HD Radio in Central CT

[DJKraze]

I just bought an Insignia HD Radio last Sunday and was very impressed at the analog reception ability of this thing on FM (don't even ask about AM, I get close to nothing there) details on what I get on this unit are in the following post:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,116325.0.html

I've had a little time to tune into the HD broadcasts and noticed a few things:
I kinda like seeing song artists/titles displayed, or even some kind of ID (or maybe both alternating) so take that as just a preference from me and don't consider it a criticism (though it might sound like one).
WDRC HD-2 has no info displaying (like ident or song titles) and the music has a tendency to loop a batch of 3 or 4 songs every so often
WCCC HD-2 same thing regarding titles/ID's, but I really didn't expect it being classical/networked
WKSS HD-2 what is gay about MOST of this music? I currently hear "Ready or not" by the Fugees. I haven't listened to it too much, but as far as I can tell, what little gay content they have is on the website and the station ID's/Promos and they do play some dance tracks, possibly trying to play on a stereotype that dance music is gay and that's not entirely true either. (Then again, not being gay, who am I to attempt to know what the gay audience likes)
WTIC HD-2 Is there a rule that prevents commercials on HD sub channels? (honestly, I don't know, not being rhetorical here), I've never heard WTIC 1080 sound so good, however, the replacing other content in place of commercials is very obvious and the content they are replacing it with is somewhat dated (with gas approaching $4 a gallon in most areas of the country...)
WPLR HD-1 has an ID on screen, but does not display the song artists/titles
WKCI doesn't seem very strong at the moment, but I can't remember there being a mention anywhere over the air of what format they are doing or on the website, but I read somewhere that it's "future hits".

 

[MarcB]

WTIC on 96.5 HD2 is a stream of WTIC.COM, not a simulcast of 1080s OTA signal thats why the commercials dont match.

 

[DJKraze]

That's right, I forgot, the ravages of old age are getting to me. In any case, they should update the filler/replacement material on the webcast.

 

[Whale]

What is 104.1 HD2 playing these days?

 

[Tom_Ray]

On DRC-FM-HD2: the automation system being used does not support spitting out title & artist information. I just received the latest software package from iBiquity and will be writing a custom application to put messages up on the display. Hope to have it done sometime in the 1st quarter of 09.

I will look into the song looping you have mentioned. This isn't right.

Regarding the commercials on HD-2 stations - there is no rule, so to speak, to keep spots off of the HD2/HD3 channels. There was an understanding that companies running HD2/HD3 channels who are part of the HD Radio Alliance would not run spots for a given period of time. Those stations can now run spots. Some choose not to.

Tom Ray
Buckley Broadcasting

 

[DJKraze]

I should clarify, "looping" might not be the right word for it, more like the system jumps back 15 minutes and plays the same 15 minutes worth of programming again, it's a flawless jump where there's no interruption in the music or jingles, just everything plays over again for a second time and then continues with the playlist. More like a hiccup or something.

(assuming a jingle were set to fire between every other track)
ex:
Jingle 1
Track 1
Track 2
Jingle 2
Track 3
Track 4
Jingle 3
Track 5
Track 6
Jingle 2
Track 3
Track 4
Jingle 3
Track 5
Track 6
Jingle 4
Track 7
and so on.

Nice to hear about the upcoming addition of the song titles. I figured it had to be one of those pain in the butt type of programming things which don't always work out of the box.

 

[DJKraze]

What is 104.1 HD2 playing these days?

Strange enough I'm not getting an HD signal from them right now, I did last week, but that first list in the other thread was done with my antenna system I normally use for TV attached and now I tossed a splitter in line in order to still have TV. I don't see a change in most other stations (yet). If you are wondering if they are playing rap, they were not.

 

[CTListener]

What is 104.1 HD2 playing these days?

Strange enough I'm not getting an HD signal from them right now, I did last week, but that first list in the other thread was done with my antenna system I normally use for TV attached and now I tossed a splitter in line in order to still have TV. I don't see a change in most other stations (yet). If you are wondering if they are playing rap, they were not.

No HD signals on 104.1 or 102.9 for the past three days. I'm only three miles from West Peak, so it's not a signal-strength problem, that's for sure.

In the days before the outage, I had been disappointed to hear DRC-FM HD-2 running its standard playlist rather than the deep Christmas oldies library that was carried on HD-2 last year during Christmas week. I'm hearing a lot of those great songs today on DRC-FM, but the HD-2 Christmas library was even deeper.

If Tom Ray is reading this ... Are songs ever added to or deleted from the HD-2 library to keep the station sounding somewhat fresh? It was a real kick hearing "High School USA" (the Hartford version, naturally) and "G.I. Blues" on the HD-2 the first few times, but I pretty much got to know the entire library in a month of listening.

Now that the FM is heading more toward the late '70s and early '80s, could it be time to work deeper late '60s and early '70s songs into the HD-2 library?