and a general preference for solid-state. He says, "With tubes, pretty much if anything
goes wrong, you're off the air. With solid-state a lot of things can go wrong and you're still putting
out some signal. You can lose a module or power supply and still not be off the air." Reduced long-term
maintenance costs and the headroom to increase HD Radio™ power to -10 dBc, if approved, are additional
reasons for Carter's choice of Nautel.
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The NV40 at work in its new home in the Willis Tower.
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Carter had been looking for some time but culminated his transmitter search at the 2008 NAB
convention. He and his boss, Window to the World Communications President and CEO, Dan Schmidt,
went to the show to take a final look and move forward with the purchase. Appointments were made
with the major HD Radio™ transmitter manufacturers, but Carter says the competition was lackluster
once they saw the new NV-40, the most powerful single-cabinet FM transmitter in the industry. Mr
Schmidt told Carter that the major focus should be on redundancy, reliability and solid-state, and
after seeing Nautel’s NV-40, he told Gordon to "make this work within the budget".
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Nautel's Gary Liebisch and WFMT Chief Engineer Gordon Carter check out the NV40's performance.
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WFMT had some other important criteria. The Willis Tower is a busy and expensive location - rent
is by the square foot, so transmitter size is important. The compact design of the NV-40 along with
its relatively light weight compared to some other models fit the profile for floor loading requirements.
Additional space is saved due to the NV-40's built-in redundancy - WFMT presently operates with no
auxiliary transmitter since installing the NV-40 in April 2009.
As an early adopter of the NV-40, Carter suggested some engineering improvements which have now
been incorporated into the NV Series. One is an option to place the circuits powering the controller
and exciters under a UPS for both stability and more rapid re-starts after "power bumps". Carter says,
"We have serial number 4, this is a new product; it was a lot less troublesome than it could have been,
and has fully met my expectations for both quality manufacturing and sonic excellence". He says he's
been complimented by both listeners and competing market engineers on the HD Radio™ sound quality.
With the Nautel NV-40, WFMT's reputation for excellence remains at an industry pinnacle.
Gordon Carter
Chief Engineer
WFMT, Chicago
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The Nautel AUI (Advanced User Interface) permits WFMT engineers to monitor and control
transmitter operations from the studio site, on a remote computer, or on a smartphone with internet access. FCC mask compliance is always assured, and any subsystem alarms are quickly routed to the proper individuals. Identical screens are available remotely thanks to the built-in web browser.
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