Not even Bob Struble is promoting “HD” AM these days!

[radioskeptic]

In his latest column on Iniquity’s web site, Bob Struble offers his list of “The Top Ten Things Radio Leaders Can Do to Drive the HD Radio Rollout” – and every one of his suggestions deals with FM (primarily HD-2’s and -3’s), not AM.

(See http://www.ibiquity.com/about_us/bobs_column_thoughts_on_radios_digital_future.)

Aside from the usual meme (“AM/FM cannot be the last analog medium in a fully digital world...”), he doesn’t mention AM at all!

Is reality finally setting in at the Columbia, MD bunker?

Bob notes in passing that he used to work for CBS. Did he perhaps get the Iniquity gig through his old CBS contacts?

(Note: He mentioned his CBS background in connection with the David Letterman show ‘s Top Ten lists, though that feature originated when Dave was still on NBC, following Johnny Carson. So much for Iniquity’s sense of broadcast history!)

 

[Savage]

Is it even possible to buy an AM HD radio any more? AFAIK the field has dwindled to a COBY brick radio, the Insignia (which is getting RAVE reviews for build quality :) and car aftermarket units. (So it would appear that the HD marketing perps have resorted to targeting people who buy their audio products at CVS and RiteAid, and/or drywall installer-stoners driving rusted-out pickups.)

skeptic asks if "reality has set in" in Columbia, MD. Yeahhh. Whaddya YOU think?

 

[local oscillator]

Struble is becoming more pathetic by the day. He has gone from purveyor of junk science to someone just flat-out groveling to keep his job alive.

My favorite quote in his "Thoughts on Radio's Digital Future" is: "80% of all radio listening is happening on HD Radio stations." Riiigght! And 99.9999999999% of it is in analog. Funny stuff.

 

[pqgeorge]

In his latest column on Iniquity’s web site, Bob Struble offers his list of “The Top Ten Things Radio Leaders Can Do to Drive the HD Radio Rollout” – and every one of his suggestions deals with FM (primarily HD-2’s and -3’s), not AM.

(See http://www.ibiquity.com/about_us/bobs_column_thoughts_on_radios_digital_future.)

Aside from the usual meme (“AM/FM cannot be the last analog medium in a fully digital world...”), he doesn’t mention AM at all!

Is reality finally setting in at the Columbia, MD bunker?

Bob notes in passing that he used to work for CBS. Did he perhaps get the Iniquity gig through his old CBS contacts?

(Note: He mentioned his CBS background in connection with the David Letterman show ‘s Top Ten lists, though that feature originated when Dave was still on NBC, following Johnny Carson. So much for Iniquity’s sense of broadcast history!)

Isn't it funny that he mentions about his days at CBS? Isn't CBS the same company that brought you (or shall I say.... tried to bring to you) CBS Color back in the 50's? If I recall correctly, the FCC acceptance of CBS Color as the nation's system of color television was rescinded "due to the shortage of material for the Korean War effort". Bill Paley mandated that all of the CBS Color TV sets in existence (all 100+ of them) be destroyed. The FCC in essence gave CBS a easy out for a Color TV system that was totally incompatible for the existing black and white TV sets at the time. It gave NBC's RCA/NTSC system some time to go ahead and do some research and development to make the existing TV system color capable. It took almost 15 years later for all networks to be all color (1966). Now with 99.9% of all receivers existing in America today unable to receive the IBOC broadcasts, I don't see that it is becoming a common practice to have people listening to HD Radio. It's CBS Color, all over again.

 

[Savage]

Yeah, the CBS pathology is historic. They have trumpeted for decades that CBS' Columbia Records invented the LP record when in fact the technology was stolen from General Electric recording expert Bill Bachmann, who also developed the variable-reluctance magnetic pickup.

CBS' color-wheel system was cooked up by their nitwit engineer Peter Goldmark who first saw a color movie when "Gone With The Wind" came out in the late 30s. Goldmark was convinced all TV had to be color to succeed, hence the 1930s-tech electromechanical UHF-only color TV system.

It's long been speculated that Goldmark was allowed to roll out his dopey color-wheel TV system to give CBS leverage over RCA over the LP record-45 rpm war and to give CBS time to buy into a manufacturing enterprise. Recall that in the late 40s and early 50s CBS was the only broadcast organization without a manufacturing arm (GE, RCA, DuMont, Westinghouse and Stromberg-Carlson as well as smaller regional companies all made sets.)

