Monday, October 31, 2005
Digital HD RADIO IS A DIGITAL DISASTER!
DIGITAL IBOC IBIQUITY HD RADIO MEANS FEWER STATIONS, NOT MORE!
HD RADIO IS A FRAUD, ON AM OR FM.
Quotes from a broadcast engineer who was FORMERLY 100% in favor of HD digital radio. Quotes follow:
A number of stations are finding it difficult to suppress the "bacon-frying" noise produced in all analog receivers because of nonlinear performing transmission chains, including the null regions of many directional antennas. The necessity of having to rebuild antenna systems will place an expensive burden on numerous stations, many of which are the least able to afford it.
Using IBOC at night undoubtedly will unleash an ugly Pandora's Box of trouble for many stations. The Canadian government has formally objected to U.S. stations operating IBOC at night, fearing significant interference to Canadian stations operating on adjacent channels. Neither the NAB nor the FCC had yet to comment on this objection at this writing.
Most AM station owners understand the risks of investing in the Ibiquity standard and are postponing plans to add IBOC until more of the lingering questions receive answers.
According to one resource as of this writing, there are 77 stations on the air with daytime AM IBOC. At least five Class A 50 kW blowtorches and a few other stations have turned it off, mostly because of interference caused to their own analog listeners or to their adjacent-channel neighbors.
I was an early supporter of IBOC for both AM and FM, but after carefully reflecting on how the AM rollout has faltered I am now convinced the proposed standard for AM during the hybrid transition period is not the best it could be. I am joined by many other engineers who see the possibility of a colossal train wreck coming, when and if AM IBOC is opened up for full-time operations by all stations.
Listeners who lose the ability to hear a desired and dependable radio service they've enjoyed for a long time could care less where a protected contour ends or begins. It will simply eliminate one of their favored choices and further diminish the size of AM radio's already dwindling audience.
Take the most notable and often used example of three Class A stations: WLW 700 in Cincinnati, WOR 710 in NYC and WGN 720 in Chicago. All three are 50 kW powerhouses that enjoy extensive secondary contour as well as skywave coverage and audience. Large areas of that will be lost in both analog and digital reception when all three light up IBOC at night.
The overall result of this chaos could leave AM IBOC an under-achieving digital standard that only a minority of stations could use to full advantage. We could see the filing of lawsuits by stations that invested in the technology but were forced to stop using it.
Many of the rimshot stations that rely heavily on secondary coverage to serve their intended target audiences will probably be shut down by IBOC interference with no remedy whatsoever. Some may just throw up the white flag and be content to be daytimers or go out of business entirely. Others could get angry enough to pursue litigation.
The ensuing malaise would cripple AM further until such time that a significant number of stations simply go away and turn in their licenses.
LINK TO THE FULL STORY:
http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/guywire/gw.2005.10.19.shtml
-Rich
HD RADIO IS A FRAUD, ON AM OR FM.
Quotes from a broadcast engineer who was FORMERLY 100% in favor of HD digital radio. Quotes follow:
A number of stations are finding it difficult to suppress the "bacon-frying" noise produced in all analog receivers because of nonlinear performing transmission chains, including the null regions of many directional antennas. The necessity of having to rebuild antenna systems will place an expensive burden on numerous stations, many of which are the least able to afford it.
Using IBOC at night undoubtedly will unleash an ugly Pandora's Box of trouble for many stations. The Canadian government has formally objected to U.S. stations operating IBOC at night, fearing significant interference to Canadian stations operating on adjacent channels. Neither the NAB nor the FCC had yet to comment on this objection at this writing.
Most AM station owners understand the risks of investing in the Ibiquity standard and are postponing plans to add IBOC until more of the lingering questions receive answers.
According to one resource as of this writing, there are 77 stations on the air with daytime AM IBOC. At least five Class A 50 kW blowtorches and a few other stations have turned it off, mostly because of interference caused to their own analog listeners or to their adjacent-channel neighbors.
I was an early supporter of IBOC for both AM and FM, but after carefully reflecting on how the AM rollout has faltered I am now convinced the proposed standard for AM during the hybrid transition period is not the best it could be. I am joined by many other engineers who see the possibility of a colossal train wreck coming, when and if AM IBOC is opened up for full-time operations by all stations.
Listeners who lose the ability to hear a desired and dependable radio service they've enjoyed for a long time could care less where a protected contour ends or begins. It will simply eliminate one of their favored choices and further diminish the size of AM radio's already dwindling audience.
