FCC APPROVES HD RADIO/IBOC FOR NIGHTTIME USE ON AM STATIONS

[dx7]

The FCC this morning adopted final digital radio regulations that allow FM radio stations to commence digital multicast operation without prior FCC approval, and which permit AM stations – which have been limited to daytime-only digital operation – to commence hybrid digital nighttime operations.


Your thoughts about AM IBOC/HD operations at night?

 

[copydesk2]

There goes the neighborhood.

 

[charles123]

Does this mean Cowboy 1190 (KFXR) will get a better signal at night??

 

[TheLaffer]

Does this mean Cowboy 1190 (KFXR) will get a better signal at night??

Not really. Just better quality. AM will sound like FM.

 

[SmokeRing]

Does this mean Cowboy 1190 (KFXR) will get a better signal at night??

It means we're about to find out if WOAI will ruin 1190's signal at night.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Today is a day for a bit of nostalgia - about when nighttime skywave service was available. To those people that relied on it:

(1) The truck drivers on long haul runs in the western US
(2) Isolated rural communities and houses tens or hundreds of miles from a city
(3) Native Americans on reservations
(4) Sports fans trying to listen to home games after they have moved
(5) Hobbyists who love the challenge of hearing a distant station

--- my apologies. For being a weak spokesperson for your right to hear skywave radio. It is a day for nostalgia, when a legacy of almost 90 years of service suddenly died.

One thing that is clear - the present FCC is totally bought and paid for by the broadcasters, and does not care at all about listeners. I understand they were consumed with trivialities such as HD-2 content while killing a whole band almost without thought.

And make no mistake - kill it they did!!! The average, uninformed American is going to tune into AM, assume there is now too much interference to listen any more, and give up. For a band searching for relevance in today's market, this was a death blow. If you think people were disinclined to listen to radio at night before, just wait until the hear the hash! Strange, isn't it - how some IBOC advocates emphasized that nobody listens or cares about nighttime AM radio, yet fought hard to get this approved?

Still, I must congratulate the other side on a masterfully thought out and brilliantly executed victory. For us - the disenfranchised listeners - have lost. It is time to pack up the DX gear and reminisce. For me, personally, it was all about content. As much as I hate talk radio, and hate foreign languages even more, I will not be migrating to DX'ing shortwave. I will continue to listen to FM, where at least second adjacents can still be salvaged. But - because it was always about content not available on local stations to me - I have some exciting new prospects for DX coming up in the next few years.

If content is what I am after, DX can morph into sifting through thousands of internet streams to find the best of the best. Something I never had time to do before, but will now.

Another exciting DX opportunity will come when the lower VHF band is reassigned for high speed internet. The prospect of using decades of FM and TV experience to be able to pull out high speed internet (streaming my newly found favorite stations) - in the middle of nowhere is exciting. Instead of dull boring old TV stations, now I can have the prospect of high bandwidth streaming audio from any station, anywhere, and hanging onto it in the car as I travel. If they use low enough VHF, like channel 2, it could go for hundreds of miles!

Of course there is always DX'ing internet hotspots. Devising better and better antennas to get a good wireless connection almost anywhere I go in a city - for FREE. Again the prize is content - from streaming radio.

Why be limited to phone quality audio from standards KAAM locally, when I've heard about a standards station in St. Louis called "Red FM"?!

High bandwidth streaming sounds tons better than horrible AM IBOC, so don't look for me to buy one an HD radio any time soon. But I WILL be busily making money, hand over foot, teaching the HD listner how to DX their stations - from 20 to 30 miles away - because the kludgey Ibiquity system has severe coverage problems.

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

Gotta agree with Bruce on this one. It was so cool when the seasons changed to DX,especially with the advent of warm weather,now those days are going to go bye bye. DXING was and remains fun, now heew come "hash radio" 1190 will be hit with WOAI, KWKH will be smothered.along with WBBM,etc. Corporate radio, fun, and passion dismissed for greed.

