That has nothing to do with radio in any form. It has everything to do with Amazon putting Radio Shack, Circuit City, and just about every other electronics retailer other than Best Buy and Ham Radio Outlet (at least, so far in both cases) out of business.
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The Beginning of the end for HD Radio
- Thread starter stewie
- Start date
That has nothing to do with radio in any form. It has everything to do with Amazon putting Radio Shack, Circuit City, and just about every other electronics retailer other than Best Buy and Ham Radio Outlet (at least, so far in both cases) out of business.
We're probably an anomaly since we're a Grade-school station. Our listening audience tends to be much younger during the day and older later at night. It's all produced by the kids, so everything is up to them on all channels. They just finished their 5,000th radio show last week on HD1. And, our HD2 night listeners are probably sleeping if the kids did their job right. [We have to whisper our legal ID on that channel]
To me, it has more to do with how badly run electronics retailers are, to say they they have gone out of business, while radio companies have somehow managed to stay in business. At one time, the reason some radio stations existed was as an attraction to get people into electronics stores to buy radios. Now, even satellite radios or online radios couldn't get people to go into stores.
That's not the real story.
By 1960, the peak number of FM stations achieved around 1950 had fallen by nearly a third. Stations were signing off all thorough the 50's. But a new generation of independent FM broadcasters came in the early 60's with folks like Jerry Lee in Philly and Sol Levine in LA and many, many others. They developed niche formats that grew into successful not-so-niche stations like Lee's dominant station that lasted nearly 60 years as a leading, profitable one in a top 10 market.
With FM stereo, despite a slow start, the expiration of the Armstrong patents and the development of FM AFC all in the earlier 60's, FM was already becoming increasingly profitable before the FCC dictated an end to full simulcasting for fulltime AM owners. The no-simulcast rule just pushed the move to FM which was already happening. Heck, I had a very profitable FM in South America in 1966... it was billing as much as two of my three FMs in the same market!
And the elephant in the format room was not rock... it was not until Abrams developed Superstars well into the 70's that rock really became a widespread and dominant format. It was Beautiful Music... the format that got the Boomers to buy FMs for the home and to request FM in cars. Rock was the next big move, but even Top 40 was starting to be big with launches of stations like WMYQ in Miami and sisters in several other markets in '72. Even smaller markets like Birmingham had a Top 40 FM by then but no rock station.
We even had the first Oldies station on FM in 1968 (Washington DC's WMOD).
Most radios were not sold at Radio Shack. Even places like Circuit City were not where most people went for a kitchen, workplace or bedroom radio... it was more Sears, Walmart, Kmart and the like.
The rapid decline of big home stereos starting in the late 90's is part of what killed the Circuit City type of places. Then the record business started declining due to MP3's, and that reduced traffic to those places. And TVs that lasted years and years reduced sales there. There just was no longer room for multiple TV and audio places in a city, so after the great recession of 2008 we got just one national chain... but it was that recession that reduced the field, not just changes in consumer habits.
"The rest of the world" is not doing that. Just some "modern socialist" nations in Scandinavia and the UK where whatever the bureaucrats at the Beeb say goes. Oh, and in India where DRM is being used on AM to achieve national coverage with much fewer transmitters than would be needed were FM employed. Asia, Africa, Latin America, much of Europe and of course North America are not moving to an all digital band.
I really like that U.S. radio stations, who have an investment in the medium, have a choice. We're having a great time programming 96 hours a day. We also enjoy the ancillary benefit of a better LPFM experience in cars equipped with HD.
We're not planning on turning off our analog service anyt
I hope HD continues to foster more broadcasting exploration. In the mean time, when one two or ten calls complaining about an audio problem.
The call-in number is my personal cell phone. Yikes!! That's how we do live calling for the live shows.
BTW - Lively board tonight
I was at the studios last night and got interrupted. I'll finish my thoughts now:
HD Radio is good for some. That's it. The market place will decide HD's fate in its own time. In our community, we love HD Radio for reasons beyond the side channels (I've already posted those reasons in other places in this forum).
