I took the plunge and bought an HD radio

[bigtom101]

I honestly don't believe that HD Radio is the "savior" of anything - let alone terrestrial radio. Neither is webstreaming or interactive. It's all about compelling content and entertainment, something that may radio stations in both major and minor markets have forgotten. I like HD because in my opinion it sounds better when properly installed and processed - no more preemphasis on the highs and worrying about mod levels. Multicast channels provide more content (I like hearing jazz on some local HD-2's), and I do listen to the NYC CBS AM stations on the FM subs since AM reception in my truck is crap (electrical system is noisy) and AM sound quality on anything but a mod monitor is crap. I work at a AM station, and the only time it sounds decent is when I'm listening to the off air mod monitor - on every other consumer radio it's just blech. Would it have been better for a DAB Eureka-147 style of digital broadcasting? Hell yes - but the gov't didn't want to give up any spectrum for it. So this is the system we have, for better or worse - it will either get better and take off like FM did in the 1970's or tit will fail like AM stereo and fade away into the sunset.

As far as AM HD DX, I was using a Grundig tuneable loop with the Sony hd radio, and WBZ would lock, stay locked for a few mins, unlock for a few, then lock again depending on the skywave fading.

 

[Savage]

Amen to the "content is everything" sentiment, bigtom. I believe the IBOC mess will sort itself out. IMO it's already happening, and I appreciate various posters here will interpret events according to their own beliefs.

Predicting the future is always hazardous. Which I why I like to do it. Heck, I must like risk-taking: I own an AM station, after all. But I think that IBOC is gonna get their -14 dBc, and they may well even get -10 dBc in select cases. So: iBiquity and the Alliance will get their way at the Commission, once again.

And guess what? I don't think it will matter. A few show-horse stations plus pubcasters whose gear will be paid for by federal grants will crank up the digital. In the end it won't improve digital reception much but will make adjacent-channel and self-interference problems far worse. And on the AM side, the IBOC exciters will continue to wink off, one by one, until only a couple dozen Alliance interferors are still using the buzzsaw.

By 2013 or maybe a little earlier, IBOC will have settled into a role as the alternate-program system for NPR affiliates and a ghetto for niche, brokered and alternative formats in major markets on some of the bigger group stations. HD Radios will be, outside of pubcaster listeners, about as common as SCA receivers are today among consumers.

The growth in radio will be in alternate platforms like webcasting and cell/personal devices. In media, the long-term strategy is: attack yourself. Get your product out there where the folks already exist instead of trying to gin up demand for a pet system. Refer to the TV model: local affiliates available on cable, satellite, the web and cell/personal.

 

[Tom Wells]

Can't wait for the decepticons to wink off on AM....And when all the local market minded people evacuate MW, there will be room
for those with intention to serve wider areas, and hopefully room to shoe-horn in 10w neighborhood services that are now 100w pt 15s.

I must give thanks to WGN for having the great good sense to be one of the first to say phooey on the emperor's new clothes.
They are now my primary Chicago radio choice.

 

[Carmine5]

I think it's interesting that we're seeing a technology which, after nearly 7 years, is still trying to find its way, its place in consumer electronics--where every single HD Radio sold is considered a victory. Ibiquity is trumpeting that HD Radio has, by now, sold over a million units (according to Eric Rhoads' blog). And how long did it take Apple to sell one million iPods? A year and a half after its introduction in 2001.

But I suspect HD Radio will be around for a long time either as a niche product or as a very slow growth item, its highest growth potential being in cars.

A bigger concern that I have is the FCC's attitude toward the broadcast industry. One poster here said that the agency is run by lawyers not engineers to which I would add that it is also run by people who have little affinity for broadcasters. Witness this "Cash for Spectrum" idea and the hastily cobbled together comment period for it. The FCC has seriously proposed putting an entire city's worth of TV stations on a small handful of transmitters, all running SD only signals--effectively marginalizing a once proud industry.

Don't think the Commission, instead of offering Ch. 5 & 6 to broadcasters (which will be auctioned off for other services), won't propose that AM, impacted FM stations and LPFM stations lease HD Radio side channels from competing broadcasters.

Hey this is my 666th post. Good thing I'm not superstitious.

c5

 

[Savage]

I don't think that AM generates much interest for the FCC to auction off. The propagation characteristics at MW frequencies don't lend the band to other uses very well. And the whole band comprises only a tiny chunk of spectrum. I would assume the FCC and Congress would view AM with, if anything at all, benign neglect.

 

[Carmine5]

I don't think that AM generates much interest for the FCC to auction off. The propagation characteristics at MW frequencies don't lend the band to other uses very well. And the whole band comprises only a tiny chunk of spectrum. I would assume the FCC and Congress would view AM with, if anything at all, benign neglect.

This is true, Bob. From that standpoint AM radio is safe. And anyway, none of the phone companies, the current darlings of the FCC, have expressed any interest in the MW band.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

But I suspect HD Radio will be around for a long time either as a niche product or as a very slow growth item, its highest growth potential being in cars.

The HD advocates "won", they know it, and that is why they aren't on here any more. We are stuck with it - they got what they wanted, and the decline and destruction of free, over the air radio had begun. I am not a conspiracy advocate, but if I was, I would think that was the plan all along - moving from a free model to a pay per performance model, so the stations can pay off the copyright nazis.

 

[Carmine5]

But I suspect HD Radio will be around for a long time either as a niche product or as a very slow growth item, its highest growth potential being in cars.

the decline and destruction of free, over the air radio had begun.

This definitely seems to be the case. If you've had a chance to look at the FCC's border topics agenda with Mexico, you may find this statement interesting:

“claimed harmful interference to Mexican radio stations allegedly caused by the temporary operation of U.S. stations using the IBOC system”

Take out the "weasel" words and you can see that Mexico clearly believes IBOC is causing interference to their stations along the border. I can just picture a retaliatory return of the border blasters until the FCC orders offending stations to shut off HD Radio.

http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/agree/files/mex_hlcc09/bilissue.pdf

c5

 

[Savage]

"La Frontera" is once again stalked by the ghosts of Dr. John Brinkley and Norman "Cancer is Cured!" Baker. The Mexican FCC let these medico-radio quacks establish powerful border stations about 5 feet away from Texas back in the 1930s as 500kw bargaining cards to keep in their vest pockets. Eventually their shenanigans led to the great reallocation barn dance of 1941, which formally gave clear channels to the Mexicans, expanded the US MW band from 1500 to 1600, and shifted most US stations 30 kc.

This time around, though, it's hard to imagine the Mexicans having enough bargaining power to get our lawyer-driven FCC to order IBOC off on a handful of border FMs. For AM, though, here's some advice to my Mexican friends: consider dusting off XER and XERA! Maybe we can get IBOC-AM off, after all!

(Just stay away from 1040.....please......)

 

[Carmine5]

"La Frontera" is once again stalked by the ghosts of Dr. John Brinkley and Norman "Cancer is Cured!" Baker. The Mexican FCC let these medico-radio quacks establish powerful border stations about 5 feet away from Texas back in the 1930s as 500kw bargaining cards to keep in their vest pockets.

Or how about the phony "reverends" who sold prayer cloths and similar items.

Of course, if the Wolfman were still with us it would be a fun blast to the past to hear him on his old XERB "The Big 1090" (not to mention 1080, 1070 and 1100, 1110 ) out of Baja.

c5

 

[Savage]

Only if "Wolfman" Bob Smith and HD Radio both come back from the dead.....