The Day the AM Band Died

[rbrucecarter5]

Today is a historic day. Remember the old song "The Day the Music Died"? March 22nd is "The Day the AM Band Died".

But ---- today is a day for a bit of nostalgia - about when nighttime skywave service was available. To those people that relied on it:

(1) The truck drivers on long haul runs in the western US
(2) Isolated rural communities and houses tens or hundreds of miles from a city
(3) Native Americans on reservations
(4) Sports fans trying to listen to home games after they have moved
(5) Hobbyists who love the challenge of hearing a distant station

--- my apologies. For being a weak spokesperson for your right to hear skywave radio. It is a day for nostalgia, when a legacy of almost 90 years of service suddenly died.

One thing that is clear - the present FCC is totally bought and paid for by the broadcasters, and does not care at all about listeners. I understand they were consumed with trivialities such as HD-2 content while killing a whole band almost without thought.

And make no mistake - kill it they did!!! The average, uninformed American is going to tune into AM, assume there is now too much interference to listen any more, and give up. For a band searching for relevance in today's market, this was a death blow. If you think people were disinclined to listen to radio at night before, just wait until the hear the hash! Strange, isn't it - how some IBOC advocates emphasized that nobody listens or cares about nighttime AM radio, yet fought hard to get this approved?

Still, I must congratulate the other side on a masterfully thought out and brilliantly executed victory. For us - the disenfranchised listeners - have lost. It is time to pack up the DX gear and reminisce. For me, personally, it was all about content. As much as I hate talk radio, and hate foreign languages even more, I will not be migrating to DX'ing shortwave. I will continue to listen to FM, where at least second adjacents can still be salvaged. But - because it was always about content not available on local stations to me - I have some exciting new prospects for DX coming up in the next few years.

If content is what I am after, DX can morph into sifting through thousands of internet streams to find the best of the best. Something I never had time to do before, but will now.

Another exciting DX opportunity will come when the lower VHF band is reassigned for high speed internet. The prospect of using decades of FM and TV experience to be able to pull out high speed internet (streaming my newly found favorite stations) - in the middle of nowhere is exciting. Instead of dull boring old TV stations, now I can have the prospect of high bandwidth streaming audio from any station, anywhere, and hanging onto it in the car as I travel. If they use low enough VHF, like channel 2, it could go for hundreds of miles!

Of course there is always DX'ing internet hotspots. Devising better and better antennas to get a good wireless connection almost anywhere I go in a city - for FREE. Again the prize is content - from streaming radio.

Why be limited to phone quality audio from standards KAAM locally, when I've heard about a standards station in St. Louis called "Red FM"?!

High bandwidth streaming sounds tons better than horrible AM IBOC, so don't look for me to buy one an HD radio any time soon. But I WILL be busily making money, hand over foot, teaching the HD listner how to DX their stations - from 20 to 30 miles away - because the kludgey Ibiquity system has severe coverage problems.

 

[awj223]

We'll see soon who was correct, the anti-IBOC crowd or the broadcasters, won't we?

I believe that if the anti-IBOC crowd is right about how bad the interference will be at night, the FCC failed to protect the rights of listeners. Now the decision must be left up to the courts. If it DOES turn out to be workable then it would be a pleasant surprise and I would look forward to seeing how far full digital HD will go on skywave. If, however, nighttime hybrid IBOC makes AM unusable (and I believe this is the more likely scenario), I would not be surprised to see it sued out of existence. Would Ibiquity be liable for damages given the claims they have made? Would the courts eventually force the digital carriers to be dropped farther below the analog at night, making digital effectively unusable at night anyway, until full digital can be adopted? (like daytimer KBRT-740 Avalon, technically authorized for 113W operation at night, which provides so little coverage that they don't even bother). This should be interesting. If I'm right about this, I think a lot of lawyers are going to get rich. Let the lawsuits begin.

 

[SuperQ]

I don't care about skywave, even though I listen to a lot of clear channel stations at night.

I have 84 watts on 1250. It's enough to do high school sports. What's going to happen to my groundwave signal when every little graveyard station on 1240 fires up the digital. I'll be lucky to cover my own parking lot, much less a school district.

I must sell out now before that happens. Thanks Ibiquity for trying to ignore the laws of physics.

 

[clichemoth]

When will we be able to hear the unlistenable mess in its full glory? Will everyone have the hash turned up to maximum tonight?