 

[Play Freebird]

Here's an interesting document on the FCC web site:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-302496A1.pdf

This is a somewhat self-congratulatory review of positive decisions made by the Commission (including digital television) but there's no mention of IBOC -- perhaps because even those out-of-touch regulators in the Portals realize it's a flop.

Let's be honest -- FM translators are the biggest boost AM radio has been given in many years, but in most cases it's a real challenge to buy existing licenses and relocate them to desired sites. For example, take a look at the first article here:

http://www.munn-reese.com/News/April-2011.pdf

 

[tomservo]

Let's hope this is a first baby step towards iBiquity distancing itself from the AM HD disaster. FM HD may just work in selected markets, on selected stations, so they should probably concentrate on that. But AM HD is DOA and should have never gotten out of the lab.

Frankly, I'd rather see FM go all digital 20 years from now and AM just remain analog. There's simply no other way to improve on it beyond what we have now.

 

[KB1OKL]

Let's hope this is a first baby step towards iBiquity distancing itself from the AM HD disaster. FM HD may just work in selected markets, on selected stations, so they should probably concentrate on that. But AM HD is DOA and should have never gotten out of the lab.

Frankly, I'd rather see FM go all digital 20 years from now and AM just remain analog. There's simply no other way to improve on it beyond what we have now.

There's plenty of ways to improve AM radio remove the NRSC mask and open up receivers front ends, AM can sound as good as FM, some people think better,

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Let's hope this is a first baby step towards iBiquity distancing itself from the AM HD disaster. FM HD may just work in selected markets, on selected stations, so they should probably concentrate on that. But AM HD is DOA and should have never gotten out of the lab.

Frankly, I'd rather see FM go all digital 20 years from now and AM just remain analog. There's simply no other way to improve on it beyond what we have now.

There's plenty of ways to improve AM radio remove the NRSC mask and open up receivers front ends, AM can sound as good as FM, some people think better,

Also I'd like AM stations on the same frequency to be frequency synchronized to eliminate the infrasonic heterodynes caused by stations on slightly different frequencies interfering with each other. For example, on 1580 I hear KMIK Tempe, AZ at 1580.014 kHz mixing with KBLA Santa Monica, CA, at 1580.004 kHz (I had someone with a Perseus in Mojave Desert check them for me on #mwdx). The resulting 10 Hz flutter makes it somewhat unpleasant to listen to KMIK, which has a blowtorch signal toward me.
In addition I'd like to see analog AM Stereo become more common, and preferably used on all stations. I don't know if C-Quam should be what's used, or if we should come up with something better - would be nice to not have any platform motion, for example, and have a way to eliminate the distorted-sounding selective fading caused by skywave/groundwave cancellation or multiple skywave paths.
Also I'd like to see multiple front-end filters in AM radios, if possible. I would like to be able to open the bandwidth to 20 kHz (well, ok, I only hear just barely to 16 kHz on a good day) for listening to a semi-local that doesn't have any side splatter, as well as use a narrower bandwidth when I'm trying to DX a station several hundred miles away in the daytime from right next to the transmitter site of a first-adjacent.
I've also had another idea, but I kinda doubt it would happen. Basically, either expand the AM band down toward the longwave spectrum, going at least down to the 153 kHz that LW has in places in Europe/Africa/Asia, or at least add a broadcast band or two down there, even if there are gaps. Take some of the national networks, mostly just ones that produce 24/7 programming like Family Radio (although I don't know what they'll be doing come May 22 and I don't expect anything to happen by then), Radio Disney, ESPN Radio, etc, and give them each their own dedicated frequency on which they have several synchronized 2 MW transmitters fed into Franklin antennas, whose combined groundwave for each station blankets the entire lower 48.
Then, reshuffle stations on the existing band to decongest some frequencies.

 

[tomservo]

How hard would synchronizing the signals be?

 

[Tom Wells]

How hard would synchronizing the signals be?

To eliminate the sub audio beats on AM...

Every transmitter would need a means to lock onto a GPS time base standard, as HD stations do now.
Then each xmtr needs a means to auto-correct the error based on the GPS standard.
Lots of different types of equipment, hard to implement in old equipment, but should be a snap with new equipment.
All other means which are used "comply" most of the time as we seldom hear things getting up into the "hum" range.

I daily check against my nearest 1620s and reference my zero beat against WLS and WGN.
A part 15 AM can't afford to have infrasonics tearing up the sound in addition to other noises.

It really messes up bass response and makes the signal seem weaker.

