My letter to Douglas MacMillan of Businessweek

[Mike Walker]

Mr. MacMillan,

Contrary to your review, the Accurian DOES have an auxilary output. The headphone jack works GREAT as an aux output, and in fact the level is more typical of the "line out" on portable cd players than most headphone jacks. I'd submit it doesn't have a proper headphone output, but DOES have a proper auxiliary output.

I NEVER listen to my Accurian via it's speakers. NEVER. It is connected to my stereo system and (via a "y" adapter) to a headphone amplifier. The sound quality is MAGNIFICENT when the station's sound is up to it. Listen for yourself. Here's a recording I made from MY Accurian on some of the HD stations near my house (in rural Northwest NC, up to 80 miles from some of the stations you'll hear). http://www.theproductionroom.net/hd.wma

The Accurian may be "inadequate" at 200 bucks. At the 99 dollars (after rebate) many of us gave, it's a freakin' steal! The fact that you got "near cd quality sound" on a couple of stations proves that it's NOT THE RADIO'S FAULT! I've worked in radio for 33 years, and I KNOW what good audio sounds like straight off the mixing console (before it goes through any transmission equipment, travels through the air, and is received and degraded by the radio). It sounds like this!

Mike Walker
Boomer, NC, USA

 

[PocketRadio]

Here is what I sent him on 4/9/07, including about 25 other HD Radio reporters in the past:

To: [email protected]

Douglas,

There are problems with reception for all HD radios. It would be nice to see some print to include the real behind-the-scenes issues with HD Radio. After a year of heavy promotions by the HD Radio Alliance, consumers have little interest in HD Radio:

"HD Radio Effort Undermined by Weak Tuners in Expensive Radios"

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/7002/hd-radio2.html

“Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check”

“While interest in satellite radio is diminishing, interest in HD shows no signs of a pulse.”

http://www.hear2.com/2007/02/sirius_xm_and_h.html

"Is Pay-for-Play HD Content on Horizon?"

http://rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.4028.html

“HD Radio on the Offense”

“But after an investigation of HD Radio units, the stations playing HD, and the company that owns the technology; and some interviews with the wonks in DC, it looks like HD Radio is a high-level corporate scam, a huge carny shill.”

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-03-07/music/hd-radio-on-the-offense

"The FCC Tunes Into HD Radio--And May Turn Off Distant AM"

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2007/03/the_fcc_greenlights_hd_radio_n.html

“RW Opinion: Rethinking AM’s future”

“Making AM-HD work well as a long-term investment is seen as an expensive and risky challenge for most stations and their owners. There is the significant downside of potential new interference to some of their own AM analog listeners as well as listeners of adjacent-channel stations.”

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html

The FCC has just given away our free airwaves to a few corporate thugs, including iBiquity Digital Corporation. Especially on AM, HD/IBOC causes adjacent-channel interference, which I have confirmed listening to WTWP 1500 AM-HD in Wash., D.C. - the HD/IBOC digital sidebands are over-powering on 1490 and 1510 and would clobber any existing stations on those frequencies. Few HD radios have been sold, as consumers have not bought into this farce. This whole setup is just to the advantage of the HD Radio Alliance, as they own most of the 1,200 stations broadcasting in HD - the small mom-and-pop stations have lost coverage and will probably disappear. This FCC sole-source, non-competitive contract award to iBiquity is totally outrageous.

 

[R.F. Burns]

Here is what I sent him on 4/9/07, including about 25 other HD Radio reporters in the past:

To: [email protected]

Douglas,

There are problems with reception for all HD radios. It would be nice to see some print to include the real behind-the-scenes issues with HD Radio. After a year of heavy promotions by the HD Radio Alliance, consumers have little interest in HD Radio:

"HD Radio Effort Undermined by Weak Tuners in Expensive Radios"

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/7002/hd-radio2.html

“Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check”

“While interest in satellite radio is diminishing, interest in HD shows no signs of a pulse.”

http://www.hear2.com/2007/02/sirius_xm_and_h.html

"Is Pay-for-Play HD Content on Horizon?"

http://rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.4028.html

“HD Radio on the Offense”

“But after an investigation of HD Radio units, the stations playing HD, and the company that owns the technology; and some interviews with the wonks in DC, it looks like HD Radio is a high-level corporate scam, a huge carny shill.”

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-03-07/music/hd-radio-on-the-offense

"The FCC Tunes Into HD Radio--And May Turn Off Distant AM"

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2007/03/the_fcc_greenlights_hd_radio_n.html

“RW Opinion: Rethinking AM’s future”

“Making AM-HD work well as a long-term investment is seen as an expensive and risky challenge for most stations and their owners. There is the significant downside of potential new interference to some of their own AM analog listeners as well as listeners of adjacent-channel stations.”

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html

The FCC has just given away our free airwaves to a few corporate thugs, including iBiquity Digital Corporation. Especially on AM, HD/IBOC causes adjacent-channel interference, which I have confirmed listening to WTWP 1500 AM-HD in Wash., D.C. - the HD/IBOC digital sidebands are over-powering on 1490 and 1510 and would clobber any existing stations on those frequencies. Few HD radios have been sold, as consumers have not bought into this farce. This whole setup is just to the advantage of the HD Radio Alliance, as they own most of the 1,200 stations broadcasting in HD - the small mom-and-pop stations have lost coverage and will probably disappear. This FCC sole-source, non-competitive contract award to iBiquity is totally outrageous.

True, if the WRKL filing with the FCC is any indication of what small station filings about IBOCs so called destructive behavoir will look like, these stations will be in big trouble. In a quick reading I found more holes in their complaint than I did during a trip to my local Duncan Doughnuts shop.