I support the option of all digital on medium wave. I support the continuation of FM/HD hybrid and even the option to go all digital in this part of the radio spectrum one day as well.
Above all, I support the discussion of the future of broadcasting in a respectful way. There are compelling arguments on both sides of the HD issue. It's clear which side I'm on. I'm always open to other perspectives.
Analog broadcasting will always be around. It has its advantages. We have many options -- IP streaming, digital and analog radio. These are exciting times.
HD Radio is good for some. That's it. The market place will decide HD's fate in its own time. In our community, we love HD Radio for reasons beyond the side channels (I've already posted those reasons in other places in this forum).
I support the option of all digital on medium wave. I support the continuation of FM/HD hybrid and even the option to go all digital in this part of the radio spectrum one day as well.
Above all, I support the discussion of the future of broadcasting in a respectful way. There are compelling arguments on both sides of the HD issue. It's clear which side I'm on. I'm always open to other perspectives.
Analog broadcasting will always be around. It has its advantages. We have many options -- IP streaming, digital and analog radio. These are exciting times.
A good friend of mine was on the Tandy Board for about three years because of his success in the tech industry. Toward the end of the line, everyone on the Board was in agreement that the consumer electronic industry was shifting away from home entertainment, portable radios, and TV sets, to smartphones. RS felt it was important to get ahead of the curve, by making RS a one-stop-shop for all devices and carriers. Problem was; customers were going straight to the carriers where the carrier will 'throw-in' a phone for signing up on a two year plan. In the meantime, RS is sitting there with their collective thumbs up their backsides, and a whole lot of cell phone inventory inside expensive mall locations.
I have a
Sangean HDR-18 (nice tabletop unit)
Sangean HDR-16 (even nicer portable)
Insignia HDRAD 2 (nice portable, but only FM/HD)
All purchased locally
we gave away 100 AdioVox iHD-P01s (mini FM/HD receivers) that were donated to us by very nice folks wanting to support us!
Nobody seems to have any trouble finding HD Radios around here so long as they're willing to adhere to the coronavirus restrictions when visiting a store. Of course there's always Amazon.
Seems like the most compelling business case for HD Radio currently is to feed analog LPFM translators for broadcasters that take advantage of the FCC loophole. I would interested in seeing a trend of the growth rate of HD2/3 signals that DO NOT serve an analog translator. These numbers may be more indicative of a niche technology that will be around for years to come but will not be the next revolutionary technology like smartphones or FM band.
I was a big supporter of HD when it first launched in the 2000’s. If broadcasters can triple the number of stations A available in my market for free (excluding the cost of a new radio), how could this be a bad thing?
However, the downside seems to be the impact of the side band hash to adjacent stations. I wrote another thread about how a station in my market that enabled HD practically destroyed the signal of another station on an adjacent frequency. This signal destruction seems to be happening in other markets as well based on the comments on this board.
I've never found that any inconvenience on FM here. Of course, I never listened to any FM adjacents to Hartford/New Haven's major stations before HD came along. And because all the adjacents are way out of market, they were not making a dime off any fringe audience they may have had, anyway. On AM, we lost WBAL when WTIC fired up its IBOC exciter, but that hardly mattered to WBAL or the Baltimore-area advertisers it was serving.
For us, we don't treat our other channels as different stations. We treat them as additional "menu" options for out main channel. Mostly, it's supplemental programming. If a listener hears music on the main channel that was created by our music students and wants to hear more, they simply move to channel 2 where we broadcast only student produced music during the day. All programming for our side channels are broadcast on our main channel, but just concentrated on specific aspects of what the kids do. It's kind of like a website where channel 1 is the home page.
That's just us. Other HD stations use their side channels to feed translators, true. I'm told that some even use them to replace broadcast services from their analog SCA channel. It's good to have the flexibility to use them as the station pleases -- hopefully to provide a service otherwise unavailable.
