louisNatl asks, What Will Save the AM Band?

[EbolaMonkey]

Pristine uncompressed "wave" files can be directly sent over the internet and downloaded with NO loss in quality!

That's absolutely true. So cough up an air check, David.

I want to hear some robust AM stereo IBOC.

 

[hipporadio]

[1]: The FCC chose Magnavox as THE AM stereo system in 1980.
[2]: IF the other proponents had not said anything and left the decision to stand, improvements would probably have been made...
[3]: Leonard Kahn simply put the final nail in the coffin.
[4]: I can't blame the FCC.

[On point #1] You are CORRECT... The FCC did-indeed choose Magnavox – much to the dismay of 99% of the AM radio operators [we were one of them]; and 25-years after-the-fact, I have yet to get a summary answer as to why. The system paled to its competition in every-imaginable comparative technical lexicon. Allegedly, it was field-tested on only one station – by Magnavox, in their back-yard, at WOWO Ft. Wayne, IN [GM/Delco disputes this - citing their own tests on backyard-AM WIOU Kokomo, IN - but that station’s DA was so “problematic and prohibitive” that it could not pass the outputs of the remaining non-ISB systems (Motorola and Harris)]. GM/Delco later joined very few in supporting the flawed Magnavox system... Interesting, given their competitive status with Mo-la [who manufactured car radios for rival Ford Motors].

In point #2, you are inferring that system-competitors and the industry had no right to participate in the process – WRONG! The AM-stereo initiative was a formal FCC Proposed Rulemaking [with advisory and comment request] and Report and Order [which are routinely-challenged post facto on a multitude of matters beyond just AM-stereo]. Why should-have thousands of potential parties just “left the decision to stand” [as you say]. The overwhelming majority of these parties were AM operators who recognized the opportunity for vital band-improvement given a prudent system choice.

One, was my first employer – a leading AC AM; Top-40 FM; and NBC-affiliated TV combo indirectly-owned and commercially-operated by a prominent and prestigious university. Given the scope of that operation, there was no shortage of technical talent in the building. The CE, ACE [over radio], and designated radio technician [ALL THREE] were active ham-radio operators; and had a strong background in, and affinity for, AM-mode operation. They had a new STEREO control room occupied by the AM station; an audio-chain that was STEREO right up to the final CRL modulation limiter; and a six-month-old Collins/Continental “Power Rock” AM transmitter waiting for a “green light” from the FCC. I will not forget that fateful morning when news of the Magnavox choice arrived. ALL THREE were shocked into near-disbelief. My boss [the Radio Manager – a “sales-type”] summed this perplexing situation up with the humorous analogy: “If anyone could find a way to make bad sex seem exciting – it would be the FCC”. What was far-less humorous is that this station [and many others] never converted to AM-stereo!

As for making “improvements to the system” – there were few [if any] possible. Inherent in the Magnavox design was a limitation on peak negative modulation to a laughable 75%! To exceed it would invite hideous distortion to the demodulated stereo signal. Remember, we are discussing a medium known as AMPLITUDE Modulation!

As for “the eccentric Mr. Kahn”... Your ascertain that he “put the final nail in the coffin” might be relevant so long as you admit the fact that coffin was sealed and headed for lower-earth before his truly-adversarial and desperate legal compunctions commenced - following the FCC’s THIRD attempt to “dispose” of the AM-stereo issue [by undoing its earlier “marketplace decision” policy] a FULL DECADE AFTER the debate began. Before that point, he was a legitimate party with an interest – and not the only party with such. Remember, this is a man who had been knocking on the FCC’s door about matters regarding AM-stereo since the 1960s! As I detailed above, his activities leading to the initial Report and Order were little-different from those employed by all the system contenders. After the RaO, he pursued a common course to question such – so did Motorola, Harris [although more shyly due to their prominence as an equipment manufacturer], HUNDREDS of AM station licensees, the NTIA [within the White House], and even Public Radio. If you can accept that the regulatory process need be open; offer fair access to all affected parties with business before it; and accept the charge of accountability for its actions – you cannot in any responsible way malign or “blame” Mr. Kahn. To suggest such is yet another sterling example of broadcast industry arrogance! I only wish that Mr. Kahn had reserved some of his interest and notorious tenacity for the latter-90s digital radio debate. Had he been “a factor” then, I suspect iNiquity and IBOC “HD Radio” would not be now.

