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Why Hasn't WSM (AM 650) Gone HD?

R

rbc

I'm kind of curious. Why hasn't WSM gone HD yet? It seems like it would be a perfect fit for their music programming. I don't know how reliable HD over skywave is, but it seems like some all-night drivers would appreciate having WSM HD in their car with them.

I suppose a few years ago, it didn't make sense if the radios weren't available. These days, it seems like there are lots of choices in the accessories market. I didn't have much trouble finding a after market radio that I liked.
 
AM-HD is not a good idea, especially at night. They don't own an FM to hang an HD to. That would be the best.

Their long-time CE was not a big fan either.

They really focus their attention on streaming. Although I'm told their streaming doesn't make any money.

I believe the Opry can still be heard on Sirius.
 
Don't forget that a lot of today's truckers -- a large portion of the people on the roads at night -- are no longer in WSM's demographic. They'd be listening to contemporary country or some other form of contemporary hit music on FM or satellite (many truckers have Sirius XM).

As far as receivers in use, do those factory-installed car/truck radios that now have HD as a standard feature include it for AM as well as FM, or just for FM?
 
rbc said:
I'm not sure about the factory installed radios, but all the after market radios that I considered were HD on both AM and FM.
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Most cars made in the last decade or so have their radio integrated into the overall electronics system. Putting an aftermarket radio in the car is very difficult. The old method of pulling a stand-alone radio out of the dash and putting in an aftermarket one by just using the right face-plate just does not work.
 
CTListener said:
Don't forget that a lot of today's truckers -- a large portion of the people on the roads at night -- are no longer in WSM's demographic. They'd be listening to contemporary country or some other form of contemporary hit music on FM or satellite (many truckers have Sirius XM).

As far as receivers in use, do those factory-installed car/truck radios that now have HD as a standard feature include it for AM as well as FM, or just for FM?
Click to expand...

HD is based on a chip; I believe the available chips with HD have both AM and FM HD radio.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Most cars made in the last decade or so have their radio integrated into the overall electronics system. Putting an aftermarket radio in the car is very difficult. The old method of pulling a stand-alone radio out of the dash and putting in an aftermarket one by just using the right face-plate just does not work.
Click to expand...

Very true, but new cars are coming out with HD radios now. The hdradio.com site has a page for that too:

https://hdradio.com/get-a-radio/new-car

If I read it right, 204 vehicle models are available with HD radios now.
 
HD might work during the day around Nashville, but skywave tends to make it more than useless, so I'm not sure what good it would do being on at night. Plus it would probably tear up 670 in Chicago and 660 in New York, no?

I kind of wish WSM was in C-QUAM stereo. WSM is the only clear channel I get at night reliably most nights due to Cuban interference down here on the coast. I've been told WLS does C-QUAM at night but it's ate up by Cuba so I can't check with my little Sony radio.
 
The biggest problem (IMO) with HD on AM is the terrible audio quality on analog receivers. If HD AM receivers were the majority of listening, they might consider it. But degrading audio quality for the 90% to the benefit of the 10% with an HD receiver is probably not something WSM wants to do.
 
tomservo said:
HD might work during the day around Nashville, but skywave tends to make it more than useless, so I'm not sure what good it would do being on at night. Plus it would probably tear up 670 in Chicago and 660 in New York, no?
Click to expand...

Actually, 670 is already transmitting HD. I can't get a lock in central Mississippi, but they are sending it.
 
rbc said:
Actually, 670 is already transmitting HD. I can't get a lock in central Mississippi, but they are sending it.
Click to expand...

What I meant was if 650 was doing HD, their sidebands on 670 and 640 would be splattering all over the coverage area of 670 from Chicago at night.

I have a local station on 660 that I can hear day and night, and sometimes it's hammered really hard by 670's HD sideband. I can even see it on the SDR waterfall as a big wall of noise on the upper sideband on 660 and lower sideband of 680.
 
tomservo said:
What I meant was if 650 was doing HD, their sidebands on 670 and 640 would be splattering all over the coverage area of 670 from Chicago at night.

I have a local station on 660 that I can hear day and night, and sometimes it's hammered really hard by 670's HD sideband. I can even see it on the SDR waterfall as a big wall of noise on the upper sideband on 660 and lower sideband of 680.
Click to expand...

You have better equipment than I do, but I know what you mean. Pure digital would be better, only consuming 20kHz instead of 30kHz. I guess that might be the thing with the clear-channel stations hesitancy to adopt HD radio. Their skywave will really hurt the local stations that fall within their 30kHz hybrid channel.
 
tomservo said:
I...wish WSM was in C-QUAM stereo.
Click to expand...
I remember when they were and they would:
Fade in on one side and fade out on the other
Fade in on one side and fade out on the other
Fade in on one side and fade out on the other
Someone get me some dimenhydrinate, commonly marketed as Dramamine
I cannot remember which side was the gazinta and which was the gazouta.
That was a third of a century ago.
 
I once listened to an AM stereo simulcast on WSM of the CMA awards 500 miles from the station using a Sony AM stereo walkman tuned to WSM AM stereo and watching the TV broadcast with the sound turned down, since the TV station was mono at the time. Except for occasional fading from WSM it worked beautifully. Sounded great.
 
tomservo said:
HD might work during the day around Nashville, but skywave tends to make it more than useless, so I'm not sure what good it would do being on at night.
Click to expand...

That's not quite true. As an example; during the Fall and Winter months after dark I can listen to WCBS-AM and WBZ Boston in HD while driving around my home in Stafford, VA. Even though the formats are voice, it still sounds really good!
 
I think that stereo simulcast of the cma awards on WSM was back in the early to mid 90's. It actually sounded bettter that you might think, considering WSM is over 500 miles away from me.
 
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