HD in LA

[Element9]

And then there's the snake stories from Pennsylvania and Virgina, walking out to the towers to take base current readings, opening the tuning shack door and staring at a coiled up, very live water mocasin or timber rattler. And the black bear who ATE a good number of asbestos shingles on the transmitter building. But my favorite nasty critter story is from a former WWL New Orleans engineer who pointed out "the gator gun" on a trip to the transmitter ("Y'oughta see their eyes at night.") Fascinating stories from all contributors.

You come out of those uptempo records with a dead rat dedication (no doubt for "Ben") ... is Don on the phone?

 

[davideduardo]

Fascinating stories from all contributors.

I also had a station at Lago Agrio. On one occasion, we had a problem entering the transmitter building.

In military terms, it would be...

Reptile, snake, large.

 

[oaktree]

In Lancaster, CA, at KOTE-AM, I unwittingly came face-to-face with a still very alive "Mojave green" or "whipcoach" snake in the warm back of a Harris MW-1. Scared me to death that Saturday morning. Fortunately, he zigged as I zagged and he lit himself up on a resistor stack and a few caps, before shorting the thing out.

An expensive day and some time off the air, and cleaning him (or her) out was not fun to do.

Also, David, the #3 KHJ backup xmtr (an RCA kilowatt rig) found its way for years as the auxilary to then KBAI in Morro Bay. It is now, I imagine, part of the Clear Channel collection as the station was sold in the mid-90s to make way for a 50kw upgrade for then KIIS-AM. Our 5kw on 1150 just got in the way, so, down came the three towers and the xmtr backup to the Continental "Power Rock" 5kw. I checked the metal plate on the back of the RCA and saw the KHJ calls and the serial number. I sure wished that xmtr, good as it sounded, could have talked with what had going through it through the years.

 

[RockTheGlobe]

I think the stations (and their hard-working engineers) deserve to be cut a bit of slack in this particular case, inasmuch as the Mount Wilson transmitter sites continue to be largely inaccessible thanks to mudslides and the other aftereffects of the Station fire a few months back. Yes, it would be nice if all the auxiliary transmitter sites at Flint Peak and in the Hollywood hills were equipped with HD as well, but for the moment they're not, and I suspect that what's really happening when "the HD goes down" is that the station's being switched from Wilson to Flint or one of the other aux sites that's analog-only.

This, too, shall pass...

I'm not just talking about these past few weeks. HD Radio signals in Los Angeles have been unreliable for months -- possibly longer, but I only got my HD Radio in my car about a year ago. KYSR's HD signal was down for over a month (and that was before the storms). The technology isn't ready for primetime, and because of that, the transmitter isn't allowed to be strong enough to actually be able to hold an HD signal even in high-population areas of the L.A. basin. The marketing campaign for it was atrocious, and the execution of it is even worse.

"HD is better than satellite because it's free!" Well, great, but I still have to shell out $100 to have it added onto my car radio plus the labor costs of having it installed.

"HD is available everywhere, even now on your iPhone/iPod!" Yeah, if you go to Radio Shack (a store that supports radio so much, they dropped the word from it in their name) and buy an $80 accessory that you also have to lug around with you.

"HD sounds wonderful in crystal-clear HD! It's live and local and that's how we beat satellite!" But I can't listen to it even driving down my own street because the signal drops so much, and it's aggravating to hear 3 out of every 10 seconds of airtime -- and when I have friends in the car, it's laughable when I tell them about this cool HD channel that I listen to, but then I turn it on and it doesn't come in, or it sounds like an Internet stream with a bad buffering problem. Plus, with radio budgets being stretched incredibly thin and layoffs happening everywhere, no one left in radio has the time or the inclination to do much original work on their HD side-channels, and no one seems to care if things go wrong on it. KOST's HD2 channel has dead air for hours -- sometimes even days -- on end, but no one really notices. A good number of the HD side-channels being offered in Los Angeles are national formats that are being plugged in, like CC's Rock Nation or Pride Radio or CBS Radio's Last.fm -- and I don't see the difference between that or a nationally-programmed Sirius XM channel. At least Sirius XM is calling a spade a spade and knows it's national, rather than trying to pretend that it's local.

