[Elecraft] OT: radio broadcast commercials

[Thom LaCosta]

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007, Phil Kane wrote:

> On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 17:34:58 -0500 (EST), Thom LaCosta wrote:
>
>  iBiquity has a proprietary lock on the encoding and decoding
>  systems and they aren't letting go.  They "sweetheart dealed"
>  the NPR-affiliated stations into a "loss leader" early adoption
>  program.

Interesting...yet there doesn;t seem to be a "loss leader" program for the end 
user.

I view many of the NPR stations as thinly disgused cash cows.  WAMU used to have
bluegrass on M-F from noon til 6, and most of Saturday and Sunday daytimes. 
During each begging session, us rednecks did our thing.

And so with money coming in, the station decided to kick the blue grass off 
during the week and move it to a web based operation...where of course they 
begged for money.

So now, with HD radio, the listeners who could no longer hear the music in their 
cars or combines could buy a new radio.



> The experience of the other broadcasters in the San
>  Francisco area is that IBOC on FM (the real name of "HD Radio")
>  causes significant degradation of signal.  IBOC on AM is even
>  worse.

Yep...when WAMU was jiggering stuff pre HD Radio programming, I noticed that
there was a huge reduction in reception up here.  Now during the begging 
sessions, no one mentions the contributions coming in from Pennsylvania, West 
Virginia and the southern part of Virginia....because folks simply can't hear 
the station.

>
>  Unless "they" come up with a better system, I and a lot  of my
>  colleagues want no part of it.

Gee, have you forgoten that "Less is More" can always explain away a downturn?

I can't tell, since I've only heard HD radio in a Radio Shack store on their 
table top(which they don't turn on much, since the reception isn't as good as at 
20 buck portable on FM, but the NPR types are saying the sound quality os so 
much better than conventional FM.  Is that correct?

73,Thom-k3hrn
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