I can confirm WFMF and WYNK have began broadcastong in HD. My kenwood deck locks onto them in Lafayette with no problem and very few dropouts. I have an older HD radio receiver that dosent do multicasting so I cant comment there.
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HD radio on the air in Baton Rouge
- Thread starter Fieldtech1
- Start date
I noticed FMF wasn't as processed as much as they previously were. It just may have something to do with the HD thing, but I can't see how -- unless they're just trying to make the analog signal sound like a digital signal. Nice try, but it isn't going to work, so crank that processing back up!
Honestly, I like the extra compression they had before. It gave the music a different feel; a different dimension that you just can't get with anything else. If I wanted that "clean" sound, I'd pop in a CD.
Now, it's just a tad bit under processed. They're not modulating enough now. I used to have that problem with a few N.O. stations here in Laplace, but now, BR is doing it. So where I'm at, I have to turn my volume up due to lack of loudness and all I hear is the weakenss of the signal come and go, especially if I'm in a vehicle.
The crispy, more open sound might be the way to go nowdays, but the problem with that is loss of decent modulation. When they back off on compression, they lose loudness too, therefore making everyone turn their volume up more. More radio volume = higher noise levels. For instance, if you're moving about or not in the city limits, you get a weaker signal -- and you'll notice the imperfections of the signal more 'cause you have your volume up higher.
Sam
Honestly, I like the extra compression they had before. It gave the music a different feel; a different dimension that you just can't get with anything else. If I wanted that "clean" sound, I'd pop in a CD.
Now, it's just a tad bit under processed. They're not modulating enough now. I used to have that problem with a few N.O. stations here in Laplace, but now, BR is doing it. So where I'm at, I have to turn my volume up due to lack of loudness and all I hear is the weakenss of the signal come and go, especially if I'm in a vehicle.
The crispy, more open sound might be the way to go nowdays, but the problem with that is loss of decent modulation. When they back off on compression, they lose loudness too, therefore making everyone turn their volume up more. More radio volume = higher noise levels. For instance, if you're moving about or not in the city limits, you get a weaker signal -- and you'll notice the imperfections of the signal more 'cause you have your volume up higher.
Sam
Sam, I here what your saying, FMF had some of the most unique loudest processing Ive heard on any station ive heard in the U.S. They litteraly could blow the speakers out the door of my vehicle. Even on radios with crap speakers the audio sounded punchy. Their Iboc audio sounds un processed at all, and you can hear a noticable audio difference between the analog and digital signals.
It just may have something to do with the HD thing
One of the requirements of HD is that the analog audio path be delayed to match the HD audio -- with the idea that when your HD car radio goes through a momentary signal fade, the radio can seamlessly switch back to analog. When budgeting for a new, complex, and usually obscenely expensive HD upgrade, many stations also specify a new-generation processor that has separate processing for analog and HD, along with built-in path delays. Usually other STL or transmitter plant upgrades are also tossed in.
My point is that while I'm not privy to what CC/BR installed (or took out), I suspect they will be in the middle of a lot of de-bugging, adjustment and knob-fiddling for some time. I just made a quick scan of the 100.7/101.5/102.5/103.3 part of the band, and it all sounds like LOUD (compressed) radio to me.
E
Emarti
Guest
Glad to hear HD radio in Red Stick.
I imagine the conversion to HD radio will really pick up after the digital TV deadline.
I was reading the FCC's 3rd directive on digital television from this past April 07 and I really think radio managers, engineers and on-air can get a great insight into the FCC's thinking by following what they are doing with TV signals.
Some of the encouraging, interesting things I noted in their last DTV statement:
FCC says with the congressionally mandated hard deadline of 2/17/09 for ceasing all analog TV signals in the core spectrum, they would be inclined to allow TV stations to power down their analog signals ahead of time, they would also allow stations from channels 51-69 to turn off their analog signals in favor of digital to facilitate the hand over of those frequencies for both government/emergency communications and the auction for cell phone/communications companies and such. They said the only reason they would not accept a station between 51-69 turning off analog before the 2/17/09 deadline would be if there were no other TV stations serving a very remote area. I'm guessing that would mean locations in Alaska and some Western states.