 

[Robert Bass]

:'(

R

 

[julesism]

I 4th the motion :'(

 

[txchipk]

Gotta agree with Bruce on this one. It was so cool when the seasons changed to DX,especially with the advent of warm weather,now those days are going to go bye bye. DXING was and remains fun, now heew come "hash radio" 1190 will be hit with WOAI, KWKH will be smothered.along with WBBM,etc. Corporate radio, fun, and passion dismissed for greed.

The reality is that other than radio geeks, no one is DXing the AM dial. There aren't many kids or teenagers listening to a far away AM station in their room at night like probably many people here did when they were that age. There just isn't a need anymore. You don't need to tune in a remote station when every NBA, MLB, and NHL team's game is a available via an Internet stream or on TV via PPV packages. 15-20 years ago, when you could only get your local team, it was cool to be able to hear games from other markets at night. Now, you can get every game. Virtually all music programming is gone. Same thing -- it was neat being able to flip over to hear hits on WLS at night to see what songs were getting airplay in other cities. Now, the only music left is Mexican music. So, what's left are a bunch of talk -- most of which is all syndicated talk programming -- or religious shows. To 99% of the population, it probably isn't fascinating that you can hear "Coast To Coast AM" simultaneously on WHO, WWL, WHAS, KSTP, KFAB, KKOB, WTAM, KFAQ, WLAC, plus others in addion to locally on KLIF...

Unless AM programming changes to something semi-original or interesting, I doubt most of the world will lose sleep over "the death of skywave." I suspect if there were more attempts at something other than talk/religious/brokered programming like Philly's new alternative/blues/reggae WHAT 1340 (http://www.skinradio.com/), it might be different. Otherwise, there will not be people running out in the streets protesting KLIF using IBOC may diminish KLBJ 590 Austin from reaching here, because no one cares. KLBJ is nothing but syndicated talk shows outside AM and PM drive. And KLBJ probably doesn't care either since radio stations don't derive any income from out-of-market listening.

 

[little1]

Well said. I agree pretty much completely.

 

[txchipk]

Why be limited to phone quality audio from standards KAAM locally, when I've heard about a standards station in St. Louis called "Red FM"?!

WRDA "Red @ 104.1" St Louis was sold to Radio One about 6 months ago and turned into hip hop WHHL "Hot 104"...

 

[vide0chik]

Does this mean Cowboy 1190 (KFXR) will get a better signal at night??

It means we're about to find out if WOAI will ruin 1190's signal at night.

As long as Clear Channel owns 1190, there will be no IBOC on 1190. Day or night.

 

[TheLaffer]

Gotta agree with Bruce on this one. It was so cool when the seasons changed to DX,especially with the advent of warm weather,now those days are going to go bye bye. DXING was and remains fun, now heew come "hash radio" 1190 will be hit with WOAI, KWKH will be smothered.along with WBBM,etc. Corporate radio, fun, and passion dismissed for greed.

The reality is that other than radio geeks, no one is DXing the AM dial. There aren't many kids or teenagers listening to a far away AM station in their room at night like probably many people here did when they were that age. There just isn't a need anymore. You don't need to tune in a remote station when every NBA, MLB, and NHL team's game is a available via an Internet stream or on TV via PPV packages. 15-20 years ago, when you could only get your local team, it was cool to be able to hear games from other markets at night. Now, you can get every game. Virtually all music programming is gone. Same thing -- it was neat being able to flip over to hear hits on WLS at night to see what songs were getting airplay in other cities. Now, the only music left is Mexican music. So, what's left are a bunch of talk -- most of which is all syndicated talk programming -- or religious shows. To 99% of the population, it probably isn't fascinating that you can hear "Coast To Coast AM" simultaneously on WHO, WWL, WHAS, KSTP, KFAB, KKOB, WTAM, KFAQ, WLAC, plus others in addion to locally on KLIF...

