Re: [IRCA] IBOC DX'ing

["Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I would like to clarify one issue regarding the current state of AM
>
> And what is that state? Less than 40% of Americans even use AM today, and
> less than 20% of the listening at any one time, nationally, is to AM. In
> 1977, nearly 60% of radio listening was to AM.
>
> In 1985, less than 40% was to AM. What happened in that 8-year period?

In 1975 I was CE of WGNG-550 in Providence.  At that time, we were head to
head competing against WPRO-630, the dominant rocker and WICE-1290 which was
the second in line.  We were doing pretty well in a guerrilla war against
them.  However, shortly after that, the first of the new FM rock stations
came on, WPRO-92.3.  And, not long after WPJB-105.1 switched to rock as
JB-105.

Now WGNG is WDDZ, a Radio Disney station (and one of my clients).  WICE is
WRNI, and running NPR as a non-comm.  WPRO is still WPRO, but it's talk
radio.  What happened is that the FMs pushed music off AM.  The kids fled
the AM band en masse.  The format on AM aged a year, every year.  The
average age of the AM listener seems to be about the same as the average age
of a DXer.  Maybe 58.

At least in the Providence market, AM Stereo was not a factor at all.  It
was the programming move to FM that did it.  It was new music.  It was
fresh, and had a buzz about it.  That was the draw. Yes, FM was clearer
quality, especially  at night.  AM Stereo wouldn't have fixed any of that.

I see the same parallel today.  My son (27) never really listened to radio,
it was all CDs.  My stepson (19) listens to CDs, and burns his own MP3
collection to CD to listen in his car.  Radio of any sort just isn't part of
their life.  It isn't the sound quality, it isn't even the programming.
They simply want to listen to what they want, when they want.  My stepson
doesn't even seem to have much interest in XM.  I have one set up in the
living room, and he never even bothers to listen to it.

We have a paradigm shift away from programmed, formatted music to personal
choice.  It really isn't about radio at all.

These days the difference between HD Radio sound quality and normal FM
Stereo sound quality isn't all that great.  The difference between AM
quality and FM quality back then was great, moreso at night.

I have some technical qualms about IBOC, which have been said time and again
in the past.  I have some question about the mass appeal of new radios and
if they will sell.  From what I've seen, they aren't exactly flying off the
shelves.  The local Best Buy didn't even have one on display the last time I
was there.  Nor did the salesgeek even know what it was.

Another thing I've said is that HD Radio is an answer to a non-problem.   In
all the clients I have, or have had, there have been darn few complaints
about sound quality of the broadcast.  I get far more complaints about a
station getting into someone's sound system.  Oddly, HD Radio may solve
that.  Few will be technically astute enough to realize that the loud hiss
in their PA is a radio signal.

Craig Healy


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