Subscription Terrestrial Radio (USA)

[kfbkfb]

As for the use of digital audio on the analog AM band, that too has to be applied for. I'm aware of two stations operating with digital audio on AM. One in DC and the other in NY. I'm told their signals can be received on HD radios. They are not subscription based.

No, my idea isn't HD radio, it's similar in concept to the PC based Real Player.

In the late 1990s, I used the Real Player software w/dial-up Internet to listen to BBC 1 radio (in stereo), there was constant rebuffering so I lost interest in streaming radio listening until I got AT&T Fiber Internet last year.

My point is is that the Real Player software was able to provide reasonable quality stereo audio at dial-up data rates (using the noisy limited bandwidth analog landline) so a ~5kHz noisy analog AM radio signal should be able to contain enough bits to reproduce good quality stereo audio [using the latest low data rate audio codec + much, much error correction].


Kirk Bayne

 

[TheBigA]

My point is is that the Real Player software was able to provide reasonable quality stereo audio at dial-up data rates (using the noisy limited bandwidth analog landline) so a ~5kHz noisy analog AM radio signal should be able to contain enough bits to reproduce good quality stereo audio [using the latest low data rate audio codec + much, much error correction].

You're talking about two different things. The internet is digital, even on land line. If you're going to use an internet player, you can simply listen to the station's stream, and not the AM signal.

 

[Kelly A]

My point is is that the Real Player software was able to provide reasonable quality stereo audio at dial-up data rates (using the noisy limited bandwidth analog landline) so a ~5kHz noisy analog AM radio signal should be able to contain enough bits to reproduce good quality stereo audio [using the latest low data rate audio codec + much, much error correction].

But why with so many ways of streaming to a computer or smartphone from practically anywhere on the planet, would someone want to subscribe with a device that only works in a relatively small geographic area?

If you've actually be able to hear an operating MA3-all digital AM station; you'd find the audio quality is really quite good. Certainly on-par with FM stereo analog. But just like any terrestrial radio station, the availability is geographically limited to the coverage area as well as man-made noise sources. With the widespread acceptance of smartphones, nobody but a handful of old radio nerds would be interested in purchasing a portable radio, but not if they need to subscribe too.

 

[Marcos_C]

The best example was the subscription TV back in the earlier 80's where a few UHFs rented decoders for the viewing of movies on encoded stations. I had a subscription for a while in Miami around 1984, but most of the movies were not prime quality. They ran movies in the evening, and paid un-encoded shows in the daytime.

The New York metropolitan area had a similar service called Wometco Home Theater, which operated from 1977 to 1986. In addition to movies and entertainment specials, WHT aired select home games of the New York Islanders. What was then the flagship station of WHT is now WFUT-DT, an owned-and-operated station of UniMás.