What sparks the radio-loud phase of nearby quasars?

To better constrain the hypotheses proposed to explain why only a few quasars are radio loud (RL), we compare the characteristics of 1958 nearby (z ≤ 0.3) SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) quasars, covered by the FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters) and NVSS (NRAO VLA Sky Survey) radio surveys. Only 22 per cent are RL with log (L1.4 GHz) ≥ 22.5 W Hz−1, the majority being compa...