The FCC indicated that with the Congressional mandate, they would be strongly inclined to overlook any past laws or regulations that would keep analog TV broadcasts. They seem to indicate that they would be a lot more flexible with TV stations that want to power down or turn off analog in favor of providing digital signals especially as the deadline approaches.
The FCC said that as of now applications for extensions will be put under much more intense scrutiny. They issued a strong warning to all TV stations saying that if they haven't started making preparations for their DTV signals, they had better start soon. That 2/17/09 deadline is now <589 days away.
They said they have received requests from TV stations for expansion of their DTV signals, but they would wait until 2/17/09 before approving any expansion applications. I don't know if they mean tower or power increases or if they mean that TV stations would have more than one HD signal instead of one HD signal and a few SD signals.
I'm sure they'll conduct field tests and such in the days and weeks after 2/17/09 and then move forward with those applications for expansion.
They also indicated that they would proceed with low power TV stations transition after 2/17/09 as well.
They seem to want to finish with the TV transition first before moving to radio. Seems logical.
I found some of the excuses that some TV stations submitted to be quite lame, such as the Lake Charles TV station that claimed they couldn't find any engineers to do the work.
Other stations were blaming Harris for not delivering equipment in time claiming it would be several months of waiting.
I didn't want to dredge up an earlier thread from a few months ago here but to update that info about La DTV:
5KALB: my friends in Cenla say that the Harris equipment they bought allows them to broadcast HD in either 5.1 KALB NBC or 5.2 KALB CBS, but NEVER AT THE SAME TIME. What they did was during the last Superbowl they took off the HD from NBC and switched it to CBS 5.2. My friends say they did not switch the audio, just the picture and 2 minutes into the HD program following the Superbowl, channel 5 pulled the plug and put the HD back on NBC. Great. Now those morons have equipment they can use for 4 hours ever 3 or 4 years. My friends also tell my that channel 5 constantly forgets to "turn on" their HD signal. Sometimes 15 minutes into a program the show suddenly becomes HD. They say at least twice last week 5KALB forgot to turn on the HD for the Nightly News which made it's debut in March.
In other words KALB CANNOT broadcast both NBC HD and CBS HD at the same time. NO PROGRAM ON 5.2 KALB CBS HAS AIRED IN HD SINCE THE SUPERBOWL.
What's even more stupid about their decision to remove their weather subchannel in favor of CBS is that everyone I know in Rapides and Avoyelles parishes claims they get a STRONG signal from 10 KLFY Lafayette.
My peeps around Alexandria say that 31 KLAX's SD signal is so weak that they have never seen it.
11 KAQY Columbia has an HD signal but they are still either not on full power yet or something.
3KATC still hasn't finished with their tower work or whatever, but when they do come on, they'll fill a need for ABC HD programming which is not being met in Cenla, South Central and Southwest Louisiana.
2WBRZ should also consider what the FCC says about powering down analog, moving side mounted antenna, to top mounted. Right now 2WBRZ and 9 WAFB seem to be pushing fewer digital watts than a hair dryer.
33WVLA has a pretty strong signal that even reaches Cenla from BR, providing some relief from 5KALB.
There is a CW affiliate in Shreveport 21KPXJ that has been allowed by the FCC, due to their circumstances, to go totally digital as they no longer broadcast an analog signal. They have a strong signal that folks in Cenla can pick up.
I'm too disgusted with the lame excuses of New Orleans TV stations to the FCC to even discuss them except to say that channel 13 Biloxi ABC is HD with 2 subchannels.
Analog is heading for extinction and I'm glad. The FCC has been learning and refining their DTV conversion along the way the last few years, but by the time that they focus on HD radio in the future, it'll be a lot smoother.
There might be a few TV stations with weak ownership that will just turn over their license to the FCC instead of going digital--good riddance. We need TV and radio stations that serve the community, not worry about quarterly profits for apathetic shareholders in other states.
I imagine the conversion to HD radio will really pick up after the digital TV deadline.
I was reading the FCC's 3rd directive on digital television from this past April 07 and I really think radio managers, engineers and on-air can get a great insight into the FCC's thinking by following what they are doing with TV signals.
