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bring krth hd2 to wogl

athegymtday said:
First of all HD radio is not dead, CBS has made a commitment to spend the money

And that's why CBS will soon be headed for bankruptcy, kiddos. Just like Clear Channel, another party to the subsidizing of this stupid scheme. Oh, and don't forget Entercom.

There are so many faults with this failed technology, it's not even worth pointing out. Needless to say that the most obvious problem is the sheer expensiveness of these receivers. There's never been any demand for them, despite the continuous stream of (poorly produced) PSAs that CBS and CC have aired on all of their stations for the past few years. And because there was never demand to begin with, virtually all of the audience for these AM stations can only hear it in the muddled, worthless tone that only IBOC can deliver.

And if you're a small market station, you can't afford to pay for the installation of this 'technology'... and the same stations now have interferences out the ying-yang by the offenders and CC and CBS... especially at nighttime. Go talk to Bob Savage, owner of WYSL/1040 in Rochester, whose night signal was rendered worthless by WBZ's IBOC hashish.

The only good thing Citahell has done in the past five years was pull the plug on this turd for the legacy ABC Radio stations... and a few of their own, too. Cox also abandoned it on their stations. When CC and CBS either go belly-up or broken-up, "HD Radio" will finally be rendered into the ash heap of broadcasting history. And the AM dial will be listenable again.
 
Nick said:
I give CBS credit for their great HD2 formats, which are way better than Clear Channel's. For example, Boston's WODS-HD2 is a soft AC, NYC's WXRK-HD2 is alternative rock and WWFS-HD2 is indie rock from Last.FM, and Baltimore's WWMX-HD2 is the best HD2 dance station in the country that is popular enough that it showed up in the ratings. Their HD2s aren't just jukeboxes, some of them have voicetracked DJs and mixshows.

I don't know about the other markets, but in New York City, all the CBS HD-2 channels (which air music formats) are in MONO. Same with WPLJ HD-2 (owned by Citadel). I brought this topic up on another board, and the excuse I was given was that there isn't enough bandwith for stereo audio when HD-2 AND HD-3 are used on the same frequency. At first. this sounded logical since Clear Channel's HD-2's are in stereo, and they don't have HD-3 stations. HOWEVER, after checking out HD radio in more detail recently (I have a long break in Kearny, N.J. where I can listen to my portable HD radio), I found out that their explanation was HOGWASH...WNYC (93.9) has HD-2 and HD-3 channels, and their HD-2 channel is in blazing stereo with no problem!!!!

The bottom line is that no matter how good these CBS HD-2 stations might be, they all sound like crap, audio wise. At least on HD radios. I don't know about the internet streams...
 
I strongly support HD radio, just for that reason, when I am up in the apple the main FM band stinks, if you are a rock lover. The band is loaded with urban and hispanic formats. So I just flip over to the HD-2's, K-Rock, Q-104 and a few others which play great rock on HD-2. My point to the HD bashers is, if not for HD what would the rock lover listen to, granted I just purchased the Blackberry and use tuneinradio for music, but if someone cannot afford a phone or you just want to use a radio you are out of luck. Same in DC, HFS is my HD-2 of choice, and that is just not true with bandwith, Y-Rock in Baltimore has 4 HD's, 3 with music and they are all in HD pure stereo, Herst has money to spend I guess.
 
gunsmoke said:
My point to the HD bashers is, if not for HD what would the rock lover listen to, granted I just purchased the Blackberry and use tuneinradio for music, but if someone cannot afford a phone or you just want to use a radio you are out of luck.
If you can afford an HD radio, you can afford satellite radio, or a file player, both of which sport superior entertainment value when compared to HD radio - even if portable HD reception were to be improved.
 
Granted, my JVC home unit was 129.00, but I also purchased an Insignia HD portable at Best Buy for 39.99, last year, which isnt that expensive and the sensitivity is fantastic, same as expensive units, pick one up and try it out, you won't be disappointed. Better reception than units much more expensive but have to tell you there is no AM band.
 
gunsmoke said:
I strongly support HD radio, just for that reason, when I am up in the apple the main FM band stinks, if you are a rock lover. The band is loaded with urban and hispanic formats. So I just flip over to the HD-2's, K-Rock, Q-104 and a few others which play great rock on HD-2. My point to the HD bashers is, if not for HD what would the rock lover listen to, granted I just purchased the Blackberry and use tuneinradio for music, but if someone cannot afford a phone or you just want to use a radio you are out of luck. Same in DC, HFS is my HD-2 of choice, and that is just not true with bandwith, Y-Rock in Baltimore has 4 HD's, 3 with music and they are all in HD pure stereo, Herst has money to spend I guess.

However, in New York City, WXRK HD-2 (K-Rock) and WCBS-FM HD-2 (ToNY 101.1) both sound like crap because they are in mono. Who wants to hear rock music in mono?!?
 
I tried to tune in WOGL's HD-s last night, the 2 and 3 were not on, this was around 10PM, I wish HD radio would make it, but with the constant dead air, no-one really giving a damn, bad signals and poor programming, (at least in this market), I doubt it can survive, its a sad shame....because it was a good conception.
 
musichead1029 said:
gunsmoke said:
My point to the HD bashers is, if not for HD what would the rock lover listen to, granted I just purchased the Blackberry and use tuneinradio for music, but if someone cannot afford a phone or you just want to use a radio you are out of luck.
If you can afford an HD radio, you can afford satellite radio, or a file player, both of which sport superior entertainment value when compared to HD radio - even if portable HD reception were to be improved.

