1360

[Kurt Toy]

Are people buying HD or PC equipment in great numbers?

Satellite radio is going so well XM and Sirus want to merge because they can't make it on their own.

Look, I'm not at all saying that people want to stick with lesser equipment. There is a reason why you can't buy a black and white TV with a dial tuner anymore.

But when HD and PC equipment will be made affordable for all, doesn't that mean that the over-the-air signal becomes meaningless and the programming is the thing?

If you're of a "Pre-Cable TV age" you may know what it was like to have to watch Channel 11 or 2 and not 4 because WTAE-TV often didn't come into your home well on rabbit ears- whereas Channel 11's signal was so strong that it would sometimes invade down to 9 on the dial. Nowadays the over-the-air signal is largely irrelevant, so the programming is the thing.

That's what I'm saying COULD happen if the performance quality is made equal. If the broadcast quality suddenly becomes equal due to technology- then what is preventing WPTT- or any station- from succeeding if they have quality programming?

When I lived in the city, particularly the East Liberty-Shadyside-East End corridor [Point Breeze, actually], our family had a very tough time picking up WTAE-TV.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Guess where I lived, Kurt!

Gettysburg Street is representing here. You?

ALL HAIL 14-11! THE LINDEN LIONS ROCK!

 

[Pratte4Life]

I also understand that an XM or Sirius bill is the last bill in a home to be paid, which means that, sure, they may have subscribers, but if a quarter of them are 28 year old drunk guys making $12.00 an hour,

There are jobs that pay more than $12 an hour?

I have been working in media WAAAAAY too long.

 

[mic on the road]

Who drives cross country anymore trying to listen to what is left of the 50kw blowtorches dying into the hiss of side channel splatter?? Yeah I've listed to Pirate and Penguin games on car radios in as far flung places as Yellowstone National Park, Salt Lake City and Orlando but now?? I have a better car radio than I ever have and I can't get KD east of Blairsville most nights. Long trips are what satellite radios excell at.

The technology is coming and changing this business for good whether we like it or not. You can jump on board the train or get crushed under its wheels. Your choice.

I make 4 cross country trips a year. I have XM radio I would not want drive without XM on long trips.
I do notice that once I get to about the middle of Texas and going west I can still pick some 50kw blowtorches without much of the hiss I get back here.

 

[klutch00]

10% of the AM facilities will remain viable for another 10 years.

The rest, if they have programming that is worth listening to in any way (and that's a big if), will find better ways to distribute that content than AM radio.

If that's the way it's gotta be, then turn the AM band mostly if not entirely into clear channels, especially at the upper end.

 

[jackandcoke]

More twists & turns in this conversation than the road from Donora to Gibsonia. Here's two more cents.

XM is great. Twelve bucks a month is three six-packs of IC Light. BFD. The reality of XM/Sirius, though, is that their subscription base has boiled down to a steady 3 percent of the population who don't mind paying a little bit for a better brand of radio. The other 97 percent may not love the free brands, but they'll live with the freebies (FM & AM) rather than pay anything.

FWIW, I couldn't care less about their hundreds of niche music channels. It's all the news & spots channels that make it worthwhile to me.

As far as 1360 and the rest of the non-competitive AM sticks in Pittsburgh and other major markets, there is still real money to be made by moving these stations to any number of smaller communities that are severely underserved. Where? Look around. Probably the most obvious to 'Burghers might be Armstrong County. 70,000 people, $700 million in retail, and one (awful) AM station--no FM's. But there are plenty of others. And the FCC has made it pitifully easy to move AM sticks now (a "minor change")--for anyone willing to pay the engineering fees and, of course, the re-construction costs.

 

[kenhawk1160]

As far as 1360 and the rest of the non-competitive AM sticks in Pittsburgh and other major markets, there is still real money to be made by moving these stations to any number of smaller communities that are severely underserved. Where? Look around. Probably the most obvious to 'Burghers might be Armstrong County. 70,000 people, $700 million in retail, and one (awful) AM station--no FM's. But there are plenty of others. And the FCC has made it pitifully easy to move AM sticks now (a "minor change")--for anyone willing to pay the engineering fees and, of course, the re-construction costs.

Jack, thank you. You said it all.