iPods will not feature HD Radio

[R.F. Burns]

Ipods don't need refrigeration, RF. They're already "cool" (couldn't resist).

Excellent Mike and so true too!!

 

[rbrucecarter5]

"Will iPods feature FM tuners? Nope."

And whose fault is that? The stations, of course! Look at what people are doing. They are listening to iPods with their personal music collection over poor quality ear buds. The stations think it is about personalities, imaging, and digital? WRONG! It is, and always has been, about the MUSIC.

 

[R.F. Burns]

"Will iPods feature FM tuners? Nope."

And whose fault is that? The stations, of course! Look at what people are doing. They are listening to iPods with their personal music collection over poor quality ear buds. The stations think it is about personalities, imaging, and digital? WRONG! It is, and always has been, about the MUSIC.

I wish I could get some of you to understand that radio is much more than a glorified jukebox. Some people fail to see radio as anything more than a music delivery service. you don't get live sports coverage on our I-Pod. You don't get live news on your I-Pod, You don't get weather, traffic or financial news on your I-Pod. Talk show, nope for I-Pods and on and on. Radio provides services which things like I-Pods and cell phones don't. I don't want to hear about what will be years from now, that's all opinion, not facts. Someday we might have matter transporters but that doesn't mean that automobile technology shouldn't advance while we wait. As for the music, radio can only play what's out there and what most people want to hear. Maybe you don't like the music played on radio, most people do. What I-Pods give a person is access to a music library where they can hear their favorite songs. There is no way a radio station will always play your favorite song every time. Only a playback device can do that. This is all very well researched.

 

[dbdigital]

"Will iPods feature FM tuners? Nope."

And whose fault is that? The stations, of course! Look at what people are doing. They are listening to iPods with their personal music collection over poor quality ear buds. The stations think it is about personalities, imaging, and digital? WRONG! It is, and always has been, about the MUSIC.

I wish I could get some of you to understand that radio is much more than a glorified jukebox. Some people fail to see radio as anything more than a music delivery service. you don't get live sports coverage on our I-Pod. You don't get live news on your I-Pod, You don't get weather, traffic or financial news on your I-Pod. Talk show, nope for I-Pods and on and on. Radio provides services which things like I-Pods and cell phones don't. I don't want to hear about what will be years from now, that's all opinion, not facts. Someday we might have matter transporters but that doesn't mean that automobile technology shouldn't advance while we wait. As for the music, radio can only play what's out there and what most people want to hear. Maybe you don't like the music played on radio, most people do. What I-Pods give a person is access to a music library where they can hear their favorite songs. There is no way a radio station will always play your favorite song every time. Only a playback device can do that. This is all very well researched.

This is true. Radio's main strength is that it can offer local content; local news, weather, sports and so forth. But for the major markets, many stations don't have it.

A good friend of mine who works for Clear Channel (he does evenings and weekends at a major market FM in the Midwest) told me that all of the CC stations which run the Smooth Jazz format are sat fed, no local content whatsoever. The only thing "local" about them is that transmitter and antenna are in the city of license. And don't fool yourself into thinking listeners can't detect the difference, they can.

As he said, listeners like the idea of someone on the radio who can actually look outside the window of the studio and see and tell them what kind of weather to expect in their town rather than just reading some National Weather Service report from a location miles away.

So metro radio needs to play that strength instead of obsessing over homogenized music and stale formats. Listeners can actually program music better using their iPods then any radio station can do.

db

 

[R.F. Burns]

"Will iPods feature FM tuners? Nope."

And whose fault is that? The stations, of course! Look at what people are doing. They are listening to iPods with their personal music collection over poor quality ear buds. The stations think it is about personalities, imaging, and digital? WRONG! It is, and always has been, about the MUSIC.