Take the most notable and often used example of three Class A stations: WLW 700 in Cincinnati, WOR 710 in NYC and WGN 720 in Chicago. All three are 50 kW powerhouses that enjoy extensive secondary contour as well as skywave coverage and audience. Large areas of that will be lost in both analog and digital reception when all three light up IBOC at night.
The overall result of this chaos could leave AM IBOC an under-achieving digital standard that only a minority of stations could use to full advantage. We could see the filing of lawsuits by stations that invested in the technology but were forced to stop using it.
Many of the rimshot stations that rely heavily on secondary coverage to serve their intended target audiences will probably be shut down by IBOC interference with no remedy whatsoever. Some may just throw up the white flag and be content to be daytimers or go out of business entirely. Others could get angry enough to pursue litigation.
The ensuing malaise would cripple AM further until such time that a significant number of stations simply go away and turn in their licenses.
LINK TO THE FULL STORY:
http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/guywire/gw.2005.10.19.shtml
-Rich
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
BING IS BACK-REVIEW
Here is the link to the revue:
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/acousticdigest/SS/index.blog?entry_id=1105399
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/acousticdigest/SS/index.blog?entry_id=1105399
Thursday, October 20, 2005
PUBLIC RADIO-NO MORAL HIGH GROUND HERE!
A REPLY TO AN E-MAIL CLAIM OF MORAL HIGH GROUND FOR PUBLIC RADIO.
I re-read your e-mail several times, just to be sure I understood your meaning.
I am not suggesting sales of anything on public stations. No "Buy now", "Half price sale", "Better then all the rest", just the same underwriting I hear all day long on WHYY, WRTI, WXPN, WRDV, WKDU, and most other public stations.
The public radio programs almost always have a related website that they mention, and promote. Most underwriters have some sort of direct or indirect interest in at least some of the content of the shows. The public stations run long program length "commercials" hawking "donations" to themselves or to program producers, selling T-shirts, mugs, CD's, DVD's and hundreds of other items. Writers, musicians, doctors, lawyers, politicians, chefs, scientists, and dozens of others as guests on public radio, promote magazines, books, CD's, kitchen tools, hardware, services, religion, therapy, a scientific theory, political viewpoints, some type of music, and just about anything else you can imagine.
Your response puzzled me. Then I realized that you did not understand my e-mail, or jumped to conclusions. I did not mention or intend "selling" anything outside the public radio guidelines.
Many of the programs on public radio are syndicated, produced, or underwritten by independent producers that have interested underwriters, or in some cases by related divisions or featuring persons involved with the underwriters.
I was going to list some examples here, but there were far too many to list. Instead just take a look at some of the public stations schedules. Perhaps you haven't heard most of the shows.
http://www.pri.org/PublicSite/listeners/index.html
http://www.whyy.org/91FM/schedule.html
http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/progstream.html
http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/
http://about.prx.org/
http://www.apmstations.org/apmstations/ota/OTAUnderwriting.do?navId=60
http://www.publicradiofan.com/
http://www.prms.org/
And many others.
Almost all the programs in these schedules include underwriting credits, website promotion, and mention items, viewpoints or services being promoted by guests or the program producers. None of this is considered selling and is within the public radio guidelines for program producers.
Many shows are independently produced or feature program elements produced independently. Sometimes they are independently produced but originate from a public radio station or network, but many times the programs are independently produced and just carried by public stations or networks.
Independent producers are eligible to receive payments form the programming fund for use of their content.
Your extremely restricted view of what is allowed on public radio seems at odds with what is on the air.
If I misinterpreted your e-mail, or am in some way in error, I am open to ideas and discussion.
If you are claiming some kind of virginal purity for public radio, like the disappointed new husband, I'm afraid you are 40 years too late.
One of the main driving forces and selling points behind HD digital radio, is that stations will hawk expensive new digital radio receivers made necessary by the hissing digital interference transmitted, making the older current analog receivers obsolete. All the while jamming competing adjacent channel stations.
Not only has public radio lost all it's virtue and virginity, it is now a street walker hawking implements, aids, and selling services. Like a street hooker, public radio also jams the competition and runs competitors into the ground. Public radio no longer has claim to the high moral ground once claimed. It is spending millions of taxpayer public money to digitally jam other independent voices and stations. No morality in that. This results in far fewer received stations, not more, as falsely claimed.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Rich
FROM THE ORIGINAL E-MAIL POST THAT PROMPTED THIS REPLY (FROM R. ALAN CAMPBELL- PUBLIC BROADCASTER)
OK This will work with commercial stations.....
Each of the two Public Radio networks will not allow distribution a program promoting sales on their networks...however if they just do up linking without their brand it may work- they lease their satellite for commercial use. They have separate distribution arms from their own network shows. My grasp
however for public stations is a "locally" produced program could be underwritten locally...we just do a local program for each station (same master). Local stores get promotion money for advertising from the parent.