 

[dbdigital]

Today is a historic day. Remember the old song "The Day the Music Died"? March 22nd is "The Day the AM Band Died".

But ---- today is a day for a bit of nostalgia - about when nighttime skywave service was available. To those people that relied on it:

(1) The truck drivers on long haul runs in the western US
(2) Isolated rural communities and houses tens or hundreds of miles from a city
(3) Native Americans on reservations
(4) Sports fans trying to listen to home games after they have moved
(5) Hobbyists who love the challenge of hearing a distant station

--- my apologies. For being a weak spokesperson for your right to hear skywave radio. It is a day for nostalgia, when a legacy of almost 90 years of service suddenly died.

One thing that is clear - the present FCC is totally bought and paid for by the broadcasters, and does not care at all about listeners. I understand they were consumed with trivialities such as HD-2 content while killing a whole band almost without thought.

And make no mistake - kill it they did!!! The average, uninformed American is going to tune into AM, assume there is now too much interference to listen any more, and give up. For a band searching for relevance in today's market, this was a death blow. If you think people were disinclined to listen to radio at night before, just wait until the hear the hash! Strange, isn't it - how some IBOC advocates emphasized that nobody listens or cares about nighttime AM radio, yet fought hard to get this approved?

Still, I must congratulate the other side on a masterfully thought out and brilliantly executed victory. For us - the disenfranchised listeners - have lost. It is time to pack up the DX gear and reminisce. For me, personally, it was all about content. As much as I hate talk radio, and hate foreign languages even more, I will not be migrating to DX'ing shortwave. I will continue to listen to FM, where at least second adjacents can still be salvaged. But - because it was always about content not available on local stations to me - I have some exciting new prospects for DX coming up in the next few years.

If content is what I am after, DX can morph into sifting through thousands of internet streams to find the best of the best. Something I never had time to do before, but will now.

Another exciting DX opportunity will come when the lower VHF band is reassigned for high speed internet. The prospect of using decades of FM and TV experience to be able to pull out high speed internet (streaming my newly found favorite stations) - in the middle of nowhere is exciting. Instead of dull boring old TV stations, now I can have the prospect of high bandwidth streaming audio from any station, anywhere, and hanging onto it in the car as I travel. If they use low enough VHF, like channel 2, it could go for hundreds of miles!

Of course there is always DX'ing internet hotspots. Devising better and better antennas to get a good wireless connection almost anywhere I go in a city - for FREE. Again the prize is content - from streaming radio.

Why be limited to phone quality audio from standards KAAM locally, when I've heard about a standards station in St. Louis called "Red FM"?!

High bandwidth streaming sounds tons better than horrible AM IBOC, so don't look for me to buy one an HD radio any time soon. But I WILL be busily making money, hand over foot, teaching the HD listner how to DX their stations - from 20 to 30 miles away - because the kludgey Ibiquity system has severe coverage problems.

Well said. It has been argued that AM needed to go digital to maintain its relevance in the media landscape especially among younger listeners. Unfortunately, since few people own HD-R receivers, particularly among the young who can neither afford a $200.00+ radio or are even inclined to buy one, any listening of analog AM with IBOC interference will only reinforce the notion that AM is noisy. Only diehard (and older) radio fans will stick with it.

As for FM, Commissioner Copps did ask this question: "Does a company really need to own eight radio stations in a market when it has the ability to multicast?" He indicated that questions like these need to be answered before the issue of media ownership caps is resolved. I'm glad to read that the FCC, at least, recognizes that these extra streams could constitute extra radio stations to be regulated and factored in.

While it's hard to know what the future holds for AM, today's vote certainly puts its survival in jeopardy.

db

 

[sbe1]

To SuperQ, dont you know you can go to daytime power and pattern under the Special Temporary HSFB STA? This STA has been around for years. DXers use it to get those class D stations that normally they cant get. I bet youve been tempted? Yes, Yes

 

[vsa]

SuperQ wrote: "What's going to happen to my groundwave signal when every little graveyard station on 1240 fires up the digital.  I'll be lucky to cover my own parking lot, much less a school district. I must sell out now before that happens.  Thanks Ibiquity for trying to ignore the laws of physics."

The only chance for the small guy to compete in this situation might be to put a major effort into webcasting - now. Here's what the future holds, according to Bridge Ratings.  

http://www.bridgeratings.com/press_03.21.07-WiFi Impact.htm

Unfortunately, with the likelihood of extremely high music copyright royalties taking effect, that door may also be closed to all but the big guys - the monopolists. A co-incidence?

