I agree, and the station that did this for a test period (WWFD) was exactly that. A station owned by Hubbard that had no real value to the company otherwise.
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FCC Approves All-Digital Option for AM
- Thread starter rbc
- Start date
I agree, and the station that did this for a test period (WWFD) was exactly that. A station owned by Hubbard that had no real value to the company otherwise.
I still think FM should go all Digital, Not AM
Who would listen? People don't buy radios anymore.
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Kevin
Guest
Agreed, The radio manufacturers should have stepped it up back in 2005 when they had the opportunity to sell HD Radio receivers. Part of the issue is the fact that Ibiquity has all the high priced licensing fees for broadcasters and manufacturers. Now 15 years later we have many ways to get radio through our smartphones and there are thousands of internet radio steaming services that are free. Just plug and play your phone through the auxiliary in your vehicle and your good to go. Data plans are getting cheaper and in some cases free, meanwhile HD Radio will continue to die a very slow death and regular AM and FM will continue to survive because it’s free and easy to use and dependable in emergency situations where cellular and broadband service may be disrupted in some cases for days.
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Kevin
Guest
In response to MarioMania” I still think FM should go all digital, Not AM” , And obsolete half a billion radio receivers not a great idea in my opinion. If HD radio is mandated on AM and or FM that is the end of free over the air radio. No one will run out to the retailer to buy HD Radio when digital radio is available on your smartphone via an app. The only way such mandate could possibly work is if all the radio manufacturers build a reasonable priced product and that the product is available everywhere not just ordering the receivers on line. The next important thing is programming the radio stations, it’s time to give people what they want currently the stations here in Detroit on HD radio are terrible the HD 2 and 3 stations are poorly programmed, I have 2 HD Radios and still rather listen to internet radio.
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Here's shango066's clarification. Remember that it isn't an ORDER, nothing's final yet, it's a PROPOSAL. Nothing has been officially decided yet. With the incoming new administration this January, the likelihood is high that a new FCC director will also be installed, replacing the Ajitator, who could very well see fit to scrap the whole thing. A lot can happen in the meantime.
Anyways:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OgqcQRjQGM
The likelihood of it coming to pass any time in the next few decades is so laughably low that nobody really has anything to worry about. Had they really been serious about doing this, they would have started about 15 years ago. The ship has already left port and it ain't coming back. If they really want to explore creating an all-packet broadcasting band, they should think about 76-87 MHz (has everybody already forgotten all the speculation about FM band expansion there about a decade ago?) or (dare I say it?) the mostly unused section of 2-metre between channel 13 and the aircraft band. Not that it'd amount to anything in any case.
Anyways:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OgqcQRjQGM
The likelihood of it coming to pass any time in the next few decades is so laughably low that nobody really has anything to worry about. Had they really been serious about doing this, they would have started about 15 years ago. The ship has already left port and it ain't coming back. If they really want to explore creating an all-packet broadcasting band, they should think about 76-87 MHz (has everybody already forgotten all the speculation about FM band expansion there about a decade ago?) or (dare I say it?) the mostly unused section of 2-metre between channel 13 and the aircraft band. Not that it'd amount to anything in any case.
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Are you responding to the main topic? The FCC unanimously approved all digital AM on a voluntary basis on October 27th! It can't go into effect just yet but the order is definitely final!
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Kevin
Guest
It’s all voluntary not mandatory. The bottom line is the average radio listeners don’t care and will not run out to Best Buy or any electronics store to purchase a $100.00+ radio to receive AM stations in HD. As stated that ship has sailed 15 years ago. The real problem is not the way the product is delivered it’s what the product contains, if radio stations can’t deliver good programming and continue to have a less than100 song playlist on AM or FM listeners will go elsewhere in most cases to internet radio streaming and podcasts. There are thousands of radio apps available, every niche format is on an app somewhere just look at the Google App Store, it’s amazing as to how much is out there. Will it replace radio, I doubt it radio is still the easiest thing to operate and is good for free entertainment and is always there in emergencies when electricity is out of commission.
Okay, I wasn't aware that they had actually finalised it. I stand corrected!
It'll probably end up being like CD-TEXT or Directband. It happened, nobody noticed and the market couldn't have cared less. Digital MW stations are on their way out, especially when simply simulcasting via an FM secondary or tertiary is far more reliable. I guess if a mediumwave in the '20s onwards has a suicide wish then all-packet would be just the thing they've been waiting for.
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The vast majority of people are getting that on the main signals.
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Kevin
Guest
The vast majority of people are not getting what they want. Most of the people go to their smartphone for radio to an app or internet radio site to listen to anything they want, not the same 100 songs over and over every day that regular radio offers. Radio content or lack of it is killing radio as we know it.
Most people you know, perhaps, but not most people overall. The classic logical fallacy of "I don't like X. No one I know likes X. Therefore, no one likes X."
And no commercial station could keep an audience with a playlist of 100 songs. Even the tightest Christmas format rotates about 250 songs. Alternative, classic hits and classic rock stations play 600 to 800 titles.
