Big surprise - AM-HD appears to be a flop

[calstymes]

Savage did write:

I'm sorry, but I disagree that "the finest engineering minds" developed HD. Mostly, like Glynn Walden (a middling, mediocre engineer but somewhat astute corporate politician) they are cynical elitists with agendas, and ones which differ vastly from general betterment of radio. Primarily they're interested in sucking up to self-interested bosses and in trying to pad their own wallets - bear in mind that Walden and CBS honcho Dan Mason are former iBiquity executives, with a large portion of their compensation dependent upon the success of HD. They are also interested in destroying successful stations like mine as part of Moron Struble's declared "thin the herd" objective, using HD adjacent-channel interference as a cudgel, and hiding like cowards behind the FCC they have "persuaded" with lobbyists. Much in the way my retirement is being threatened by HD Radio, I hope theirs is likely enjoyed fighting RICO actions and Congressional investigations.

Wonderful, Bob! Simply splendid! You DO tell it like it is and I respect that.

 

[amfmsw]

I'm afraid y'all missed my point with the "finest minds" comment. YOU who read this board regularly, Tom W., Frank F., Sav and others...I was looking for your fresh ideas to help repair the damage done by technical handcuffs.

We installed one of Franks Omnia's two years ago. It made the station sing! It's a brilliant piece of engineering and bullet-proof reliable. Bright, clear, competitive, crisp, with a growling bottom end...on my 1962 Zenith tube radio at my desk! In the car? It might as well have been a Gates Sta-Level with a blanket thrown over the speaker. It was of no help due to the AM receiver bandwidth. And my point was if the NRSC can mandate that we limit response, why can't they work with the Fed to madate receiver standards. It was done with FM, FM Stereo, IBOC, compatable color and HDTV. What's your ideas?

And the "wouldn't be caught dead" claim? Where did that come from? Please re-read the very first sentence. Content + relatability. A listener, any age, doesn't care what modulation technique is used as long as they can tune in and hear if the Phillies are leading in the bottom of the 7th, or if the Expressway is jammed or clear. Oh, and in the year 2008, it MUST, and CAN sound reasonably good.

The independant operator struggles to find an affordable balance of local programming, and profitability. In the Philly area, the AM's are shining stars of full service, and that includes those under 45. And local suburban AM's even more so, super serving their community.

Delaware valley AM's include everything from Local Sports at 610Kc, Disney at 640Kc, Local News at 1060, Standards at "Radio Martini" 1340Kc, Local Spanish at 1310 & 1480, to International 1540Kc, there's wonderful and vibrant choices to listen to for all ages on AM, and they sound like crap because of crappy radios and unenforced interference rules. My point is we AM broadcasters upheld our end of the bargain by limiting audio to 9Kc, in the promise of Stereo AMAX radios, and were royally betrayed.

"The Horse"? If YOU were a license holder of a 1kw graveyard frequency, and had YOUR life's savings wrapped up in it's success or failure, I don't believe you would write so calously.

 

[SUPERCASTER]

There will never be any improvement for radio, AM or FM, more powerful than content. AM HD is like Communism...it looks good on paper, but in practice... FM HD is just the canibalization of Cume audience with subchannels.

There is not as much cume cannibalizaiton as you think since, as we move into PPM measurement, the average listener cumes 7 or 8 stations a week anyway. Cume is shared, but actual quarter hours can't be shared. That's why the sum of cume of all stations is more than 3 to 4 times the 12+ population, yet there are only 100 shares no matter how many different stations there are.

Some of the finest minds in engineering since Tesla oft read and write on this board. And although I may not have the sheepskins to match theirs, my 35 years in this business tell me they have erred. They have dropped the ball and let down the most frail but most important of radio operators, the independant, local, community oriented AM stations.

The problem with AM has nothing to do with intelligence or education. It has to do with a separate set of facts. Start with the fact that for nearly anyone under 45, AM does not exist. It sounds bad... these are people who grew up on FM. Then add the 30's era allocations where, today, a huge percentage of AMs either don't cover much, are daytimers, or have such low night power or directionality that they can't compete with FMs.

In the rated markets, we see in many AM listening under 10% of the total and less than 5% below age 45. There is no "better programming" if nobody under 45 wants to be caught dead listening to AM... especially with the horrible receiver quality of the last 20 to 25 years as manufacturers assumed that AM was in decline and that nobody cared... and they were right.

AM HD was a failure because of cost and technical cover-ups. The AM Audience didn't go away because of Talk, Sports or News, it went to those formats because of the failure of our Radio Governing Body and Technical Standards (read FCC and NRSC) to demand more of manufacturers.

