WWYZ HD Missing

[newbritainradio]

WWYZ 92.5 has not been in HD for over a couple of weeks. I sent them an email asking when the HD would return over 7 days ago and have yet to receive a reply. The other Clear Channel stations on West Peak in Meriden (WKSS 95.7, WHCN 105.9) are operating normally in HD.

 

[CTListener]

WWYZ 92.5 has not been in HD for over a couple of weeks. I sent them an email asking when the HD would return over 7 days ago and have yet to receive a reply. The other Clear Channel stations on West Peak in Meriden (WKSS 95.7, WHCN 105.9) are operating normally in HD.

Clear Channel must realize that HD just hasn't caught on. This isn't the first outage for WWYZ, and WHCN has had extended spells with no maintenance done in past years as well. My guess is management just doesn't care about HD much anymore and takes care of technical difficulties with the signals only when nothing else -- something with the potential of making the chain some money -- is crying out for attention.

 

[WPHA]

Clear Channel must realize that HD just hasn't caught on. This isn't the first outage for WWYZ, and WHCN has had extended spells with no maintenance done in past years as well. My guess is management just doesn't care about HD much anymore and takes care of technical difficulties with the signals only when nothing else -- something with the potential of making the chain some money -- is crying out for attention.

"HD just hasn't caught-on" should be nominated as the understatement of the decade. It's a sad joke, is what it is, doomed to utter failure, right out of the gate. Why? No radios, or so few, and way overpriced. Clueless salesdrones didn't help matters any. It's "Quad" all over again. :

 

[nd2023]

You must have been the only person to notice.

 

[Bill-in-CT]

I listen to HD only for WELI's programming on 101.3-3, and this is only to avoid interference from the computer monitor at work. People ask me about TVs and gadgets all the time. Nobody has ever asked me about HD radio.

 

[DToTheJ]

I'd be hard-pressed to bet that more people have probably inquired about Inspector Gadget than HD radio.

 

[ansky212]

It's a sad joke, is what it is, doomed to utter failure, right out of the gate. Why? No radios, or so few, and way overpriced. Clueless salesdrones didn't help matters any. :

I don't think the price of the radios is really an issue. You can get the Insignia portable HD radio on sale at Best Buy for $39.99. So I don't think that is really going to price anyone out that really wants one. The fact of the matter is there is no additional value in the HD programming. Most HD subchannels either just re-broadcast some other station (like an AM station), or just have some canned generic programming that can be found online. Also, if you've ever tried listening to HD radio in the car you know that it suffers from complete audio dropouts when the signal is poor. Nobody is willing to deal with that so you really can't expect much from HD car radio sales.

 

[CTListener]

It's a sad joke, is what it is, doomed to utter failure, right out of the gate. Why? No radios, or so few, and way overpriced. Clueless salesdrones didn't help matters any. :

I don't think the price of the radios is really an issue. You can get the Insignia portable HD radio on sale at Best Buy for $39.99. So I don't think that is really going to price anyone out that really wants one. The fact of the matter is there is no additional value in the HD programming. Most HD subchannels either just re-broadcast some other station (like an AM station), or just have some canned generic programming that can be found online. Also, if you've ever tried listening to HD radio in the car you know that it suffers from complete audio dropouts when the signal is poor. Nobody is willing to deal with that so you really can't expect much from HD car radio sales.

The idea was fine -- niche formats, like satellite radio, but without the subscription fee. The execution was fatally flawed. The radios were initially too expensive, there were serious reception problems (especially in cars, where much of the listening is done), there were no OEM deals made with automakers, and everyone took the cheap and easy approach to programming rather than putting thought and effort into creating a compelling product. WDRC-FM was fun for a while with its '50s and '60s oldies, but the playlist is limited and nothing has ever been added to it. The classic country on WWYZ comes from the Clear Channel Format Lab and is very tight, limited to only the biggest, burnt-out country hits. WHCN had an interesting format for a brief time (Forgotten Favorites) but quickly switched to a tight-playlist format playing well-worn classic rock tunes. CT Public Radio and the state's many college stations, which could have been a source of creative HD programming, failed to get on the HD bandwagon at all.

