IBOC
 

Scott Dorsey had written:
| Chris Tarr wrote:
|
| I find it very interesting that people continue to compare HD to AM
| Stereo. The dynamics are very different, and the industry is much
| different. Funny enough, HD detractors mention price as the biggest
| problem. The truth is price is the smallest problem...that will fix
| itself soon. Anybody launching HD is doing so with an eye to the
| future, not expecting results today.
|
| I think it's also a bad idea to tar AM IBOC and FM IBOC with the same
| brush. FM IBOC actually provides better service for FM listeners and
| works very well.
|
| The reason some of these comparisons are being made is because AM Stereo,
| like AM IBOC, was presented as a great solution to the migration of listeners
| from the AM band. It turned out not to be, but it did no damage and nothing
| to accelerate the loss. AM IBOC seems to do more harm than good to the
| AM band, if you consider AM skywave to be important. And if you don't
| consider AM skywave important, then you have to always consider the AM
| band as the poor stepchild of FM anyway, because skywave is the one thing
| that distinguishes AM and makes it useful today.

I would say "mostly exactly" -- mostly, because the skywave seems to be
less and less useful with each passing year. But IBOC has far more
of an adverse impact to existing receivers and to analog listeners
than AM stereo ever did (if AM stereo ever did). Thus I think the
larger point holds up.

I would not discount the price factor. Alternate forms of audio media,
including MP3 players, iPods, and satellite radio have a leg up. If
what's offered on IBOC multicasts is more of the same old thing and
the receivers are high in price, what's the bloody point?

--
Mark Roberts |"Nor was it the last empire to delude itself that the best troops,
Oakland, Cal.| armed with the latest equipment and backed by the resources of
NO HTML MAIL | the greatest state in the world, could overcome every military or
| political challenge." -- Geoffrey Parker,
| "The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road" (1972)
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