"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...
David Eduardo wrote:
"K Isham" wrote in message
news:46deb07a@kcnews01...
I realize that radio must make a profit, but, when you drive listeners
away with this buzzing noise on AM

"The buzzing noise" is heard on the channels adjacent to a local station
with HD. No "other station" is protected from adjacent channel
interference in the primary coverage are of the station using HD, and
there is certainly, other than DX, no listening to adjacent channels.


What you haven't addressed is when a local station is on someone else's
adjacent, and their digital sidebands interfere with the local station's
audio.

There are not many cases where the digital signal invades what is an
adjacent channel to the extent that protected contours of the adjacent
channel are interferred with someplace between the two stations.

THAT"s what's got so many people around here in a lather. The noise is
everywhere. Keeps me from listening to WLS which is one of my locals.

Are you in the protected contour of WLS?

The truth is, that this system is designed with certain assumptions in
mind. One is that there is no value to stations out of market.

The FCC's reasoning was that the US has so many stations now that listening
in non-protected contour coverage areas, as real as it might be in the realm
of possibility, did not deserve protection if the intent to transition radio
to digital was to be fulfilled. And the use of night skywave coverage was
similarly considered to be of marginal value, and of benefit to only a
handful... around 1% of all AMs... of stations if used at all.

I'll tell you hear and now when lightning, or a power surge takes down one
of the primary AM's here, and there's only digital hash from some out of
market station covering up nearby information alternatives, the phrase,
'licensed to serve the in the public interest as a public trustee' takes on
a laughable quality.

The FCC, since the 40's, has stressed localism... the primary reason why the
clear channels were denied increases to 500 to 750 kw despite appeals ending
around 1967. The FCC's focus is on service to the city or community of
licence, not distant areas, and they have frequently denied protection at
greater distances to grandfathered FMs even though many showed considerable
listening in areas that were later granted local stations on adjacents.

The other major assumption is that some listeners can be orphaned
without penalty.

Correct. This was considered in the deliberations and decided to be a
justifiable tradeoff.

Both are tragically flawed. And if Radio doesn't pay heed, the listener
decline will be dramatic, as they move to alternative media.

Listeners outside the local area or metro are of no value to stations, and
this is why you don't see any type of significant broadcaster protest. The
loss is not, to them, a loss.

I've been experimenting with a Wi-Fi radio, using one of the open nets
in Gurnee. I can't get WLS at home because of digital interference, but I
can over some wi-fi feed in the next suburb? What's wrong with this
picture?

Are you in the Chicago MSA? (Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, kendall, Lake,
McHenry, Will, Lake and Porter counties in IL and Kenosha in WI)? Otherwise,
the station itself probably does not care.

So, I may soon, not miss WLS. I may find alternatives sufficient. And
then where do you go. I provide some of the longest TSL's radio has ever
seen. Meaning, advertisers get REAL value for what they spend when I'm
listening.

But, I'm 56. Who cares. Right? Let's see...in this post alone I've got
more than a kilobuck in discretionary spending represented, of no value to
anyone.

Longer time spent listening listeners to AM talk tend to be over 55, and
that is a demo that is essentially useless for revenue, although it looks
nice on paper. there are just about zero agencie buys (and that drives the
bigger stations in the larger markets) are for over 55.

Now...I did speak to the PD at WLS...Kipper is a friend of mine, and
used to work for me when I was programming downstate. He suggested I pick
up the HD-2 stream on the FM. WLS is there.

Ironic, isn't it?

Not really a viable alternative, either...since I do a good deal of my
listening while outdoors.

HD portables are coming next year, when several low-battery consumption 9mm
form factor chips are coming out that will enable portable devices.

Trashing the AM band, Brother David, is not going to bring lower end
demos. Younger people are not listening to AM because it's AM....they're
not even GETTING to the sound quality, yet.

The key 35-54 demos will listen to the AM formats if the quality is better;
the staitons that have moved or started FM simulcasts have proven this. HD
has a chance of making the existing formats on the very few viable AM
stations in major markets more appealing to 35-54.

Moving a viable AM to FM is a good move. Younger demos are already
listening there. But going digital on AM isn't going to help. They're not
going to go there. They haven't been for more than a generation, now. All
you're doing is putting a digital alternative to the same programming
they're not listening to, on a band they institutionally have no interest
in.

This is definitly one scenario. But to not try is simply to condemn AM to
death in another decade when nearly all the listeners are over 55... the
reason the FCC insisted, and was backed by the NAB in this, on an AM and FM
solution was because the only way to help AM was to make it ride on a
two-band system that all new receivers might have in the future.

And you're doing it at the cost of those who DO listen. With
instutrionalized interference, that, in the end, will cost you all your
listeners. And all their revenue streams.

As I have mentioned before, in LA we have, frequently, two of the top 5
stations in the Riverside San Bernardino market, which is separate from the
LA market. We don't get any extra revenue from this, because radio is not
bought by "adding" contiguous markets together. Out of market listening is
not of much value.

We may be comparitively few...but, as a whole we spend more. And when
the interference REALLY kicks in...we're not going to be as few as you
think.

If the only loss is out of market or in 55+, there is no revenue loss.