DE,

How many Roof-Top TV or FM Antenna does anyone
see today vice 20 and 40 Years ago ? ? ?

How many Cable TV Systems now carry the Local
AM and FM Radio Stations Today like they did back
20 and 40 Years ago ? ? ?

the times they are a changing ~ RHF

David Eduardo wrote:

Nobody listens to the adjacent channels that are next to local stations. So
there is no loss if there is nobody there anyway.


Bull****. I listen to WSM on 650 KHz AM, and there is a crappy local
on 640 KHz AM that already causes problems. If they added IBOC, they
would make it even worse. They play big band crap and constantly over
modulate even though the FCC never seems to catch them. The engineer
only shows up if they are off the air for an hour or so, and only fixes
what he's told to. When the interference gets too bad I have to listen
to the online stream.




--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

David Eduardo wrote:

How many Roof-Top TV or FM Antenna does anyone
see today vice 20 and 40 Years ago ? ? ?

Am I the only one who sees something wrong with the idea of having to
buy an extra antenna for an HD FM radio station when I can pick up the
analog version of that same station using the built-in whip on a ghetto
blaster?

At least that seems to be what is implied with the BA-Recepter. Well
we made a crappy deaf radio, but you can always spend MORE and add a
roof antenna or whatever.

Meanwhile the 20 year old JVC monster ghetto-blaster keeps pumping
away.

--
Steph

"Stephanie Weil" wrote in message
oups.com...

[snip]


Does IBOC sound better than current analog AM? Yes.

Yeah, others have said it sounds good. And I think ibiquity is doing it
with a lower bitrate than even mp3s, although they had to change their
decoder to get it right. I don't really know anything about digital
demodulation, but ignorance has never stopped me from imagining things, and
I wonder if ibiquity has somehow optimized their demodulator for current
programming. That would be fine for now, but maybe not so fine if jazz
music gets a big as it ought to be or if Beautiful Music makes it's dreaded
comeback or if the Chinese Communist Party "new economies" all the radio
stations and blankets the country with Chinese opera.

Again, I don't know anything about digital decoders, but I don't imagine
we're getting something for nothing.

And it wouldn't make a bit of difference to ibiquity, as long as the radios
sound OK until thier patents run out.



Would it be the saviour of AM radio? No, and I'll tell you why. Too
many analog radios in use. Billions probably.

People will be using those radios for a long time to come. Hell, some
people are still listening on radios that are 50-60 years old! At
night, it's going to be nasty when these listeners (at least the ones
in the hinterlands) try to tune in a long distance station, because all
their locals are off-air, and can't get anything but hiss and hash.


IBOC AM is nasty enough during the day on a current radio. Tune around and
hear the HIISSSSSSSS between a few stations. What happens if ibiquity gets
their way, and almost every station has a IBOC noisemaker running 24/7? How
annoyed will most people get? Will some choose to avoid the AM band
entirely? Most people know as much about the technical side of radio as
they want to know, which is practically nothing. I suppose Big Radio will
have to start telling people that if people just knew more about radio,
they'd get it through their thick heads that the HIISSSSSSS is just chock
full o' crystal clear digital audio.

You'll love the HIISSSSSS, after we sell you an expensive radio!!



IBOC-FM does seem like a nice thing though. There's no interference
caused to the analog signal like there is on AM; and you can get a
couple more channels of acceptable fidelity.

Sure you get the 67 and 92 khz subcarriers on analog FM (plus RDS), but
the SCAs sound nasty. I should know. I listen to quite a lot of SCA
stations in this city.

The problem with digital broadcasting of any kind is that you won't get
an imperfect signal that's still listenable/watchable.

Either you get a good picture/sound or you get NOTHING. There's no
middle ground.

Ah, yes. More of the "broken radio" sound. Normal AM interference is
intuitively obvious, it sounds pretty much like what it is, two people
talking at once, or whatever. It requires no explanation. But dropouts?
What the hell is that? Is there smoke coming out of the radio?



And there's way too many people that are in that middle-ground area
that are going to be dumped out. Especially when it comes to stations
with niche programming, it's going to chop up their audience numbers
quite a bit.

--
Steph


Frank Dresser

"Stephanie Weil" wrote in message
ups.com...

David Eduardo wrote:

It is very bad for them. It doubles the free FM formats or options in
each
terrestrial market. XM and Sirius sell based on"more options" and HD
gives
for free what costs $150 a year on satellite.

But....XM & Sirius have commercial free music. And deep playlists.

To a lot of people, $150 a year for what they get free is not worth it. Deep
playlists generally mean that hte channels play lots of less popular songs.
Some like this, most do not. If there were 2000 songs people wanted to hear
in any format, terrestrial radio would play them.

Supposedly.

Yeah, for the moment.