As for the hash, everything is a give and take. There's a set standard that requires HD services to operate under controlled limits. I suppose this may cause the pecieved noise floor to be elevated on adjacent channels. Perhaps DX listening could be affected, but LPFM stations are distance separated to insure protected contours are not violated.
Overall HD (in any form) is a positive step in the development of the broadcast spectrum, but it's up to the broadcasters to use these advantages to serve their public.
It's good business to serve your folks.
Only because consumers have no access to the HD signal on a standard radio. Had the consumer electronics business been more motivated, things might have been different. I put HD radio in the same group as diginets for TV. If you have a roof antenna for your TV, you have access to several extra TV subchannels. Some cable companies may carry one of them if you search for them. But they're not easily accessible. so most people don't know about them.
That's an issue for AM HD, not FM. Most of the AM HD have been shut down, because their primary benefit was improving the audio quality, not adding additional stations. Imagine hearing AM radio that sounds like FM. That's what AM HD is. But yes there are limitations, and interference issues.
It seems to an issue on the FM band as well. Here in Vancouver, BC we have CKYE on 93.1 and KISM on 92.9 which covers the market with a city grade signal from their transmitter across the border in Washington state. Once KISM started transmitting a HD signal, the reception of CKYE was significantly impacted in most of the metro area. The CKYE signal is practically annihilated 15 miles south of the transmitter where reception was not a problem previously. CKYE has to duplicate their programming on another frequency to fully cover the market. Here is the CRTC decision: https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2016/2016-464.pdf
Based on some of the comments on this board, this scenario is not a one-off. I’ve seen several comments here complaining about the impact of HD to adjacent signals.
Also, the impact in fringe areas is significant. I’ve travelled through several areas of Western Canada & the US where a scan of the FM dial yields no stations. There could be a natural disaster in the area and I’d never know about it. Distant radio signals can be a lifeline during these situations.
I definitely applaud the effort station owners are making to give listeners more options, but the technology has some disadvantages for listeners that depend on radio as a service for critical information.
Everyone is aware of the limitations in the technology, and unfortunately it is currently covered by a patent that doesn't allow outside developers make any adjustments. So there's nothing anyone can do for the time being. However, its been approved by the FCC, so stations are legally allowed to use it regardless of technical limitations.
For the sake of conversation, it's important to make a distinction between LPFM and translators. They're two different things.
Translators broadcast the audio programming of another radio station. They may not originate programming on their own.
LPFM is a class of low power stations that may originate their own programming like a full-power station. They are specifically forbidden from acting as a translator.
I've seen the terms used interchangeably in this forum. I just thought I'd clear that up
Translators broadcast the audio programming of another radio station. They may not originate programming on their own.
LPFM is a class of low power stations that may originate their own programming like a full-power station. They are specifically forbidden from acting as a translator.
I've seen the terms used interchangeably in this forum. I just thought I'd clear that up
Most of those complaints on this board are from DX-Hobbyists. DXer's in general, make up a tiny, insignificant number of listeners as compared with average consumers.
Running HD (IBOC) sidebands does not reduce 'fringe' area analog coverage. Technically speaking; they are two separate carriers.
The vast majority of consumers that need or care about local or regional weather emergency-related information, now rely on phone apps provided by their local State or Counties, or automatic NWS/EAS/IPAWS alerts from their phones. Radio surrendered that role well over ten years ago, as stations could no longer afford to keep news or announcer staff available 24/7, let alone in any hour other than regular business hours. Those were purely business decisions, not technical.
Sorry I should have clarified. HD sidebands impacts the analog signal coverage of stations on adjacent frequencies. The coverage area of the station transmitting in HD is not impacted.
Sadly, you are correct. However, cellular coverage is not ubiquitous in remote areas. There are large swaths of land in BC, Washington, Idaho, and Montana with no cellular 3G service and no local radio signals. These areas are also hotspots for natural disasters such as fires, floods, and earthquakes.
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