WYSL and IBOC

[Mike Sheridan]

In Radio World today there were a few articles about the IBOC interference from WBZ that plagues WYSL. Measurements were given and lots of other things I honestly don't fully understand. It's simple though if the interference is there then it is a problem and I'm sure it's there.

Why you ask? Because a couple of years ago 1530 in Cincinnati was running IBOC at night and they were killing WWKB and that was in the Buffalo area. I was on vacation and I heard it myself.

Kudos to Bob Savage for standing his ground on this one. I own an HD radio and it's very difficult to hear even the most local HD signal at night so what is gained doesn't even come close to being worth what we give up (clear analog reception).

HD kinda works on FM but for AM I just don't think it's really worth it.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Bob Savage has the right to complain to the FCC and WBZ about the IBOC interference. I used to be able to hear the station at night, but now there is nothing emanating from 1040 but this annoying “hissing sound.” WSYL serves the Rochester area and those of us who live here have little or no interest in what WBZ is reporting from Boston. Even if we did, we could just turn the dial to 1030 and listen. Savage has worked very hard over these past two decades building WYSL from a 500 watt daytimer to the 20kw full-time station it is today. It’s a damn shame that a good part of his broadcasting day is now being jammed by IBOC interference.

 

[Savage]

Thank you, gentlemen. IBOC is bad, but I think it's a wake-up call to everyone - not just radio station owners - to pay attention to the alarming and increasing tendency for the best interests of citizens and the middle class in our country to be steamrolled by government and business elites.

IBOC was snuck through the FCC rulemaking process with utterly no meaningful input from broadcasters who would be hurt by it. Loud protests about the obvious - and fatal - engineering faults of IBOC were completely ignored. If small-market adjacent channel stations were hurt by IBOC, so what? "As long as our stock prices are okay, screw them." Of course, the system performance concerns have been completely validated by the predictable disaster which has ensued on the AM dial, starkly reinforced by total ambivalence on the part of the listening public which is rejecting HD-AM when it is not ignoring it.

And why did HD-AM happen? Because Clear Channel, CBS, Disney and others who invested in (read: propped up) iBiquity wanted something "digital." HD-AM wasn't even subjected to real-world nighttime interference studies. It was shoved through a corrupt and clueless FCC by moneyed lobbyists without regard for consequences - or even economic reality. Thank God the FCC is being investigated by Congress. I'm going to contact Congressman Dingell about the Commission and IBOC. Everyone else concerned about it should too.

Co-conspirators in the IBOC debacle: the inept, rudderless, weak National Association of Broadcasters, who threw WYSL and similar station operators under the IBOC bus. The NAB doesn't give a flying rip about 90% of the radio stations operating today - beyond getting an annual membership dues check. If your last name isn't "Mays" or "Field" the NAB won't take your phone call. They need a RICO action to shake them up.

Moral of the story, guys: get involved, voice your political concerns, and be sure to vote. Remember the truism: "we generally get the government we deserve."

Let's all take the FCC and the NAB to the woodshed and beat the living crap out of them.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Bob you should tell the FCC you'll be glad to settle with them if they give you one of the Entercom FM's that are going up for sale!

 

[anderson]

I read that article the other day - twice., and then explained the situation to my wife by using a local AM and a transistor radio to make the point. Thanks for the wake-up call, Bob.

 

[jefflaurence]

In the "you must be nuts" department..check the article in the current Radio World publication about double modulating AM with an FM signal..It would keep AM analog and IBOC free..offer a secondary "hi-fi" service, be FAR less expensive, and produce a signal current radios would be able to use while the new radios are being produced. Quite smart actually, but..alas not digital..sorry Disney but AM just doesnt posess the bandwidth to pull this off, and so many regional and smalller stations are being put to sleep.

BOB SAVAGE RULES!

 

[SirRoxalot]

Quite smart actually, but..alas not digital.

Hey, nobody says that the FM signal overlaying the AM signal can't be used to provide digital information.

There has to be better technology than IBOC. Either that, or get it off the current AM band.

 

[dustintv]

Didn't Citadel tell its stations to turn off their HD signals until further notice several weeks ago? I'm glad one of the big radio companies is wising up.

 

[Cary Pall]

Re Bob Savage's comments: AMEN. Keep fighting the good fight. Anything I can do to help?

On another subject, Bob: Your "Everything You Know Is Wrong" T-shirt is on its way. Merry Christmas!

 

[cee]

IBOC is bad, but I think it's a wake-up call to everyone - not just radio station owners - to pay attention to the alarming and increasing tendency for the best interests of citizens and the middle class in our country to be steamrolled by government and business elites.

I think that's something everything can agree on, whether one is conservative, liberal, moderate or apolitical. My observations throughout my many years have led me to one main belief - the mother of all problems in the world is the abuse of power and the lust for money(the two go hand in hand, of course). Human nature being what it is, there are always those who have the most who will try and squeeze out those who have less. But somebody famous once said something to the effect that the little guys can always lick the big guys if they're organized and determined(or something to that effect).

I sincerely hope IBOC dies a quick death and indie AM stations like WYSL don't have to worry about it again.

 

[w9wi]

Didn't Citadel tell its stations to turn off their HD signals until further notice several weeks ago? I'm glad one of the big radio companies is wising up.

Only at night. To my understanding the Citadel stations that were HD still are during the day.

 

[Savage]

Citadel did indeed turn off HD-AM at night at a total of ten major-market facilities October 1st, after just two weeks of night ops. But there are others in the chain which won't even have HD daytime, such as WMVP 1000 kHz (ex-WCFL Chicago). Critical components in the phasing system and deep nulls it produces don't work well with IBOC, which requires reasonably linear pattern bandwidth and a decent common point impedance curve. CBS is reportedly having similar problems with KDKA's Franklin stacked NDA stick and 1010 WINS New York. If the antenna system isn't quite linear the station interferes with itself!

I had a guy I know in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, PA, about 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh, hold his phone receiver up to the radio a couple of weeks ago. You should have heard the sideband mess from WBZ obliterating heritage KDKA - right in its groundwave primary coverage! I'd be willing to bet that's another reason why WINS isn't on with HD. The double whammy from 1010 and 1030 would likely eliminate any meaningful coverage for KDKA.

Guys, thank you all so much for the kind and supportive comments. WYSL will soldier on and continue to fight this incredibly, indefensibly bad idea....HD-AM!

 

[AndrewLawson]

Citadel did indeed turn off HD-AM at night at a total of ten major-market facilities October 1st, after just two weeks of night ops. But there are others in the chain which won't even have HD daytime, such as WMVP 1000 kHz (ex-WCFL Chicago).

Disney shareholders own approximately 52% of Citadel Communications and The Walt Disney Company retained $1.4 to $1.65 billion in cash depending on the market price of Citadel Broadcasting at the time of closing. Citadel shareholders own the remaining 48% of the combined company.

The ESPN and Disney stations were not included in the sale of ABC stations to Citadel.

WYSL will soldier on and continue to fight this incredibly, indefensibly bad idea....HD-AM!

Good luck! It's very likely you'll need it, as well as a lobbying group comprised of small, independently owned stations with lots of money to "promote" your interests. Since you're an attorney with practical experience before the FCC, you have an advantage that most owners do not.

Only as an observation, it's likely you'd have been further along had you made a case against IBOC years ago. Many engineers predicted IBOC would be a disaster, but the lobbying groups such as the NAB and RAB could not have cared less. There's now hard evidence that IBOC really is the disaster that many predicted it would be. Seems you have a good case.