S.F. Broadcasters Come Clean on HD Radio

[Carmine5]

An unusually frank article concerning some recent, less known, developments with HDR on the RBR website: "Bay Area engineers off the record on HD Radio"

Among the highlights:

* KGO-AM has quietly discontinued all HD-AM. This means no AM station in S.F. is broadcasting in HD
* CBS Radio has quietly told all of its Chief Engineers that CBS will NOT be proceeding with 6-dB power increases
* iBiquity is not providing updates to its software to repair the “bugs” that have developed in the AM codec. The bugs require reboots of the HD encoders, sometimes daily.

http://www.rbr.com/radio/ENGINEERING/94/24634.html

HD Radio just keeps on stumbling.

c5

 

[wkbam1690]

WCCO 830 (CBS) in Minneapolis has had their HD off for at least a week, however still IDing as HD at the top of the hour...but they still have the grungy 5 kHz brickwall filter in place. Hopefully, someday I can again enjoy listening to "Imagination Theatre" on my wideband Superradio (among other programs).

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

* CBS Radio has quietly told all of its Chief Engineers that CBS will NOT be proceeding with 6-dB power increases

The most significant news of all, so far, considering that CBS's corporate DOE for radio, Glynn Walden, is one of HD Radio's founding fathers and most prominent supporters.

 

[nd2023]

An engineer for CBS in New York also told me that they will not boost the HD to -14. They were initially going to make one station -14 because it had acquired a new transmitter capable of -14, but that transmitter had to be sent elsewhere to replace a failing transmitter.

AM HD is dead. Nobody listens to AM in HD.

 

[Savage]

"This is not the end. Nor is it the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, we may pray, the end of the beginning." (Winston Churchill)

 

[Tom Wells]

* iBiquity is not providing updates to its software to repair the “bugs” that have developed in the AM codec. The bugs require reboots of the HD encoders, sometimes daily.

"HAVE developed" ?? The main bug was intentionally written into the concept. The white papers by US Digital Radio clearly described the hiss on the host signal in a way that proved to be 100% accurate.

If they are now saying there is a "leak" in the logic, where the software eats up larger and larger amounts of RAM, and "paints itself into a corner",
that's such a fitting way for this thing to came back around and bite itself in the butt.

Or, if they are saying the code which once worked without painting itself into a corner now DOES so,
that's as good an argument for the existence of a Supreme being as I have ever heard.

 

[KB1OKL]

Struby responds to yesterdays article in RBR:

"With regard to your AM questions, we do know of some software bugs, but they do not relate to iBiquity’s code. They are implementation issues at the manufacturers. We of course are working with the manufacturers daily, but we cannot fix them directly because it is not our software. More broadly, we feel it best to address this and other AM questions in a comprehensive manner through a technical article for submission to RBR."

"With regard to your inquiry tied to CBS, while we do not issue public comments about broadcaster’s plans, we believe these rumors to be untrue."

read more scintillating double talk at:

http://www.rbr.com/radio/ENGINEERING/94/24677.html

 

[Savage]

Double talk, indeed!

"While we do not issue public comments about broadcasters' plans, here is our public comment on what we believe to be broadcasters' plans....." :

"Oh, and did I mention? HD Radio does NOT cause adjacent channel interference. There hasn't been a single documented case of this. And HD provides CD-quality for FM, and FM quality for AM. The digital coverage is absolutely the equivalent of the analog. A kajillion HD Radios have been sold or assembled or designed or shipped or something. And the infidels are being repelled from the streets of Baghdad even as I speak."

 

[stacker]

The article quotes Struble as saying,

"The initial conversions have exceeded our expectations."

This is the same way I approach my golf game. Hit it left, "hey it could have sliced right." Slice it through a window, "hey it could have been worse." The key to happiness in golf is low expectations.