Finally, “not blaming the FCC” is an idealistic personal emotion [verses a fact at issue], so to comment would merely be another opinion. If you cannot find cause to blame them [and I do] – so be it – but understand that they shoulder much responsibility for procedural misbehavior and regulatory “laziness”. I count no-less that three major “flip-frops” on a vital issue that should have been empirically-judged on an emotion-free stone-cold technical lexicon. They clearly did not pursue that course, and they failed miserably to regulate [lead] by example.

What may be the saddest outcome of the infamous AM-stereo debacle, is the embarrassment it caused the FCC plus the resulting confusion and precedent it set - and one iNiquity quickly-seized upon - to eliminate an FCC-directed invitation, comparison, and final-word decision on radio’s digital future. Don’t dismiss, for the briefest of moments, iNiquity’s cagey perception that the FCC’s reluctance to accept “propriety” [and repeat the mistakes of the past] play right into their-own surreptitious favor! Indeed, history [and the mistakes of the past] ARE rerunning themselves with the clockwork of a TV sitcom in summer!

 

[rwagoner]

Hearing “HD” on 600 KOGO in Long Beach isn’t exactly an illustrative reception testimonial! It’s near the lowest-edge of the AM band with 5kw - further-boosted by a DA and salt-water path right toward the location of your HDT-1. I remember sitting poolside at the Hyatt at I-405 and Jamboree in Irvine hearing KOGO on a Sangean DT-200V “Walkman-style” radio sounding every-bit as “local” as any LA 50kw “clear”! I guess the C Crane HDT-1 “LA field test” occurred further inland.

You're right about the saltwater being helpful (though where I live is not near the beach at all), but the 405 and Jamboree in Irvine is about 40+ miles closer to KOGO than I am ... almost half the distance from my house to KOGO itself, and probably closer than the LA stations. No wonder it sounded as local: It WAS! Maybe more.

 

[SUPERCASTER]

I meant to also mention that I have no doubt that internet audio can sound better than HD radio. What I was trying to say was that I didn't think posting an HD audio file online would sound the SAME as the original product because of conflicting codecs so it wouldn't be an accurate representation of the original.

HD radio's codecs are not "an accurate representation of the original" either, and many internet radio stations are adopting the same improved (over MP3) codec HD radio uses, (aacPLUS) sometimes at higher bitrates, while HD FM is lowering bitrates and digital fidelity to accommodate additional HD2, HD3, (etc.) channels as well as more data and pay to listen HD channels. With HD radio the fidelity can only stay the same or get worse, while on the internet fidelity is improving rapidly using newer codecs such as aacPLUS, and as more listeners get higher and higher broadband speeds and better wireless services.
www.tuner2.com

 

[semoochie]

Regarding my point of letting the Magnavox decision stand: I was not inferring anything. It was intended as a hindsight observation that if the decision was left to stand, it wouldn't have slowed acceptance of the technology at a time when there was still enough interest among the public in AM receivers that would allow for some technical improvement. As I recall, the reason for the FCC's Marketplace Decision was because they couldn't find enough evidence of one superior system. All 5 had plusses and minusses. On top of that, Leonard Kahn threatened to sue. When I said, I didn't blame the FCC, I was talking about various moves made by the commission, attempting to help FM get on its feet and encourage competition. If they hadn't done these things, the fledgling technology may very well have gone on forever as it always had or simply died! There's no way that the FCC could have known they would be THAT successful! One of these moves was to authorize FM stereo but not AM stereo in 1961, saying that the mature band didn't need the help and at that time, they certainly did not!

 

[SUPERCASTER]

Regarding my point of letting the Magnavox decision stand: I was not inferring anything. It was intended as a hindsight observation that if the decision was left to stand, it wouldn't have slowed acceptance of the technology at a time when there was still enough interest among the public in AM receivers that would allow for some technical improvement. As I recall, the reason for the FCC's Marketplace Decision was because they couldn't find enough evidence of one superior system. All 5 had plusses and minusses. On top of that, Leonard Kahn threatened to sue. When I said, I didn't blame the FCC, I was talking about various moves made by the commission, attempting to help FM get on its feet and encourage competition. If they hadn't done these things, the fledgling technology may very well have gone on forever as it always had or simply died! There's no way that the FCC could have known they would be THAT successful! One of these moves was to authorize FM stereo but not AM stereo in 1961, saying that the mature band didn't need the help and at that time, they certainly did not!

Leonard Kahn had not yet completed inventing and patenting AM stereo in 1961. So it did not yet exist. There was no need for an FCC decision to reject AM stereo that did not yet exist.