worldsupercaster

HERE IS THE LATEST BUZZ ON HD RADIO, FROM ONE WHO BOUGHT ALL THE HYPE.
"The coverage seems to be only slightly more than HALF the coverage of the analog signal. "
"the difference between the digital and analog-stereo signal isn't that great. "
"as soon as I start moving, most stations' HD2 and HD3 signals drop off, and the HD1 signal reverts back to analog."
"As for AM-IBOC, their coverage seems to be even worse than FM. "
"In order to broadcast in HD, they had to scale back their analog signal to 5 or 6 KHz, and now there is no high end on any of the AM's running HD. Even the formerly great sounding WIBC now sounds muddy on the analog signal. In addition, the very things that cause interference on analog AM radios now disrupt the IBOC signal, causing the radio to blend back to analog, so where's the advantage?"
"the audio quality of all 4 AM-HD's is horrible."
"doesn't sound as good as streaming audio with a decent Internet connection."
"when WLW has the IBOC bandsaw turned on, it kills WGN"
CLICK ON THE TITLE (ABOVE) FOR THE FULL REVUE.

STATIONS BROADCAST HD RADIO BUZZ & LOOSE RATINGS!
"WPEN did pretty lousy, garnering a paltry one-half share of male listeners ages 25 to 54. But WIP had its worst summer in years. The summer ratings were not kind to sports radio.
Michael Klein 10/19/06"
Ratings have been dropping since the sations began broadcasting loud HD Radio buzz on adjacent channels, cut fidelity in half, and added noise and hum to audio.
"Surprise! Surprise!" -Gomer Pyle USMC
Click on title (above) for source.
Check Arbitron link for Philadelphia, PA and your city to see if the addition High Destruction radio interference is eating into your local HD Radio station's ratings:
http://www1.arbitron.com/tlr/public/report.do;jsessionid=nSyAu3nBiLP+D6RzBrRpwg**.ppmappp

CLEAR CHANNEL INTRODUCES "PRIDE RADIO" HD FM STATION.
Finally out in the open, Clear Channel Communications announced "Pride Radio" on HD FM. The corporation is expected to change it's name to reflect it's new identity.
Click on title (above) to go to website and listen.
Here is the link to the press release:
http://www.clearchannel.com/Radio/PressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=1674&KeyWord=pride+radio

If you build it will they come?
During the NAB, iBiquity head Bob Struble reportedly indicated that there are "less than 100,000 HD radio chipsets sold" to date and, as has been much better publicized, 1,000 or so HD stations across the country.
Now let's make some assumptions.
First let's assume there's one chipset per radio.
Since 100,000 is a suspiciously round number, let's assume it's a round-up from 90,000 (likely a bit high).
Now let's assume 10,000 of these chipsets are in radios in the hands of broadcast industry professionals (perhaps a bit high).
Now let's assume 10,000 of these chipsets are in the manufacturing and distribution pipeline - not yet in radio form (perhaps a bit low).
Now let's assume 10,000 of these chipsets are in radios but locked in inventories.
That leaves a very, very rough estimate of 60,000 HD radios in the hands of consumers.
Or - 60 radios for every HD station on the air.
There is easily - easily - ten times that much audience listening to these "stations" on the web.

LEFT CLICK ON HEADLINE (ABOVE) FOR THE REST OF THE STORY.

In an ideal world - HD Radio would have been birthed by engineers - inspired by Radio Programmers complaints that there wasn’t enough radio signals on which to bring all their great new programming ideas to life.
Instead- it was the opposite. HD was born as a technical achievement that attempts to answer questions no one was even asking.

Click on the headline (above) for the link to the rest of the article.

"Public radio trying to improve reception"
CLICK ON TITLE (ABOVE) FOR FULL STORY.

"Consider the letter to Radio World from Robert Conrad (Reader's Forum, July 19), the president of Cleveland's classical WCLV(FM) and Seaway Productions, who complained that IBOC audio quality is not what was promised, and that signal coverage is terrible. I admire his courage. Most people in his position would be embarrassed to say that after having put so much of their money - and, in some cases, their prestige - behind this junk technology.
As Mr. Conrad said, broadcasters' efforts to promote IBOC "will only disappoint, and perhaps antagonize, a significant segment of the audience who find that the system doesn't deliver."
Let's hope the industry as a whole will recognize that IBOC has been a mistake, and that it does so soon enough that it will be only the larger broadcasters - and, I'm afraid, all too many financially strapped public broadcasters - who will have invested prematurely, and unwisely, in this ill-conceived technology. "
Click on the title above to link to the rest of the story.

"This dirty little secret"
"As a result, the lack of handheld HD Radio receivers - at least for the next few years - will keep the fledgling technology from becoming a player in the increasingly important portable audio industry. Given the strength and projected growth of that sector, this absence could have significant impact on HD Radio's success, as well as to the radio industry's overall relevance to future audiences."
Here is the link:
http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0054/t.359.html