I wish I could get some of you to understand that radio is much more than a glorified jukebox. Some people fail to see radio as anything more than a music delivery service. you don't get live sports coverage on our I-Pod. You don't get live news on your I-Pod, You don't get weather, traffic or financial news on your I-Pod. Talk show, nope for I-Pods and on and on. Radio provides services which things like I-Pods and cell phones don't. I don't want to hear about what will be years from now, that's all opinion, not facts. Someday we might have matter transporters but that doesn't mean that automobile technology shouldn't advance while we wait. As for the music, radio can only play what's out there and what most people want to hear. Maybe you don't like the music played on radio, most people do. What I-Pods give a person is access to a music library where they can hear their favorite songs. There is no way a radio station will always play your favorite song every time. Only a playback device can do that. This is all very well researched.

This is true. Radio's main strength is that it can offer local content; local news, weather, sports and so forth. But for the major markets, many stations don't have it.

A good friend of mine who works for Clear Channel (he does evenings and weekends at a major market FM in the Midwest) told me that all of the CC stations which run the Smooth Jazz format are sat fed, no local content whatsoever. The only thing "local" about them is that transmitter and antenna are in the city of license. And don't fool yourself into thinking listeners can't detect the difference, they can.

As he said, listeners like the idea of someone on the radio who can actually look outside the window of the studio and see and tell them what kind of weather to expect in their town rather than just reading some National Weather Service report from a location miles away.

So metro radio needs to play that strength instead of obsessing over homogenized music and stale formats. Listeners can actually program music better using their iPods then any radio station can do.

db

I don't disagree and I hate that radio has been absorbed by a few controlling companies but who's fault is that? Is it Clear Channel or the small owner who sold their station to Clear Channel? I have friends and collegues who have lost their jobs due to consolidation. Saleries are being cut and more station are running with fewer employees. Radio isn't alone in this. It's a reflection of our entire society. When I starte work in 1978 we had nearly 50 engineers. Today there are 10 of us left and that's for a 24/7 operation with nearly 60 channels of programing. Here in NYC we have very few of the syndicated shows which don't originate in NYC outside of a few foreign language stations. Our AM & FM bands are filled with no available frequencies available. Radio is out of control due to greed and Wall Street. from a technical stand point none of this has anything to do with the fact that radio must move technologicaly into the 21 century and IBOC is part of that move. I don't know how many ways to say it, there are no open frequencies for broadcasting and all of the suggestioons I've read (about moving to abandoned TV frequencies) have already been thought of and rejected by the FCC.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

This is true. Radio's main strength is that it can offer local content; local news, weather, sports and so forth. But for the major markets, many stations don't have it.

But - if you aren't interested in local news, local weather, local sports: all of which are TALKING not MUSIC - then you don't care if it comes from an iPod or a radio station. And quality is not a driving factor either. If rim shots KNIN, KTCU, KOOI, or KMAD are playing a better song than the locals at the moment, I'll put up with diminished quality - a bit of static - until the song I like is over. I got 24 presets, usually somebody is playing something I like - if I include the rim shots. If an announcer starts droning on and on, or a commercial hits the air for something I'm not interested in, I'm GONE. Like I say - 24 presets. If I can't fill them up because everything is Spanish, talk, sports, country, or other formats I can't stand, it will be time for satellite. NOT HD radio - which offers only minor variations of formats I'm already DONE with. Even if everybody puts on an HD-2 radically different than their main stream - do the math - HD-2 might double the number of formats. In a city with 20 stations, I might get 40 formats. But with satellite, I get 160 formats. Maybe 320 once the merger takes place. Pretty good chance at least one of them will be playing a palatable song block at any given time. Less button pushing. Sure, I got to pay, but there is talk of paying for HD-2 channels. Pay for one, or pay for 300 - no brainer!!!!

But DON'T try to convince me with localism:
NEWS - somebody got shot, some celebrity acted up, everybody hates Bush - NEWS OVER
TALK - I think, I think, I think - I don't CARE what you think
SPORTS - someone won, someone lost, everybody is getting paid too much, fans show bad sportsmanship - BLAH BLAH - BORRRRR-RING (local sports - bad cell phone feed distorting and humming most of the time silent with the humming. BLEAH nobody wants to listen to that. One station even programmed two high school games - one on the left channel, one on the right channel of a stereo FM. Their instructions - turn the balance control to the game you want. I guess they REALLY need HD-2!!!!
WEATHER - that rain you just drove through and is now over has prompted a severe weather warning for your area --- if I'm in a car I darn sure know what the weather is.
TRAFFIC - the reason you are stopped in traffic is because there is a wreck in front of you that happened 30 minutes ago and is cleared --- I'm down the nearest exit ramp at the first hint of trouble, not a reason to listen to localism.

