[IRCA] IBOC in general

["Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > Now with the info filed, 30 days from now the fun begins.  When KGO
> > started testing IBOC at night, there were tons of complaints from
> > listeners hearing all of that "hiss" as they called it. So maybe, the
> > "average Joe & Jane" listener will flood the phonelines with
> > complaints
> > to the stations. That will hold a lot more weight than just a DXer
> > calling up. First off, there are not enough of us, and the FCC could
> > care less if we cannot hear some station several hundred miles away.
> > I think anything can be stopped if there is enough complaining.
>
>
> *** Remember nothing prevents DX'ers from calling up as if we were
> average listeners -- in fact that's preferable given the comments above
> and prior discussion on this point recently.

Well, it's August so I'll poke in my monthly IBOC post..

The average station doesn't really care much about messages/complaints from
listeners.  What will get their attention is complaints from advertisers.
When they listen to one of their spots and find it sullied by a hissing
noise, there will be Hades Minions to pay.

The best complaint a listener can make is to ignore the station if/when they
have an Arbitron diary.  In a market the size of Providence, there are
usually under a thousand diaries per rating period.  You can just imagine
the weight each carries.  If there are notes in the diary about how station
X has a noise on their audio, it will be noted.

With *very* few exceptions, local station personnel have no say whatsoever
in the decision to run IBOC.  It's all mandated from on high at the
corporate level.  I would be willing to bet that the average Clear Channel
market manager could not order IBOC shut off on their stations.  IBOC will
fail only if it causes ratings and advertising revenue to drop.  Or, if
radios continue to be unsold and unrequested.

So, we can complain as listeners, or whatever you want to pose as.  It
really will make no appreciable difference unless you have an Arbitron diary
at hand.  I don't think too many of us are advertisers, either.  Once in a
while I do shop at an advertiser on one station or another.  If it's an IBOC
station, I do always mention that their ad had a hiss on it.  And usually it
does, so it's not a lie.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI

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