FCC to act soon on FM HD power increase

[mgpt6]

According to Radio World, the head of the FCC Media Bureau said that the FCC will act upon the power increase soon. No word whether it will a 6 db or 10db across the board increase?

 

[RadeoEngineer]

It won't matter. No one is going to install a new system and there aren't but a few out there that can turn it up anyway. It's a non-issue.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

It won't matter. No one is going to install a new system and there aren't but a few out there that can turn it up anyway. It's a non-issue.

Yeah - its a non-issue because the FCC will rubber stamp anything iBiquity wants. A far cry from what they were originally commissioned to do - stop interference. Democan or Republicrat FCC - the listeners get screwed by the FCC.

 

[pocket-radio]

FCC is allowing the increase in theory so that IBOC won't stall. It already has.

Consumers has shown no interest in HD, but they sure love their iphones! They love having a computer in their palm of their hands. Consumers have shown more interest in being able to control the content!
HD doesn't work.. it has glitches and since then, better technology has come to the marketplace.

 

[Savage]

RadeoEngineer nails it. 6dB, 10dB, you won't see many FMs making the change in any case. And taking RE's point a step farther: when either flavor of increase fails to produce much of a real-world coverage improvement, the game will be over. Even if there were to be a dramatic coverage improvement, which isn't going to happen, what do these nitwits think? That the receiver manufacturers, broadcasters and electronics retailers are gonna give 'em a "do-over?" They're delusional. They had their chance and blew it. You only get one bite of the consumer apple.

The new Media Bureau Chief is quoted as saying he "wants to promote" HD. Isn't THAT interesting. Why would a ranking FCC official pubilcly opine before a rule is adopted, one way or the other?

My theory is the current stance of the FCC is just a logical (illogical?) extension of the position it took a generation ago on C-QUAM AM Stereo - rather than embroil the agency in an endless legal squabble, they'll just give the industry what it wants and let it live with the consequences.

As in: "When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde

 

[TheBigA]

The new Media Bureau Chief is quoted as saying he "wants to promote" HD. Isn't THAT interesting. Why would a ranking FCC official pubilcly opine before a rule is adopted, one way or the other?

Are you saying that a civil service bureaucrat is supposed to be an impartial jurist in these matters? Would you have been happier if he had said the opposite?

The fact is that these rules go through lots of checks and balances, and they often still make the wrong decision. So his opinion isn't worth much more than anyone else's.

My theory is the current stance of the FCC is just a logical (illogical?) extension of the position it took a generation ago on C-QUAM AM Stereo - rather than embroil the agency in an endless legal squabble, they'll just give the industry what it wants and let it live with the consequences.

I agree. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Or as one FCC advisor said a few months ago, let the dinosaurs congregate among themselves.

 

[stacker]

Radio World shot out an online bulletin late Friday indicating that despite all the "we got a deal" talk, NPR was not on board.

 

[audioguy]

Here in France, they don't have IBOC and they also don't have all of the interference we have in the U.S. Perhaps this is because they don't allow every Tom, Dick, and Harry to put a 50 kW station on the air. Radio sounds better in almost every country I have visited than it does in the U.S. today. Here on the Cote d'Azur there are dozens of stations that you can tune in clearly, offering many different kinds of formats. If I could take this "dial" home with me I would probably never tune in a U.S. station again!

 

[mmnassour]

It's called Internet Radio, audioguy. And when it goes mobile you'll be able to hear American radio broadcasting implode. Instead of wasting money on these glorified noise generators, stations should be developing local programming to counter this coming revolution.

But no.

Better to fire the people who can save you in the name of trying to get a short-term return to the shareholders, right?

They're dead.

But maybe IBOC will save them!

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Here in France, they don't have IBOC and they also don't have all of the interference we have in the U.S. Perhaps this is because they don't allow every Tom, Dick, and Harry to put a 50 kW station on the air. Radio sounds better in almost every country I have visited than it does in the U.S. today. Here on the Cote d'Azur there are dozens of stations that you can tune in clearly, offering many different kinds of formats. If I could take this "dial" home with me I would probably never tune in a U.S. station again!

Yeah - but I bet there is plenty of government control over content. It probably has to be a sizable portion of French content to protect the ethnic purity of the French race or something. They griped and griped about Disney coming to Paris, I can only imagine the howling and whining if they tried to put US artists on French radio.

Complete government control over radio, especially formats, may make a nice clean list of approved formats, but if you want something different - i.e. subversive to somebody's political correctness, forget it. You probably would have as much luck putting a Christian station on in Afganistan as you would putting an American top-40 in Paris.

