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where did the hd go?
- Thread starter RadioGaga
- Start date
HD is the biggest flop in the history of broadcast, even bigger than AM stereo and FM quad. The are probably 1,000 people in the U.S. that actually listen to HD on a regular basis. The companies that use it, spent a bundle and because of the investment, will keep it for awhile, but I bet it is gone in less than ten years
Ever since WHP-580 put on their HD, it has NEVER worked here, 10 miles south of York.
Last time I checked they were only running it in the daytime, my guess is that 6 tower array on 580 doesn't play well with I buzzzzz.
In Greencastle (about 50 south of the tower site) it cuts in and out on my sangean tuner with a shielded loop in the attic.
Last time I checked they have about .6 mv/m at my location on the day mode.
In Greencastle (about 50 south of the tower site) it cuts in and out on my sangean tuner with a shielded loop in the attic.
Last time I checked they have about .6 mv/m at my location on the day mode.
They made so many proclamations of how they're going to provide this great alternate programming on the HD frequencies. Somehow I think they forgot about that.
It's the old chicken-and-egg quandary: Which comes first? Stations or receivers?
Some of us are old enough to remember what FM was like in the sixties. Hundreds of stations on-air with crystal clear signals and huge coverage areas... and no listeners. It took an FCC action in 1970--giving the stereo capability to FM, but not AM--to prompt interest, along with a huge campaign by the industry to persuade car manufacturers to put AM/FM receivers into American vehicles.
Without a noticeable audio advantage over conventional FM, and glacial movement--or no movement--by automakers and receiver manufacturers to make HD part of all/most radios, HD radio is kind of where FM was in 1969. Some awareness... minimal interest... very few listeners.
The best use, so far, might be what CBS did down in Baltimore, using one of 106.5's HD channels as the "origninating station" to justify an FM translator at 97.5, creating the equivalent of a Class A FM (250 watts at a thousand feet, HAAT) for alternative "HFS." Adding a new FM channel in a Top 25 market for less than a hundred grand is pretty clever. (Whether HFS ever takes off and makes money is a whole 'nother issue). But without HD they couldn't have done it.
I'm not quite as familiar with it, but I am aware of Harrisburg's 95.3/ESPN--a precursor to the HFS gambit? The Harrisburg market is so spread out, geographically, that translators can't really cover the turf. But that was an HD relay, too, wasn't it?
Some of us are old enough to remember what FM was like in the sixties. Hundreds of stations on-air with crystal clear signals and huge coverage areas... and no listeners. It took an FCC action in 1970--giving the stereo capability to FM, but not AM--to prompt interest, along with a huge campaign by the industry to persuade car manufacturers to put AM/FM receivers into American vehicles.
Without a noticeable audio advantage over conventional FM, and glacial movement--or no movement--by automakers and receiver manufacturers to make HD part of all/most radios, HD radio is kind of where FM was in 1969. Some awareness... minimal interest... very few listeners.
The best use, so far, might be what CBS did down in Baltimore, using one of 106.5's HD channels as the "origninating station" to justify an FM translator at 97.5, creating the equivalent of a Class A FM (250 watts at a thousand feet, HAAT) for alternative "HFS." Adding a new FM channel in a Top 25 market for less than a hundred grand is pretty clever. (Whether HFS ever takes off and makes money is a whole 'nother issue). But without HD they couldn't have done it.
I'm not quite as familiar with it, but I am aware of Harrisburg's 95.3/ESPN--a precursor to the HFS gambit? The Harrisburg market is so spread out, geographically, that translators can't really cover the turf. But that was an HD relay, too, wasn't it?
Back in the early 70's, I thought the FCC told the radio makers that if a radio cost over a certain price that FM HAD to be included on the receiver? After that, that is when FM really took off.
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