Re: [IRCA] return from IBOCistan

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Brooker wrote:
> I spent the past weekend in Dearborn, MI and got quite a taste of IBOC crud: 
> WRDT-560, WJR-760, WWJ-950, WFDF-910, WDFN-1130, WXYT-1270, and even a 
> graveyarder WEXL-1340.  And what's the point?  To benefit the handful of 
> people (probably less than 100, I would guess) in the greater Detroit area 
> who have actually bought IBOC radios? When are the Ibiquity bozos going to 
> get the message that John and Jane Q. Public do not give a tinker's damn 
> about HD radio.  Give this sick puppy the needle.

The point of having all those IBOC signals in Detroit, specifically, was 
to persuade the auto industry that the technology was ready for prime 
time. That's why Ibiquity pushed that particular market so hard to do 
all those installs early on. (It didn't hurt that there were so many 
stations belonging to early AM HD proponents Crawford and CBS.) The 
sheer number of HD receivers that are now standard equipment in 
Detroit-built cars is testament to how well the strategy worked.

Now pulling my tongue firmly out of my cheek (ow!), I'd suggest that the 
sick puppy has pretty much already been euthanized. Here's the key: at 
the last couple of NAB shows, there's been practically NOTHING new on 
the floor in the AM IBOC area. No new transmitters, no new exciters, nada.

The manufacturers are very good at judging demand, and if there were any 
activity in new AM IBOC installations at all, we'd be seeing new 
transmitters on the market, just as we keep seeing with the FM system.

When was the last time any of us noted a brand-new AM HD signal on the 
air? It's been a while, hasn't it?

Combined with Citadel's decision to shut off AM IBOC at night, and Cox's 
decision to install the gear but not use it at all, we're seeing a 
technology that has a fork pretty well stuck through it.

That doesn't mean the stations already using it will be turning it off 
right away, of course, and so it's probably not much comfort to people 
in areas like Detroit or Chicago or San Francisco with a lot of AM HD on 
the air. But for those of us in areas where it's more an annoyance than 
a hobby-ending disaster, my read on the situation says it's not going to 
get much worse than it already is, and may eventually get a little better.

(FM HD is, as always, a different story; it's actually doing pretty well 
from the transmission side of the fence, with new products being 
introduced and new installs continuing at a pretty good clip. The 
receivers and listeners still aren't there, for the most part, but 
that's another story for another post.)

s

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