HD Radio on the Offense
HD Radio promises clarity and diversity. What it delivers is a whole different story.
By David Downs
Published: March 7, 2007
Driving across the Bay Area every day, you can't help but hear the great news: HD Radio has arrived! There are now secret stations hiding between the stations you can hear. All you have to do is go out and buy a new HD Radio and you'll hear your old stations in crystal-clear digital, plus secret ones that you've never even heard before. All with no subscription!
Clear Channel, HD Radio But after an investigation of HD Radio units, the stations playing HD, and the company that owns the technology; and some interviews with the wonks in DC, it looks like HD Radio is a high-level corporate scam, a huge carny shill. Do not tune in until your unit comes standard on that used Honda Civic you buy in 2015.
Between the high prices, poor listening options, homogenized content, and a decade and a half of FCC dealings that went into this monopoly, critics are calling the move to digital radio a "catastrophe" and a "complete giveaway" to behemoths such as CBS. Moreover, HD is pretty much a done deal.
Let's start at Emeryville's Circuit City, where sales rep Joel shows the one HD Radio model in stock. This $200 beauty should net you 22 Bay Area stations broadcasting their regular feeds with a clearer digital signal hitchhiking on it. It also promises to decode fifteen of their all-digital cousins.
Problem is, when you hit "seek" on the JVC unit, the HD tuner cycles and cycles as if we're in the wilds of Idaho. Very impressive.
Joel will assure you that Circuit City merely needs a new antenna on its roof to pick up this digital signal, but somehow your regular car antenna will manage to pick up all 37 stations just fine. You're not so sure anymore.
KFOG program director Dave Benson says the digital footprint, or signal coverage, is indeed smaller than the analogue one, but because digital radio is so new, nobody knows by how much. Still, Benson can receive HD in his office, and he reports that 104.5 FM not only sounds cleaner, the new technology lets KFOG share its bandwidth with an all-digital HD2 signal that carries a second KFOG. What's on it? How about Dave Morey's 10@10 — 24/7.
This digital sidekick and eleven other Bay Area HD2 stations duplicate the existing airwave dross with formats like "Wild Hispanic," "'50s/'60s Oldies," and "KCBS News." They seem to be underfunded, unoriginal dumps of existing content from their analogue brethren, or consist of some playlist cut together by a decent DJ like Aaron Axelsen. Big whoop. That's not the real scam.
These local stations multicast using a technique known as In-Band On-Channel broadcasting, whose patents are held by a fifteen-year-old private corporation called iBiquity. CEO Bob Struble says iBiquity arose from next-gen radio research at corporations such as Lucent. These big boys figured out how to squeeze four channels into each existing one, and have poured more than $200 million into controlling them all with help from the FCC. The esteemed commissioners responded by granting iBiquity exclusive rights to digital radio.
Struble says nobody owns the rights to analogue radio, but everyone who wants to broadcast in digital or make a receiver has to pay iBiquity. Fees start at $10,000 per new digital channel. "It's a new phenomenon in consumer electronics," he says. "There's aspects of HDTV that are proprietary; the MP3 format is owned by one company. The DVD technology is owned by a consortium." Struble thinks it's a fair system: "We have to license to anybody on a fair, nondiscriminatory basis. You, David, are going to get the same terms Sony did."
Great. But here's the catch: All the major radio players, such as Clear Channel Communications, are iBiquity investors. Which means Clear Channel is paying itself for the right to broadcast, and every mom-and-pop station that wants to go digital also has pay the big boys. Nice setup!
IBiquity's monopoly on this closed-source system is a catastrophe, says Michael Bracy, a lobbyist for the Future of Music Coalition, whose goal is diversity on the airwaves and higher pay for artists. "It potentially is a great thing, but it feels like the government really botched this," he says.
The new technology, he says, has opened up more real estate on the spectrum, but the same land barons are homesteading it all. "The first question is, 'Who gets to control these streams?'" he asks. "Is this an antidote to consolidation or is it a complete giveaway to radio chains? It looks like it's a complete giveaway."
Radio spectrum analyst JH Snider is research director for the Wireless Future Program of the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan DC think tank. He affirms that a public broadcasting license is virtually a license to print money, and the FCC's fourfold expansion of Big Radio's mints offers no public payback. "There's nothing special about the technology except that the broadcasters control it and basically they took technology that others invented," Snider says. "They should've opened it up to competition."
FCC sources claim the path to digital audio broadcasting has been open and inclusive. The public can access records going back to 1999, and read voluminous comments. "This was the most thoroughly tested system in broadcast history," Struble says.
Snider, however, says the whole way the United States doles out the spectrum favors broadcasters over common sense. "Just look at free satellite radio," he says. "North America is the only continent on Earth besides Antarctica that doesn't have free satellite radio stations. That's the power of the provincial US broadcaster."
The deal isn't closed yet. The five-member, Republican-led FCC still has the power to write some local obligations into Big Radio's digital expansion. The commission has yet to authorize blanket approval that would let any station deploy high-definition radio at will. The public, Bracy suggests, might ask the FCC to ensure one community channel for every three the bigwigs get. But somehow the public-interest groups are totally asleep at the wheel. "Nobody understands spectrum," Snider notes.