Unless AM programming changes to something semi-original or interesting, I doubt most of the world will lose sleep over "the death of skywave." I suspect if there were more attempts at something other than talk/religious/brokered programming like Philly's new alternative/blues/reggae WHAT 1340 (http://www.skinradio.com/), it might be different. Otherwise, there will not be people running out in the streets protesting KLIF using IBOC may diminish KLBJ 590 Austin from reaching here, because no one cares. KLBJ is nothing but syndicated talk shows outside AM and PM drive. And KLBJ probably doesn't care either since radio stations don't derive any income from out-of-market listening.

So true. So True

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

You missed the point. The fun was getting the signal with many barriers in the way. Now its handed to you over the internet. Just one more ingredient loss for true broadcasters with passion,. If you are a fan of the bland assemblyline of radio the past 11 years,then I am sorry to say you missed out..a lot.

 

[Robert Bass]

I remember DXing KRLD at night in the early 80's, all the way up in Dillion, Colorado, every summer. Staticy yes, but so damn cool! 8)

The FCC.... Friggin Cash Collectors.

R

 

[little1]

Today is a day for a bit of nostalgia - about when nighttime skywave service was available. To those people that relied on it:

(1) The truck drivers on long haul runs in the western US
(2) Isolated rural communities and houses tens or hundreds of miles from a city
(3) Native Americans on reservations
(4) Sports fans trying to listen to home games after they have moved
(5) Hobbyists who love the challenge of hearing a distant station

Additionally, isn't there a large number of complaints on this board about how to many stations run satellite programming, have voice-tracked jocks, are programmed from out-of-town and in myriad other ways don't really serve their city of license?

And now we have complaints that stations will no longer be able to serve people out west, in isolated communities hundreds of miles away, native americans on reservations(the vast majority of which are hundreds of miles away) and sportsfans who don't live in (or even near) the city of license.

Isn't that a catch 22? Are we expecting stations to serve their local community and people a thousand miles away at the same time?

 

[little1]

You missed the point. The fun was getting the signal with many barriers in the way. Now its handed to you over the internet. Just one more ingredient loss for true broadcasters with passion,. If you are a fan of the bland assemblyline of radio the past 11 years,then I am sorry to say you missed out..a lot.

No, don't get me wrong. I grew up in Chicago, and once I moved down here I'd go out in the middle of the night, fire up the car radio and often get WLS...(back when they were music)...I thought it was great...

But how many people really do that anymore? Sure, there's some 'hobbyists', but you refer to it as fun. Do you think "those damn kids' these days feel the same way?

Again, there just seems to be a disconnect between some people talking about how this is the ipod generation, and others moaning over thefact that the ipod generation won't be able to listen to stations from 8 states away. Hey, they're already NOT listening to those stations from 8 states away, they're listening to their ipods...It might have been fun back in 'the good old days'...I'm just not sure any kids are thinking it's fun...

 

[grantchester]

I see it as a homeland security issue. If there's a major disaster in your community, your power grid and inter-tubes are down, and you need to know what happened and what's happening, where are you going to turn? My Hallicrafter's has the CD logo on the dial. There used to be 'Conelrad', a system telling people where to turn for emergency information. Losing the night skywave to iboc hash eliminates the possibility of getting information out to a wide area in case of disaster.
g

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

Good Point Chester.

Little ! I see your point somewhat. These "damn Kids" are desenitized" to a variety of things thanks to parents who overly provided without taking the time to teach them appreciation and the basics of life. The Parents can be faulted for not teaching them the simple joys as opposed to the technical ones ,Plus the non-importance of being "cool".
None the less this IBOC thing was pushed by the corps to wiggle dry some more money without consideration to other signals perhaps someone else wishes to listens to . Reminds me of the way radio was described in the early 20's and how the FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION (FRC)WAS TOO WEAK OR DIDN'T GIVE A ---- to regulate it correctly, with one station interferring with another. It seems the FCC* ( *Funded by Clear Channel) has gone back to its prehistoric roots and is today's FRC( FARCE)