That horse is out of the barn... and was euthanized because it was hit by a truck. The perception that AM had lost comes from 1977, when FM first passed AM in listening levels. Today, fixing AM receivers is next to impossible unless there is a reason for buying a new one. Analog AM with a little better response will not convince manufacturers to fix receivers. If they had their way, they would not even put AM on radios.

The iBiquity, Cartel, HD Radio's "cure" for all AM's problems:

1- Pay iBiquity large fees.
2- Cut transmitted AM frequency response in half (or less).
3- Pay iBiquity fees.
4- Create much more noise, hiss, interference, coverage and antenna bandwidth problems.
5- Pay ibiquity fees.
6- Buy expensive HD radio equipment.
7- Pay iBiquity fees.
8- Rebuild your transmitting plant and antennas.
9- Pay iBiquity fees.
10- Add additional ventilation and air conditioning for the new low efficiency HD Transmitters.
11- Pay iBiquity fees.
12- Pay higher power bills.
13- Pay iBiquty fees.
14- Clutter your schedule with annoying, free HD radio promos at every possible time.
15- Pay iBiquity fees.
16- Peddle defective HD radios.
17- Pay iBiquity fees.
18- Jam your broadcasting neighbors, and distant stations.
19- Pay iBiquity fees.
20- Reduce audio levels, especially positive peaks.
21- Pay iBiquity fees.
22- Carefully digitally match, compress, equalize, delay your analog audio to exactly match your digital HD audio, so frequent switching back and forth analog/digital/analog/digital switching doesn't further drive listeners away.
23- Pay iBiquity fees.
24- Make sure all your listeners move to within the fall radius of your tower so they can reliably listen to your wonderful, new, grungy, spectrally replicated, low bit rate, HD radio hiss boxes.
23- Pay iBiquity fees.
24- Put a tall fence around your tower fall radius to make sure listeners can never travel outside the reliable coverage of your grungy, hissing new HD radio signal.
25- Pay iBiquty fees.
26- Encourage your listeners to build, attach and properly orient large shielded outdoor loop antennas to their expensive, defective, fussy new HD radios.
27- Pay iBiquity fees.
28- Wait for the iBiquity public offering.
29- Pay iBiquity fees.
30- Watch iBiquity and the HD cartel cash in.
31- Bail out, sell out, go silent, and/or declare bankruptcy.

There seems to be a pattern forming here!

 

[davideduardo]

The iBiquity, Cartel, HD Radio's "cure" for all AM's problems:

1- Pay iBiquity large fees.
2- Cut transmitted AM frequency response in half (or less).
3- Pay iBiquity fees.
4- Create much more noise, hiss, interference, coverage and antenna bandwidth problems.
5- Pay ibiquity fees.
6- Buy expensive HD radio equipment.
7- Pay iBiquity fees.
8- Rebuild your transmitting plant and antennas.
9- Pay iBiquity fees.
10- Add additional ventilation and air conditioning for the new low efficiency HD Transmitters.
11- Pay iBiquity fees.
12- Pay higher power bills.
13- Pay iBiquty fees.
14- Clutter your schedule with annoying, free HD radio promos at every possible time.
15- Pay iBiquity fees.
16- Peddle defective HD radios.
17- Pay iBiquity fees.
18- Jam your broadcasting neighbors, and distant stations.
19- Pay iBiquity fees.
20- Reduce audio levels, especially positive peaks.
21- Pay iBiquity fees.
22- Carefully digitally match, compress, equalize, delay your analog audio to exactly match your digital HD audio, so frequent switching back and forth analog/digital/analog/digital switching doesn't further drive listeners away.
23- Pay iBiquity fees.
24- Make sure all your listeners move to within the fall radius of your tower so they can reliably listen to your wonderful, new, grungy, spectrally replicated, low bit rate, HD radio hiss boxes.
23- Pay iBiquity fees.
24- Put a tall fence around your tower fall radius to make sure listeners can never travel outside the reliable coverage of your grungy, hissing new HD radio signal.
25- Pay iBiquty fees.
26- Encourage your listeners to build, attach and properly orient large shielded outdoor loop antennas to their expensive, defective, fussy new HD radios.
27- Pay iBiquity fees.
28- Wait for the iBiquity public offering.
29- Pay iBiquity fees.
30- Watch iBiquity and the HD cartel cash in.
31- Bail out, sell out, go silent, and/or declare bankruptcy.

There seems to be a pattern forming here!

Except that your main point, fees to iBiquity, are minimal compared to the other expenses of a station.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

especially with the horrible receiver quality of the last 20 to 25 years as manufacturers assumed that AM was in decline and that nobody cared... and they were right.

