WGNL Greenwood running HD?

[Sam The Record Man]

Passing through Greenwood for the first time in ages I did a little band scan and noticed that 104.3 WGNL in Greenwood seemed to have some "static" on either side of the analog carrier. Equal strength on both sides according a signal meter. Hmm.

Are there even any HD radios in the Delta? My impression of the area's radio was that it was among the worst run I've ever heard, pirates in Brooklyn, NY, aside. And after looking up the TX site online I have to wonder how many cows and cornstalks can afford that new Insignia portable.

Lots of hum across the dial and some AM station with some serious EQ issues. Oh and when I heard WGNL's "sidebands" they were running a dead carrier. That's entertainment!

 

[rfburns]

WGNL is not running HD. Don't know why they were running a dead carrier - may have something to do with some recent lightning damage at the studio.

RFB

 

[flytrap]

speaking of HD, is there any way of knowing if anyone is actually listening (or even heard of) HD from MPB except for the engineer? I actually heard it once on a car radio at Walmart in Richland. The classical HD2 sounded ok from what little I could hear. Kinda hard to hear inside a noisy walmart. What kind of HD range can you get from a 100,000 watt station. The folks on the HD board say the range is horrible. However, they are usually listening to "big city" radio stations and some of them only have a few thousand watts.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

If anyone is listening to HD it's probably public broadcast station listeners. They have made an effort to get programming on the 2's and 3's. It's not great audio quality but it's there. For most people not in the business "it's there" is fine. It makes my teeth hurt.

The coverage of any HD is about the 70 dBu contour of the analog signal. For a 100K station, that's OK, given the analog coverage is pretty acceptable out to the 56 dBu contour. HD dies an instant death when it doesn't work, the analog just gets noisy as your receiver blends to mono.

 

[richllewis]

The latest HD station is at Lorman with the college station at Alcorn State

 

[flytrap]

Wow. Lorman? Alcorns station? There's hardly anyone in lorman. If you have only 5 HD listeners in New York, You must have a massive audience of maybe 1 listener in Lorman. On a radio inside the radio station.

 

[Sam The Record Man]

speaking of HD, is there any way of knowing if anyone is actually listening (or even heard of) HD from MPB except for the engineer? I actually heard it once on a car radio at Walmart in Richland. The classical HD2 sounded ok from what little I could hear. Kinda hard to hear inside a noisy walmart. What kind of HD range can you get from a 100,000 watt station. The folks on the HD board say the range is horrible. However, they are usually listening to "big city" radio stations and some of them only have a few thousand watts.

I've heard that coverage is supposed to be good out to the 60dBu contour on a HD car radio. I'd be surprised if WMAV Oxford puts a useable HD signal into suburban Memphis, for example. The station in the Delta (WMAO?) is so far out I am curious if the HD is useable in Greenwood or Greenville at all.

 

[louisNatl]

Wow. Lorman? Alcorns station? There's hardly anyone in lorman. If you have only 5 HD listeners in New York, You must have a massive audience of maybe 1 listener in Lorman. On a radio inside the radio station.

I guess I'm one of those that can see the potential future in HD Radio. The young generation (AKA the iPod generation) has been turning away from terresterial radio en masse. Where will go to find new music? Their respective playlists of MP3s will become stale quickly. There will always be MySpace, Pandora, Last.FM, etc. But so far, success has been moderate on the iPhone and other such devices as cellular data caps become more restrictive. HD Radio provides opportunities for deep playlists, unsigned up-and-coming artists, and specialty music. I could easily see the college stations such as WMSV, WUMS, and WUSM broadcasting various channels of alternative, classic country & folk, classical, and maybe even a Mississippi Delta Blues Channel. The commercial stations could stream more mainstream formats such as R&B soul, crossover country, etc. Also, there's the added benefit of RDS which can be used to provide artist info and local weather updates during tornado season. I'm surprised that so many people here trash HD Radio and don't recognize the full potential.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

Wow. Lorman? Alcorns station? There's hardly anyone in lorman. If you have only 5 HD listeners in New York, You must have a massive audience of maybe 1 listener in Lorman. On a radio inside the radio station.

