Re: [IRCA] Another perspective on AM IBOC, from the broadcasters' mailing list

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Craig Healy wrote:
>> But as I keep trying to point out, there's nothing magical about
>> IBOC sidebands and skywave. If I can null WWL's 50 kilowatts of
>> analog on 870, I'm going to be able to null its 500 watts of
>> digital on 860 and 880, too. (If WWL even runs IBOC, which isn't a
>> done deal AFAIK.) Ditto for WBT, or KMOX, or WCCO where I am.
> 
> Problem is, it's a two for one sale.  Sure you can null the WWL IBOC
> on 860, but can you null the IBOC from 850 at the same time?  Or how
> about trying to work next to a graveyard frequency?  IBOC from about
> every compass direction.  If every AM station ran IBOC, there would
> be three times as many discrete signals on the air as there are now,
> 2/3rds of which are the equivalent of a 100% modulated pink noise
> 24/7.

You know as well as I do that "if every AM station ran IBOC" is going to 
turn out to be a red herring. Of seven major AMs in my market, three are 
already running it under corporate mandate. Three more are unlikely ever 
to adopt it - one, in fact, has a prominent "NO AM HD RADIO" banner on 
its website. The seventh will stay analog if I have anything to say 
about it (which I don't, really, but I'll try, and I suspect sheer 
inertia will keep it analog.)

> There is huge industry pressure on the major group stations to run
> IBOC.  It's in their corporate business plan, and the individual
> group manager hasn't a thing to say about it.  Only a matter of time
> before most of the big guns start IBOC.

The corporate pressure is now at FM, for multicasting. I'm seeing the 
pace of AM conversions slowing dramatically. I'm going to go out on a 
limb and speculate that I won't see much at all in the way of new AM HD 
gear on display at NAB next month. The parade's already moved on.

As for 850, specifically, here? Right now at night I hear, in order by 
strength:

Penn Yan (which isn't supposed to be on, and often isn't these days, but 
won't be doing IBOC regardless)

Johnstown (no IBOC now, no sign they have any plans, very complex 
9-tower array that would be a bear to convert)

Cleveland (former owner had a corporate no-AM-IBOC policy, new owner 
hasn't shown any sign of changing that)

Boston (no IBOC now, no plans that I've been able to discern, corporate 
is pro-IBOC but only on FM)

So, no, I'm not worried about losing 860 to hash. Your mileage may vary.

> My point has not been about the effects on the hobby, but the
> viability of the product itself.  What it will do daytime is add a
> significant noise to every frequency.  

Even if every station in America fired up with daytime IBOC, I still 
have plenty of channels here that have no significant first-adjacent 
daytime that would throw hash over me, starting at 590 and going up to 1600.

> My doom and gloom is all about the business.  DXing just goes along
> for the train wreck.  

I think there's a significant and compelling business case to be made 
for many, if not most, AM stations to avoid using IBOC. You've certainly 
made that case, successfully, to your clients. That's likely, I think, 
to mean the AM IBOC system isn't going to take off in the long run. (And 
it belies, to an extent, the "great business conspiracy" theories being 
promoted elsewhere in the thread; if the system is as great a failure as 
predicted, the business case for abandoning it will be an easy one to 
make.)

I don't get the impression that most broadcasters are, at this point, 
especially enamored of the AM HD system. They're not as blind to reality 
as some would make them out to be...even the corporate ones.

s
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