From the South Carolina board...
“WMYI’s HD Down”
DudeFan said in Reply #5:
“As for IBOC, I just read a column from one of the industry research consultants that ran out and bought one of the $99 Radio Shack IBOC receivers. He lives and works in New Jersey and can get analog service from both Philly and New York... and the IBOC reception was spotty at best and non-existent without stringing up a big wire dipole.
That does not bode well for IBOC digital service. Isn't spotty indoor service the reason why folks say AM got killed by FM?
Sometimes you have to wonder about the logic of the commercial radio industry...”
fmradionuts posted in Reply #6:
“I was down in Greenville a few days ago, I was suprised that 96.7 The Buzzard had good processing on the HD side, I think the analog sounds good too. WESC's HD-2 must had been down for a while, I've never heard it. WSSL's sounds good, HD-1 and HD-2 (Christian). I wonder if Clear Channel Asheville is taking anything HD? One thing that drives me nuts is it being called "High Definition"...It is NOT High Definition, it stands for "Hybrid Digital"-per Ibiquity!...”
thebroker chimed in on Reply #7:
“Especially in a market the size of GSP, the battle is definitely won or lost in the car...
In our little market, though, we have a unique solution to the in-home problem. And yes, it's a problem, because fewer and fewer folks have radios in their homes. I think a whole lot of that issue derives from the fact that you have to spend some bucks to get a receiver that sounds decent, but I digress... I know it's old-fashioned, but one of our stations is still on TV, on the local cable channel. They run ads on the screen in rotation, while our station plays in the background. It's amazing how many of our listeners call in to say they were "listening on the TV". So instead of Good Morning America on TV, lots of folks are listening to our morning show instead. It's a neat idea really, even if it is a bit on the old side.”
Finally, DudeFan surmised:
“My humble opinion is that instead of concentrating on IBOC, radio really ought to be concentrating on compelling programming and then making it easy to get no matter how the audience member wants to listen whether that is over the air, streaming, mobile audio, or cable TV. The more ways to listen, the better.”
...Some very interesting feedback from "the folks" in the biz who DON’T live in New York, LA, Chi-Town... Or even Cincinnati (but presumably have an iBiquity-franchised IBOCer in the area). In some areas of the affluent Smoky Mountain Carolinas (and they ARE "affluent"--believe me--despite the "board-room" stereotype)--it's more important to be on CATV-3 then it is to be in IBOC! So maybe the locals couldn't find the RS Accurian on sale for $99 at their local Spartanburg, SC Radio Shack... MAYBE, the S-burg RS saw no need to stock it. Maybe an off-season lightning surge knocked out the HD 'puter at WMYI--and at WESC some employees got laid off and they forgot to load up WinAmp for another compelling day of "secret signal" programming on their HD-2... Or were those peskey mountains getting in the way of reception so they just "blew it off"? Is "HD" simply another one of those R&R "P-1 things"?
