[BC] HD Radio -- Folks we have to get it right!

[Bill Sepmeier]

Bob Orban said:

>The alternative is either the status quo or freeing up new spectrum for 
>digital broadcasting.

I agree.  And what's wrong with either of these alternatives?  The entire 
VHF television band is soon to be auctioned off, once HDTV finally takes 
off.   (And it will, since, unlike IBUZ, the consumer actually receives an 
vast quality improvement in service that is immediately discernable over the 
status quo.)  Why not marshal the power of the industry to have some of that 
prime real estate assigned to radio, rather than the competition, our 
friends in the wireless industry, who'll immediately use it to stream 
on-demand programming to cell phone/iPod hybrid tgypes of products, further 
cutting our own wrists?  Until then, leave well enough alone and spend these 
monopoly licensing funds instead on TALENT!  Listeners tune out in 
significant number because of poor programming - endless commercials, poor 
air talent, bad or boring content ... rarely because of  multipath or signal 
quality. Why not rebuild our SERVICE, not our transmitter plants?  A healthy 
radio service will buy your gear, Bob ... and a lot more of it than just the 
boxes needed to comply with new "standards" that don't improve anything.

I've lived in the mountains of Colorado for the past 20 years, an area that 
makes your little San Francisco hills look like the plains of west Texas as 
far as multipath is concerned ... but it isn't the signal quality that I've 
ever heard cited as a reason that anyone has bought XM or Sirius up here, 
even though there are no terrestrial repeaters between Denver and Grand 
Junction and the signals drop out regularly along the I-70 corridor - no, 
it's the plain lousy programming available over the air up here that drives 
folks away from over-the-air radio and to its competition.  Lousy 
programming is not a technical issue and can't be solved by political 
standards or by buying widgets du jour - it takes creativity and talent, 
assets much harder to obtain than a new exciter and processor.  And, given 
that BER dropout is FAR greater a problem for the human mind to cope with 
than a little analog noise, IBUZ's solution or this little bit o' horror, 
"blending" back to the "inferior" analog signal is just stupid, since the 
"poor quality" analog signal is supposedly the reason we're being asked to 
sign up with IBUZ in the first place!  What's the marketing angle again?  
"IBUZ - We Suck Less?  Until we suck completely and switch you back to the 
same signal your old $5 transistor set used to deliver?"  It makes no sense 
and the public ain't buying it.  Rightly.  Again, the rationale to switch is 
more poor content, and it's not selling!

I'm at the point where about all I can do or say is, go ahead, blow your 
wads on this science project out looking for a fair ... the industry will 
only be poorer for it, since IBUZ will never bring a single listener back 
from all of the alternatives we've sent them to with our lack of quality 
content.

Content, not some Internet-stream-quality Rube Goldberg Designed Signal will 
preserve and grow audience base... and while there's no money in quality 
content for manufacturers of widgets, the industry, now mostly part-owners 
of the widget monopoly bringing the public this non-event called IBUZ won't 
learn until they've lost the status quo - again - as well as millions of 
dollars in hard cash spent on adopting this 
orphan-out-looking-for-a-home-at-my-expense.  Hey - it's just shareholder 
money ... why not just blow it, write it off and fail yet again? It's only 
radio ...

You've been a lucky, lucky man, Bob ... far more than me ... why blow your 
rep as one of radio's great minds by tossing science into the toilet and 
endorsing this cliff jumping exercise called IBUZ?  You don't need the money 
any more than I do ... why not work to avoid this pending error rather than 
rolling over for so-called "progress" that will not help anyone outside of 
Reno?

B

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