And quite frankly, the common man cannot afford an HD Radio. Sorry but the economic situation right now makes a $60 model cost-prohibitive from the get-go. And those are the type of people you need to reach.

Also, with CC offering internet radio streaming on smart phones with "I <3 Radio" - including many HD subchannels - that alone is undercutting whatever imperceptible demand for HD Radio that ever existed.
 
Nathan Obral said:
quite frankly, the common man cannot afford an HD Radio. Sorry but the economic situation right now makes a $60 model cost-prohibitive from the get-go. And those are the type of people you need to reach.

Also, with CC offering internet radio streaming on smart phones with "I <3 Radio" - including many HD subchannels - that alone is undercutting whatever imperceptible demand for HD Radio that ever existed.
You've illustrated another interesting point - people will pay for smart phones - which don't come cheap as hardware, nor are the monthly service costs trivial - because they derive value from the many functions available. But an HD radio is just an expensive radio - single function, very few additional signals and with reception issues. It's not worth replacing the ubiquitous analog radios with an HD radio for such little benefit - especially when you can get far more variety and flexibility on a smart phone or even a satellite radio.

HD's a flawed product to begin with (reception issues, limited programming variety). In the face of the other available options, it's no wonder HD has been DOA for several years now.
 
Nathan Obral said:
And quite frankly, the common man cannot afford an HD Radio. Sorry but the economic situation right now makes a $60 model cost-prohibitive from the get-go. And those are the type of people you need to reach.

Also, with CC offering internet radio streaming on smart phones with "I <3 Radio" - including many HD subchannels - that alone is undercutting whatever imperceptible demand for HD Radio that ever existed.

Your first paragraph and your second are in conflict. That $60 HD radio is about two months of the data plan you need to use internet radio on a smartphone over the cell network.
 
If you're paying $30 a month for a data plan, you should have shopped around some more. I pay $15 a month and that is complete Internet access, not just streaming audio. And streaming audio includes on-demand music plus thousands of music channels and hundreds of formats - including anything not carried locally.

Buy an HD Radio all you get is spotty reception and still nothing on the radio you want to listen to.
 
MattParker said:
If you're paying $30 a month for a data plan, you should have shopped around some more. I pay $15 a month and that is complete Internet access, not just streaming audio. And streaming audio includes on-demand music plus thousands of music channels and hundreds of formats - including anything not carried locally.

Buy an HD Radio all you get is spotty reception and still nothing on the radio you want to listen to.

$30 for unlimited data on a smartphone. Other cheaper plans are available but they have bandwidth caps that are easily exceed by use of streaming media. What provider provides a data plan for $15, and what is the bandwidth cap?
 
My plan is no longer available as an unlimited plan to new subscribers. I got an unlocked phone and they gave me the $15 plan. What I saved in the first 10 months on the data plan paid for the additional cost of the unlocked. Plus I like the phone I got (Nokia N85) better than any of the locked phones they offered.
 
I have Virgin Mobile & for $40 a month I get unlimited Data,Text,Web & 1200 talk minutes with a Android Smart phone(Samsung Intercept) All on the Sprint 3G Network as Sprint owns Virgin mobile. And with the Tunein radio APP & The I heart radio APP I get all most Every Radio station in the US even HD radio on my smart phone.. & Krth Hd-2 is on all the time I love that station its A shame Philly does not have a station like that. But thanks to Smart phones and Radio APPS it does not matter because I can get KRTH in my car as if I was in LA.
 
The HD situation on AM and FM is the electronic version of the old bromide, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". Digital hash knocking out at least 2 adjacent channels on AM and at least on channel on FM is not the way to go. Much more suited for TV.
 
We all know the problem with HD is the crappy signal (1% of the power of the main signal), does this fault belong to the FCC or the cheap station owners. It gets frustrating to have a poor signal that drops, is off and has no coverage. If stations would increase the power the same as the main signal things would be alot different. Why would the FCC start up HD and control power increases...I think WSTW runs the most HD power, and are committed, for a small tower, they get out 30 plus miles and they have HD-2 and 3.
 
If the FCC had really wanted to save radio, they would have ....

Expanded the FM band by taking over VHF channels five and six when analog TV shut down.
Shut down AM radio.
Gone to all digital FM broadcasting like they did with TV.
Require all receiver sold in the US be digital receivers (like they did with UHF television).
Require that stations program sub-channels separately from the main channel with unique and distinct programming (like they did with FM).
Increase the power for digital signals to give dependable full metro market area coverage.
 
You can't do a digital radio transition like you did a digital TV transition for two reasons.

1) Way more people listen to OTA radio than watch OTA TV.

2) Old TVs have inputs for converter boxes (which can be made cheaply) that will allow them to work after the transition. Old radios don't.
 
Require all receivers sold in the US be digital receivers.

Require that stations program sub-channels separately from the main channel with unique and distinct programming (like they did with FM).

Increase the power for digital signals to give dependable full metro market area coverage.

I agree with you strongly on these points...
 
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