The same must be true for iBiquity. Frankly, all jokes aside, the AM scheme was a train wreck and iBiquity (and NAB) screwed up by advancing it in the first place. On the other hand, the FM scheme is (dishonestly) ingenious because you can't easily distinguish the adjacent channel interference from white noise. Had not AM IBOC demonstrated the adjacent channel issues (and co-channel interference) is such a dramatic way, the iB guys may have slipped this mess into the tent without much trouble. Till of course, after the fact, when licensees found out what was finally going on.

Some fine company engineers have staked a lot on their endorsement of the iBiquity system. I have think that, if given another chance, many of them would not choose to waive the pom-poms for IBOC.

 

[Savage]

Dishonesty inevitably delivers its own reward. Lies are self-perpetuating and self-expanding. First of all, you can't cover up lies indefinitely, and the longer you try to perpetuate them, the harder it becomes. Plus you have to cover up the initial lies with subsequent ones. Sooner or later the lie expands and accelerates to an unsustainable level - ironically like how HD's AM software is apparently eating ever-increasing amounts of RAM until the encoding computer freezes and crashes.

Any competent engineer - a description which thankfully encompasses far more than the tiny cabal of cynical and self-interested HD apologists - could see all the lies in HD's scheme from a distance of 30 yards. Check out the comments and "confessions" from astute radio engineering pros at www.stopiboc.com. That's why so many engineers had to be intimidated into installing HD with pressure and at the very least, implicit threats about their continued employment.

Anybody who staked his or her career on HD is a fool. If you bet on falsehoods, "you have sowed the wind, and ye shall reap the whirlwind." May all of the arrogant HD-pushing manipulators enjoy a bountiful harvest.

 

[Savage]

BREAKING NEWS! Barry McLarnon's frequently-updated web page on AM stations using IBOC reports five more broadcasters have turned off the iBiquity Decepticons.

The pop-count of AM-HD stations has dropped to a new low of 249, down from a 2008 high-water mark of 290. Only about 75 of those AMs are operating HD 24 hours, with the rest "digital daytimers." And half of those are graveyarders.

Tick, tock.....

http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html

 

[audioguy]

McLarnon's web page contains at least two errors that I know of:

• WRDZ 1300 Chicago is now, and has been broadcasting in HD (sounds horrible, btw)
• WRTO 1200 Chicago moved to a new site and afaik, has not turned their HD signal back on

So the net-net for Chicago is the same total; not sure about other cities.

 

[pocket-radio]

Struby responds to yesterdays article in RBR:

"With regard to your AM questions, we do know of some software bugs, but they do not relate to iBiquity’s code. They are implementation issues at the manufacturers. We of course are working with the manufacturers daily, but we cannot fix them directly because it is not our software. More broadly, we feel it best to address this and other AM questions in a comprehensive manner through a technical article for submission to RBR."

"With regard to your inquiry tied to CBS, while we do not issue public comments about broadcaster’s plans, we believe these rumors to be untrue."

read more scintillating double talk at:

http://www.rbr.com/radio/ENGINEERING/94/24677.html

This guy could work for BP.. The oil spill will be minor and won't cause any harm.

 

[pocket-radio]

Double talk, indeed!

"While we do not issue public comments about broadcasters' plans, here is our public comment on what we believe to be broadcasters' plans....." :

"Oh, and did I mention? HD Radio does NOT cause adjacent channel interference. There hasn't been a single documented case of this. And HD provides CD-quality for FM, and FM quality for AM. The digital coverage is absolutely the equivalent of the analog. A kajillion HD Radios have been sold or assembled or designed or shipped or something. And the infidels are being repelled from the streets of Baghdad even as I speak."

BP is need of a good pr men. I think struble speak is highly qualified..

 

[Play Freebird]

BREAKING NEWS! Barry McLarnon's frequently-updated web page on AM stations using IBOC reports five more broadcasters have turned off the iBiquity Decepticons.

The pop-count of AM-HD stations has dropped to a new low of 249, down from a 2008 high-water mark of 290. Only about 75 of those AMs are operating HD 24 hours, with the rest "digital daytimers." And half of those are graveyarders.