This is a truly sad day.
 

 

[R.F. Burns]

Today is a historic day. Remember the old song "The Day the Music Died"? March 22nd is "The Day the AM Band Died".

But ---- today is a day for a bit of nostalgia - about when nighttime skywave service was available. To those people that relied on it:

(1) The truck drivers on long haul runs in the western US
(2) Isolated rural communities and houses tens or hundreds of miles from a city
(3) Native Americans on reservations
(4) Sports fans trying to listen to home games after they have moved
(5) Hobbyists who love the challenge of hearing a distant station

--- my apologies. For being a weak spokesperson for your right to hear skywave radio. It is a day for nostalgia, when a legacy of almost 90 years of service suddenly died.

One thing that is clear - the present FCC is totally bought and paid for by the broadcasters, and does not care at all about listeners. I understand they were consumed with trivialities such as HD-2 content while killing a whole band almost without thought.

And make no mistake - kill it they did!!! The average, uninformed American is going to tune into AM, assume there is now too much interference to listen any more, and give up. For a band searching for relevance in today's market, this was a death blow. If you think people were disinclined to listen to radio at night before, just wait until the hear the hash! Strange, isn't it - how some IBOC advocates emphasized that nobody listens or cares about nighttime AM radio, yet fought hard to get this approved?

Still, I must congratulate the other side on a masterfully thought out and brilliantly executed victory. For us - the disenfranchised listeners - have lost. It is time to pack up the DX gear and reminisce. For me, personally, it was all about content. As much as I hate talk radio, and hate foreign languages even more, I will not be migrating to DX'ing shortwave. I will continue to listen to FM, where at least second adjacents can still be salvaged. But - because it was always about content not available on local stations to me - I have some exciting new prospects for DX coming up in the next few years.

If content is what I am after, DX can morph into sifting through thousands of internet streams to find the best of the best. Something I never had time to do before, but will now.

Another exciting DX opportunity will come when the lower VHF band is reassigned for high speed internet. The prospect of using decades of FM and TV experience to be able to pull out high speed internet (streaming my newly found favorite stations) - in the middle of nowhere is exciting. Instead of dull boring old TV stations, now I can have the prospect of high bandwidth streaming audio from any station, anywhere, and hanging onto it in the car as I travel. If they use low enough VHF, like channel 2, it could go for hundreds of miles!

Of course there is always DX'ing internet hotspots. Devising better and better antennas to get a good wireless connection almost anywhere I go in a city - for FREE. Again the prize is content - from streaming radio.

Why be limited to phone quality audio from standards KAAM locally, when I've heard about a standards station in St. Louis called "Red FM"?!

High bandwidth streaming sounds tons better than horrible AM IBOC, so don't look for me to buy one an HD radio any time soon. But I WILL be busily making money, hand over foot, teaching the HD listner how to DX their stations - from 20 to 30 miles away - because the kludgey Ibiquity system has severe coverage problems.

Well said. It has been argued that AM needed to go digital to maintain its relevance in the media landscape especially among younger listeners. Unfortunately, since few people own HD-R receivers, particularly among the young who can neither afford a $200.00+ radio or are even inclined to buy one, any listening of analog AM with IBOC interference will only reinforce the notion that AM is noisy. Only diehard (and older) radio fans will stick with it.

As for FM, Commissioner Copps did ask this question: "Does a company really need to own eight radio stations in a market when it has the ability to multicast?" He indicated that questions like these need to be answered before the issue of media ownership caps is resolved. I'm glad to read that the FCC, at least, recognizes that these extra streams could constitute extra radio stations to be regulated and factored in.

While it's hard to know what the future holds for AM, today's vote certainly puts its survival in jeopardy.

db

Interesting mathmatics you are using. Young people can't afford a 200 dollar radio and we all know the prices with drop and the quality will improve over time, however, they have no trouble buying 400 dollar I-Pods plus thousand dollar computers to feed their I-pods plus buy the CD's or download the songs at a buck a piece. Gee, all of a sudden, that 200 dollar radio doesn't sound that crazy, does it? Just keep repeating, prices will drop and quality will improve and AM formats will change to attract a younger crowd. Younger people want the Daily Show, not Rush Limbaugh.