Still want to convince me "local" content is important? Do it right and maybe. Otherwise its a waste of my time, give me the MUSIC!

 

[Mike Walker]

If local content isn't important, your community isn't important. Traffic isn't important. Safety information (WHEN DRIVING) isn't important. If you don't care about "all that talk", then you deserve the local government and services you get!

Quick...name your mayor and three members of your city council? That's what I thought. The world IS going to hell in a handbasket!

 

[rbrucecarter5]

If local content isn't important, your community isn't important. Traffic isn't important. Safety information (WHEN DRIVING) isn't important. If you don't care about "all that talk", then you deserve the local government and services you get!

Quick...name your mayor and three members of your city council? That's what I thought. The world IS going to hell in a handbasket!

Mike - I drive through quiet neighborhoods to and from work. Traffic information for the freeways is a joke - it is obsolete before even broadcast, and unless continuous - if you do get behind a jam, it is too late to do anything about it. It is merely a report about why you should have trusted your first instinct and bailed off the freeway at the first sign of congestion. Traffic reports almost never report on side street issues that have the potential of being just as large a problem as freeways.

Talk radio is ENTERTAINMENT, geared to about a 13 year old mentality just like television. If they had genuine discussion of serious issues, science, astronomy, technology advances - people like myself that have more than a 13 year old brain might give it a lesson again. Sadly talk radio turns into one big argument most of the time. Programming to the least common denominator of the audience. Redneck talk. Buffoon talk. One uneducated host talking to a host of uneducated listeners. I doubt that many of them have IQ's over 80. If that is the audience they program to, that is the audience they will get. I tried NPR, but the leftist leanings of it is undesirable. I tried Howard Stern once, but you know it is really difficult to enjoy the radio when you are vomiting.

As far as local politics - I not only participate, I go to my precinct meeting after elections, thus increasing my political effectiveness 100 fold. One does not need to listen to the piddle, drivel, and swill of local talk radio to be an involved citizen.

 

[Mike Walker]

Who's talking about the "piddle and drizzle" of talk radio? I HATE CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO! While I sometimes listen to Air America, frankly (though I'm a Democrat) the yelling there gets on my nerves too. NPR is a different matter...THOUGHTFUL talk, from intelligent people. Still I wasn't talking about talk radio. Stations around here still have local news. I'm talking about stations with music formats...which still have great local news coverage. BOTH of the small AM stations in my county (Wilkes...NC) have local news directors...one of whom has been at his job since the 60s. These people KNOW their communities, and serve them. THEY attend the local school board, city council, and other meetings so you and I don't have to. I get my local news THERE, not from a station carrying Hannity or Limbaugh. If that's what you mean by the "13 year old mentality" of most talk radio, I'm with you.

Many people have probably never heard local radio done well. A shame. A personality talking about his or her experiences IN YOUR TOWN, on the streets you travel, their problems (and solutions) in the community you live in, etc...can be very "neighborly". I'm talking about in the context of a show playing music. GOOD PERSONALITIES CAN CONNECT ON A PERSONAL, LOCAL LEVEL WITH THEIR LISTENERS IN JUST A FEW SECONDS, with a few well chosen words. They can tell you that that "quiet street" isn't quiet this morning, because of an accident, or fallen tree. They can tell you that severe weather threatens. Or that the speed limit has changed ON THE STREET YOU'RE TRAVELING, so you better slow down.

Frankly, the way most local radio is done these days, you might as well be listening to your Ipod or satellite radio. But there ARE still some REAL broadcasters DOING IT RIGHT, and they're a tremendous resource to the communities they still serve.