Some of the encouraging, interesting things I noted in their last DTV statement:
FCC says with the congressionally mandated hard deadline of 2/17/09 for ceasing all analog TV signals in the core spectrum, they would be inclined to allow TV stations to power down their analog signals ahead of time, they would also allow stations from channels 51-69 to turn off their analog signals in favor of digital to facilitate the hand over of those frequencies for both government/emergency communications and the auction for cell phone/communications companies and such. They said the only reason they would not accept a station between 51-69 turning off analog before the 2/17/09 deadline would be if there were no other TV stations serving a very remote area. I'm guessing that would mean locations in Alaska and some Western states.
The FCC indicated that with the Congressional mandate, they would be strongly inclined to overlook any past laws or regulations that would keep analog TV broadcasts. They seem to indicate that they would be a lot more flexible with TV stations that want to power down or turn off analog in favor of providing digital signals especially as the deadline approaches.
The FCC said that as of now applications for extensions will be put under much more intense scrutiny. They issued a strong warning to all TV stations saying that if they haven't started making preparations for their DTV signals, they had better start soon. That 2/17/09 deadline is now <589 days away.
They said they have received requests from TV stations for expansion of their DTV signals, but they would wait until 2/17/09 before approving any expansion applications. I don't know if they mean tower or power increases or if they mean that TV stations would have more than one HD signal instead of one HD signal and a few SD signals.
I'm sure they'll conduct field tests and such in the days and weeks after 2/17/09 and then move forward with those applications for expansion.
They also indicated that they would proceed with low power TV stations transition after 2/17/09 as well.
They seem to want to finish with the TV transition first before moving to radio. Seems logical.
I found some of the excuses that some TV stations submitted to be quite lame, such as the Lake Charles TV station that claimed they couldn't find any engineers to do the work.
Other stations were blaming Harris for not delivering equipment in time claiming it would be several months of waiting.
I didn't want to dredge up an earlier thread from a few months ago here but to update that info about La DTV:
5KALB: my friends in Cenla say that the Harris equipment they bought allows them to broadcast HD in either 5.1 KALB NBC or 5.2 KALB CBS, but NEVER AT THE SAME TIME. What they did was during the last Superbowl they took off the HD from NBC and switched it to CBS 5.2. My friends say they did not switch the audio, just the picture and 2 minutes into the HD program following the Superbowl, channel 5 pulled the plug and put the HD back on NBC. Great. Now those morons have equipment they can use for 4 hours ever 3 or 4 years. My friends also tell my that channel 5 constantly forgets to "turn on" their HD signal. Sometimes 15 minutes into a program the show suddenly becomes HD. They say at least twice last week 5KALB forgot to turn on the HD for the Nightly News which made it's debut in March.
In other words KALB CANNOT broadcast both NBC HD and CBS HD at the same time. NO PROGRAM ON 5.2 KALB CBS HAS AIRED IN HD SINCE THE SUPERBOWL.
What's even more stupid about their decision to remove their weather subchannel in favor of CBS is that everyone I know in Rapides and Avoyelles parishes claims they get a STRONG signal from 10 KLFY Lafayette.
My peeps around Alexandria say that 31 KLAX's SD signal is so weak that they have never seen it.
11 KAQY Columbia has an HD signal but they are still either not on full power yet or something.
3KATC still hasn't finished with their tower work or whatever, but when they do come on, they'll fill a need for ABC HD programming which is not being met in Cenla, South Central and Southwest Louisiana.
2WBRZ should also consider what the FCC says about powering down analog, moving side mounted antenna, to top mounted. Right now 2WBRZ and 9 WAFB seem to be pushing fewer digital watts than a hair dryer.
33WVLA has a pretty strong signal that even reaches Cenla from BR, providing some relief from 5KALB.
There is a CW affiliate in Shreveport 21KPXJ that has been allowed by the FCC, due to their circumstances, to go totally digital as they no longer broadcast an analog signal. They have a strong signal that folks in Cenla can pick up.
I'm too disgusted with the lame excuses of New Orleans TV stations to the FCC to even discuss them except to say that channel 13 Biloxi ABC is HD with 2 subchannels.
Analog is heading for extinction and I'm glad. The FCC has been learning and refining their DTV conversion along the way the last few years, but by the time that they focus on HD radio in the future, it'll be a lot smoother.
There might be a few TV stations with weak ownership that will just turn over their license to the FCC instead of going digital--good riddance. We need TV and radio stations that serve the community, not worry about quarterly profits for apathetic shareholders in other states.
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