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Give up the HD Ghost already

C

cm454

Considering the massive and continuing cuts this business is seeing, it is amazing to me that ANY compnay is still persuing AM Stereo....I mean HD radio.

After an incredible volume of advertising this *breakthrough* there quite literally continues to be NO BUZZ whatsoever in the public. NONE. NIL. NADA.

I have worked in this biz for over 20 years. NOBODY I know out of the biz even cares about this and easily 90 percent of those IN the biz laugh about it---except for the expenditure part.

Radio messageboard after radio messageboard has the occasional *inside baseball* discussion about HD, but it remains and will continue to remain a non-starter. Why? Because it appeals to almost no one. The concept is foolhardy, especially given the shortage of cash.

Radio better get it's act together with the signals people know about and stop chasing this ghost. I realize they feel a burining desire to do SOMETHING to mitigate the damage being done by the other audio sources, but this is just that: going through the motions, trying to grow something nobody will care about---just like AM Stereo. By the way, AM stereo made AM station owners excited! They thought: VOILA! FInally, this is it! The answer to our troubles! Now we can compete with FM! In this same way, owners foolishly believe this HD nonsense is some solution to the challenges radio faces today. Uh-uh. The biggest challenge radio has today, is getting people more interested in their MAJOR properties. You know, the ones they dramatically overpaid for during the past 10 years.
 
to quote cm454: "there quite literally continues to be NO BUZZ whatsoever in the public"

Whatever Buzz there is, is on the AM airwaves and it's called iBUZZ and messin up my reception!
 
Yes, it is amazing, the incredible stupidity and stubbornness that the HD supporters and cheerleaders exhibit, they cling to a technology which no one wants nor buys. The fact that this stuff still even exists should be in Ripley's Believe it or not.
At least AM C-Quam stereo sounds good and travels long distances, iBlock is just a hissing, whooshing waste of money and spectrum. Even FM iBlock is a waste of time and money, I wonder how many listeners each FM iBlock has? I wonder how much money each station spends per listener? What's in the IBOC Kool-aid that makes these stations keep broadcasting this junk when THEY KNOW that virtually no one is listening and no one ever will? I should think that just the economic waste of money would be enough for them to shut it off. I mean you would think that after this amount of time they would throw in the towel and admit to themselves it just isn't flying and never will. I wonder if there's some blackmail going on somewhere? ;) Secret government payoffs? Highly paid lobbyists? FCC stupidity? NPR stupidity? Maybe all of the above? Maybe it's a simple as stubborn pride? Someday it will all be in a book entitled: IBOC: The Government Sanctioned Harmful Interference That Almost Killed Radio.
 
We broadcast in AM Stereo, and nobody who listens laughs. Instead, those who have AM Stereo equipped receivers, and there are many, smile. AM Stereo is not failed technology. Instead, the FCC, broadcasters and today's receiver manufacturers have failed. Anyone who wishes to compare the fidelity of AM Stereo with HD radio is welcome to do so. Visit with us in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. WNMB is located at 429 Pine Avenue in North Myrtle Beach, and you can hear our audio online at http://www.wnmb900.com
(Please no-one should misunderstand; I don't mean this as a post about program content; just about the technical side of things.)
 
Bill, I would love to hear your stream because I'm a fan of the oldies. However, I have a Mac and I won't install Microsoft Silverlight in order to do so. Microsoft's development and support of their own products for Macs is extremely underwhelming.

BTW, Microsoft seems to think you need to update Silverlight on your end.
 
Bill said:
We broadcast in AM Stereo, and nobody who listens laughs. Instead, those who have AM Stereo equipped receivers, and there are many, smile. AM Stereo is not failed technology. Instead, the FCC, broadcasters and today's receiver manufacturers have failed. Anyone who wishes to compare the fidelity of AM Stereo with HD radio is welcome to do so. Visit with us in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. WNMB is located at 429 Pine Avenue in North Myrtle Beach, and you can hear our audio online at http://www.wnmb900.com
(Please no-one should misunderstand; I don't mean this as a post about program content; just about the technical side of things.)
Click to expand...

Bill, it sounds about 1000 times better than HD. Great separation and jeez those sound like REAL highs! Imagine that. I have a Meduci stereo radio and wished I lived closer.
 
Seems like the AM stereo should work much, much, much, much better than the HD cr@p judging the recent posts here and also the latest posts in the "I need the Good Laugh" thread. Makes me wish I live in the Myrtle Beach area. I just bought the Meduci tuner and still "breaking into" it and it really sounds good, though it doesn't stop the lightning static crashes during the recent thunderstorms close to my area. At night WBT in Charlotte sounds quite clear and pleasant though it's mono. The Terk Advantage is the antenna I'm using, it makes much less 60 HZ buzzing sound then the other AM loops, not sure why. BTW none of the AMs in my area broadcasts in stereo.
 
