Thread: AM IBOC Madness
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Old May 1st 06, 06:30 PM posted to alt.radio.broadcasting,rec.radio.shortwave,alt.censorship,alt.discrimination
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Default AM IBOC Madness

David wrote:

''...a draft Report and Order to allow all U.S. AM
stations to use HD Radio at night is reportedly sitting on the
FCC Chairman's desk. Insiders say the document will allow all
stations (with equipment in place) to light up simultaneously.
Hopefully an interference resolution mechanism is included in the
paperwork. Broadcast engineers surveyed on the floor of the NAB
were not optimistic about the long-term prospects of AM HD at
night, but iBiquity investors will undoubtedly make a concerted
effort to make it work.''

[...]


ACCORDING TO V-News.org Editor-in-Chief Kevin Alfred Strom, IBOC is
an inferior, interference-prone system designed primarily to ensure
the dominance of the corporate broadcast media and limit or prevent
the rise of new, independent voices on the radio dial. He states:

'IBOC (In-Band On-Channel) digital -- AM or FM -- is essentially a
turkey, technically. It's inferior in almost every way to a
dedicated digital system in a dedicated digital band.

'The main reason IBOC is promoted is because a new dedicated digital
band would level the playing field: the present 250-Watt AM
daytimer, once ensconced in the new band, would have just as clear
and clean a signal as the 50-Kw clear channel or the high-power FM
-- just as good fidelity, the same coverage, and 24-hour operation.
Just as your Web site is equally clear and accessible as NBC's.

'A dedicated digital band might also be scalable and allow many more
channels for the listener -- hundreds, thousands perhaps. Probably
enough to allow public access (in which anyone can be a broadcaster
for free or nearly free) on an even greater scale than does cable
television.

'And that would mean more competition for the big-money men.

'And it would mean that competition would now be purely on the basis
of programming, not the sheer signal superiority which the money-men
have paid for.

'They want to preserve the _inferiority_ of their smaller
competitors. IBOC does that. They want to maintain the high economic
hurdle to becoming a broadcaster. IBOC does that.'