Re: [IRCA] KDLG-670 now IBOC

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Patrick Martin wrote:

> NPR seems to be in love with IBOC, so I presume the rest on the NPR
> stations in Alaska will go in that direction. Many have here including
> KUOW 1340 and KSJK 1230. If there are listenrs to either KBRW-680 or
> KFAR -660 in the area, then they are probably out of luck. 

A couple of points here:

While it's true that NPR has been a strong supporter of IBOC, NPR itself 
does not own or operate any of the stations that carry its programming. 
Those are controlled by several hundred separate licensees, and they're 
the ones who make the decisions about whether or not to go digital. NPR 
in Washington can try to tell them what to do, but I promise you the 
local managers have minds of their own. The fact that so many public 
radio stations have adopted IBOC, especially on FM, stems from the 
simple fact that they (unlike most commercial stations) have lots and 
lots of programming available for multicast streams. We have more shows 
available for our WXXI-FM HD3 channel here in Rochester than we have 
hours available to plug them all in. It's a nice problem to have.

In the case of the Alaska AMs, the motivation is a little more 
complicated. Power is ridiculously expensive in many smaller Alaskan 
towns, and a lot of these small AMs are operating on a shoestring. A few 
of them have talked about turning off analog AM completely and running 
their transmitters digital-only, at much lower power consumption. I've 
seen studies that suggest it would actually be cheaper, over the course 
of just a few years, to switch off the analog and buy new radios for 
listeners than it would be to keep running the power-hungry analog 
transmitters.

I think, but am not certain, that if these signals went digital-only, 
the digital signals would fall in the station's center channel, not on 
the sidebands as they do in the hybrid analog/digital system. Might make 
for some VERY interesting DX down the road.

s
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