 

[4dude]

THE FCC SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY ARE IN BED WITH THE MAKERS OF THIS DIGITAL CRAP AND ARE TRYING TO FORCE EVERYONE TO IT!!!!

 

[R.F. Burns]

THE FCC SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY ARE IN BED WITH THE MAKERS OF THIS DIGITAL CRAP AND ARE TRYING TO FORCE EVERYONE TO IT!!!!

Where did you read that everyone is FORCED to adopt IBOC. Where does this nonesense come from? You want to stay analog on AM go righ ahead. IBOC hasn't been mandated as law for every AM & FM facility. It has however been declared the defacto standard for digital broadcasting in the United States.

 

[awj223]

Where did you read that everyone is FORCED to adopt IBOC. Where does this nonesense come from? You want to stay analog on AM go righ ahead. IBOC hasn't been mandated as law for every AM & FM facility. It has however been declared the defacto standard for digital broadcasting in the United States.

But unless some digital standard is mandated someday, there's little point to this transition. IBOC has been approved, but it still has a lot to prove in the real world, especially the hybrid AM mode at night. Ibiquity won a battle, but this is far from over. The FCC formally adopted CBS's field sequential color system as the standard for color TV in 1950...yet the standard we're trying to migrate to DTV from today is NTSC http://novia.net/~ereitan/Color_Sys_CBS.html

Only time will tell if HD works on AM at night, and if the market will accept it. Sure, young people can afford 200 dollar radios, but it's still too early to tell whether this goes the way of the CD and DVD or the way of the minidisc.

 

[4dude]

All the stations have run IBOC will probably start using it @ night and RUIN THE BAND!!!!!!!!!!

All because "Daddy" says it ok!!!!!!

 

[vsa]

R.F.Burns wrote: "Interesting mathmatics you are using. Young people can't afford a 200 dollar radio and we all know the prices with drop and the quality will improve over time, however, they have no trouble buying 400 dollar I-Pods plus thousand dollar computers to feed their I-pods plus buy the CD's or download the songs at a buck a piece. Gee, all of a sudden, that 200 dollar radio doesn't sound that crazy, does it? Just keep repeating, prices will drop and quality will improve and AM formats will change to attract a younger crowd."

Yes! Young people and young adults are perfectly happy to pay hundreds of dollars for an iPod, a smartphone with monthly voice and wireless Internet charges, and a snazzy computer with monthly broadband bills. They still haven't been buying any HD radios, even as prices have begun to fall. They don't want one. It's not even on their radar screen. As for AM radio? What's that? Most have NEVER listened to the AM section of their car radio. NEVER! As for the radio at home? What radio? The one that buzzes them up in the morning? MAYBE the one inside their computer - the one without the 25 minutes of spots an hour.

You don't get it, do you? They don't want HD radio. They don't care about HD radio. If they think about HD radio at all, they think its something they would never ever ever ever ever ever want and never need. NEVER. They laugh at the thought.

Yours is an empty victory today.

 

[DoogieDown1]

Younger people want the Daily Show, not Rush Limbaugh.

I'm not even sure the Daily Show is widely consumed by our youth (although I understand where you're coming from). I'm thinking MTV and CHR (or Hip Hop) radio still rule an average kid's world.

This isn't meant as an attack on IBOC (even though I'm NOT a fan), but young people really aren't going to view an HD Radio like they view an iPod or an XBox. They'll spend the paycheck they earn at McDonalds on a "cool" addition to their entertainment gadget collection. But an HD Radio is of no use to them. A normal FM radio suits their purposes fine.

Not that I'm in the business of helping HD Radio succeed, but the quickest way to get kids interested in HD Radio would be to create HD-2's that allow profanity in the lyrics. There would be MASSIVE word of mouth, and THEN you'd sell some radios.

 

[paul vincent zecchino]

May the iBLOC crowd enjoy all it so mendaciously gained. Best wishes. May the gloating commence. The future allows ample time for its antithesis.

How very tedious that stooge-radio backers mock, even in time of ill-gotten victory. Why can't they be magnanimous? Does nothing please them? Why are they so filled with vitriol?

Perhaps, as many suggest, HD stooge-radio backers intended from the outset to demolish radio and replace it with nothing, in full reflection of themselves.

As mentioned, the future has a way disappointing the most careful of designers.