Furthermore, FCC sources say the commission could vote on blanket authorization at any time without informing the public.
Welcome to New Radio, boys and girls. It stinks just like Old Radio, except the smell comes in clearer and there's more of it. Stay tuned.
HD Radio Article that gets right to the point...
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HD Radio Article that gets right to the point...
...not that, "The Point"....that's another crappy format.
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Cameron Smith - CSRE®
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Senior Digital Product Manager - Hibbett Sports|City Gear
Cameron Smith - CSRE®
Senior Member - SBE 68 Birmingham
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- fearpeddler
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how many people are actually broadcasting in hd radio around here? but to the topic.......... I know theres a device you can buy for an hdtv antenna that puts a little current to the line in order to boost reception, does this mean i'm gonnna have to put a new antenna in my car or will there be a little add on to give my reception more of a "kick"?...
Doesn't MSNBC stand for the Media that Spins the News for Barrack's Cabinet?
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Same antenna. Look for WVRC to be a big adopter of HD radio. DBM thinks it is the greatest thing since FM stereo. (Shockingly, we agree on that point. )FearPeddler wrote:how many people are actually broadcasting in hd radio around here? but to the topic.......... I know theres a device you can buy for an hdtv antenna that puts a little current to the line in order to boost reception, does this mean i'm gonnna have to put a new antenna in my car or will there be a little add on to give my reception more of a "kick"?...
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Theres alot of potential there, I love the whole concept of multiple stations.. there wouldnt be any excuses left for there not to be some variety, and i dont meant musically...
Doesn't MSNBC stand for the Media that Spins the News for Barrack's Cabinet?
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Political Correctness is always having to say you're sorry. - Me
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HD has been on WVAQ in Morgantown since the summer of 2003. WVRC has at least one other station in Charleston in HD. I'm not sure about any others. The tests by NPR on the Boston acoustics receiver indicated that an external dipole antenna was needed to receive local HD signals. I believe they have been shipping for a while with the new antenna. Car units should perform much better. There are grumblings now about adjusting the power ration of the digital to analog. Problem is that there are many places where the physical combiners and rejects are fixed devices, or hybrid low-level amplification devices simply run out of headroom. Most existing contours are now over 40 years old. Spectrum environmental noise and OOB harmonics have degraded these contours over the years. The same OOBH phenomena has pushed most public safety agencies from the VHF to UHF bands.
Rant mode on: Initial proponents wanted something out of band with stations sharing common transmitters and power. The NAB quickly killed such an idea. I was around for the early days of USA digital radio and Lucent, circa 1992-94. All of the best engineers at the time said IBOC if implemented was doomed for failure. A new spectrum was the most feasible idea, but the only way NAB would consider such a thing was to draw up new contours to protect the "rights of high-power broadcasters." The same people who preach about good competition and how it all comes down to the programming were screaming to kill the idea of the new spectrum and equal power levels. Whatever your politics may be, IMHO deregulation was bad for radio and has led to things like CC and IBOC.
The FCC approved IBOC and Ibiquity because they do not understand the technology. Hence field inspectors who cannot calculate indirect power measurements or interpret findings from a spectrum analyzer. The recent PSSA and PSRA debacle is another example. They do know everything about that little box called EAS. I’ve said it on here before; the technical control of radio is almost gone. This is why we have stations running over power, 150 % modulation, 18 % pilot injection, and finally those AM stations who always forget to lower the power until 11 or midnight. There are stations in this area that were denied several applications to move studios to other cities. They moved anyway. Rant mode off.
Rant mode on: Initial proponents wanted something out of band with stations sharing common transmitters and power. The NAB quickly killed such an idea. I was around for the early days of USA digital radio and Lucent, circa 1992-94. All of the best engineers at the time said IBOC if implemented was doomed for failure. A new spectrum was the most feasible idea, but the only way NAB would consider such a thing was to draw up new contours to protect the "rights of high-power broadcasters." The same people who preach about good competition and how it all comes down to the programming were screaming to kill the idea of the new spectrum and equal power levels. Whatever your politics may be, IMHO deregulation was bad for radio and has led to things like CC and IBOC.
The FCC approved IBOC and Ibiquity because they do not understand the technology. Hence field inspectors who cannot calculate indirect power measurements or interpret findings from a spectrum analyzer. The recent PSSA and PSRA debacle is another example. They do know everything about that little box called EAS. I’ve said it on here before; the technical control of radio is almost gone. This is why we have stations running over power, 150 % modulation, 18 % pilot injection, and finally those AM stations who always forget to lower the power until 11 or midnight. There are stations in this area that were denied several applications to move studios to other cities. They moved anyway. Rant mode off.
Lester wrote:Same antenna. Look for WVRC to be a big adopter of HD radio. DBM thinks it is the greatest thing since FM stereo. (Shockingly, we agree on that point. )FearPeddler wrote:how many people are actually broadcasting in hd radio around here? but to the topic.......... I know theres a device you can buy for an hdtv antenna that puts a little current to the line in order to boost reception, does this mean i'm gonnna have to put a new antenna in my car or will there be a little add on to give my reception more of a "kick"?...