 

[WPHA]

I don't think the price of the radios is really an issue. You can get the Insignia portable HD radio on sale at Best Buy for $39.99. So I don't think that is really going to price anyone out that really wants one. The fact of the matter is there is no additional value in the HD programming.

The idea was fine -- niche formats, like satellite radio, but without the subscription fee. The execution was fatally flawed. The radios were initially too expensive, there were serious reception problems (especially in cars, where much of the listening is done),

(SNIP)

many college stations, which could have been a source of creative HD programming, failed to get on the HD bandwagon at all.

I was in Best Buy, today, and I saw that arm-band portable $40 radio. I shrugged. Where is the $9 version? Uh-huh. No such thing. NEXT.

I saw a stand-alone HD tuner for $64 on clearance. If it even comes CLOSE to the $88 Sony unit, it would be worthwhile, but somehow, I doubt that.

So, OK, the pricing isn't such a big deterrent anymore, so it's got to be the other elements you mentioned: The LACK of compelling programming, and complete loss of the digital signal. BINGO!

The recent FCC power increase for the digital transmitters is much too little, much too late. The stations that invested the big bucks into this albatross just shot themselves in the foot by taking a totally lackadaisical approach to programming those "bonus channels". Shame on them. Now they are reaping the results: Complete audience apathy.

There was a station in CT that was carrying a small noncomm FM station's audio on their HD3 channel, but discontinued it for $$ reasons. For PETE'S SAKE, MAN!!! Why not change from charging that noncomm station, to DONATING the airtime to them, at as HIGH a rate as possible, then WRITE IT OFF?!?! ??? I would bet that in so doing, they'd save MUCH MORE in taxes, than the revenue they attempted to extract from that small non-comm! :-\ Go figure.

WHY does it seem like the ones who run big $$ corporations lack any common sense? We see so many of them run their companies into the ground, then walk away with bonuses?! ??? How does that work, anyway?! Where is the common sense? ??? Grrr... I best get off this soapbox.

 

[DJKraze]

A big part of why many non-coms and college stations didn't jump into it was because of how much the cost would be to do it. In addition to the equipment costs there's also the licensing fees to Ibiquity.

Personally, I get great reception from my armband Insignia, but I didn't get that until long after the prices got more reasonable and the reason for that was why should I shell out big money for something when it only brought in programming offerings that I already have via either relays of other signals or internet streams (which I don't do as much of now that AT&T went with stupidly small bandwidth caps!)

I do like the way WTIC-FM does what they do with offering programming from other markets and alternate programming for events and such, it's the kind of thing that might have made this platform viable, if not so late in the game.

If each station would possibly have done some effort other than random spots and kept up with the programming on each one (with voice tracking these days it couldn't have been that hard to do, dump a bunch of programs together once a week make a few changes here and there and rotate voice breaks, what? maybe an hour or two of work?? Hell, at my job I toss together 6 hours of programming each night in about 90 minutes to 2 hours and that's because I actually do the production mix by hand instead of running it into an automation system. THAT would take less than 10 minutes for me.)

I think if they came up with decent UNIQUE programming, they could have done some type of promotions to let the listeners actually get a feel of what the new channels would be like by replacing on the analog channel a day or maybe randomly programmed hours (varying times of course) and heavily promote that fact before and during the event. Promotion was just way to lacking and it just seemed like the whole point was for the platform NOT to succeeed (and why not, the gov't does lots of things wrong on purpose, right?)

 

[WPHA]

A big part of why many non-coms and college stations didn't jump into it was because of how much the cost would be to do it. In addition to the equipment costs there's also the licensing fees to Ibiquity.

(SNIP) 8<

I think if they came up with decent UNIQUE programming,

(SNIP) 8<

Promotion was just way to lacking and it just seemed like the whole point was for the platform NOT to succeeed (and why not, the gov't does lots of things wrong on purpose, right?)

You've nailed some very good points! The whole issue of paying licensing fees to Ibiquity is absurd! They tried to offer incentives to stations, by suspending those fees for the "early adopters". They were charging $40 PER CHIPSET for receiver manufacturers!