At one time Richard Crandell did a show like this out of LA for BMG. Some public stations carried it but without other record companies on board the stations and public radio networks realized they were just promoting BMG product on their stations...becoming an hour commercial. Frank Carter did one on WFLN for Sam Goody...on Saturday mornings. He did it at WFLN as an hour commercial working for himself and Sam Goody-Philadelphia and not an employee of the station but as an independent contractor.
yours truly, R A Campbell
http://studionote.com/http://racampbell.com/
http://classicalmanac.blogspot.com/
I re-read your e-mail several times, just to be sure I understood your meaning.
I am not suggesting sales of anything on public stations. No "Buy now", "Half price sale", "Better then all the rest", just the same underwriting I hear all day long on WHYY, WRTI, WXPN, WRDV, WKDU, and most other public stations.
The public radio programs almost always have a related website that they mention, and promote. Most underwriters have some sort of direct or indirect interest in at least some of the content of the shows. The public stations run long program length "commercials" hawking "donations" to themselves or to program producers, selling T-shirts, mugs, CD's, DVD's and hundreds of other items. Writers, musicians, doctors, lawyers, politicians, chefs, scientists, and dozens of others as guests on public radio, promote magazines, books, CD's, kitchen tools, hardware, services, religion, therapy, a scientific theory, political viewpoints, some type of music, and just about anything else you can imagine.
Your response puzzled me. Then I realized that you did not understand my e-mail, or jumped to conclusions. I did not mention or intend "selling" anything outside the public radio guidelines.
Many of the programs on public radio are syndicated, produced, or underwritten by independent producers that have interested underwriters, or in some cases by related divisions or featuring persons involved with the underwriters.
I was going to list some examples here, but there were far too many to list. Instead just take a look at some of the public stations schedules. Perhaps you haven't heard most of the shows.
http://www.pri.org/PublicSite/listeners/index.html
http://www.whyy.org/91FM/schedule.html
http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/progstream.html
http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/
http://about.prx.org/
http://www.apmstations.org/apmstations/ota/OTAUnderwriting.do?navId=60
http://www.publicradiofan.com/
http://www.prms.org/
And many others.
Almost all the programs in these schedules include underwriting credits, website promotion, and mention items, viewpoints or services being promoted by guests or the program producers. None of this is considered selling and is within the public radio guidelines for program producers.
Many shows are independently produced or feature program elements produced independently. Sometimes they are independently produced but originate from a public radio station or network, but many times the programs are independently produced and just carried by public stations or networks.
Independent producers are eligible to receive payments form the programming fund for use of their content.
Your extremely restricted view of what is allowed on public radio seems at odds with what is on the air.
If I misinterpreted your e-mail, or am in some way in error, I am open to ideas and discussion.
If you are claiming some kind of virginal purity for public radio, like the disappointed new husband, I'm afraid you are 40 years too late.
One of the main driving forces and selling points behind HD digital radio, is that stations will hawk expensive new digital radio receivers made necessary by the hissing digital interference transmitted, making the older current analog receivers obsolete. All the while jamming competing adjacent channel stations.
Not only has public radio lost all it's virtue and virginity, it is now a street walker hawking implements, aids, and selling services. Like a street hooker, public radio also jams the competition and runs competitors into the ground. Public radio no longer has claim to the high moral ground once claimed. It is spending millions of taxpayer public money to digitally jam other independent voices and stations. No morality in that. This results in far fewer received stations, not more, as falsely claimed.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Rich
FROM THE ORIGINAL E-MAIL POST THAT PROMPTED THIS REPLY (FROM R. ALAN CAMPBELL- PUBLIC BROADCASTER)
OK This will work with commercial stations.....
Each of the two Public Radio networks will not allow distribution a program promoting sales on their networks...however if they just do up linking without their brand it may work- they lease their satellite for commercial use. They have separate distribution arms from their own network shows. My grasp
however for public stations is a "locally" produced program could be underwritten locally...we just do a local program for each station (same master). Local stores get promotion money for advertising from the parent.
At one time Richard Crandell did a show like this out of LA for BMG. Some public stations carried it but without other record companies on board the stations and public radio networks realized they were just promoting BMG product on their stations...becoming an hour commercial. Frank Carter did one on WFLN for Sam Goody...on Saturday mornings. He did it at WFLN as an hour commercial working for himself and Sam Goody-Philadelphia and not an employee of the station but as an independent contractor.
yours truly, R A Campbell
http://studionote.com/http://racampbell.com/
http://classicalmanac.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
HISS BACK AT THE CPB FOR SHAMEFUL PERFORMANCE
Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides taxpayer money to enable 400 more of their stations to jam hundreds of other broadcasting stations with digital hiss! SHAME!
