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Evansville HD Radio rollout

R

Radiogeek500

Interesting that only WNIN 88.3 is licensed to do HD Radio Broadcasts(it isn't on the air yet)

Why haven't at least WUEV 91.5 and WUSI 820 gotten the ball rolling on their HD signals?

I know we're talking about Evansville, but still, I would have expected the non coms to be rushing to get equiped.

And what about WPSR? I would pressume that Vanderburgh County School District, like many school districts across the country is facing budget crisis issues and obviously doesn't wanna have to think about "equiping" some radio station, then again they don't wanna think about operating it at all.<P ID="signature">______________
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> Interesting that only WNIN 88.3 is licensed to do HD Radio
> Broadcasts(it isn't on the air yet)

I'm not sure since the price of HD radio is far out of my budget, and I'm a radio geek. Twenty years ago I purchased an AM stereo radio (Sony SRF-A100) for $80 as it was within my budget. Today, the $400 (on average) price tag is far from my budget.

(On a side note, a major HD radio rollout has missed another Christmas buying season. Not to worry, there are plenty of satellite radios and media players to act as techno geek stocking stuffers.)

> Why haven't at least WUEV 91.5 and WUSI 820 gotten the ball
> rolling on their HD signals?
> I know we're talking about Evansville, but still, I would
> have expected the non coms to be rushing to get equiped.
> And what about WPSR? I would pressume that Vanderburgh
> County School District, like many school districts across
> the country is facing budget crisis issues and obviously
> doesn't wanna have to think about "equiping" some radio
> station, then again they don't wanna think about operating
> it at all.

It could be that six figure start up cost. They all have a major budget constraint which means an IBOC upgrade is a long shot.

Not to thread jack, but has anyone thought of how a station's cume will shrink with the additions of these second channels? Let's pretend IBOC is a success and all the FM's add a second channel. The radio choices increase by a third and the market revenue spreads over more stations. The bottom line will become that much closer and sharper.
 
> > Interesting that only WNIN 88.3 is licensed to do HD Radio

> > Broadcasts(it isn't on the air yet)
> > Why haven't at least WUEV 91.5 and WUSI 820 gotten the
> ball rolling on their HD signals?

Not sure, but WNIN might have received a CPB digital conversion grant to assist the project. WUEV and WUSI would not qualify for these funds.
 
More Choices w/HD subchannels

> Not to thread jack, but has anyone thought of how a
> station's cume will shrink with the additions of these
> second channels? Let's pretend IBOC is a success and all
> the FM's add a second channel. The radio choices increase
> by a third and the market revenue spreads over more
> stations. The bottom line will become that much closer and
> sharper.
>

I guess I just don't understand how this is different than existing station clusters. Isn't it just extra formats in the cluster, and the bottom line is the ratings/cume across all the stations in the cluster, be they AM, FM, or HD subchannels? (I realize there are extra operating costs for a subchannel, but I would also expect most if not all subchannels to be automated, either locally, or via satellite. Therefore I wouldn't expect these costs to be prohibitive.)

And, aren't the subchannels a chance to offer additional formats, hopefully formats that have been unavailable in the market, and take advantage of niche listener groups?
 
Re: More Choices w/HD subchannels

> And, aren't the subchannels a chance to offer additional
> formats, hopefully formats that have been unavailable in the
> market, and take advantage of niche listener groups?

That's already happening in many cases. Of course, there are many cases where it's not happening, too. The subchannels are certainly a chance to offer additional formats, and, from what I've been told, Clear Channel engineers say you can get 8 stations on a single digital channel. However, the person who told me this was quick to point out that they didn't specify how many of those channels had to be music or if any had to be all talk, which brings me to my next point. Some think FM digital will be the ticket to getting rid of AM altogether along with many of the docket 80-90 drop-ins that should never have been licensed in the first place. In other words, some think digital will simply keep the same formats on-the-air with a reduced number of licenses. AM digital is less-than-perfect with no one being authorized to run digital at night and plenty of interference concerns, and the jury is still out on small rimshot stations (like WEJK and WYFX) and how well they will work as digital signals occupying more bandwidth when they're already squeezed into the spectrum. Only time will tell what happens.
 
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