MICHAEL CANDY
ABOUT
WDTR FLOWERS 2023
On February 5 1948 WDTR began official broadcasting. With
2,000 watts of effective power the station was mostly limited to Detroit and
its nearest suburbs. WDTR was listener-supported and non-commercial,
broadcasting mostly classical music, jazz and educational content. By 2003 the
facility was abandon, and from what I can gather they sold their licence to
another station that still holds the 90.9 MHz frequency.
I went to the site looking for a relic or image to
respond to through this project and found these plastic flowers. Initially I
considered an alternative image, but these the flowers felt more symbolically
relevant than other content discovered.
In studio I decoded the image through PD240 Slow Scan TV
(SSTV) into an audio output. SSTV is a common method of image transmission for
Amateur radio hobbyists and has been in use since the late 80s. I then built a
transmitter with an audio looper embedded, playing the decoded image as audio
over FM Radio.
On February 25 2023 WDTR made its final transmission at a
mere 7 watts. I installed the battery-operated transmitter on the roof of the
building, it probably ran for 5-8 hours. I walked away from the abandon
facility with an FM receiver and recorded the transmissions as they decayed
with distance and interference.
Thanks Ena for the pic.
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