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KESZ HD2 & 3 off the air: xmitter problem or choice?

KESZ's HD2 & HD3 channels have been off the air for at least 2 days now. HD2 was back on last evening at least during the Coyotes game (close game; tough loss in a shootout), but it's _not_ on the air during tonight's game.

The primary channel's HD transmission is still working.

What gives?
 
KESZ's HD2 & HD3 channels have been off the air for at least 2 days now. HD2 was back on last evening at least during the Coyotes game (close game; tough loss in a shootout), but it's _not_ on the air during tonight's game.

The primary channel's HD transmission is still working.

What gives?

I noticed that tonight as well and since I was driving in my brother’s Tesla, I was unable to listen to the game since Teslas don’t have AM radios. It was annoying. Must have been some transmitter issues because I think the Coyotes asked for there to at least be an FM HD subchannel available for fans to listen to the game. Not everyone has an AM radio anymore.
 
KESZ's HD2 & HD3 channels have been off the air for at least 2 days now. HD2 was back on last evening at least during the Coyotes game (close game; tough loss in a shootout), but it's _not_ on the air during tonight's game.

The primary channel's HD transmission is still working.

What gives?

My initial guess (and it is just a guess) is that they want to give the fullest fidelity to the Christmas music on the analog and HD main channel. Every additional HD channel, 2, 3, and 4, lowers the bitrate of the analog programming's HD simulcast channel.
 


My initial guess (and it is just a guess) is that they want to give the fullest fidelity to the Christmas music on the analog and HD main channel. Every additional HD channel, 2, 3, and 4, lowers the bitrate of the analog programming's HD simulcast channel.

I doubt that's the case. People will still listen to their Christmas music even if it was in low-bitrate MP3. 96.9's HD subchannels were down too. Maybe iHeart is setting a no HD2/3 subchannel policy like in other markets (unless there's a lease involved like 95.5, and that's why theirs stayed on). 910 still needs some kind of FM coverage, whether it's a translator or an HD subchannel.
 
I personally hope it's a short-lived technical issue. I don't know the bandwidth requirements, but many of the songs KESZ usually plays during the Christmas music period are monaural, so it doesn't _seem_ like they'd need a lot of bandwidth. I wouldn't know whether that's part of their thinking or not, though. I refuse to listen to any all-Christmas format before the first of December, and even then I tend to listen in short snippets only, apart from on or right around Christmas itself. I have 99.9-HD3 as a preset in the car, which now has no reason to be there.

AM 910 is fine, but I'm super-far west and it turns out that my initial ability to receive that broadcast in HD was a one-night-only thing, it appears. Last night was particularly good again, but at best it kept switching in and out of HD such that I eventually turned the radio a bit so it'd stay analog. I would very much like them to either put the Coyotes games back onto HD-2, or figure out how to improve the AM broadcast coverage (I recognize that's not likely a quick, easy, or cheap thing to do even after any necessary FCC approvals are won). I struggle to understand some of the nearly-treble-free broadcast with all the noise on the analog broadcast. I don't care for 'sports talk' in the least, but I was really happy to be able to hear Coyotes games this season.
 
Any other automakers not including AM in their factory-installed "entertainment systems" now?

I think it's mostly an electric vehicle thing because the machinery in those interferes with AM. (I believe the BMW electric hybrid they have is like this as well.)
 
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