AMband.org

I wrote an article in Radio World concerning the full digital versions of IBOC.

The National Radio Systems Committee has released a study on the effects of reducing the bandwidth of AM transmissions from the present standard of 10 kHz.  The study used representative receivers to present transmissions of speech, sports, music and commercials with bandwidths of  5 kHz, 7 kHz and 10 kHz.  The study assumes that both the desired and undesired stations operate using the same standard.

The results showed that mutually reducing transmission bandwidth down to 5 kHz  is a big plus for speech.  There was either a benefit, or no change from the 10 kHz results when reducing the transmitted bandwidth to 7 kHz irrespective of format or first adjacent channel interference level. (more…)

Radio Ink reported today that WHAT(AM) Philadelphia is the first AM to broadcast Alternative Rock in Medium Wave HD radio.

I’m listening now to Snow Patrol on the station, but not in HD. Hopefully they will have it on later today.

This will be an interesting experiment – I just wish that WHAT had a better signal to really test whether mainstream (kind of) music can build an adequate audience on HD.

Good luck “Skin Radio”!

A recent article about the rollout of HD Radio in FMQB by Paul Marszalek points out some of the good things, and some big pitfalls that may be ahead for terrestrial radio in the USA.

Although IBOC radio was not the best choice for terrestrial broadcasters, with its exclusive focus on retaining the entitlement of incumbent broadcasters to the exclusion of all other considerations. Unfortunately, that choice required squeezing of ten pounds of s**It into a five pound bag.

We can look back as much as we want, but we are where we are. There was no concept of how streaming, podcasts, 802.11 radio and cellphone stations would dilute the terrestrial franchise at that time.

We need to understand that IBOC hybrid HD Radio is a TRANSITIONAL technology. In ten years, if we play our cards right, there will be no analog radio, and we can have THREE programs on an FM license and one CD quality stereo or one “FM quality” a number of voice quality programs on an AM license. All this can be achieved with NO adjacent channel interference. (more…)