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Old May 29th 06, 04:41 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
David Eduardo
 
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Default IBOC at Night and the Local/Regional AMs


"Frank Dresser" wrote in message
...

"David Eduardo" wrote in message
. net...

"Frank Dresser" wrote in message
...

"David Eduardo" wrote in message

I'm not clear on what I'm wrong about. Doesn't FM also lose most of

their
listeners, in absolute numbers (not percentage) during the night? What
are
those numbers?


The difference is that FM actually increases share of available listeners

at
night, while AM decreases. All radio has different listening levels at
differnt times. From 6 Am to 7 PM, it is around 22%, while at night it is
more like 7%... keeping in mind that 7 PM is "daytime level" and 11 PM

most
people are asleep and it is around 3% of the universe.

Whaterver the listening level, FM takes more of it at night.



Yes, proprotionally, but I'm interested in how many listeners AM might
keep
if they went to IBOC at night. That's what I meant with "absolute
numbers".


There is no way of knowing. Thee is just a feeling that better quality AM
audio will make people far more interested in using it and, even more
important, make it more competitive with FM.

A further speculative comparision would concern the total number of
listeners with and without IBOC. And not the total for any given station,
but the total for the radio industry. After all, if IBOC doesn't draw a
larger number of dollars from the advertisers, it's expenses will be a
loss.


This is totally unpredictable. There is no research method known that will
predict so many variable. However, as the programming improves, as receivers
get cheaper and as people become aware of HD, there should be an
improvement. Many companies that considered selling all their AMs are
keeping them in the belief that HD will make a significant difference. We
are talking about billion dollar decision in the case of several of the
broadcasters that had been about to spin off all their AMs.