Tick, tock.....

http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html

Meanwhile, the number of AM stations with FM translators is rapidly increasing and probably surpasses the number of AM-HD stations, even though the FCC rule authorizing this type of operation has been in effect less than a year.

Listen carefully, you policy-makers at the FCC -- the market is telling us what actually works and what doesn't.

 

[Savage]

Barry's page does contain periodic errors, as I note the pop-count of operating HD stations is a constantly moving target. I find it's far more accurate than the HD Radio site, however.

Generally Barry does give an accurate picture of the overall trend. For over a year it's been down.

Since the few remaining HD boosters love to compare the slow rollout of IBOC to FM, this is a good juncture to note: NEVER in the history of FM did you have FM stations popping on and off the air like HD does. Nor did you ever have instances of FM stations programming dead carriers.*

Freebird: in the FCC, as elsewhere in government, policymakers are much more oriented in forcing us to listen to them - rather than have them listen to us, the marketplace, or anyone other than lobbyists and cozy legislature insiders.

* That being said, there were of course war stories of classic programming screwups during FM's nascent years. Like the Elmira, NY FM I babysat while doing Top 40 on the AM. The FM used automated tapes on 14-inch reels which were bidirectional - they were supposed to flip to the opposite heads when foil patches reversed the tape, except the audio switching relays would hang up and the system would play two hours of Andre Kostelanetz music backwards. Or the ID cart machine would fail and play an hour of legal IDs. And NOBODY would call to complain. Still, despite these funny stories, there was never the level of neglect showed towards HD subs these days.

 

[davideduardo]

NEVER in the history of FM did you have FM stations popping on and off the air like HD does. Nor did you ever have instances of FM stations programming dead carriers.*

Stories like that were common in the 50's... 1948 to 1958 total FMs declined by nearly 50%, and the many that simulcast an AM would often be on with open carrier or just be off the air for some time. Things like grabbing the FM STL when the AM lost theirs were common... resulting in hours if not days of off-air time.

Because HD is not a mature technology, as the 10db increase of recent shows, most stations have been hesitant to have HD capability on auxiliary transmitters or sites... the result being, as we saw in the LA fires last summer, having almost every HD equipped transmitter in the market off the air is possible.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

You know, it's too bad the big boys haven't put more effort into getting secondary use of the 2-6 tv band instead of pouring money and political force into the dead horse known as HD radio for AM. Why not ask, with some force behind it, for secondary use of the under-utilized almost-ex-tv band for FM carriers to simulcast on? Keep in mind there's tons of old radios out there at flea markets and thrift stores that will likely tune there. There's also a ton of old analog TV aural transmitters laying around that could be retrofitted with a new exciter that would produce a nice FM carrier on the cheap. You know, sometimes the simpliest thing that's under everyone's nose seems to excape them. Who gives a #*&$ about digital? What's to say they couldn't later on anyway on the FM simucast channel.... It just makes sense to me. That's why it won't likely happen LOL!

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Here's another thought supporting adding a out-of-band simulcast for "AM" stations: Cell phone coverage! We all seem to want inclusion of terrestrial radio receivers in the cell phones, right? Well, AM doesn't work there, for a myriad of reasons. But, the FM band does. It would make so much more sense to include tuners that could get the current FM and AND a new "AM" band below 88MHz in chipsets. Think of it from a manufacture's standpoint. Wouldn't it make some sense?

 

[tomservo]

If you wanna get really "out there" why not mandate that the new <88 MHz spectrum be HD only? Imagine how much better things would sound if they didn't need to make room for the analog signal. I think HD, flawed as it is, could work on a 'clean slate' of spectrum like this.

And while we're in fantasy land, I would NOT get rid of the current AM service, but instead mandate analog-only C-QUAM stereo operation, and inclusion of both stereo decoders for AM and the new HD band on all new radios above a certain price point.