FM News isn't in HD

[nd2023]

It's been over a month and the IBUZ is still off at 101.9. Hope it stays off forever.

Why? Is there a station on 101.7 or 102.1 you want to hear? If you're in NY, those frequencies are only noise IBOC or otherwise? Sometimes it seems like the anti IBOC people are acting like a scorned lover with an interest to see the technology fail. I live in the NY market and can not, under normal conditions, receive anything on commercial band first adjacents. By the way, there are far fewer DXers than HD listeners. That isn't to say anything other than you can count the number of DXers on one or two hands, as long as we're talking comparative numbers.

Yes, I want to hear 101.7 The Beach and Q102. I was able to hear both those stations on a car radio in Manhattan on July 6, during a tropo opening. I also want to hear Rock 102 and Kiss 101.7, and a whole bunch of stations from 1000 miles away on 101.7 and 102.1.
I'd say that most DXers are HD listeners because most DXers have HD radios. The Sony HD radio is expensive because only the DXers are buying it.
If you consider all hams to be DXers, then there are more DXers than HD listeners.

I can't speak for your understanding of propagation but receiving a distant station via enhancement such as ducting or e layer skip is not a reason to disallow IBOC. Stations are licensed to cover specific geographic territiories. Anything outside of their protected contour is subject to interference. That's the law. You want to listen to these distant stations, use the internet. By the way, I am a licensed amateur operator, having an extra class license which I've held for well over 20 years.

Stations are also supposed to keep their modulation within 75 kHz of the center frequency. IBOC is way outside that, and it should never have been approved. I know I can listen to stations online, but I didn't install an outdoor antenna with a rotator and buy a Sony XDRF1HD just to listen to the local stations.

And what about WPRB 103.3/WKTU 103.5 both having HD, and both interfering with each other inside the other's protected contour? That interference didn't happen before HD.

Broadcasting is evolving, but HD radio is not the future. HD is a step backwards for AM since it's accelerating the death of the AM band. For FM, HD isn't doing anything to bring people back to radio. Oh, sure, there are some popular HD2s, but those are listened to online or via an analog translator. No one (outside this board) is missing Smooth Jazz on 101.9-HD2 because no one could hear it since it didn't stream online. Not a single mention on Twitter or Google about 101.9-HD2 except on this site. Whereas you can find many people talking about WODS in Boston dropping the oldies, and people miss that station even though it's available on 103.3-HD2.

 

[scanman1]

Sometimes it seems like the anti IBOC people are acting like a scorned lover with an interest to see the technology fail.

...and some of us have decades invested in this business and hate to see it frittering away millions of dollars a year for something the public clearly doesn't want or need and something that cannot, by design, work efficiently or consistently. And before we see the same old retort that your HD works just fine, your experience is clearly not the norm.

And I have nearly 40 years in commercial radio. Your point? Broadcasting has to evolve or it will just fade like the 78's of our past. Take a look at the evolution of the phonograph record. As technology evolved so did the delivery system or music to the public.

It will evolve, on the Internet! Broadcasting won't fade away, it'll simply be offered through Apps that install onto your smartphone or other app-based internet streaming capable device like your new fancy-pants in-dash audio system (which, in the future likely won't contain HD radio, just a mobile internet streamer along with conventional analog tuning).

For the present time, failure of IBOC would be a nice way to get the traditional bands cleaned up and clear sounding again.

 

[nd2023]

I'll wait 2 more months before I declare that Merlin no longer cares about HD

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Sometimes it seems like the anti IBOC people are acting like a scorned lover with an interest to see the technology fail.

...and some of us have decades invested in this business and hate to see it frittering away millions of dollars a year for something the public clearly doesn't want or need and something that cannot, by design, work efficiently or consistently. And before we see the same old retort that your HD works just fine, your experience is clearly not the norm.

And I have nearly 40 years in commercial radio. Your point? Broadcasting has to evolve or it will just fade like the 78's of our past. Take a look at the evolution of the phonograph record. As technology evolved so did the delivery system or music to the public.

I'm in for over 43 years at this point.

Who says broadcasting HAS to evolve? What's so wrong with it technically (referring to FM here)? Where is the hue and cry for digital radio? What problem does it solve? What need does it fulfill? Clearly, after ten years, the public doesn't care. Who wants it? Who *must* have it?

 

[Theater of My Mind]

HD seems to be back on at 101.9 this morning.  The HD1 delay isn't synced up with the analog signal yet but I assume it's on their to-do list. HD2 is just a dead carrier at this point.

EDIT: And now I think it's back off again so it seems like they're probably working on it.

 

[pjc1961]

And as of this writing:

HD's back on - but as mentioned by Theater Of My Mind, flips in and out occasionally.

The analog and digital are properly synched now and the audio quality is improving...although it's still a bit "fat"/"rumbling" on the bottom end. But much better than at launch.

No song/artist tags on my receiver's digital display when it's in HD; checked another receiver and that's the case as well.
RDS does have song/artist tags on the analog feed.

Also mentioned previously: HD2 still transmitting a dead carrier.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Smooth Jazz is back on HD2.

 

[quadrun1]

HD-1 and HD-2 say WRXP on the display now. On HD-2 at least, the automated station identification just part the top of the hour still announces "WEMP"