Dr. Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasota Key, Florida
22 March, 2007

 

[EasyPeazy]

But ---- today is a day for a bit of nostalgia - about when nighttime skywave service was available. To those people that relied on it:

(1) The truck drivers on long haul runs in the western US
(2) Isolated rural communities and houses tens or hundreds of miles from a city
(3) Native Americans on reservations
(4) Sports fans trying to listen to home games after they have moved
(5) Hobbyists who love the challenge of hearing a distant station

(1) I suspect the overwhelming majority of XM and Sirius users are truckers. Didn't XM hire the biggest names in overnight trucker radio?
(2) They have a myriad of entertainment options including XM and Sirius. You can't drive by a rural house these days without seeing a DirecTV dish. If you checked their cars, I suspect you'd see XM and Sirius antennas.
(3) I spent some time in Tulsa. Trust me - the Native Americans in Oklahoma get all the radio they want from huge class C signals in OKC and Tulsa. In even more rural areas, I suspect Native Americans get their "radio" the same place other rural listeners do - satellite radio.
(4) Internet radio has provided much better listening opportunities for sports enthusiasts than DX for many years. There's also cable and satellite TV options. Never before have sports fans had so much choice.
(5) If you believe the hype, it just got even more challenging. You should be thrilled.

 

[livingfruitvirus]

As far as I know, Class A stations WSB in Atlanta and WINS in New York will still continue not to broadcast IBOC, as they have HD-2 simulcasts on sister FM stations which have been running 24/7 for a while now.

Also, many many truckers do have satellite radio. I'm never surprised when I turn on an XM exclusive show and hear plenty of truckers calling in. The talent on XM's Open Road get a lot of phone calls so that channel is definitely one much listened to.

 

[dbdigital]

Today is a historic day. Remember the old song "The Day the Music Died"? March 22nd is "The Day the AM Band Died".

But ---- today is a day for a bit of nostalgia - about when nighttime skywave service was available. To those people that relied on it:

(1) The truck drivers on long haul runs in the western US
(2) Isolated rural communities and houses tens or hundreds of miles from a city
(3) Native Americans on reservations
(4) Sports fans trying to listen to home games after they have moved
(5) Hobbyists who love the challenge of hearing a distant station

--- my apologies. For being a weak spokesperson for your right to hear skywave radio. It is a day for nostalgia, when a legacy of almost 90 years of service suddenly died.

One thing that is clear - the present FCC is totally bought and paid for by the broadcasters, and does not care at all about listeners. I understand they were consumed with trivialities such as HD-2 content while killing a whole band almost without thought.

And make no mistake - kill it they did!!! The average, uninformed American is going to tune into AM, assume there is now too much interference to listen any more, and give up. For a band searching for relevance in today's market, this was a death blow. If you think people were disinclined to listen to radio at night before, just wait until the hear the hash! Strange, isn't it - how some IBOC advocates emphasized that nobody listens or cares about nighttime AM radio, yet fought hard to get this approved?

Still, I must congratulate the other side on a masterfully thought out and brilliantly executed victory. For us - the disenfranchised listeners - have lost. It is time to pack up the DX gear and reminisce. For me, personally, it was all about content. As much as I hate talk radio, and hate foreign languages even more, I will not be migrating to DX'ing shortwave. I will continue to listen to FM, where at least second adjacents can still be salvaged. But - because it was always about content not available on local stations to me - I have some exciting new prospects for DX coming up in the next few years.

If content is what I am after, DX can morph into sifting through thousands of internet streams to find the best of the best. Something I never had time to do before, but will now.

Another exciting DX opportunity will come when the lower VHF band is reassigned for high speed internet. The prospect of using decades of FM and TV experience to be able to pull out high speed internet (streaming my newly found favorite stations) - in the middle of nowhere is exciting. Instead of dull boring old TV stations, now I can have the prospect of high bandwidth streaming audio from any station, anywhere, and hanging onto it in the car as I travel. If they use low enough VHF, like channel 2, it could go for hundreds of miles!

Of course there is always DX'ing internet hotspots. Devising better and better antennas to get a good wireless connection almost anywhere I go in a city - for FREE. Again the prize is content - from streaming radio.

Why be limited to phone quality audio from standards KAAM locally, when I've heard about a standards station in St. Louis called "Red FM"?!

