[IRCA] IBOC status

["Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I don't think the price of IBAC is the problem, what price can be put on
> slowly ruining the AM band (or quickly when and if night time IBAC is
> allowed by this rubber stamp FCC?).

OK, It's February.  Time for my once a month post on IBOC..

Station costs are an issue, though not for the big boys.  Most larger
stations have the money to implement HD Radio.  Especially those who have
made that decision at the top of the corporate ladder.  Personally, I
thought there was a recurring yearly license fee.  Be that as it may..
Smaller station owners may not have the finances to do HD Radio.  I do know
most of my clients are loath to spend the money.

Here are the issues as I see them right now..

1.  HD Radio coverage is about half that or less of a good, listenable
analog signal.  I have a client in Providence that is Arbitron rated #1 12+.
Their transmitter is 30 miles away.  The HD Radio coverage would not reach
their intended market.  HD2 signals drop out and there's no analog upon
which to fall.  Gone.  I have had two HD Radio rigs so far, and am quite
underwhelmed by quality and content.  The value isn't there.  It seems Joe
Average is of like mind.

2.  AM stations that run directional antennas may well have trouble.  Two
examples.  WDDZ-550 has a close spaced two tower array.  The overall
bandwidth - even after a consultant maximized bandwidth - looks too narrow
and uneven to pass the signal.  Even the daytime non-directional impedence
is not really good enough.  Mostly due to the short towers.  The second
example is WPMZ-1110.  The common point bandwidth of that station is good
out to 30KHz either side.  This is before optimization.  It would likely
work fine.  The overall result is still not good.  If not every station can
use HD Radio, then that is a problem on many fronts.  As a third thought, I
would not want to think of the expense required to get the six tower 50KW
monster on 990 compliant.

3.  Radios are not selling.  I have maybe a dozen stations in my client
list.  Not one call has been received at any of them inquiring about the
lack of HD Radio. However, we get call after call asking about the internet
streams.  This tells me that streaming, and eventual universal mobile WiFi
access is where it's at.  Rhode Island is well on it's way to becoming a
border to border WiFi state.  Yeah, it's small.  But it will be wireless
soon.  Add a WiFi enabled iPod that can get a stream, and suddenly
transmitters aren't too important any more.  Streaming is where I'm advising
my clients to put their effort and money.  Already streams can have a better
data rate than any HD Radio signal, and are much easier to upgrade.  AAC
Plus Plus Ultra (imaginary) comes out, and you add a codec.  Try that with
HD Radio, and you have to replace the box.  Now consider that the HD Radio
receiver is a one trick pony, while an iPod does a whole bunch of things.
Where's the value?  And, as one station owner said to me.  "Show me the
radios".  Can't..

4.  HD Radio has two channels.  Streaming can be literally unlimited
formats.  So, You want an All-Lithuanian Funeral Marches format stream?
Plug 'er in, git 'er done.  Try stuffing a third format on HD Radio.  Bzzzt!

5.  It's all about the content.  Quality really isn't the issue.  I've been
in radio over 35 years.  In all that time, I've had a small handful of
complaints about quality of sound.  And *every* one of those has been when
there has been a real problem.  A buzz, a flipped stereo channel, a
satellite receiver that's dropping out.  Some tangible and repairable issue.
Never a complaint when everything was up to par.  HD Radio is a solution to
a non-problem.  If people don't want to listen to you in analog, they aren't
going to want to listen to you in digital, either.

6.  AM Night HD Radio will be a nightmare.  We've already seen that on the
sunset/sunrise signals.  If we take 710 as an example, the 700 and 720
signals at sunrise must have a nasty effect.  I do know that the close-in
skywave/groundwave interference on WBZ-1030 makes their HD Radio unuseable
around here, and I'm not all that far away.  I have even found localized
interference from power lines and traffic lights kills the decoding.  It
takes a *lot* of signal strength to beat that.  Even the strongest local HD
Radio signal of WPRO-630 is affected in places.

7.  They say HD Radio will add diversity.  I see it doing the opposite, by
interfering with further signals that can provide variety.  Locally on FM,
the HD Radio signal on 93.3 has blocked 97.2 from Martha's Vineyard and
their eclectic format.  The signal wasn't great before, but I could hear it.
Now all I get is hiss.  The station engineer claims 93.3 fits the mask,
but...

I'm sorry, but I see no great stampede toward HD Radio.  All I see is a
great big collective yawn.  And a lot of time and money that could be much
better spent on something else.  This was my position a year ago, and I have
seen nothing that would change it.

Local AMs are WPRO-630 and WHJJ-920.  Add WBZ-1030 and some other Boston
stations..

I'll shut up until March.  Should anyone wish to follow up with me, I'll
reply off list.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI

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