Someone proposed that in order to help save budgets -- and possibly keep more people employed in this industry -- radio chains could save millions by simply turning off their HD transmitters and reinvesting the money they'd spend on their transmitter electricity bills into the product. I totally agree. Less than a million people nationwide have HD Radios. Fix the main channel, then we'll talk about the bells and whistles of HD.

 

[radio1015a]

RockTheGlobe's analysis of HD in LA is, sadly, right on. I made the now regrettable decision of buying an portable HD radio to experience all the hype about the "incredible quality and variety" of HD. My first clue that the hype was just that - the HD1 stations that came in loud and clear as analog in my car were in many cases, static or picket fencing - virtually unlistenable. Second, as was pointed out: the lack of reliability of HD. The list that the HD Radio site puts out of HD signals bears no resemblance to what's actually on the air. Third - what passes for content on the HD2/3 channels (when they're up) is less than stellar. It's true - you get what you pay for. After about half an hour of frustration in trying to enjoy the promise of HD, it was back to my XM receiver - which never gives me static, rarely drops out and has infinitely more variety at more than acceptable audio quality. The only thing I need local is traffic and XM gives me that - the rest is gravy. I'll give this another week and then the HD radio goes back - what a waste.

 

[jasonharper2013]

KFI 640 Back Broadcasting IN HD

Merry Christmas To All

 

[radiojomo]

...And you guys just discovered that? HD Radio's been that way since it's conception. And when satellite radio was rising in popularity, HD Radio came in and tried to stop that and they were even worse than they were today!
HD Radio is supposed to have 66 channels broadcasting in HD. Sirius has over 150.
If people want variety and nonstop music, they get Sirius and not pay over $200 for a decent HD system

 

[RockTheGlobe]

...And you guys just discovered that? HD Radio's been that way since it's conception. And when satellite radio was rising in popularity, HD Radio came in and tried to stop that and they were even worse than they were today!
HD Radio is supposed to have 66 channels broadcasting in HD. Sirius has over 150.
If people want variety and nonstop music, they get Sirius and not pay over $200 for a decent HD system

No, definitely haven't just discovered it... just trying to understand why, after all this time when the problems still exist and the people pushing HD Radio continue to fumble its execution and marketing, there are still apologists claiming that the product is sound and we should give people a mulligan on it right now based on extenuating circumstances.

 

[LKellerIII]

I see the promise of HD radio as a 'chicken or egg' situation. Broadcasters will not provide coompelling HD programming until there are enough listeners to justify it, and that won't happen until they market the product better, and get people excited enough to spend the money.

I've had an HD received in my car for a couple of years now - the CD player in my old (but beloved) Mazda died. Circuit City (ha, ha) was advertising a JVC brand AM/FM/MP3/CD/HD for only $20 more than the identical unit without HD. So getting all those extra channels for almost no extra $$ was a no-brainer. But I needed a new unit anyway, and just marketing HD to people who need replacement receivers is obviously too slow to get the word out.

There are some good HD2 channels here in the Bay Area, and I find the reception consistently good when I travel locally. Of course, when the HD signal goes down, the HD1 defaults to analog (so you can still hear it), but the HD2 goes out entirely.

It would help if the industry could give incentives to car manufacturers to put HD receivers in their new cars. From what I've heard, that move has helped XM/Sirius immensely. Last time I heard, only BMW was offerering HD in their new vehicles.

 

[jasonharper2013]

KIIS Is Back Broadcasting HD But KIIS HD 2 Is still Out but Should Be On In Days

 

[RockTheGlobe]

I see the promise of HD radio as a 'chicken or egg' situation. Broadcasters will not provide coompelling HD programming until there are enough listeners to justify it, and that won't happen until they market the product better, and get people excited enough to spend the money.

There are some good HD2 channels here in the Bay Area, and I find the reception consistently good when I travel locally. Of course, when the HD signal goes down, the HD1 defaults to analog (so you can still hear it), but the HD2 goes out entirely.

It would help if the industry could give incentives to car manufacturers to put HD receivers in their new cars. From what I've heard, that move has helped XM/Sirius immensely. Last time I heard, only BMW was offerering HD in their new vehicles.

