So, who got or gave an HD Radio for Christmas?

[Savage]

Sorry, but I'm going to reject the "red-herring" arguments blaming HD's demise on (a) a bad economy, (b) a weak USD, (c) the rise of the internet, (d) high-pitched alien voices only Bob Struble can hear telling him to make bad decisions, (e) the NAB had a tummyache that day, (e) "I lost it in the lights." Give me a giant juicy freakin' break, already.

HD failed because: it was junk. Crap. Period. It was an attempt at a smash-and-grab by a cadre of greedy MBAs and dimbulb marginally-talented engineering executives at Big Group Radio who all saw HD as their ticket to confiscatory, unearned riches. They thought they could pull the wool over the eyes of similar deadwood at the NAB and FCC, and there - they succeeded.

But they forgot the critical factor they never really understood anyway: the audience. And the marketplace. Those of us possessed of a sense of reality checked out HD and said....what, are you kidding??

HD failed....because it had to. It's amazing it got as far as it did. It really shouldn't have. Never should have seen the light of day. The industry will take a long time to live down, "HD Radio."

 

[nd2023]

If they got the FCC to approve nighttime IBUZ, couldn't they have gotten the FCC to require all car radios and home stereos to decode HD?

 

[RadeoEngineer]

No Nick. It's a proprietary system. Manufacturers would have been required to pay a fee to Ibiquity for the right to produce receivers that decode hybrid digital. You can't do that.

 

[tomservo]

No Nick. It's a proprietary system. Manufacturers would have been required to pay a fee to Ibiquity for the right to produce receivers that decode hybrid digital. You can't do that.

That wasn't true of Motorola's C-QUAM stereo or FM stereo? (Honest question, no snark.)

 

[Tom Wells]

People don't buy single use radios, and certainly don't look for radios with new features. That's sort of like bringing out a cassette player with Dolby 5.1... nice idea, but no consumer demand because even all gussied up, it's still a cassette player with lipstick.

DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD also crashed and burned in the consumer marketplace, along similar lines. Now, Best Buy stores have dropped these formats, and instead are selling vinyl LPs and turntables again!

Other concepts that crashed without much success:
Elcassette, 4 track carts, Quad, DAT .
I came this >< close to buying a DAT in Canada back in the 80's.
I was really cranky about them not being offered in the US because of the old "music piracy" issue.
I'm glad I didn't. The old analog recorder has worked fine until I now have a modern digital recorder.

 

[Play Freebird]

That wasn't true of Motorola's C-QUAM stereo or FM stereo? (Honest question, no snark.)

This is a good question, and the answer is that both C-QUAM and FM Stereo were patented systems, but not "trade secrets" requiring a password like HD Radio. In fact, the FCC conditioned its approval of the GE/Zenith FM stereo system on an agreement that GE's licensing fees would be reasonable.

As far as I know, broadcasters didn't need to buy a license to put stereo on the air; the patent holders simply made their money by manufacturing stereo generators and receivers or licensing other manufacturers to produce them. And those patents eventually expired, unlike iBiquity's plan to keep HD locked down "forever".

More discussion on this topic is here:

http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2010/11/wait-until-the-patent-expires/

 

[Ai4i]

That wasn't true of Motorola's C-QUAM stereo or FM stereo? (Honest question, no snark.)

iBiquity is a Ferenghi based corporation.

 

[tomservo]

Although it's probably too late now, it sounds like iBiquity should take a lesson from the two stereo systems and lighten or eliminate their fees and whatnot.

And speaking of failed electronics, one that is still near and dear to my heart: minidisc. Popular in Japan, but never caught on here. I got in about 10 years ago and 2010 is the first year my mp3 player has seen more use than my Hi-MD portable. The batteries died for the second time in the MD unit and with Rockbox on my mp3 player, it plays a ton of formats, including m4a and FLAC, which sound very, very good.

 

[Ai4i]

...iBiquity should...lighten or eliminate their fees and whatnot

Again, iBiquity is a Ferenghi based corporation and is legally, morally, and culturally bound by the Ferenghi Rules of Aquisition. Look them up, they are all over the web.

 

[KB1OKL]

Again, iBiquity is a Ferenghi based corporation and is legally, morally, and culturally bound by the Ferenghi Rules of Aquisition. Look them up, they are all over the web.

"They and their culture are characterized by a mercantile obsession with profit and trade and their constant efforts to swindle people into bad deals."

"In theory, every business transaction that a Ferengi makes is governed by two hundred eighty-five Rules of Acquisition, though the rules themselves give the Ferengi license to cheat, steal, and bend the truth to suit their needs."