 

[audioguy]

Not so, rbruce. Last night while tuning around the dial, I heard 3-4 classical stations, hip-hop, contemporary American pop music of the kind you hear typically on Radio Disney, Frank Sinatra, jazz (not smooth jazz), choral music, classic rock... and many other genres that I don't even know how to begin to describe... and everything sounds great! You can receive dozens of stations without interference.

 

[MoldaMania182]

Here in France, they don't have IBOC and they also don't have all of the interference we have in the U.S. Perhaps this is because they don't allow every Tom, Dick, and Harry to put a 50 kW station on the air. Radio sounds better in almost every country I have visited than it does in the U.S. today. Here on the Cote d'Azur there are dozens of stations that you can tune in clearly, offering many different kinds of formats. If I could take this "dial" home with me I would probably never tune in a U.S. station again!

Complete government control over radio, especially formats, may make a nice clean list of approved formats, but if you want something different - i.e. subversive to somebody's political correctness, forget it. You probably would have as much luck putting a Christian station on in Afganistan as you would putting an American top-40 in Paris.

You must not travel much. Either way you're very misinformed.

 

[audioguy]

You must not travel much. Either way you're very misinformed.

You can say what you want, but I'm currently in Nice and I'm reporting what I hear.

 

[SUPERCASTER]

Why not let us have the web stream links so we can actually hear what your describing, audioguy?

 

[Tom Wells]

Why not let us have the web stream links so we can actually hear what your describing, audioguy?

I wouldn't expect radio stations to be promoting a web stream as heavily as a "dx tourist" might need, or that such an announcement would be in english, or that audioguy speaks french. I take his word for it.

 

[audioguy]

I am back home now, and I definitely miss the Cote d'Azur. My French is somewhat limited but I will look around for some links for those who might want to listen online.

Here's one that I found while I was still in France; Radio Classique. This will probably only be of interest to classical radio aficionados (like me): http://www.radioclassique.fr/

 

[KB1OKL]

I lived in Peru for a year during the early 2000's and FM radio was definitely superior to American radio there also, sounded better and played much better music and played music from many different countries, much better variety.

 

[TheBigA]

Must be those Peruvian pan flutes.

 

[Savage]

So true. And, as we all know, radio that's produced using electricity from all-nuclear sources ALWAYS sounds better.

 

[BRNout]

I lived in Peru for a year during the early 2000's and FM radio was definitely superior to American radio there also, sounded better and played much better music and played music from many different countries, much better variety.

This entire portion of the debate is a matter of the 'grass being greener on the other side' - when we travel and don't encounter the usual nuisances, we think that means the other system is better. It probably isn't - it just has other issues.

Just returned from Costa Rica, where I often travel and where I lived for a little while. There are six or seven FM stations which specialize in a spectrum of English-language music that run roughly from oldies to classic hits to AC to classic rock. There's a rocker that's totally in English (107.5) and a classic hits/hot AC hybrid (Radio 2) that offers AM and PM drive in English. Most of these stations stake out a relative position in that musical spectrum and offer a wide playlist with lots of "oh wow" songs. It's an absolute pleasure to switch back and forth between them. In addition to those which I usually listen to, there are offerings for pretty much everyone (mostly in Spanish) including urban contemporary (of a sort), CHR, Jazz (smooth and not as smooth), classical, contemporary Spanish language hits, Salsa/Mengerie, Ranchero, news, etc.

Some 40+ FM signals happily co-exist on the FM dial in the Central Valley of Costa Rica; most broadcast from the 11,000' AMSL peak of the Irazu volcano that is about 25 miles east of San Jose. They cover the center of the country from there and at least half also utilize on-channel boosters to cover key areas in the northwest (Guanacaste), southwest (Quepos/Jaco) and east (Limon). Excellent coverage with ZERO co-channel interference. You can drive 5 or 6 hours and keep the same station most of the way (with a few gaps thanks to the mountains); which is pretty amazing. Some of the stations (Radio 2 - 99.5 FM comes to mind) even have audio quality that's the equal of the best big market station in the US.

However there's also almost ZERO local radio for smaller communities outside of the capital. Communities outside of the heavily populated Central Valley are lucky to have one local station serving their province. That's the trade off. Most stations are national. Granted, the country is only about the size of West Virginia; however, it can also take 4-6 hours to drive from some communities to San Jose due to the crappy highway system. So the city is a world away for those folks.

Yeah, I enjoy the variety of radio down there. Some aspects are better and refreshing when compared with what's happening here. However, I don't know that it's better. Just different. It is nice not to have any IBuzz to deal with when cruising the dial. That's definitely a plus!