I guess I'm one of those that can see the potential future in HD Radio. The young generation (AKA the iPod generation) has been turning away from terresterial radio en masse. Where will go to find new music? Their respective playlists of MP3s will become stale quickly. There will always be MySpace, Pandora, Last.FM, etc. But so far, success has been moderate on the iPhone and other such devices as cellular data caps become more restrictive. HD Radio provides opportunities for deep playlists, unsigned up-and-coming artists, and specialty music. I could easily see the college stations such as WMSV, WUMS, and WUSM broadcasting various channels of alternative, classic country & folk, classical, and maybe even a Mississippi Delta Blues Channel. The commercial stations could stream more mainstream formats such as R&B soul, crossover country, etc. Also, there's the added benefit of RDS which can be used to provide artist info and local weather updates during tornado season. I'm surprised that so many people here trash HD Radio and don't recognize the full potential.

There are two glaring problems with HD. It costs a fortune to install and it doesn't work. Stations can't afford the fees much less the equipment to install the system, and it only covers out to about the 70 dBu contour. It doesn't work particularly well in a mobile environment and if you're enjoying an HD-s or 3 broadcast when it drops out the radio goes to silence. And it drops out a lot mobile.

The uses you suggest above are good, but no one has the money to put up serious content on 2's and 3's, especially when there are so few listeners and no ROI. The idea of a digital method for terrestrial radio is good, and there are several ways of doing it well in terms of coverage and audio quality, but the iBiquity system is simply not going to flourish with the cost to install and operate greater than the income stream of the main station in some cases. Again, no ROI.

 

[louisNatl]

Wow. Lorman? Alcorns station? There's hardly anyone in lorman. If you have only 5 HD listeners in New York, You must have a massive audience of maybe 1 listener in Lorman. On a radio inside the radio station.

I guess I'm one of those that can see the potential future in HD Radio. The young generation (AKA the iPod generation) has been turning away from terresterial radio en masse. Where will go to find new music? Their respective playlists of MP3s will become stale quickly. There will always be MySpace, Pandora, Last.FM, etc. But so far, success has been moderate on the iPhone and other such devices as cellular data caps become more restrictive. HD Radio provides opportunities for deep playlists, unsigned up-and-coming artists, and specialty music. I could easily see the college stations such as WMSV, WUMS, and WUSM broadcasting various channels of alternative, classic country & folk, classical, and maybe even a Mississippi Delta Blues Channel. The commercial stations could stream more mainstream formats such as R&B soul, crossover country, etc. Also, there's the added benefit of RDS which can be used to provide artist info and local weather updates during tornado season. I'm surprised that so many people here trash HD Radio and don't recognize the full potential.

There are two glaring problems with HD. It costs a fortune to install and it doesn't work. Stations can't afford the fees much less the equipment to install the system, and it only covers out to about the 70 dBu contour. It doesn't work particularly well in a mobile environment and if you're enjoying an HD-s or 3 broadcast when it drops out the radio goes to silence. And it drops out a lot mobile.

The uses you suggest above are good, but no one has the money to put up serious content on 2's and 3's, especially when there are so few listeners and no ROI. The idea of a digital method for terrestrial radio is good, and there are several ways of doing it well in terms of coverage and audio quality, but the iBiquity system is simply not going to flourish with the cost to install and operate greater than the income stream of the main station in some cases. Again, no ROI.

I agree that the iBiquity system is not the best, but it is the "standard" that the FCC adopted. DAB+ and DRM should still be explored as both have had moderate success in Europe and South Korea.

 

[Sam The Record Man]

Also, there's the added benefit of RDS which can be used to provide artist info and local weather updates during tornado season. I'm surprised that so many people here trash HD Radio and don't recognize the full potential.

RDS can be implemented without the costly HD radio hardware. I used to have a radio that took advantage of all the bells and whistles and it was just as good as any data from an HD feed that I could imagine, minus the constant in-out-in blending of analog and digital.

And RDS works well beyond the 70 dBu contour and cost pennies to implement in software radios.

If HD radio really is only reliable to 70 dBu, then the station I mistook, WGNL, would definitely be a bad candidate. I would be shocked if their signal into Greenwood or Cleveland or Grenada was strong enough to trip the HD light.