Although in markets where sports talk has migrated to FM (Boston), or remains on AM but with a full-power FM simulcast (New York), more actual listening is being done on FM, despite there being no real need for higher quality audio on play-by-play of a baseball game or a phone call from Joe in Queens or Mike in Dorchester.
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WSB vs WABC
- Thread starter Radig
- Start date
The two that Big A mentions are the only ones that count.
Maybe, but that's not how this kind of thing works. If you want digital audio, you own devices that receive it now.
There are no countries the size of the US that use DAB.
And the countries where it has been imposed on the public, the force behind it is a dominant government control of radio. That means limited commercial radio and state controlled multi-channel program services with budgets that no ad supported radio operation could afford.
It's the old "we're from the government and we're here to help you" without actually determining what people want and need.
I was trying to promote DRM, not DAB.
Worse, as there is only one significant nation that uses DRM on medium wave (what we call "AM") and that is India where there is no commercial AM radio.
DRM was developed for short wave, and we know how well that went for them.
No, it was also developed for the MW band - that is why they have Mode A for use on that and Long Wave.
As for shortwave, let's see, we have China (population 1.4 billion) with a number of DRM transmissions that is currently expanding, India (pop. 1.39 billion) has several SW DRM transmissions, as well as a multitude of AM, and Russia (pop. 146 million) has several DRM transmissions with their Radio Purga service in the NE of the country.
Pakistan is also thinking of using DRM on MW.
Nautel, not a fly-by-night operation, is banking on DRM in the medium wave band and is supplying India with their equipment.
But how many are actually listening to these transmissions? I suppose numbers -- at least credible ones -- aren't available, or even being tallied, as all these DRM installations are at the behest of national governments, two of which can spend their citizens' tax money however they wish, without fear of retaliation by the voters on Election Day.
Yet it got no MW users until very recently; there has never been even minimal interest by private commercial stations. Whether DRM thought there would be MW stations with an interest, they spent most of a decade with only SW operations other than experiments.
The biggest issue is that it is unlike AM stereo or FM stereo and HD as it is not on-channel compatible with existing analog services. It requires a whole new plant, all new radio and a huge investment for something that will take a decade or more to transition.
China has no private AM stations and AM has plenty of open channels so analog and digital can co-exist.
Not a "multitude" as most are very high power, intended to cover very large areas. And AM in India is 100% government operated, with lots of open channels to allow parallel analog and digital.
As a subcontinent, India does not have to worry much about co-channel interference, either.
Another totalitarian nation with no independent AMs.
But has not done it.
They are not "banking on DRM"... just offering whatever products are wanted anywhere. If there were a sudden demand for CW transmitters, Nautel would make them, too.
In places where there is still-viable commercial AM, there are no empty frequencies for transitional digital and analog parallel transmitters. And in most places, from Mexico to Austria, the AM band is being vacated.
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Sure. People would rather listen to any given programming on FM over AM. But the listenership and revenue bar is a lot higher for FM than a legacy AM. AM has survived for two reasons: 1) it's a band most radios can receive, and is perfectly serviceable for lo-fi formats (although day vs. night is still an issue with the non-class As, especially with sports PxP), and 2) skywave at night, at least for the class As and maybe some of the Bs. As music has migrated to FM (and beyond), a lot of spoken-word found a home on an underutilized band.
To whom are you trying to promote DRM? Have you tried the FCC or Congress? Good place to start.
I was simply addressing this thread. The choice of the word "promote" sounds somewhat pompous and arrogant, which was not my purpose.
As for actually promoting DRM, for some time I have been involved with DRM groups here in the USA and globally. I'll leave it at that.
So what will happen when the AM band becomes empty?
Same thing that's happening to the shortwave broadcast bands: a slow death. Medium wave frequencies -- like the SW bands once home to numerous broadcasters -- are of no use to the telecomms, and the ITU has shown no inclination to hand any of that spectrum to amateur radio for hobbyist use.
Also, even without emojis, there is a clear difference between "WSB needs little advice" is far from "WSB needs a little advice." The first indicates that WSB is doing things well and is best left untampered with; the second that WSB is screwing up and someone outside the company really ought to tell WSB what it needs to do.Gotcha! Now I understand. The Internet, just like masks, does not show emotion well.(That's why we have emoticons)
Life will pretty much go on as scheduled.
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