From: http://beradio.com/currents/radio_currents_092605/index.html#hi
CPB Helps Stations Convert to HD Radio Philadelphia - Sep 26, 2005 - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) will purchase a group license that will allow more than 400 CPB-funded public radio stations to acquire Ibiquity's digital HD Radio technology. This group license will also cover costs associated with the technology's advanced services such as multicasting and datacasting. Previously, CPB provided funding to about 400 local public radio stations for their digital conversions.
CPB, a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,000 locally owned and operated public TV and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, TV and related online services.
From: http://beradio.com/currents/radio_currents_092605/index.html#hi
CPB Helps Stations Convert to HD Radio Philadelphia - Sep 26, 2005 - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) will purchase a group license that will allow more than 400 CPB-funded public radio stations to acquire Ibiquity's digital HD Radio technology. This group license will also cover costs associated with the technology's advanced services such as multicasting and datacasting. Previously, CPB provided funding to about 400 local public radio stations for their digital conversions.
CPB, a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,000 locally owned and operated public TV and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, TV and related online services.
Monday, October 03, 2005
CURB CORPORATE TYRANNY
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
-Justice Louis Brandeis, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court 1916-1939.
Check out this article from "The Nation":
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20050922/cm_thenation/20051010nader&printer=1;_ylt=AtuUrEzME16A7c91xxmVjwE__8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Conclusion: Subordinating Corporations to People. Ultimately, the most effective way to control corporations is to restore citizen democracy and find effective ways to reclaim the once widely accepted principle that corporations are but creatures of the state, chartered by the state under the premise that they will serve the public good, and entitled only to those revocable rights and privileges granted by citizen governments. That is, corporations are our servants, not our masters. By doing so we will be able to create a more just and sustainable economy, an economy driven by the values of humanity and community and democracy instead of the current globally omnicidal economy driven by the relentless pursuit of short-range financial profit at any cost--market and military--to innocent peoples of the world.
I agree.
Rich
-Justice Louis Brandeis, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court 1916-1939.
Check out this article from "The Nation":
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20050922/cm_thenation/20051010nader&printer=1;_ylt=AtuUrEzME16A7c91xxmVjwE__8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Conclusion: Subordinating Corporations to People. Ultimately, the most effective way to control corporations is to restore citizen democracy and find effective ways to reclaim the once widely accepted principle that corporations are but creatures of the state, chartered by the state under the premise that they will serve the public good, and entitled only to those revocable rights and privileges granted by citizen governments. That is, corporations are our servants, not our masters. By doing so we will be able to create a more just and sustainable economy, an economy driven by the values of humanity and community and democracy instead of the current globally omnicidal economy driven by the relentless pursuit of short-range financial profit at any cost--market and military--to innocent peoples of the world.
I agree.
Rich
HIGH MILEAGE FUEL EFFICIENT HYBRID CAR FROM 1968!
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN.
RALPH NADER WAS RIGHT!
We have the best politicians money can buy.
Link to the truth:
http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/GE_EV_hearings.html
-Rich
RALPH NADER WAS RIGHT!
We have the best politicians money can buy.
Link to the truth:
http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/GE_EV_hearings.html
-Rich
SLICK, OILY POLITICIANS BLOCK PROGRESS!
America had a hybrid gas/elecric car in 1968!
Imagine what we would have had by now if politicians had not de-funded all the research!
Here is the proof:
http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/GE_EV_hearings.html
-Rich
Imagine what we would have had by now if politicians had not de-funded all the research!
Here is the proof:
http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/GE_EV_hearings.html
-Rich
Sunday, October 02, 2005
RADIO, FADING FAST-HISS AND HURTS!
WBCB 1490 AM Levittown, PA and WKAP 1470 AM Allentown, PA both get heavily doused with digital hiss from WDAS 1480 AM Philadelphia, PA. If they both decide to join the hissing contest, WDAS might be the real looser!
Another study showing radio is fading fast. Do you think adding digital hiss will help? -Rich
From 'My Generation' to 'My Media Generation:' Yahoo! and OMD Global Study Finds Youth Love Personalized Media: Financial New.
Another study showing radio is fading fast. Do you think adding digital hiss will help? -Rich
From 'My Generation' to 'My Media Generation:' Yahoo! and OMD Global Study Finds Youth Love Personalized Media: Financial New.
