Now That UT Regents Have Tabled the 98.9-FM Purchase, Is the Deal Off?

[mmnassour]

Of course, that assumes any HD radio in Austin has been turned on.

 

[willdav713]

Of course, that assumes any HD radio in Austin has been turned on.

I have an HD Walkman. It is recording 98.9 right now for 1 week straight, on the PC's hard drive.

But you got to remember UT students stream off their smart phones a majority of them do not all of them. Why not stream instead? But with music you still have royalty fees. They made a logical question to what radio will be at in 20 years. I would say Digital Satellite Radio and the XM would be on the premium tier. Kind of like the DTV transition. It will happen. AM/FM analog transmission will be gone, gone like those Comcast Cable from the Wall reception. In less than 10 years. 2017, or 2019. If this site is still up in 2019 and my wager is right, I will keep my rare Maxell UR-F tape, if not I will sell it.

 

[Kent]

But you got to remember UT students stream off their smart phones a majority of them do not all of them.

While I wouldn't be surprised if streaming is more popular than AM listening among UT students (several younger markets hit that tipping point a year or two ago), I don't buy this notion that they'd rather stream their local FM stations than listen to the over-the-air.  The vast majority of them will turn on the radio when there's one nearby so long as it has the content they want.  Those who know the internet know FM radio is far more reliable than streaming and know it sounds better to boot!

They made a logical question to what radio will be at in 20 years.  I would say Digital Satellite Radio and the XM would be on the premium tier. Kind of like the DTV transition.  It will happen.  AM/FM analog transmission will be gone, gone like those Comcast Cable from the Wall reception. In less than 10 years. 2017, or 2019.  If this site is still up in 2019 and my wager is right, I will keep my rare Maxell UR-F tape, if not I will sell it.

I actually agree with something another poster said, I think, on one of the TV boards.  FM radio will be around longer than TV.  Network TV is shuffling more and more of its programming to the internet while taking a bigger chunk of TV stations' revenue in terms of reverse comp.  That content will be exclusively on the networks' website, and TV stations will go broke before FM radio goes away.

I saw technology more than a decade ago that would make you think the transmitter and tower were headed to the scrapheap.  While that technology is more portable today than it was 10 years ago, even excluding the royalty issue, we're in a severe wireless spectrum crunch.  That has to be worked out before radio goes away, and the metered data plans that are now becoming all the rage among providers will have to give way to unlimited all over again. In other words, the technology has come an incredibly long way, but it still has a long way to go!

 

[willdav713]

They can go unlimited, they are just doing it to make more money for themselves. But if you would add all of the AM and FM band, I am sure there is some way to free up a whole lot of spectrum. But analog FM will die, it is just a matter of time. Radio will be always around, just not on the medium we currently have.

For TV everything will be net based. Does DSL operate on Radio Frequency of some sort? Because those same towers that now broadcast radio will have a new life of bringing internet access to all, and it will replace Wi-Fi.

 

[Kent]

They can go unlimited, they are just doing it to make more money for themselves.

I've often wondered if that's not the case, too. However, according to the wireless companies, the purpose of getting rid of unlimited data is to curtail streaming of audio and video because they hog too much of the available bandwidth. I remember seeing a study from one of their own experts who showed the growth of smartphones relative to the level of bandwidth available, and he indicated that, in as little as five years, mobile broadband would be completely unusable without either getting more spectrum or further limiting wireless broadband use. Regardless of the purpose, you're not going to see them go back to unlimited in the near future.

But if you would add all of the AM and FM band, I am sure there is some way to free up a whole lot of spectrum.

AM spectrum is totally worthless for mobile broadband. You could almost make the case that it's worthless for pretty much anything given that you can really only broadcast AM radio on it, and that's dying. FM isn't much better for broadband. VHF signals, which is what FM is as it's between what were commonly referred to as TV channels 6 and 7 prior to the digital transition, have too large of wavelengths to be easily received on handheld mobile devices. You can't put a set of rabbit ears on an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry and still have portability! The providers need the higher frequencies, like where the higher UHF TV channels are.

But analog FM will die, it is just a matter of time. Radio will be always around, just not on the medium we currently have.

I agree. I just don't think it's going to happen as quickly as you seem to.

For TV everything will be net based.

Agreed, and it will happen before FM radio goes that way!

Does DSL operate on Radio Frequency of some sort? Because those same towers that now broadcast radio will have a new life of bringing internet access to all, and it will replace Wi-Fi.

While there are some wireless broadband providers that use radio signals to go to a central station, those are fairly uncommon right now. Traditional DSL travels through the data part of your phone line. Your traditional phone line is actually two lines, voice and data. Burglar alarms used to take advantage of the data side, and that was why, even a few years ago, you still had to have a landline phone if you had a burglar alarm. I believe you also had to have two phone lines if you had both a burglar alarm and DSL, but don't hold me to that. The telephone companies also figured out they could use the data side of the phone line to transmit internet, and it travels to the switching stations and the servers much the same way your voice does on a traditional landline phone.

 

[willdav713]

For TV everything will be net based.

Agreed, and it will happen before FM radio goes that way!

Does DSL operate on Radio Frequency of some sort? Because those same towers that now broadcast radio will have a new life of bringing internet access to all, and it will replace Wi-Fi.

While there are some wireless broadband providers that use radio signals to go to a central station, those are fairly uncommon right now. Traditional DSL travels through the data part of your phone line. Your traditional phone line is actually two lines, voice and data. Burglar alarms used to take advantage of the data side, and that was why, even a few years ago, you still had to have a landline phone if you had a burglar alarm. I believe you also had to have two phone lines if you had both a burglar alarm and DSL, but don't hold me to that. The telephone companies also figured out they could use the data side of the phone line to transmit internet, and it travels to the switching stations and the servers much the same way your voice does on a traditional landline phone.

I can see it offering high speed in rural America, and the FCC wants all persons to be able to connect to broadband. The broadband initiative is big talk of the FCC these days. They want people in Columbus, Texas and even Marfa to connect at broadband speeds without the sluggish Direct Way dish.

 

[Kent]

I can see it offering high speed in rural America, and the FCC wants all persons to be able to connect to broadband. The broadband initiative is big talk of the FCC these days. They want people in Columbus, Texas and even Marfa to connect at broadband speeds without the sluggish Direct Way dish.

That's where most of the wireless broadband I've seen is. It may be in urban areas, too, but I haven't seen it in many.

By the way, a station I used to work for used wireless broadband to stream its signal. The company actually traded out its bandwidth with the company, which was fairly new at the time. I was told the transmission antenna for the wireless broadband was on our STL dish, and the signal would be received at the company's local office where it would get into the internet traffic. We actually had two radios on our oldies station's studio, one tuned to the oldies station, the other tuned to the hot AC, with both feeding an encoder system, which was connected to the modem which was connected to the antenna.