We are parsing this on the DFW board. Never hear this before. Any thoughts?
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There is another aspect of HD that is troublesome. It digs deep into the analog coverage range. KGLK Lake Jackson was a very useful test station, because their HD would be on, then off, then on, etc. Since I make the Dallas / Houston drive frequently, I am familiar with how far the stations go. Prior to any HD, there was a good dividing line at about Centerville. Some went a little farther, some less. But it was - Buffalo - all Dallas. Madisonville, all Houston. Average days year round no skip.
KGLK ran HD, its Northern coverage shrank from Centerville to South of Huntsville. That is HUGE. Because of their frequent shutdowns, I could tell you by Centerville if they were running HD or not - as confirmed by interference on first adjacents. Now they probably don't care much about Centerville, Madisonville, and Huntsville but I guarantee they care about the Woodlands and Conroe, where they would no longer come in on cheap radios. I can prove the care about those markets because they bought 106.9 to cover them again. When all they really needed to do is just shut down HD. And it also has a big impact on building penetration closer in.
So how do Dallas FM's fare? Somewhat better, but their range is still drastically affected. What used to be down to Centerville and in a lot of cases Madisonville is now between Fairfield and Buffalo. Pretty much every DFW since HD was adopted. Still - not serious if you consider Buffalo ratings, but building penetration in downtown Dallas is another matter. I challenge any DFW station engineer to take the drive themself, test the range with HD on, then test it with HD off at a similar time of day. It is repeatable and a profound shrink of range.
I get the same on Houston stations, virtually all are gone just North of Huntsville now.
So the key takeaway from this is that on average what used to be 130 to 140 miles is now 80 to 90, which is not much more than HD reception range of 70 miles. So from blended mono at 90 miles to full HD reception at 70 miles is the new norm. Not bad if you are after an HD system that matches analog coverage, but analog coverage has been gutted in the process. I make this drive a lot, I discount ranges late in the evening and early morning, but mid day it is absolutely repeatable and a stunning indictment of the engineering involved in setting up this system. Bad engineering through and through.
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There is another aspect of HD that is troublesome. It digs deep into the analog coverage range. KGLK Lake Jackson was a very useful test station, because their HD would be on, then off, then on, etc. Since I make the Dallas / Houston drive frequently, I am familiar with how far the stations go. Prior to any HD, there was a good dividing line at about Centerville. Some went a little farther, some less. But it was - Buffalo - all Dallas. Madisonville, all Houston. Average days year round no skip.
KGLK ran HD, its Northern coverage shrank from Centerville to South of Huntsville. That is HUGE. Because of their frequent shutdowns, I could tell you by Centerville if they were running HD or not - as confirmed by interference on first adjacents. Now they probably don't care much about Centerville, Madisonville, and Huntsville but I guarantee they care about the Woodlands and Conroe, where they would no longer come in on cheap radios. I can prove the care about those markets because they bought 106.9 to cover them again. When all they really needed to do is just shut down HD. And it also has a big impact on building penetration closer in.
So how do Dallas FM's fare? Somewhat better, but their range is still drastically affected. What used to be down to Centerville and in a lot of cases Madisonville is now between Fairfield and Buffalo. Pretty much every DFW since HD was adopted. Still - not serious if you consider Buffalo ratings, but building penetration in downtown Dallas is another matter. I challenge any DFW station engineer to take the drive themself, test the range with HD on, then test it with HD off at a similar time of day. It is repeatable and a profound shrink of range.
I get the same on Houston stations, virtually all are gone just North of Huntsville now.
So the key takeaway from this is that on average what used to be 130 to 140 miles is now 80 to 90, which is not much more than HD reception range of 70 miles. So from blended mono at 90 miles to full HD reception at 70 miles is the new norm. Not bad if you are after an HD system that matches analog coverage, but analog coverage has been gutted in the process. I make this drive a lot, I discount ranges late in the evening and early morning, but mid day it is absolutely repeatable and a stunning indictment of the engineering involved in setting up this system. Bad engineering through and through.