Finally we agree on something! What was it that "Shredderman" posted - +/- 40 kHz bandwidth? Sheesh - AM HD would sound like a million angry crickets on a radio like that. I forget - didn't he find one that wasn't even a superhet - just the equivalent of a crystal radio fed into an amplifier? The situation is awful for AM! Actually - the Silabs chip he posted would at least be a superhet. If the manufacturer even opted for the AM FM version.

I don't think the fight should be for AM HD right now. It should be for some sort of quality in the AM receiver, period!

 

[TheRover]

I have no use for HD AM stations.... News / Talk / Sports ..... especially Sports !!!!

The steroization of sportscats only amplifies a half-baked product... ie the what the sportscaster is actually saying... or not saying....

The only place I have for HD AM is for MUSIC.

But..... I want and expect to get that Music in AM HD 24 Hours a Day.

So far..... that hasn't happened.

What I like most about HD, in general, is the side channels on the FM band.....

Or at least the possibility of what that could bring.....

So far, even on FM, the side bands are mostly just more of the same *&%# found on the main channels.

It su-cks to live in a Repressive Corporate State !

 

[Play Freebird]

Except that your main point, fees to iBiquity, are minimal compared to the other expenses of a station.

Let's be fair and not blame it all on iBiquity. Supercaster also pointed out the increased power bills, additional HVAC requirements, and rebuilding of transmitter plant, but forgot to mention the increased tower rent for new "space combining" antennas which may be required to implement the proposed 10 dB digital power increase. Some landlords have already raised the rent at sites where one existing FM antenna transmits both signals.

Then, there's the cost of a new digital STL; we're supposed to ditch that reliable 950 MHz analog composite link and replace it with a fussier digital radio link, or lease a T1 circuit from the telco for more dollars each month. This all adds up, but where's the return on investment?

"Minimal" depends on the size of the station. For standalone AMs in small markets, iBiquity's $25,000 nonrefundable licensing fee, plus equipment expenses, can be substantial. It's often possible to put an FM translator on the air in a rural area for much less than $25k, offering the advantage of true FM quality, not to mention consistent day and night service. And practically everyone in town already owns the necessary receiver.

 

[Carmine5]

The best way I can describe the HD-AM listening experience: you first notice the abrupt drop in the noise floor. Actually, this is just about the only undeniable positive about IBOC-AM. Then there is the stereo you hear on commercials and bump music in talk shows, which you notice immediately.

As far as objective analysis of the actual sound quality afforded by the codec, it recalls those fake-stereo oldie compilation LPS from K-Tel in the 1960s - "Electronically Reprocessed To Simulate Stereo." You'd listen to the cobbled, delay-line stereo effect, and **** your head like a retriever during an EBS test. After you listening to those cheapie records a few times you generally went back to your mono singles, because they sounded more like the familiar hit songs you liked in the first place. So take the fakey ersatz-stereo image and crank it through a mid-fidelity internet web stream. On network-delivered talk, add in a shrill and grating register, evidently a consequence of artifact-stacking from Starguide receivers, digital processors and the HD Decepticon, that will usually having you reaching for the OFF switch within a relatively short span. Levels seem to be to jump all over the place as program sources change, so certain commercials sound REALLY obnoxious, while some guests on talk shows are semi-intelligible, forcing you to crank volume up and down. THAT'S pretty much what HD-AM sound is like to me.

How much would YOU pay for this great new way to get the news, weather and the ballgame?? $200? $149? $79??? Well, DON'T ANSWER, because for the next 200 HD buyers, we'll throw in very limited reception range! That's right: "if you're within the sound of my voice in HD, you're within sight of my tower!" And you get the SAME PROGRAMMING in HD you got in old-fashioned, real-sounding AM! NOW how much would you pay? $24.95?? BUT WAIT! We'll also throw in mode-hopping as the nondefeatable HD flips back and forth intermittently to analog! And stereo to mono!! And skywave and impulse noise and fluorescent lights and computers and power lines and excessive or lack of appropriate atmospheric pressure, humidity, or zodiacal influences may affect performance.......um....(...hello? Anyone still out there?......)

Ha, Ha. "Say no more...sign me up." Great post.

Sounds like what you're describing is Parametric Stereo, a low bit rate AAC encoding technique that tries to recreate the most of spatial imaging of the original audio. If that is what is used for HD-AM then it could never be on par with analog FM stereo (as they claim), let alone for critical listening.

Reading back over the Tom Ray posts, he mentioned the possibility that HD-AM would eventually offer two audio streams at 16K each. I can only imagine that the sound would be horrendously awful. And then there is the question of whether today's HD Radios can receive an HD2 channel on the AM band.