High bandwidth streaming sounds tons better than horrible AM IBOC, so don't look for me to buy one an HD radio any time soon. But I WILL be busily making money, hand over foot, teaching the HD listner how to DX their stations - from 20 to 30 miles away - because the kludgey Ibiquity system has severe coverage problems.

Well said. It has been argued that AM needed to go digital to maintain its relevance in the media landscape especially among younger listeners. Unfortunately, since few people own HD-R receivers, particularly among the young who can neither afford a $200.00+ radio or are even inclined to buy one, any listening of analog AM with IBOC interference will only reinforce the notion that AM is noisy. Only diehard (and older) radio fans will stick with it.

As for FM, Commissioner Copps did ask this question: "Does a company really need to own eight radio stations in a market when it has the ability to multicast?" He indicated that questions like these need to be answered before the issue of media ownership caps is resolved. I'm glad to read that the FCC, at least, recognizes that these extra streams could constitute extra radio stations to be regulated and factored in.

While it's hard to know what the future holds for AM, today's vote certainly puts its survival in jeopardy.

db

Interesting mathmatics you are using. Young people can't afford a 200 dollar radio and we all know the prices with drop and the quality will improve over time, however, they have no trouble buying 400 dollar I-Pods plus thousand dollar computers to feed their I-pods plus buy the CD's or download the songs at a buck a piece. Gee, all of a sudden, that 200 dollar radio doesn't sound that crazy, does it? Just keep repeating, prices will drop and quality will improve and AM formats will change to attract a younger crowd. Younger people want the Daily Show, not Rush Limbaugh.

For one thing, there is a coolness factor with iPods that radio just can't touch, including the ability to program one's own 'radio station' with music of one's own taste. A computer is a multi-use item in which a young person can download music, surf the internet, play video games, chat with friends, listen to web radio and (lastly) do school work. An HD-Radio can't compete with that.

And in the end, most parents buy these things for their children anyway. If you're thinking that one day a young person is going to stand up and say "I want my HD-Radio", you're fantasizing. If anything, they will be listening to Daily Show on something like an iPhone.

Just keep repeating, 'I'd better get my broadcasts on the web.'

db

 

[clichemoth]

Today is a historic day. Remember the old song "The Day the Music Died"? March 22nd is "The Day the AM Band Died".

But ---- today is a day for a bit of nostalgia - about when nighttime skywave service was available. To those people that relied on it:

(1) The truck drivers on long haul runs in the western US

They've adopted satellite. Mind you, they're really the only demographic to do so in large numbers.

(2) Isolated rural communities and houses tens or hundreds of miles from a city

They get their information and entertainment from cable or satellite TV these days. And with the translator explosion, is there really anyplace in the US that doesn't have radio in the daytime?

(3) Native Americans on reservations

Who could flaunt the FCC and run as many stations of their own as they want. Charlie doesn't even go after stations in major markets that step all over licensed stations unless they do something dumb like swear like sailors or attract media attention, they wouldn't go busting up a pirate at Pine Ridge or Fort Peck.

(4) Sports fans trying to listen to home games after they have moved

Most teams are moving off the big blowtorches in favor of FM anyway. And that is also something that can be done easily with satellite and/or the Internet.

(5) Hobbyists who love the challenge of hearing a distant station

I understand that point, although my DXing is strictly in the TV/FM/public safety bands. Look at the bright side, though, that ultra-rare catch will now be even more difficult to obtain and be even more special.

As for FM, Commissioner Copps did ask this question: "Does a company really need to own eight radio stations in a market when it has the ability to multicast?" He indicated that questions like these need to be answered before the issue of media ownership caps is resolved. I'm glad to read that the FCC, at least, recognizes that these extra streams could constitute extra radio stations to be regulated and factored in.

But since every FM station has the potential to have an extra stream, no one has a bigger percentage of the market than they did before.

 

[radiopilot]

For one thing, there is a coolness factor with iPods that radio just can't touch, including the ability to program one's own 'radio station' with music of one's own taste. A computer is a multi-use item in which a young person can download music, surf the internet, play video games, chat with friends, listen to web radio and (lastly) do school work. An HD-Radio can't compete with that.

And in the end, most parents buy these things for their children anyway. If you're thinking that one day a young person is going to stand up and say "I want my HD-Radio", you're fantasizing.

HAHAHAHAHAHA....

All these people come in support of IBOC HD Radio....

HAHAHAHAHAHA.....

I'm lovin' it... what about you?

Radiopilot