Top 40 existed for its first decade or so without anything outside of 40 songs and some weekly new ones.
CHR today, if you extract any specialty shows, runs on less than 100 songs.
The classic hits station in LA has just over 600 songs in the library, but in any given week only plays just under 400 of them.
I did classic rock in a market a bit larger than New York City on 450 songs. It stayed #1 with shares in the high teens to low 20s for five years. Only when I left and they added to the playlist did they drop out of the top 5.
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Groove1670
Guest
Can we add another analog translator on a AM HD channel? At this point no. In the future yes. This will allow for additional signals in your cluster or group. Don't worry about the deterioration of audio, only 3 people are listening the station owner, the engineer and the DX geek.
Any HD implementation (TV or radio) has been to maximize the channel $$ in most cases.
I like the HD TV channel expansion. During Hurricane Sally I was able to get 70+ channels that to this, and since I'm old and cranky now I spend more time watching METV, GET TV, COZI and other classic channels.
When you can run 3, 4 or 5 HD channels (TV), someone is going to find value.
I was referring to current radio stations, but I didn't realize that CHR playlists had shrunk that much. Were they bigger in the '70s and '80s, with more recurrents and gold, or am I misremembering because I liked so much of the music those stations were playing in those years?
And somehow, I have the feeling that "the people" who want huge playlists whom Kevin was referring to aren't looking for more current CHR or even AC product, but stuff from the musical niches. Could be wrong on that, too, of course.
There was a period when Top 40's (the CHR term was invented by R&R around 1980 to annoy Billboard and the other trades) in some markets played deeper lists, but generally it was the hits, recurrents and a handfull of rotating gold.
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Kevin
Guest
Here’s another problem with programming. Here in Detroit the HD2 and HD3 stations that play Oldies repeat songs in some cases within 6 hours. And it seems that here in Detroit the IHeart stations have eliminated half of their HD2 & 3 stations. We used to have a Classic Funk, Classic Soul and a Classic Rock format on HD2 and HD3 stations now they’re gone and apparently the big broadcasters don’t care about HD Radio on FM and are they willing to go all digital on AM radio? I don’t see any AM here in Detroit going all digital ever.
Wasn't it ten currents(thus the name), two gold and one new release per hour?
I was working a CHR in a city of 125,000 in the middle 1980s. Our library was...
17 Hottest Rotation Hits - 4 per hour
21 Medium Rotation Hits - 4 per hour
13-15 New - maximum 2 per hour (usually 1)
100 Recurrents - 4 per hour
250 Recent Gold 1 to 6 years old - Maximum 2 per hour (some hours just 1)
At another station in the early 80s, it was
17 Hot - 5 per hour
17 Medium - 4 per hour
11 New - 1 or 2 per hour (day / night)
90 Recurrents - 2 or 3 per hour
17 Hottest Rotation Hits - 4 per hour
21 Medium Rotation Hits - 4 per hour
13-15 New - maximum 2 per hour (usually 1)
100 Recurrents - 4 per hour
250 Recent Gold 1 to 6 years old - Maximum 2 per hour (some hours just 1)
At another station in the early 80s, it was
17 Hot - 5 per hour
17 Medium - 4 per hour
11 New - 1 or 2 per hour (day / night)
90 Recurrents - 2 or 3 per hour
The digital migration of AM and FM is to streaming. Momentum on HD receivers has gone in the wrong direction for the last 5 or more years. After the initial push, the HD car and home adapters, HD home receivers have been discontinued and from what I can tell aftermarket car radios have largely dropped it. Even OEM car radios do not come standard with it so many/maybe most new cars still come without it.
Stations promote using Alexa or other digital assistants to listen at home and promote their phone apps. HD promotion is nil. Many/maybe most of the AM's that ran hybrid digital have dropped it. On FM the sound improvement on the main channel is negligible and for the HD 2,3,4 the programming is an after thought so very few people are seeking it out.
I thought it was an interesting technology when it came out and bought adapters for my cars, a home adapter and even a Yamaha surround sound receiver with it built in. Mostly for picking up the AM's in my area doing HD. But we've gone from 4 AM HD to 0 so I just pulled the last adapter out of my car.
We have more AM Stereo C-Quam stations (1) around here then we have HD AM (0) and the former was deemed a failure years ago.
Stations promote using Alexa or other digital assistants to listen at home and promote their phone apps. HD promotion is nil. Many/maybe most of the AM's that ran hybrid digital have dropped it. On FM the sound improvement on the main channel is negligible and for the HD 2,3,4 the programming is an after thought so very few people are seeking it out.
I thought it was an interesting technology when it came out and bought adapters for my cars, a home adapter and even a Yamaha surround sound receiver with it built in. Mostly for picking up the AM's in my area doing HD. But we've gone from 4 AM HD to 0 so I just pulled the last adapter out of my car.
We have more AM Stereo C-Quam stations (1) around here then we have HD AM (0) and the former was deemed a failure years ago.
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