The only improvement I would make to C-QUAM would be a slow-speed ancillary data channel (backwards-compatible with existing equipment) to allow station ID and program information such as artist and title to be displayed on new receivers. This might be possible by phase modulating the 25 Hz pilot tone that rides on the L-R quadrature sidebands, or by adding a second low frequency BPSK signal to the L-R.

Yes, it would take a few seconds to transmit the information, but the reliability would exceed that of IBOC.
 
The Dude said:
AM Stereo is MUCH BETTER and should have been looked @ more!!

This crap out now sucks........
Click to expand...
It's never too late to look into that again, you know. I really did like AM Stereo.
 
Radio1360 said:
The Dude said:
AM Stereo is MUCH BETTER and should have been looked @ more!!

This crap out now sucks........
Click to expand...
It's never too late to look into that again, you know. I really did like AM Stereo.
Click to expand...

I would definitely purchase an AM Stereo Radio if it made a comeback. My Dad used to have an AM Stereo Delco Radio in his car, and it sounded great!
 
I've got an AM stereo radio in both Chryslers that I use to listen to my station out of SW Ontario in stereo, and it sounds great.

I'm wondering, could somebody (math-whiz) write the software coding to generate the C-Quam phase modulation with their relatively-new (but defunct) AM IBOC generator? In theory, it's the same phase-modulation of the L-R signal, and I'll bet you could use the old iBiquity hardware to do the math for the C-Quam stereo, plus add the 25Hz stereo pilot, plus a low-speed data signal to send out station ID on the HD radios?

Who wants to void the warranty on their hardware and give this one a try?
 
JohnnyElectron said:
I've got an AM stereo radio in both Chryslers that I use to listen to my station out of SW Ontario in stereo, and it sounds great.
Click to expand...

Would that be CFCO? Or somebody else? CFCO has a pretty rockin' signal across southern Michigan during the daytime, and sometimes at night as well. I just drove back from Detroit and copied the station clear across the state as far as New Buffalo on the western side. CKDO comes in pretty well also-- mostly at night.
 
Yep, AM Stereo CFCO - you can copy AM630 from about Auburn, Indiana, across Nothern Ohio to Erie PA and Buffalo, NY. SE/E Michigan of course too, as well as all along the 401 in SE Ontario. As close as you can get to a full-service local station anymore.
 
stormy01 said:
RJ Kanary said:
Where's Leonard Kahn when you need him. ? :(

RJ
Click to expand...

Right here: http://www.wrathofkahn.org/
Click to expand...

At this point, it is probably important to distance ourselves from controversial figures. He did it to himself. I think C-Quam might have a real shot at revival if it can be programmed into HD encoders at the station - once IBOC AM goes down in flames. The key difference is a migration of niche music formats onto AM, a band that ten years ago was abandoned to talk and sports. Now, starting with ethnic, there seems to be a rising trend in reviving niche formats on AM. Given good C-Quam encoding and the fact that AM has longer distance reception than FM, it is a good match. Niche formats need more listeners to survive, so covering a larger geographic area with dependable C-Quam stereo makes sense.
 
stormy01:

I meant HERE , here. :) Leonard has always been off mainstream and interesting to listen to.During one of my first visits to the now handcuffed KDKA-AM transmitter, I saw the then no longer used Kahn / Hazeltine AM Stereo Exciter, just collecting dust in a corner. Very Sad. :(

I also wonder what became of Lou Dorren ?


RJ
 
The last bunch of posts are a great example of why there are some (in radio only it seems) who think HD is eventually going to catch on. Read those posts and you'll find TONS of the radio version of Inside Baseball.

Some in the biz are absolutely obsessed with all this audio mumbo jumbo. HD/IBOC plays right in to that facination.

Back in reality, nobody else gives a rats rear end.

Note to radio companies: STOP wasting the few dollars you're willing to spend, on this HD nonsense. Nobody in the general public will ever make it worth your while! Enhance your BRAND NAME stations, you know, the ones everybody at least KNOWS ABOUT already!
 
The problems with the technology vastly outweigh the benefits. Especially it's use on AM. Even on FM, it has issues.

Given what's been going on with TV, I think it's time to rethink digital broadcasting - or at least to reconsider how and where it's utilized. Because whatever reception issues that are dogging TV right now are nothing when compared with what will happen on radio. Most people (80+%) didn't notice any change in their TV reception when everyone went digital, thanks to cable and satellite penetration. And, TVs are almost entirely used in a stationary environment. Radio is nothing like this.

Right now, we have the greatest selection of analog radios for an increasingly mobile society. The insistence of broadcasters to move toward digital over time (for example, there's talk in the UK of vacating FM in less than 10 years) does not have the best interests of the public in mind. Although the digital signal sounds better and does more when you get a lock, you need an almost perfect signal to do that. Otherwise, you get nothing.

Our problem here is that, to push HD, broadcasters (suits) are pushing for a big power increase to the sidebands which will eventually ruin standard analog reception for many. That's just a fine segue toward going entirely digital eventually. Which will cost the public billions of dollars and result in inferior service with the main beneficiaries being broadcasters and the government who get to divvy up the spectrum even further. Let's stop it here and now.
 
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