I've spent 33 years of ALL NIGHT election coverage, NOT GOING HOME AT ALL when there's severe weather, staying at the station rather than checking on my family when there's an emergency (like Hurricane Hugo). I've talked down listeners late at night who were considering suicide, given comfort to the sick and lonely, given people a chance each Thanksgiving morning to tell what they were thankful FOR (I volunteered to work Thanksgivings just to have a chance to do that...VERY emotional stuff), helped lost critters find their way home, and been the first voice people heard...relaying emergency services information AFTER Hurricane Hugo, and the blizzard that struck our area back in the 90s. Don't tell me local radio...MY CAREER, AND MY LIFE isn't of value!

 

[rbrucecarter5]

emotional stuff), helped lost critters find their way home, and been the first voice people heard...relaying emergency services information AFTER Hurricane Hugo, and the blizzard that struck our area back in the 90s. Don't tell me local radio...MY CAREER, AND MY LIFE isn't of value!

MIke - I have stayed in a studio with a tornado making a direct path towards us - passing along up to the moment reports. Thankfully, it lifted back into the cloud a few hundred yards short of the station. Because the 350 foot tower was right behind the station, I probably would have been killed had it continued on its path. So we share the spirit of public service to our communities.

 

[Mike Walker]

I'm glad to hear that, rbruce. Radio is more than a jukebox, and it's offensive when people speak of it as nothing more.

 

[Chuck]

I'm glad to hear that, rbruce. Radio is more than a jukebox, and it's offensive when people speak of it as nothing more.

A lot of people do think of radio as a jukebox, and sometimes, that is just fine. It is entertainment most of the time, but it can be a lot more. We claim to be here to "entertain, educate and inspire." Sometimes we do that, sometimes we don't. I very well remember sitting here - live on the air - when Hurricane Rita passed directly overhead. I was sure that our self supporting tower was a goner, but it made it through just fine. You could watch it sway in the wind.

The steel building we in are sure made some really interesting creaking and groaning noises. You could feel it expand and contract as the winds shifted. It was scary. We were one of the few radio stations left on the air due to area-wide power outages. Low power has its advantages. When we lost power, things automatically switched to our UPS systems which carried us over until our emergency 15 KW generator kicked in. We never left the air. Of the few stations who were still broadcasting, most were running their usual satellite feeds. One local TV station did excellent storm coverage, until they lost power for about a day.

We ran on the generator for nearly two days, giving out shelter information, food service info, news about when you could realistically expect power to come back on, road closure info, and anything else we could get from any source we could find, including the local Amateur Radio Club.

Even though we are low power, with other stations of the air, we had greater than usual coverage due to the reduction in interference. On the second day of generator operation, the local propane company opened up especially for us so we could refill our tanks. They thought it was worthwhile to do. We got quite a bit of complementary remarks from the experience. Situations like this are a time when radio really can make a difference. There will always be a place for local information and entertainment. In the future, it may not come from a device that looks like what we know today as a radio, but it will still be a valuable service.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

A lot of people do think of radio as a jukebox, and sometimes, that is just fine. It is entertainment most of the time, but it can be a lot more. We claim to be here to "entertain, educate and inspire."

A lot of people disrespect AM - but they sure tune to AM in a hurry when they need news and information. When my sister in law was stranded in Dallas due to a hurricane hitting Houston, she sure appreciated my ability to pull in KTRH on a GE Superadio.

One aspect of HD that REALLY concerns me is the arrogant assumption that analog will be shut off - disenfrachising millions of people. The broadcasters - if they care about the public interest, simply cannot allow this to happen. I am thinking of the hurricane Katrina situation. Had this disaster happened after the shutdown of analog radio - a sizable portion of the population, which is economincally disadvantaged, would be without the only source of emergency information available - radio. And while I have your attention - if Katrina had happened after nighttime IBOC is in operation, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of refugees in cities across the South would be cut off from the only source of information about loved ones and about their community. Thinking of just the tens of thousands relocated to Dallas - WWL would have been jammed by KOA and KRVN IBOC sidebands. In Houston, by a local 880 IBOC sidebands. Try telling those Katrina refugees that nightime skywave is obsolete and unnecessary, or that they are just "hobbyists" who need to get a life and another hobby. Or try telling them that they need to buy a new HD radio at $200, when all they own is the clothes on their back. A disaster like Katrina WILL happen again, it is not a matter of if - only a matter of when. And Ibiquities radio politically correct party line will be of little comfort to the victims who will be cut off from the valuable public service of radio.