HD Radio is definitely a 'work in progress and not ready for prime time'. Hey maybe they can use that for their slogan. It can't be any worse then "It's time to upgrade". At least it's truthful.

C5

 

[davideduardo]

Let's be fair and not blame it all on iBiquity. Supercaster also pointed out the increased power bills, additional HVAC requirements, and rebuilding of transmitter plant,

The HD transmitter for a 50 kw AM uses less power than a side mount tower light. The HVAC requirements are about the same as adding some gear to the rack. The HD module is very small and I can't think of many sites I have seen that will not accomdoate them... some actually go inside the transmitter.

but forgot to mention the increased tower rent for new "space combining" antennas which may be required to implement the proposed 10 dB digital power increase.

That is only for FM, and the power level is so low anyway that existing antennas and combiners should accomodate it with no real change; they did for all the tests.

Some landlords have already raised the rent at sites where one existing FM antenna transmits both signals.

I have not heard of this.

Then, there's the cost of a new digital STL; we're supposed to ditch that reliable 950 MHz analog composite link and replace it with a fussier digital radio link, or lease a T1 circuit from the telco for more dollars each month. This all adds up, but where's the return on investment?

I'd love to see a count of how many stations in top 100 markets that are viable are using analog STLs.

"Minimal" depends on the size of the station. For standalone AMs in small markets, iBiquity's $25,000 nonrefundable licensing fee, plus equipment expenses, can be substantial. It's often possible to put an FM translator on the air in a rural area for much less than $25k, offering the advantage of true FM quality, not to mention consistent day and night service. And practically everyone in town already owns the necessary receiver.

I'm not familiar with whether the licensing fee covers boosters, but for most stations it is the fee, the gear and a minimal annual fee. The primary candidates are viable FMs in the top 100 to 125 markets, and to them the costs are not significant.

 

[wgliradio]

A T-1 is your best bet for audio delivery, regardless of your position of HD. The real problems are way past that. This is what radio is investing in for over the air content delivery in 2008. And when was the last time radio engaged in something that was rational for rational people?

And now Ibiquity wants XM and Sirius to have open architecture in their receivers should the merger happen so that HD can be incorporated into the devices. They should be the last group talking about open architecture.

 

[Play Freebird]

That is only for FM, and the power level is so low anyway that existing antennas and combiners should accomodate it with no real change; they did for all the tests.

Is that because the stations which agreed to participate in the tests already had the ability to do so without the need for new equipment?

The problem isn't so much antenna rating as sufficient headroom in the linear amplifier which handles the digital component.

Let's take the example of a typical Class B or C2 station with 50 kw ERP and six-bay antenna. The required analog TPO (depending on line loss) is about 18 kW; so many stations in this situation have installed a 20 or 25 kW analog transmitter.

The original NRSC IBOC spec, which limited the digital power to 20 dB below analog (one percent of licensed ERP), made it possible to use a high-level combiner with 10 dB coupling ratio, which wastes about 10 percent of the analog transmitter's output and 90 percent of the digital output. However, these losses were deemed acceptable because the analog amplifier could be turned up 10 percent to compensate, and so little of the digital signal had to make it through the combiner. In our example, a digital transmitter output of 1.8 kW would be adequate. Total power wasted in the reject load would be slightly over 3 kW.

In order to increase digital power by a factor of 10, stations in this situation will need to increase the digital transmitter's output to 18 kW. This will not be cheap! First, the existing linear amp must be replaced with one having a much higher power rating, meaning a higher power bill and probably a larger footprint. The hybrid combiner and dummy load may need to be upgraded as well.

Yes, it's time to UPGRADE!

As an alternative to high-level combining, a second antenna would permit "space combining", but this requires more stuff on the tower, which means upgraded rent paid to the site owner. In our example, a 10 dB increase in digital power would require a digital ERP of 5 kW; therefore, if the existing 1.8 kW digital transmitter is retained, a second six-bay antenna must be installed. Can the tower handle this extra windload without yet another UPGRADE?

I'd love to see a count of how many stations in top 100 markets that are viable are using analog STLs.

More than you think, including one of the most "viable" FMs in Philadelphia. They generate a stereo composite signal (with light processing) at the studio, feed it through an analog composite STL, then decode back to L and R at the transmitter site. This audio is then fed to the main processor, which in turn, feeds the digital and FM exciters.

I've been told they retained the analog STL system it because it was configured for full redundancy and the company didn't want to budget for two digital replacements. The audio is quite good and the ratings are doing fine.