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Jay,Jay Nunley wrote:Why do they always pick people who hate radio to write articles about it?
Goddamn communists.
You've got to separate hatred of a flawed technology from a hatred of radio.
Yeah, this guy has a lean against the choice on the SF Bay stations but the overall argument about the flaws in how this IBOC thing came to light are sound. It brings to light how IBOC got "on-the-air".
IBOC will get crushed by direct digital streaming technologies to portable devices. Folks just need to wake up. The implementation of the streaming technologies will get to the marketplace and be accepted by consumers much quicker than IBOC can get established. There is no real compelling benefit of IBOC broadcasting.
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Cameron Smith - CSRE®
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Senior Digital Product Manager - Hibbett Sports|City Gear
Cameron Smith - CSRE®
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Re: HD Radio Article that gets right to the point...
This is what I was talking about.Cameron wrote:
unoriginal dumps of existing content from their analogue brethren, or consist of some playlist cut together by a decent DJ like Aaron Axelsen. Big whoop.
Welcome to New Radio, boys and girls. It stinks just like Old Radio, except the smell comes in clearer and there's more of it. Stay tuned.
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i was just gonna say that....engineer wrote:The tests by NPR on the Boston acoustics receiver indicated that an external dipole antenna was needed to receive local HD signals. I believe they have been shipping for a while with the new antenna. Car units should perform much better. There are grumblings now about adjusting the power ration of the digital to analog. Problem is that there are many places where the physical combiners and rejects are fixed devices, or hybrid low-level amplification devices simply run out of headroom. Most existing contours are now over 40 years old. Spectrum environmental noise and OOB harmonics have degraded these contours over the years. The same OOBH phenomena has pushed most public safety agencies from the VHF to UHF bands.
ok, maybe not.
I'm not an idiot, but I play one on the radio.
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See Cameron's sig for confirmation.GlenBrannon1 wrote:Isn't the digital signal only 1% of the total output. When I had an HD radio, I could only get the secondary and third HD channels inside the I-465 area. This includes WFBQ which can be heard throughout most of Indiana. The HD was only good within 25 miles of Indy.
Aircheck? You'd make a great board op.
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First of all, I get the joke, but just in case your question was serious...The real question here is ; will it sound as good as AM stereo did? Or did AM stereo ever really exist?
WBUC did try AM Stereo in the late 80's. I'm sure most people understand it better than I do, but my understanding is that the industry was never able to decide on a standard (there were at least 2 available whne we tried it) and the 2 were not compatible with each other.
In His service,
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...but here's some wild success in a market with enough disposable income to get the "gadget"...
From All Access.com
I know of 4 of those 5 choices that have real sales-figures attached and a bevy of devices in the marketplace.
What would a consumer do?
If that 1 million receiver number is not exaggerated, that's 830 receivers per station that's on the air - 5671 per market that's on the air.
A little high? Does that include the overwhelming market penetration of the HD shower and clock radios?
(I believe the HD shower radio comes with a dipole antenna you run through the window and attach to two points on the gutter.)
From All Access.com
I don't understand why this thing isn't taking off. By their own numbers, HDRA is saying, at best, in a 25 station market, the average number of HD stations you'll get is about 2. If they're multicasing HD2 and HD3, that may be as many as 4 new format choices in the 90dbu contour of these stations. Hmm invest in satellite radio, IP streaming radios, mp3 players, cellular streaming, or HD radio?THE WASHINGTON TIMES reports in today's edition there are 30 HD Radio channels in the WASHINGTON area, but it's not clear if DC radio listeners know they exist. In fact, according to at least one local station's technology director, many listeners don't even know what HD Radio is.
"Not enough people have heard the good word" when it comes to the growing digital service, said Public Radio WAMU Dir./IT & New Media RICHARD CASSIDY. "So we're just hoping through good programming and getting the word out, people may be tempted to give it a try."
Nationwide figures on HD Radio listeners are hard to come by because there is no subscription and ARBITRON does not yet measure HD listening. However, an HD RADIO ALLIANCE spokesman said the group expects to sell more than 1 million receivers this year. As of last month, 1,204 out of about 15,000 AM and FM stations were broadcasting in HD, covering 176 markets, according to the ALLIANCE.
I know of 4 of those 5 choices that have real sales-figures attached and a bevy of devices in the marketplace.
What would a consumer do?
If that 1 million receiver number is not exaggerated, that's 830 receivers per station that's on the air - 5671 per market that's on the air.
A little high? Does that include the overwhelming market penetration of the HD shower and clock radios?
(I believe the HD shower radio comes with a dipole antenna you run through the window and attach to two points on the gutter.)
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Cameron Smith - CSRE®
Senior Member - SBE 68 Birmingham
Senior Digital Product Manager - Hibbett Sports|City Gear
Cameron Smith - CSRE®
Senior Member - SBE 68 Birmingham
Senior Digital Product Manager - Hibbett Sports|City Gear
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