The difference is that diginets are national, while HD stations are local. You need money to do either of these things, and national money is FAR greater than local money. In most places, HD stations are loss leaders unless connected to a translator. That's just the reality of the situation.
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The Beginning of the end for HD Radio
- Thread starter stewie
- Start date
The difference is that diginets are national, while HD stations are local. You need money to do either of these things, and national money is FAR greater than local money. In most places, HD stations are loss leaders unless connected to a translator. That's just the reality of the situation.
The [ATSC 1.0] digital tv transition - it took until the 6th generation of tuners to get one that could cope with multipath.
Are HD radio tuners noticeably better than the 1st generation tuners, I have the 1st Sony HD radio (I guess I could try it with a 12VDC->120VAC car adapter in my car and drive around see how it works but it wouldn't have an outside the car antenna)?
Kirk Bayne
Are HD radio tuners noticeably better than the 1st generation tuners, I have the 1st Sony HD radio (I guess I could try it with a 12VDC->120VAC car adapter in my car and drive around see how it works but it wouldn't have an outside the car antenna)?
Kirk Bayne
It's pretty obvious that your experiences are second hand. I like listening to Good Time Oldies on KRBE-FM HD-2. This is a national channel offered by Westwood One. Local ad spots have appeared with the national network ads within the past couple of years. Then I realized that reports of HD Radio's demise have been exaggerated.
There was a report sometime ago that credited the simulcast on the sister FM HD subchannels with attracting/retaining listeners to Houston AM sports radio stations. (Houston is second to Washington D.C. with nighttime AM station interference.)
Also translators are not very viable due to the huge land area of this sprawling city. Most normal people expect that every station has a Class C signal and will only tune to another station after hearing the slightest static.
Yes. I've noticed that the newer HD radio receivers lock on to the digital signal much better than the older ones.
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The transition was painless. Older systems had a long, long sunset period while new ones ramped up.
The migration to streaming or cable systems had nothing to do with old sets becoming obsolete. That migration had to do with having more channels and options than just one's local OTA TV stations. That process has been going on for around four decades: think MTV, CNN, Turner and Superstation WGN. And cable itself has been around since the early 50's as CATV systems.
There is no bandwidth for FMs to simultaneously do analog and digital on separate channels. The current hybrid system works fine.
And nobody has proposed changing FM radio to 100% digital. The industry is more concerned with new media, not going all digital (which has only minor quality gains on FM).
TV was different... we went from a very low res system to much higher resolution and even a different screen proportion. And the change was adopted in some form world-wide. Again, nowhere in the world has pure digital on the existing band been proposed.
Pure digital on a different band has been adopted in Europe, pushed mostly by state owned broadcast groups. It was tried in Canada and died. It was proposed in Brazil and did not pass. Those are two nations where state owned radio is much less dominant and invasive.
Really the only profitable HD usages are very specialized ones... Farsi in LA is a good example. Otherwise, the main use of HD is to allow operators to license a translator and operate a brand new analog FM covering, depending on height, as much as 100% of a smaller market.
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Good Time Oldies is hardly national. It is just a format distributed to a handful of co-owned stations to fill up HD channels. It makes no money, gets no ratings.
Houston only has one station that covers nearly all the metro survey area day and night. That situation exists in many markets, from Albuquerque, Tucson, Phoenix, to Cleveland and Richmond and even Atlanta. Those are some of the markets where there are only one or two truly full coverage stations day and night.
In the top 100 markets, there are only about 170 AMs that cover 80% of the market day and night.
So many AMs use translators or HD channels. The HD channels generally don't add listening, though.
There is no static on FM.
No, my experience is that I work in the radio business. This is not a typical way stations program HD stations. If you sample other HDs in the area, they're not programmed by nationally syndicated formats. This appears to be an exception, because Cumulus owns Westwood One. Typically GTO is on primary stations, not HDs.
On the other hand, diginets are created and budgeted for use on digital subchannels. These are two different things.
Good Time Oldies is as national as any syndicated program or format is. You've mischaracterized the purpose. Good Time Oldies is one of many national formats distributed mainly to AM stations that seek hosted formats without hiring local staff. The syndication of the format goes way beyond co-owned stations. It's primarily to small local owners, and AFAIK it's not intended to air on HD unless it's also available on a full broadcast station. I'll have to research the affiliation contracts, but I'm pretty sure this is not typical use. Cumulus only owns one station in Houston, so they're obviously looking to merchandise their one station in other ways.
I was under the impression that there was a separate in-house version of the oldies format for the o&o HD channels that was intended to be a bit older than the syndicated version. I recall this being in one of the trades some time back; if this was never done I apologize for the inaccuracy.
In any case, none of those syndicated services approaches having "national" coverage. As you say, those formats are principally used in smaller markets and unrated areas, and one would not find them on full facilities in the top markets; the top 20 markets alone represent over 40% of the US 12+ population and the next 30 represent another 20%, giving the top 50 nearly two thirds of the US 12+ population.