#1 "Once you have their money, you never give it back,"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferengi

 

[Tom Wells]

It would certainly fit the Ferenghi's mentality as I perceive it over these many years of Star-Wars "realities".

But it doesn't need to seem so as evil as all that, unless you consider the very real advantages our country has given
(economically) to corporations as evil. Some people do, because it has led to the strange economy we now "enjoy".
The responsibility of the corp is to the bottom line only, and like a hungry shark, is no position to think about whether its
goal to maximize profits has other effects. It is DESIGNED so that "morality" need not BE defined as function internally.

This is much different from a single proprietorship or other forms of small business, though they often become corporations in order to stay alive in the current economy.

"Real" corporations like the one I work for have figured exactly how much law breaking they can get away with
to maximize profits. I've had maybe 15 days off in 2010, 7 vacation days, 8 days the plant was closed.
No compliance in any way with 1 day in 7 or 1 day in 14 work laws.
So I'm not the least shocked about dishonourable behavior or the appearance of such by any corporation.

As we have defined corporations in this country since the 1870s, they can hardly help but embody the Ferenghi spirit.

 

[Savage]

Zach - I totally agree on the Sony MD system, which remains in daily use in each of our four studios here. Very handy as a supplemental audio source, and when we record long-form talk shows for later air, we use the MD units to run a simultaneous analog backup as we record into CEP. That way, in the unlikely event we have a computer crap the bed, we can just continue with the show and transfer the file later without having to start over.

I think it's happened once in ten years, but it's nice to "wear suspenders and a belt" when you're recording hour-long local programming. For other uses the editing and track-marking functions are extremely handy and user-friendly.

Sorry to say I haven't been able to buy any more Sony MD stuff from various vendors for a couple of years now. If anyone knows where they're available, please let me know.

 

[JJS]

That wasn't true of Motorola's C-QUAM stereo or FM stereo? (Honest question, no snark.)

Those technologies were merely FCC-authorized, like IBOC; they were not made mandatory for radio manufacturers, as Nick was proposing for consideration.

 

[Tom Wells]

Zach - I totally agree on the Sony MD system, which remains in daily use in each of our four studios here. Very handy as a supplemental audio source, and when we record long-form talk shows for later air, we use the MD units to run a simultaneous analog backup as we record into CEP. That way, in the unlikely event we have a computer crap the bed, we can just continue with the show and transfer the file later without having to start over.

I think it's happened once in ten years, but it's nice to "wear suspenders and a belt" when you're recording hour-long local programming. For other uses the editing and track-marking functions are extremely handy and user-friendly.

Sorry to say I haven't been able to buy any more Sony MD stuff from various vendors for a couple of years now. If anyone knows where they're available, please let me know.

My wife gave me a ZOOM H2 digital recorder for Christmas, 4 microphones, .wav 144 khz recording or quite a few mp3 resolution steps,
maybe 10 AGC/limiter settings, and all in the size of an electric shaver.
Many hours of recording time, buy whatever SIM card you like.

I may have a few (3-4) mini discs somewhere; they're yours if you want 'em Bob.
Let's see how fast I can make 'em materialize, though.......
I'm on a drive to find good homes for odds and ends I won't have time enough to use, like the Edison voicewriters...someone needs one..right?
HD Radio for Christmas? The one I gave my wife for her birthday never goes into HD mode as she listens to "college radio".

 

[tomservo]

Sorry to say I haven't been able to buy any more Sony MD stuff from various vendors for a couple of years now. If anyone knows where they're available, please let me know.

My old standby was a place called Minidisco but upon checking their site it's "down for maintenance" so I dunno if they are still around or not. Last time I bought from there was a few years ago and they were transitioning to more flash memory recorders than MD equipment.

I've probably got 200 MDs lying around with recorded material on them, including 4-5 Hi-MD discs. The only really good working unit I have is an older home stereo unit that doesn't do Hi-MD or MD-LP. The portable's battery is shot and the buttons don't work right anymore, either.

 

[davideduardo]

Zach - I totally agree on the Sony MD system, which remains in daily use in each of our four studios here.

In the 90's, the MD was pretty much the standard in Latin America. Low cost for both hardware and disks, track by track accessability, and as good as DAT within the audio capabilities of FM.

DAT was pretty much considered to be like a VHS recorder with an attitude. Expensive, ornery and they failed when you needed them most.

Now, software mixers on cheap PCs are using iPods as audio sources. When you have a market of 1 million with 55 to 60 FMs, nobody can afford anything else.