Honestly, "the Bridge" which nobody knows about because nobody cares, would be better off the just market their voice-activted devices and apps. They would get more listeners. HD is simply on the top on nobodys mind. It never was. If I had the HD-2 with the Bridge right now, I would market the hell out of downloading the app or asking "Alexa"
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Buffalo Cumulus sells AM to Buddy Shula
- Thread starter exdjted
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Then they would lose their discount for music royalties. The Bridge is Tom Calderone's baby. This is his attempt at returning to the kind of radio he did when he was on the air in Buffalo. He put it on HD-2 because it's there and costs nothing. Not because he expects ratings. Ratings are a commercial radio thing. Calderone doesn't care about ratings. In the case of The Bridge, it's about artistic expression. The main usage is online. He knows that. But online usage isn't effectively measured by Nielsen. It's measured by ISP.
Anybody that gets worked up about HD radio at this point is whistling past the graveyard. As Buddy noted, nobody gives a ——. The 2025 equivalent of the transistor radio is the phone/app. It is the portal to the content. Radio is a portal for the car (for some for now).
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I have said this in other threads, but I see HD as only being "useful" in a few scenarios. I have no objection to the requirement of HD1 being a digital version of the analog broadcast, since it benefits the relative handful of consumers who appreciate that improvement in sound quality; when properly engineered to not have a noticeable delay from the analog signal it allows the HD receiver to switch back and forth seamlessly without the listener perceiving it.
HD2 streams are okay for feeding analog translators, where the frequencies are available, at least until the FCC wakes up and realizes all of the "AM revitalization" efforts did little to actually benefit AM stations, and allows translators to be licensed as their own class of FM service, taking the call letters of their AMs as those go permanently silenced as the "compensation" for allowing the translator to operate on its own.
(Nota bene: Yes, this is a refinement of my earlier advocacy of translators to become standalones ... while I see it as a convenient way to take AMs silent which are only on the air to allow the translator to operate, I would not extend the provision for a translator to be licensed as a separate station if it uses a HD2 or HD3 as its "originating station".)
I also don't object to HD2 or HD3 being used to improve coverage area of a co-owned AM, provided there isn't an existing full-power analog simulcast. (Example of the latter is KMZT/1260 Beverly Hills -- with its transmitter miles away in the northern San Fernando Valley -- which simulcasts on the HD2 of KKGO/105.1, which makes sense given their relative signal contours. But I note that Audacy dropped the HD feed of KNX/1070 on KRTH/101.1 once they began simulcasting on KNX-FM/93.1 a few years back.)
But everything else is subject to the laws of diminishing returns, given the anemic penetration of consumer HD receivers.
HD2 streams are okay for feeding analog translators, where the frequencies are available, at least until the FCC wakes up and realizes all of the "AM revitalization" efforts did little to actually benefit AM stations, and allows translators to be licensed as their own class of FM service, taking the call letters of their AMs as those go permanently silenced as the "compensation" for allowing the translator to operate on its own.
(Nota bene: Yes, this is a refinement of my earlier advocacy of translators to become standalones ... while I see it as a convenient way to take AMs silent which are only on the air to allow the translator to operate, I would not extend the provision for a translator to be licensed as a separate station if it uses a HD2 or HD3 as its "originating station".)
I also don't object to HD2 or HD3 being used to improve coverage area of a co-owned AM, provided there isn't an existing full-power analog simulcast. (Example of the latter is KMZT/1260 Beverly Hills -- with its transmitter miles away in the northern San Fernando Valley -- which simulcasts on the HD2 of KKGO/105.1, which makes sense given their relative signal contours. But I note that Audacy dropped the HD feed of KNX/1070 on KRTH/101.1 once they began simulcasting on KNX-FM/93.1 a few years back.)
But everything else is subject to the laws of diminishing returns, given the anemic penetration of consumer HD receivers.
Then they're basically being used by broadcasters to game the system. HD radio was never meant to be an STL service and translators were never supposed to be used to create extra radio stations in a market, especially when they put cluster owners over the ownership cap via a regulatory loophole, but this is effectively what they've become.
So what? The point is they provide more options for listeners. That's what they were intended to do. How they do it is immaterial.
It’s a futile attempt at 80’s thinking in today’s radio environment. When we are cross selling CFLZ a few years ago, I suggested calling it The Bridge.
No person, yet alone younger person is going to gravitate to any HD2 station for that format. He would have a better chance with local news.
They need to figure out much more than how to program a hobby for Tom. They are going to start slashing all over the place from funding. The Bridge should not even be an afterthought for them.
So in summary, Tom’s “baby” is not working out. I see the streaming numbers. It’s not working out there either. Streaming is very 2010. Think of how to make that HD 2 a destination, with a name like The Bridge, I could think of plenty more things that would actually matter for that frequency.
You really don't see his actual streaming numbers unless you have access to the station's hosting dashboard.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I would much rather we game the system to provide more mainstream programming options than have translators used for yet another religious network feed.
Perhaps it has escaped the notice of many here, but there is an interesting "loophole" in the translator regulations that EMF, et al, have taken advantage of: While translators for commercial stations must keep their licensed signal within the primary contour of the originating station, non-comms do not have that restriction, so the religious networks can feed them in any way feasible, even if they have zero full-power stations in teh area.
Yes, public radio stations can also do that (KCRW here in L.A., for example, has nine such translators) but from what I can tell, there are no "competing" full-power NPR stations in the areas those serve, so I favor that loophole's use for public radio.
HD radio on a 1KW AM would be short range and annoying. HD on a full power FM is different and works well in most cases. I don't believe you can run HD on a translator which is already low power. At last check HD can only run 10% of the main channels power.
TheBigA had the answer. Running it on an HD2 channel avoids much higher music rights fees for non-coms when streaming. I don't know if it's a money maker, break even, or loser for BTPR. I do agree that force-feeding portions of the programming on the main channel seems to be a ratings loser.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
And here I thought RD was the one place where I didn't have to read discussions about Amazon.
That might be the way to do things going forward, depending on where one lives. Some people are lucky, with no issues.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I have an advantage in that I work from home, so I am usually here when any kind of package is delivered.
But I think there is a special place in Hell for porch pirates.
I had porch pirates steal an Amazon package a few years ago around Christmas time. I wish I could have seen the looks on their faces when they opened the package and found bread mixes!
Sorry about that. My fault, but at least we are talking about how to get an HD radio and not about a million other reasons for using Amazon.
Is this thread ever going to go back to talking about WUSW AM? It seems to have wandered really far off the topic.
It's on topic in respect to potential. We are learning from Buddy that he is smart to stick with oldies and talk based on the cards he has been dealt.
He sees no future for HD, so this is just how he will do things moving forward. I still see use for HD, but that's me.
Exactly, back to WUSW. I don't listen to Conservative talk, so I wouldn't be able to compare the new WUSW with others in the format. Maybe those that listen, can answer the following: How are they different from the previous Conservative talk station on 1270? Any local elements like Buffalo area news, weather, traffic?
The shows are different. Before they were primarily the Cumulus talk shows, now they are the iHeart shows. No local news at all, just network Town Hall news. A couple local talk shows on the weekends. It's basically take the network shows off the satellite and throw in some local spots at the local breaks.