 

[Mike Walker]

I agree that it's arrogant to assume that analog will be shut off. I'll go even further. Analog SHOULD NOT BE SHUT OFF. Not until penetration of digital is nearly 100 percent, and digital is just as robust, covering just as large an area as analog in EVERY situation. In other words, decades...probably many. I'm 48. I don't think I'll see the shutoff of analog radio in my lifetime. And I don't want to. The purpose of "hybrid digital" is to allow uninterrupted analog service, while introducing new digital options. It works fine on FM. Maybe it does on AM as well (again, there are no HD stations around here...I have no clue). But if it doesn't work sufficiently well on AM, with sufficiently little compromise to existing analog service, then we need to rethink. Of coure there's bound to be SOME interference from any digital system meeting the FCC's requirements. The FCC kind of made that unavoidable when demanding an in-band, on-channel solution for both AM and FM. FM? Fine...with 200khz-wide channels, and an immunity to anything other than frequency modulation, it works out rather well. But AM, with 10khz-wide channels...already overflowing with analog audio, and little immunity to noise from environmental factors...well that may prove to be less wise.

 

[dbdigital]

Hey...wait a minute! Mike Walker.

Is this the same Mike Walker who had a talk show on KABC?
The Mike Walker who writes for the National Enquirer?
The Mike Walker who wrote the book? "Nicole Brown Simpson: Private Diary of a Life Interrupted"?

Hmm, whatever happened to him?

db

 

[tomservo]

Well I certainly applaud you guys who've stayed in studio and live in times of adversity. I wish more stations were like that. I used to think that all good local radio was gone from the big cities, and only small towns had that mom'n'pop style anymore. But the reality is even in small towns, it's a crap shoot. Here in Grenada (MS) all the stations are satellite fed as far as I can tell. I think the lone C2 country channel has local news during some dayparts, but that's it. Several of the out-of-area signals are satellited as well. In fact, the only "live local" over most of the day stations I can think of are a C class FM from Columbus and and the Supertalk Mississippi talk network outlets.

Right now all HD can do is bring us more of the same canned jukebox network programming. It wouldn't be so bad if the main channels had more original content (y'know, other than commercials).

To get back to the thread topic, I doubt HD will be integrated into any music players anytime soon. First, it's still very battery-intensive and second, the RIAA has this weird issue with making "digital" recordings, so they'd probably throw an s-fit if you could record digitally from your local station.

For the record, I don't understand why everyone has to have an iPod. Apple sells people a Geo Metro wrapped in Lexus skin and people go ga-ga over it.

My ugly as a brick (and just as heavy) iRiver from around 2003 plays anything you put on it, whether you bought it or home-made it (as I will always do). It's got a color screen, can display pics and text docs... Oh, it has FM and records, too. Even has a built-in mic. (Had I bought it earlier, it would have had an optical input, but they phased that out for some reason... )

 

[Mike Walker]

All HD CAN provide? It CAN provide LOTS of new, exciting programming choices. If it doesn't in your area, it's the fault of the stations, NOT the technology.

We've got some interesting offerings around here...music formats not available on analog main channels, extra talk services on HD2, etc.

 

[tomservo]

My mistake. "IS" providing, currently.

(And as you may remember, there are no HD stations in my area, not for about 90+ miles in any direction.)

 

[dbdigital]

Well with the iPhone's debut less than 4 days away, rumors are flying fast and furious as to what is next.

Supposedly Apple and Mercedes are planning on developing something like the iPhone for their cars. Apple is reportedly going to come out with a lower cost iPhone. iPod peripherals manufacturers are making recharging iPhone docks for the car which will also enable web radio and personal music to play through an iPod-connecting stereo. And, of course, a whole slew of iPhone wannabes are coming out with competing products.

So maybe Seth Godin has it right: an FCC broadcast license will be worthless in a few years.

db