HD in Little Rock, Arkansas

[hipporadio]

AM sounds great WHEN LISTENING TO A COMPETENT STATION on a competent receiver!

Bob, my response to your “footnote” on crystal phono pick-ups is - YEZZ Baby... I hated ceramic phono cartridges [UGGG] – they sounded like CRAP... I always insisted on a magnetic pick-up [usually Shure or Empire]... I also hated early FM stations using UREI CompLimiters with pre-applied pre-emphasis. Cheaters! There is no excuse for a technical foul! ‘Get your CBS Volumax under control! Do you recall how REALLY BAD early FM sounded compared to the AM band “state of the art” at the time?

We’ve come a long way since this rhetoric reared its ugly head [THANK-YOU Frank Fotti and Omnia]! Despite, I’m NOT impressed with FM HD – and even less-so [or NO-SO] with IBOC on AM. I’m going out on the “dangerous edge” here, but will testify that well modulated ANALOG AM SOUNDS BETTER than IBOC digital! I’m far from alone in this assertion. Last week, I was back in my Indiana hometown – under the high-RF umbrella of 700 WLW [now in degrading IBOC]... The once-proud “Nation’s Station” sounds like CRAP... On EVERY AM receiver I own, there is “hiss” in the main channel audio and a “muffle” that degrades intelligibility of the mere spoken word. A few nights back, their Trucker Show played an Eric Clapton song for three minutes – it sounded like low-rent small market AM crap from the 70s! I would have never expected this from the likes of WLW... TERRIBLE analog audio! Up the road, 250-watt 1580 WIFE [oldies] into an Omnia and solid-state BE rig installed last year sounds AWESOME on every AM radio that tunes it. Who would have imagined that this high-band pea-shooter could have outdone “The Big One” in audio quality—THEY DO!

Sit back, breath deep, and THINK! Is "HD" Radio worth it?

 

[rbrucecarter5]

On EVERY AM receiver I own, there is “hiss” in the main channel audio and a “muffle” that degrades intelligibility of the mere spoken word. A few nights back, their Trucker Show played an Eric Clapton song

Even on the most selective portable I own - a GE SR-1 - I can hear IBOC self jamming. I doubt that the radio has over 1.5 to 2 kHz audio bandwidth, I can still hear a stead hiss during quiet times in program material. And it increases dramatically when I tune off center! The one good thing about a highly selective radio is that second adjacents to IBOC stations are listenable - but they have a loud high frequency hiss.

 

[hipporadio]

I said in another post... AM radio DOESN’T deserve to suffer a wrath... IN FACT, “AM radio” deserves a life for no other reason than its exemplary past... Well, maybe more. I am totally-behind the band and any who want to advance it! I wonder if many IBOC fans are ??? or many arrived to support the latest profit-laden “fix”in their NARROW diatribe? The AM band and its unique situation requires equally-unique thinking AND an ‘ole-fashioned appreciation that comes down to a family around their table.. It is NOT on-skin a sexy hi-fi medium that is attractive to the Gen-Y iPod crowd –it’s an old and some-called “tied” medium—defended only by it’s colorful past... ‘But it’s also a DEPENDABLE communication medium that is going-FORWARD! It is the oldest, but prettiest tree in our front yard!

As we listen, we hear some noise and restricted bandwidth – but we also hear some SOUL – the “heart” of radio so to speak Sometimes, good things come in small [or narrow] packages. I have this sneaking suspicion, that even Gen Y “in a moment” can appreciate “good ole-fashion AM radio”. The FCC needs to advance [and NOT compromise] the medium. They have a fairly-poor track record on the former. Analog 10khz [if even that was delivered] was one-thing in this “digital era”, but you cannot divorce the heartfelt content—on WYSL or SuperOldies 1580. These are good efforts, they deserve our attention, and a rating point or two!