WTAM, KFAB

[wkbam1690]

It seems like WTAM and KFAB are no longer (at least the last couple of nights) running IBOC. I am able to listen to either without hash at night here in the far SW Minneapolis suburbs.

If I tune slightly up from KFAB, I hear hash from KMOX, I assume. No hash on either side of WTAM. Can hear some hash on lower side of KAAY, probably KRLD?

I used to listen to the crackpots and weirdos on Coast to Coast AM on either WTAM or KFAB, whoever was not fading at the moment (insomnia). Local KSTP in my location is subject to selective fading and digital noise (DSL?) at 1500, so makes listening very difficult most nights even though I am (theoreticaly) in their 2 mV/m contour.

Both WTAM and KFAB are Clear Channel stations, BTW...is this a sign of something? I could see one or the other having tech difficulties, but both?

 

[KB1OKL]

I have a feeling that HD Radio is starting to implode because HD radios are being removed from store inventories and shelves, Peter Ferrera just resigned and the HD stations were informed that they will be on their own (blame-game). Also, it has been about two weeks since I have seen traffic from the FCC, DOJ, Supreme Court, US Court of Appeals, Toyota, Ford, GM, US Congress, Congressional Quarterly, CCU, NAB, CPB, NPR, etc but 7 visits from the Chicago Tribune. Maybe, CCU's new owners are pulling the plug on HD Radio. Don't the contracts with retailers and manufacturers end this year? New radios from Pioneer (VSX-918V A/V Receiver) and Boston Acoustics (Horizon Solo) specifically do not include HD Radio - big surprise. Did iBiquity ever get that last round of funding for $15,000,000?

I heard Mel Brooks was going to do a movie on radio and call it Springtime for HD.

 

[calstymes]

HDmeltdown informed us:

I have a feeling that HD Radio is starting to implode

As far as I'm concerned, the faster it implodes the cleaner our received signals will be once again and the better off we'll all be.

because HD radios are being removed from store inventories and shelves, Peter Ferrera just resigned and the HD stations were informed that they will be on their own (blame-game).

Wow! I didn't know that. I can see now the Ibiquity internal memo to radio stations that's coming:

"You know, we tried. But YOU didn't promote the technology enough. Now, WE can't take the blame for our product's failure because YOU didn't get behind it enough. We're done!"

That's actually pretty funny, and OH, how Ibiquity deserves it! I'm just sorry for the radio stations that were forced to spend the money and put HD on the air. What a colossal mistake! They will never recover the dollars spent on this.

 

[Savage]

Weep not for the stations who promoted HD, Cal. Most stations spent virtually nothing on promotion. All the on-air spots for HD were "unsold inventory" representing an out-of-pocket cost of precisely zero. It would have cost the same to run those stations whether they ran one or one million HD on-air promos.

Of course the capital costs associated with installing HD are another matter, but that can be depreciated over a relatively short period with a nice writedown against taxable income every year.

I suspect the stations and groups will be fine post-HD. So will select investors and iBiquity execs, who I'm sure have crafted lucrative "golden parachutes" for themselves for when the Day Of Reckoning comes.

The big losers: listeners and clients of HD-crunched stations. Of course Big Group Radio doesn't care about those constituencies very much anyway.

 

[JohnnyElectron]

The big winner will the be the engineer/programmer that can reprogram the HD exciters to do "new tricks" instead of iBiquity technology! Imagine somebody figuring out how to reprogram the AM exciter units to broadcast in CQuam or Kahn ISB stereo AND still send out the "HD DATA" stream for PAD! The AM band would be happier without the buzzsaws running 24/7.

On FM they figure out a way to lower the HD power and use it only for data, and more robust, or morph into FMextra?

There's money to be made by making this junk work with other applications.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

The big winner will the be the engineer/programmer that can reprogram the HD exciters to do "new tricks" instead of iBiquity technology! Imagine somebody figuring out how to reprogram the AM exciter units to broadcast in CQuam or Kahn ISB stereo AND still send out the "HD DATA" stream for PAD! The AM band would be happier without the buzzsaws running 24/7.

On FM they figure out a way to lower the HD power and use it only for data, and more robust, or morph into FMextra?

There's money to be made by making this junk work with other applications.

I am wondering if the FM side can be re-programmed to put the sidebands within the channel? It seems to me a lot of the coverage problems are due to the gain / bandwidth product. Unless somebody repealed the laws of Physics, or cosmic FM noise sources such as Jupiter lightning storms suddenly stopped - the wider you make the channel, the more noise you are going to have. I'm thinking - if you narrow the channel down - a lot of the coverage problems might be alleviated. The cost - anything above the current stereo system would be supplanted - RDS, reading for the deaf, SCA, etc. But these are all things that can be accomodated on HD 2 - HD 7. The folks are used to having to buy special radios, this would be just an upgrade. The governement could even subsidize the conversion if they wanted, because of the small number of users of these secondary services. The HD sidebands are not very wide, and could easily be squeezed truly "in channel".