"WBRW" wrote in message
...
We bought a dozen or so average consumer radios, from a walkman to a
boom
box to a clock radio, and whatever is in between. On every one, the
music in
analog sounds as good as it did before, and switching the IBOC on and
off
produced during several days of testing no significant differences on
average radios.

Try it on a GE Superadio III. It's an "average" radio that you can
buy for $49 at Sears. If you can't hear the difference in quality
with the IBOC on, then a hearing check is in order.

The number of such radios pales when comparred to the number represented by
more typical devices. I'll bet that in LA, the case in point, there are less
than 2,000 of those radios. Who would buy a very expensive portable radio
that promotes high AM quality as its selling point? Answer: talk show
addicts who have a hard time hearing a local station.

Mark my words... IBOC on AM will be a flop. In addition to the
horrendous interference, degraded analog audio, and artifact-laden
digital audio, who would spend $500+ for an "HD Radio" setup, just to
hear the same local stations,

The receivers will be below $100 within 12 months, if not sooner. the prices
will track CD players and DVD players in price declines.

The fact that most radio listening is to local stations answers that
question.

And I have heard AM IBOC and it sounds better than many highly compressed
FMs I A/B'd with. The new algorithm is excellent.

On 99% of AM receivers, there is no analog degradation because the receivers
are not wide enough to detect the difference.

when XM or Sirius costs less than half
as much and delivers 100 channels of new, exciting, and often
commercial-free programming?

You forget that a full installation is not just the radio, but the
installation and antenna. And then there is $10 to $13 a month in user fees,
plus tax.

And when the radio stations realize that
consumers aren't going for it, who would spend the $75,000 - $100,000
per station to convert to IBOC?

You are letting the cart get ahead of the horse. The CES is going to be
filled with IBOC equipment, and I believe some at much more affordable
prices.


Arthur Liu's Multicultural Broadcasting tried IBOC on 930 WPAT and
1480 WZRC in the NYC area. But they gave up on it after only a few
weeks on the air, because of the degradation of audio and signal
quality, and because none of these stations' listeners would ever care
to own an IBOC receiver, even *if* they were available in stores. But
it's funny -- you never hear about these kinds of negative experiences
in Radio World or other publications that are rabidly pro-IBOC. And I
know things are really strange when even _David Eduardo_ is speaking
favorably of IBOC. What is the world coming to?

1480 and even 930 are miserable signals. Both also roabably have high-Q
antennas. On a good system, IBOC sounds good, and the analgo audio is
indistinguishable from the "way it was before."

Many stations, especially those doing block, brokered programming, will not
gain initially from IBOC. those with decent signals can gain a lot.