 

[spunker88]

The only problem with synchronizing signals would be the fact that local ads would not be possible anymore. But with the low amount of unique programming on AM radio today, it would make sense to try something like this.

 

[jhardis]

Every transmitter would need a means to lock onto a GPS time base standard, as HD stations do now.

Kinda ... IBOC synchronizes the modulation; you're talking about synchronizing the carrier.

Put another way, you're suggesting that GPS be used as a continuous frequency standard to nail the carrier frequency to 7 significant digits. It can do that. It can also be used to synchronize carrier phase to the microsecond level, which makes things even more interesting.

- Jonathan

 

[pianoplayer88key]

How hard would synchronizing the signals be?

To eliminate the sub audio beats on AM...

Every transmitter would need a means to lock onto a GPS time base standard, as HD stations do now.
Then each xmtr needs a means to auto-correct the error based on the GPS standard.
Lots of different types of equipment, hard to implement in old equipment, but should be a snap with new equipment.
All other means which are used "comply" most of the time as we seldom hear things getting up into the "hum" range.

I daily check against my nearest 1620s and reference my zero beat against WLS and WGN.
A part 15 AM can't afford to have infrasonics tearing up the sound in addition to other noises.

It really messes up bass response and makes the signal seem weaker.

If we "seldom hear things getting up into the 'hum' range", then what is this I hear when nulling my local 1170 KCBQ at night? Also I went in #mwdx and asked someone with a Perseus i the Mojave desert to check the carrier frequencies around 1170. One of them was 1170.067 which I'm quite sure was KCBQ, although it's directional away from where he is and I doubt he would have heard their audio modulation much if at all.
I don't hear that in the day when they're running 50,000 watts (even if I attempt to beat it with a PLL-sythesized radio tuned to 720, so it's local oscillator radiates on 1170), but I DO hear this when using big enough antennas.

 

[Savage]

Further to my earlier post about the CBS history of "innovation" - my recollection of some of the specifics of ancient history is apparently a little murky, so this is to clarify and correct. I had stated that CBS "appropriated" LP technology from GE engineer William Bachmann in the mid 1940s which is not precisely what happened.

CBS lab genius Peter Goldmark had been tasked with a long-playing record system by Columbia Records honcho Ed Wallerstein during WW2 but he and his people lacked the necessary expertise in recording. So first CBS hired NBC transcription engineer Rene Snepvangers, who was never a big believer in "slow-speed recording." As of 1946 Goldmark and Snepvangers had only succeeded in getting 8 minutes on a side of quality acceptable to Wallerstein, so in frustration Wallerstein "went outside," hiring GE's Bill Bachmann who had developed the variable-reluctance pickup. Bachmann delivered the bad news: CBS would have to license existing technology, and patent-holders Hunt and Pierce weren't willing to sell their tech at the price CBS wanted to pay.

So the company launched an investigation which showed Hunt and Pierce lacked the financial resources to pursue CBS in court; whereupon Bachmann, Goldmark et al came up with a system based on their patented technology.

Thanks for letting me correct the record. So to speak.

 

[KB1OKL]

How hard would synchronizing the signals be?

To eliminate the sub audio beats on AM...

Every transmitter would need a means to lock onto a GPS time base standard, as HD stations do now.
Then each xmtr needs a means to auto-correct the error based on the GPS standard.
Lots of different types of equipment, hard to implement in old equipment, but should be a snap with new equipment.
All other means which are used "comply" most of the time as we seldom hear things getting up into the "hum" range.

I daily check against my nearest 1620s and reference my zero beat against WLS and WGN.
A part 15 AM can't afford to have infrasonics tearing up the sound in addition to other noises.

It really messes up bass response and makes the signal seem weaker.

If we "seldom hear things getting up into the 'hum' range", then what is this I hear when nulling my local 1170 KCBQ at night? Also I went in #mwdx and asked someone with a Perseus i the Mojave desert to check the carrier frequencies around 1170. One of them was 1170.067 which I'm quite sure was KCBQ, although it's directional away from where he is and I doubt he would have heard their audio modulation much if at all.
I don't hear that in the day when they're running 50,000 watts (even if I attempt to beat it with a PLL-sythesized radio tuned to 720, so it's local oscillator radiates on 1170), but I DO hear this when using big enough antennas.

I'm not sure where you're located but here in MA I get lots of low frequency hets at night. I've always thought they were coming from Cuba. Radio Reloj was on 861 for a few weeks this winter instead of 860 for example. Stations off just a tiny bit wreak havoc with the old AVC in some of my boatanchors with their 2-3 beat notes per second.