When I managed a group that had, stations in Lake City, FL, and Tallahassee, FL, we used syndicated formats in tiny Lake City but did all local origination in medium sized Tallahassee. That gives some perspective to the term "national" insofar as the impact of syndicated formats.
As I said, "national" is a relative term, not an actual term. It's meant to be used as opposed to "local."
Most programming on HD stations has local origination.
Among the larger groups, the HD content consists of a selection of formats created nationally and, generally, executed locally.
But then again, "shows" like Seacrest are done the same way: workparts assembled at each local station within their own local music format and service elements (if any).
Seacrest is not syndicated as content for HD. It's designed to air on primary stations. The formats you're talking about that air on HD generally are unhosted. They're mainly music and imaging with occasional commercials. They often originate from automation systems.
That's why Major Armstrong invented it!No static at allllllll.......
And why Steely Dan sang about it.
I understand that; my point is that there is are fine lines between a network, a syndicated show and workparts for local assembly. The differences between "marquee" shows and small market format syndication are technically minimal today.
Using the example of Seacrest again, his is a syndicated show. But he infrequently originates from KIIS in LA, instead providing workparts throughout the day for his radio show/network/voicetrack.
Seacreast could, of course, be put on HD with a translator if the situation warranted it.
But my issue is that much of what is done on the HD channels of companies like iHeart or even Univision are "in house syndication" and not done locally, particularly since the major companies are centralizing programming nationally or regionally and don't have staff to create unprofitable HD formats in each market.
Generally, and with only a few "exception proves the rule" cases, when HD is used as a way to get a translator does that combination warrant aggressive and perhaps local programming.
>>no static
Does he mean drift...signal problems when you start to lose an FM signal?..no wait drift probably is gone...
>>On the receiver side, frequency drift was mainly a problem in early tuners, particularly for analog dial tuning, and especially on FM, which exhibits a capture effect. However, the use of a phase-locked loop (PLL) essentially eliminates the drift issue (wikipedia)
Does he mean drift...signal problems when you start to lose an FM signal?..no wait drift probably is gone...
>>On the receiver side, frequency drift was mainly a problem in early tuners, particularly for analog dial tuning, and especially on FM, which exhibits a capture effect. However, the use of a phase-locked loop (PLL) essentially eliminates the drift issue (wikipedia)
There is a "newer generation" re-definition of static: it now means anything that makes reception less than perfect, such as dropouts, interference from other channels or stations, etc.
While the traditional definition of "static" is for atmospheric noise on the AM or shortwave bands (precluding it from even applying to FM) it is increasingly understood today to have that new meaning.
Quite a discussion thread here!
Technology has brought ability to change content to everybody. Many people can hear differences in audio.
lo-fi, 432 Hz tuning, chopped and screwed, are examples of sound oriented audio genres.
Creators have always done whatever they can to make audio sound the way they want it to. This has been going on since the beginning. Many things some consider an outrage initially are simply part of the evolution.
Some who loved a new sound when they were young, now hate new sound as oldsters.
"Auto-Tune is ruining music", aka get off my lawn.
Some current hit music is amazing produced, layered and ambient. It is superb ear candy and delightful audio, even if you don't understand it or care for the style. That is thanks to technology and creativity. Hip-hop type genre evolved from a MC onstage with reverb to today's in-tune, well-produced and mixed soundstage.
I say don't worry about all the ways audio content can be created. If you are a audio content creator, or owner of a physical space (traditional radio station, venue, etc.) you can do it your way. Just have to follow the rules and laws, such as copyright.
Observation- many owners of bars and venues with live entertainment apparently can't be bothered to make achievable acoustic and sound improvements, despite having owned the establishment for 20 years.
Technology has brought ability to change content to everybody. Many people can hear differences in audio.
lo-fi, 432 Hz tuning, chopped and screwed, are examples of sound oriented audio genres.
Creators have always done whatever they can to make audio sound the way they want it to. This has been going on since the beginning. Many things some consider an outrage initially are simply part of the evolution.
Some who loved a new sound when they were young, now hate new sound as oldsters.
"Auto-Tune is ruining music", aka get off my lawn.
Some current hit music is amazing produced, layered and ambient. It is superb ear candy and delightful audio, even if you don't understand it or care for the style. That is thanks to technology and creativity. Hip-hop type genre evolved from a MC onstage with reverb to today's in-tune, well-produced and mixed soundstage.
I say don't worry about all the ways audio content can be created. If you are a audio content creator, or owner of a physical space (traditional radio station, venue, etc.) you can do it your way. Just have to follow the rules and laws, such as copyright.
Observation- many owners of bars and venues with live entertainment apparently can't be bothered to make achievable acoustic and sound improvements, despite having owned the establishment for 20 years.
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When someone mentions static on FM, it usually refers to multipath interference.
Bandwidth is also an issue. 75 khz max if i’m not mistaken.
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