When you consider that most radios probably cost only a few DOLLARS in bulk from China, you're charging $40 just for ONE MODULE, then you see why the radios were, initially, SO expensive! FAIL!

When they sat and sat and sat on store shelves, eventually, SOMEONE had to take it on the chin, and move the merchandise, so the prices came down... and down... then the units were discontinued, and sold at closeout loss. Everyone but Ibiquity LOST on THOSE deals! They got their $40. Everyone else in the manufacturing and merchandising chain got shafted. Some customers got halfway decent deals on the closeouts, tho.

I know that I am happy with my $88 Sony receiver. It is, by far, one of THE BEST AM/FM receivers I have ever used! I even modified it, by adding a switch to "force" analog mode. The reason I bought this particular unit was because of the rave reviews it was getting for overall quality, and they weren't kidding.

When I first tuned-in to News 880 WCBS in NYC, the signal was solid. Then HD kicked in. WOW! All of a sudden, there was TREBLE like I had never heard on AM, before! However... just 30 seconds into it, I started to notice something "wasn't quite right". :-\

About a minute or two more, and I figured it out... EVERY "S" SOUND WAS EXACTLY THE SAME! That is *NOT* normal! Human speech varies, naturally. It especially varies from one person to the next! But when listening to AM HD, IT DIDN'T! After only a few MINUTES of listening to that, I had to shut it off! It was so unnatural, as to be disturbing! FAIL! So, I added the "Analog only" mode switch, and all was right with my little world.

So, to your points about the programming & promotion: Again, you NAILED it. Perfectly. ;D

Stores that sold these radios had little to ZERO clue what they were! People would come in and ask about "HD Radio" and the salesdrones would steer them to XM/Sirius. FAIL!

IF stations ran promos, they just said ambiguous things like, "Now in HD!" Yeah. OK, great. What do John & Jane Q. Public know about that? Do they even care? One more time, let's hear it: FAIL!

Yes, they had a POTENTIAL for something useful, unique, and even special. They blew it. Bigtime. They COULD have carried local school sports on one of the HD channels. They didn't. Let's hear it again: FAIL! They could have offered market-specific ethnic programming. They didn't. FAIL!

No matter how you look at it, the way HD has been handled all this time, in a VAST MAJORITY of cases, it has been a colossal FAILURE! Only a tiny handful of stations provided unique programming. Far too few. There could and should have been deals made between stations and merchants, to PROMOTE the PROGRAMMING AND THE RADIOS, so that potential listeners could have gone to those merchants and bought them. Oh, so MANY FAILS on so many levels!

I'm sure HD will end up on the same scrap heap as AM Stereo and Quad. It's very sad, because it did have potential.

Meanwhile, there was FMeXtra, which was basically a digital SCA system. It connected to existing transmitters just like analog SCA boxes. No separate transmitters, antennas, mixers, or special transmitter modifications were needed. The box cost $12,000, but quickly dropped to less than $10,000 and you OWNED it! No licensing fees. None. The biggest problem: LACK OF RECEIVERS! To my knowledge, only ONE MODEL was made, and it was $200! Ouch! I saw one, and it's a nice radio, but $200?!? FAIL!

IMHO, I think FMeXtra was the system with the greatest potential, because it came with such a low pricetag! Even small FM stations could afford it.

I am so frustrated by this, because when HD & FMeXtra were first proposed, I was all gung ho about them! As reality began to set in, though, all the hype about the Emperor's New Clothes became self-evident. So much potential, so totally wasted.

Someday, when I finally get my hands on a station, I would like to put this technology to GOOD use! If I were to be able to secure enough receivers to make them less than $50 each, I could offer them to listeners, and simultaneously PROMOTE the SPECIAL and UNIQUE programming we would be offering on the "extra channels". ONE FM transmitter, in theory, would be serving three or even FOUR different and unique audiences, SIMULTANEOUSLY! THAT is the potential that has not been reached, and it is a shame.

Oh, yes... don't even get me started on the INTERFERENCE and LOSS OF SERVICE of HD on AM at night... no, I don't even want to get onto that soapbox! UGH!