"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...
David Eduardo wrote:

Funny, but I am in management and I know a lot of other people in
management. I have never heard any kind of "mission" to convert to
digital discussed. I have heard the occasional, "wouldn't it be nice if
AM was all digital" comments but we all know this is either impossible
or a decade down the road. I wonder if AM will make it that far, with or
without HD.


David, iBiquity, itself, has stated that the HD (Which stands for
Hybrid Digital--not High Definition, btw) system will facilitate the
transition from the current analog broadcast to an all digital medium.

Yeah, they mean that, as a compatible analog digital system, there will be a
transition period before all-digital can be achieved and during that period,
analog receivers are not obsolete. I can not see anyone pulling the plug on
analog AM for a decade. And I have never heard anyone planning for the
future based on an all digital band.

Hybrid. That's your first clue that this is a transitional system.

Yeah, it can happen, but I know of no staiton that would do it till HD
penetration is virtually total. Just to get HD in most cars would take about
15 years.

Now, this is FROM iBiquity. It's been said many times. It was said in
the presentation to FCC, and presented as a key selling point, after FCC's
mandate that all future modulation schemes for broadcast be digital.

FM stereo is a hybrid, and backwards compatible with mono. FM stereo is
40-some years old, and yet over half of all FM listening is in mono today.

It's been openly discussed at every radio station I've walked into in
the last 10 years, and was even forecast by Mel Karmazin at a staff
breakfast when I was at CBS.

Yet I have never heard any discussion of abandoning analog... lot of
"cheerleading" about digital, but no desire to blow off existing analog
listeners.

It's being discussed. It's been discussed. And discussed openly.

If you've not heard it, Brother, then you need to widen your circle.
It's all but been up on billboards.

I go to the NABs, RABs and programming conferences. I don't hear elimination
of analog and replacement with digital discussed at all.

Figures I've heard have ranged from 5-8 years.

If look at the average age of operating cars in the US, you realize that
that is unduly optimistic, even if there is a covert transition being
planned.

Since most AMs in the US are not economically viable in analog, thinking of
going digital is pretty much pie in the sky.

Which is an interesting coincidence, given that you, yourself have
forecast AM HD's implementation would take 5-8 years to revitalize AM
Radio.

.... and that is conditional on it being possible to bring new people under
45 to the band. I don't think this will happen, so all the rest is moot.
With less than 10% of Americans under 45 using AM, and the usage declining
each year, we may be too late for anything.