"David Eduardo" wrote:
"Eric F. Richards" wrote in message
...
"David Eduardo" wrote:
Interstates are elevated,
...if you mean "by 15 feet above the original grade," then maybe.
That's as stupid a generalization as I've *ever* heard. But I've come
to expect that out of this thread.
Interstates are elevated, and that is why the FCC will not allow field
strength to be measured there. In fact, reception on perfectly tuned FM
antennas in cars on interstates is totally atypical. Ask any broadcast
engineer.
Elevated above grade. Drive I-70 from Denver to Grand Junction and
tell me how "elevated" it is. Or drive I-25 from Wyoming to New
Mexico and tell me how "elevated" it is. 15 feet above grade, fine.
But down in valleys wherever possible to avoid climbing mountains.
Those "atypical" receivers are your biggest market, because that's
where people would be listening.
I have run Langley Rice maps on the main Denver FMs, like KBCO, and there is
no reliable signal capable of being heard on all kinds of radios south of
Monument. Period.
My radio says differently. When push comes to shove, I'll believe the
car radio over a coverage map.
If you were really concerned about clean signals, you'd be screaming
at receiver manufacturers to clean up capture ratios so that the
multipath doesn't garble them to hell and gone.
If this was possible, it would be done. HD solves this, anyway.
HD solves nothing. HD will make signals unlistenable while analog
will continue to be listenable.
And fixing the capture ratio is not only possible, it was done. My 30
year old low-end Rotel has a capture ratio of 1.0 dB. But receiver
manufacturerers would rather save $0.15 per unit because they listen
to people like you who say that such things don't matter in a local
market... and on and on and on it goes.
This is why DXers -- real DXers, not someone driving the interstate --
like 60's vintage car radios. The problems were solved, but some
consultant told them they didn't have to worry about quality because
the radios would be used only for local market.
In the entire Southwest, the skywave listeners of KFI do not reach 10% of
the local, LA and Orange County listening at night,
Did I not suggest that they might make between 5 and 10% of the total
at night somewhere up there? I'm sure I did.
and are less than 2% of
total listening. Since a poll like Arbitron has greater margin of error than
2%, that data is meaningless and no advertiser cares.
That's true.
Please try to get it: advertisers dictate.
Yes. They dictate based on a loaded methodology. If I was locked in
a windowless box my whole life and everyone told me the sky was green,
I would believe the sky was green, too. But whatever I believe,
whatever assumptions I operate under, doen't change the fact that the
sky is blue.
No, we look at listeners by MSA. Metro LA. Metro Las Vegas, Metro Phoenix,
etc.
"Consider the true picture. Think of myriads of tiny bubbles, very
sparsely scattered, rising through a vast black sea. We [sell to] some
of the bubbles. Of the waters we know nothing. . ." (butchered from
the prologue to "The Mote In God's Eye." and very fitting here...)
You already stated you are inside the Denver metro. You have dozens and
dozens of local stations. Including KFI.
No, I'm not, and I didn't state that. I'm outside of Denver Metro.
I'm in Ft. Collins -- Greeley by your numbers. Yet anything beyond
grocery shopping I do in Denver and Boulder because the selection and
quality is better. I think I've stopped in Greeley maybe twice. I
made my first purchase of substance in Ft. Collins two weeks ago.
You are so unique no advertiser will care about you as you do not behave in
a predictable way.
Not really. I'm pretty typical of my community in that way. There is
very little selection and/or quality in any of the nearby "cities," so
people go to real cities like Denver and Boulder to get what they
need.
If they buy groceries, it isn't a big deal, generally, although our
selection is poor. Washing machines can be bought.
Audio equipment, a good meal, quality furniture, auto repair and
service, entertainment -- music, sports, stage performances -- all
require you to go to Denver to get it.
So we go. All of us.
There is no "Ft. Collins Avalance" hocky team, or "Ft. Collins
Rockies" baseball team. Nor should there be. They draw plenty of
people from this nowhere place in your world, and they are smart
enough to know it.
I KNOW how advertisers buy, and know how to keep buyers happy, which is by
providing large, local audiences all over the USA.
They buy based on the best information they can get.
I am suggesting that your information is fundamentally flawed, and you
are insisting it is not only good enough, it is perfect. It is not.
You will be the doom of over the air broadcasting. Check back in 10
years; we'll see how the health of the industry has changed in the
last decade.
Well, I doubt it. In fact, last year I was given an award for putting the
first FM in northern South America on the air when no stations were on the
band for 1000 miles in any direction. The award calls me a "pioneer" and
"visionary." What have you done except snipe?
Congratulations. What you did in South America had nothing to do with
your advertising models in the U.S.
--
Eric F. Richards
"The weird part is that I can feel productive even when I'm doomed."
- Dilbert