I find it interesting that San Francisco, a place where the geography makes it necessary to have several repeaters to ensure market coverage of some stations, has consistently good HD reception when a market like Los Angeles does not. I still maintain that the technology is faulty -- to the point where the signal strength has been restricted because of it -- and those faults and that restriction are a good portion of what cripples HD, since receivers can't maintain a signal lock even in areas where there is supposedly a city-grade local signal. Sean Ross at Edison Research wrote that when he tried out HD Radio at his house in New Jersey (which was only about 20 miles from the Empire State Building), he could only get 10 HD signals from a radio dial that supposedly offered around twice that, and even then, some of the signals dropped out consistently. It's aggravating enough for the HD1 signal to go analog because I can hear the difference -- and sometimes the analog and HD1 signals are not in sync so there is a stutter or a skip -- but when the HD2 or HD3 side-channels go out, the sound drops out completely for several seconds while the receiver works to reacquire the signal. That is unacceptable. If you were paying for satellite radio and you lost the signal as much as one does on HD Radio, you'd be on the phone with them screaming for your money back because their product wasn't delivering.

Which leads me to my next point. HD Radio has been on the air for around six years now, and it's still not at the point where it's technologically viable on the scale that it's being presented to the public. Within a year or so of satellite radio's launch, most of its reception issues had been worked out, and I was able to road-test it both in heavily populated areas and places where you could scan the FM dial and not get any stations, and satellite did not have problems in any of these situations.

HD Radios are already being offered in BMWs, Jaguars, Hyundais, Mini Coopers, Volvos, Fords, Lincolns, Mercurys, Mercedes-Benzes, Kias, Land Rovers and Scions, with plans to expand them to Audis in the 2011 model year.

 

[LKellerIII]

There are some good HD2 channels here in the Bay Area, and I find the reception consistently good when I travel locally. Of course, when the HD signal goes down, the HD1 defaults to analog (so you can still hear it), but the HD2 goes out entirely.

It would help if the industry could give incentives to car manufacturers to put HD receivers in their new cars. From what I've heard, that move has helped XM/Sirius immensely. Last time I heard, only BMW was offerering HD in their new vehicles.

I find it interesting that San Francisco, a place where the geography makes it necessary to have several repeaters to ensure market coverage of some stations, has consistently good HD reception when a market like Los Angeles does not. I still maintain that the technology is faulty -- to the point where the signal strength has been restricted because of it -- and those faults and that restriction are a good portion of what cripples HD, since receivers can't maintain a signal lock even in areas where there is supposedly a city-grade local signal.

Which leads me to my next point. HD Radio has been on the air for around six years now, and it's still not at the point where it's technologically viable on the scale that it's being presented to the public. Within a year or so of satellite radio's launch, most of its reception issues had been worked out, and I was able to road-test it both in heavily populated areas and places where you could scan the FM dial and not get any stations, and satellite did not have problems in any of these situations.

HD Radios are already being offered in BMWs, Jaguars, Hyundais, Mini Coopers, Volvos, Fords, Lincolns, Mercurys, Mercedes-Benzes, Kias, Land Rovers and Scions, with plans to expand them to Audis in the 2011 model year.

Yes - I don't regulary drive all parts of the Bay Area, but I can tell you that HD2 reception is consistently good where I do drive - East Bay from Newark to Fairfield, South Bay in San Mateo County and even in San Jose, though the recption drops out a bit along the coast, and in some hilly or isolated parts of Santa Clara County.

I've only experienced XM/Sirius in cars I've rented, and I've noticed that the reception drops out freqently in rural areas, especially in canyons or where there are lots of tall trees. Near Yosemite, this drop-off makes satellite frequently too irritating to listen to. Ironically, many San Francisco analog FM signals come in loud and clear there (almost 200 miles directly east of the city), but my rental cars didn't have HD so I can't speak to that.

 

[K6JHU]

"...Ironically, many San Francisco analog FM signals come in loud and clear there (almost 200 miles directly east of the city), ..."

Many of the SF FM's have translators above the Yosemite Valley.

 

[RockTheGlobe]

Speaking of HD Radio in L.A., has anyone noticed that the audio on KROQ's HD1 signal was recently (like within the past few days) completely tweaked to the high end? Once the HD signal kicks in, it sounds like the audio has lost all bass and most of the midrange, and the treble is cranked way up high. I thought the EQ was fine up until a few days ago and that the HD signal actually provided a great audio experience, but now I find it almost unlistenable.