SKIN RADIO now in HD

[buzzrock]

from their myspace blog

At sunrise on Wednesday, January 31st, new Philadelphia Alternative Rock
radio station "Skin Radio" will begin broadcasting in HD Radio on AM 1340.
Skin Radio, Philadelphia, is the first major market AM station in the country
to broadcast a new music format in HD Radio on the AM band. The new digital
technology dramatically improves the audio quality of AM radio. With an HD
Radio receiver, AM sounds as good as FM. Also HD Radios can display the
titles and artists of songs playing. Traditional analog radios will still
be able to receive the station's analog simulcast.

Skin Radio will welcome listeners to visit the radio station in Manayunk
to hear HD Radio for themselves. The station will also be demonstrating the
new audio technology at locations around Philadelphia. Currently, the FCC
allows AM stations to broadcast in HD from sunrise to sunset. Soon, it will
be permitted 24 hours a day.

According to Skin Radio owner and General Manager Tom Kelly, "Listeners
are going to love HD Radio. And we are proud to put Philadelphia in the
spotlight with this revolutionary new technology on Skin Radio. The
alternative music audience in Philadelphia has been starving for this music,
and now with HD Radio, the audio quality of AM rivals FM."

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=131152293&blogID=224200836&MyToken=c8948b1f-9553-4956-a641-a39e2641d056

 

[eatspaste]

At sunrise on Wednesday, January 31st, new Philadelphia Alternative Rock
radio station "Skin Radio" will begin broadcasting in HD Radio on AM 1340.

Hope the 4 people with an HD radio enjoy the crystal clear music while the rest of us enjoy muffled audio.

Speaking of Skin Radio, what's interfering with it in Deptford? It's either WNJC (which sounded like it was at 163% modulation at the time) or WMID?

 

[BRUSSTAR]

While I wholeheartedly support and am enjoying very much what the folks at Skinradio are doing with WHAT (trying something different with a facility that probably would have ended up with brokered programming or ESPN Radio under different owners), I can't share Mr. Kelly's enthusiasm when it comes to the station's launch of "HD Radio".

Previously, I could enjoy a marginal yet clear signal during the daytime in the kitchen of my King of Prussia home. Once the "HD Radio" was activated, the same station is pretty much unlistenable on that very same kitchen radio. In addition to the usual iBiquity hash noise underneath the audio, there is an unpleasant "whooshing" sound mixed in with what sounds like a heterodyne. And while I'm unaware of there having been anything worth listening to on brokered WNJC (1360), that station is now completely gone from the dial. It had been audible before. Plus, I'll occasionally check in on Pottstown's WPAZ (1370) for Paul Harvey. Hearing that station too has become challenging at times ever since WHAT added this "technological improvement".

Skinradio already had its work cut out for itself, as it was endeavoring to convince twenty- and thirty-somethings to listen to music on a low-power AM. Now, the few who could hear it will be faced with even worse sound quality (not much better than audio via telephone). And to think college aged listeners are going to spend even $100 on a radio that might get one station for half the day seems rather shortsighted.

As the station's program director revealed this past weekend on The Radio Racket, Skinradio has significantly beefed up its webstream. I believe more people can listen at once, and the bitrate (80k?) sounds very, very good. THAT will be the huge answer to this wonderful little station's success-- not the nonsensical bunkum that is "HD Radio". And just think-- the new webstream already has three giant advantages over the station's activation of "HD Radio":

1. The new webstream does nothing to affect the over-the-air signal
2. It is available 24 hours a day, unlike Skinradio's "HD" feed
3. 99.99% of Skinradio's target audience has broadband, while the only ones with access to the station's half-of-the-day "HD" feed are already working at the station (and could just listen right off the board, anyway)

For the sake of the great work that's being done by the people involved (as well as for the sake of WHAT's new listeners), I hope the focus remains on building one hell of a unique radio station. Spending too much time and money promoting something few need, want, or will embrace I fear might be an unnecessary distraction.