[BC] the IBOCalypse (was: IBUZ opinion from an outsider)

[Kevin Tekel]

Phil Alexander wrote:
> Electronics changed forever with solid state. Radio will be the last of
> the major conversions to digital. One by one nearly every sort of
> consumer electronic equipment has "gone digital" and TV is now in the
> throes of its final transition. Radio is about all that is left, and it
> comes next.

In most consumers' minds, radio is already "digital", and has been for a
long time now.  As they see it, and have been convinced to believe,
digital tuning = digital radio.  It's the same thing with all the
"digital" headphones and "digital" audio patch cables that you see on
store shelves.
So if you are going to try to give Joe Public a lesson on the differences
between "true digital" and something that is "digital" in marketing terms
only, then you'll have a long battle ahead of you!

Besides, analog radio and analog television are new kids on the block
compared to two other analog utilities which almost everyone in the
civilized world has: AC power and landline telephone.

However, in my area there is one example of what may become the next
digital revolution: a gas station where all the prices are shown by LED
displays, rather than by pin-up numbers.  That makes jacking up the prices
even quicker and easier than ever before: instead of having a worker go
out and change all the signs, they can just click a button on their
computer and all the pumps and signs will be changed instantly.

> The time when all analog signals will cease is several years away. It
> could be as little as 7 years, as much as 15, but at some point it
> appears we will be told to cease analog emissions, and probably increase
> digital power ten fold, if not more.

So you're predicting that the IBOCalypse will occur long after the
technology itself is as obsolete as a 386SX running Windows 3.1 is today?
Will we even have _any_ kind of terrestrial AM/FM broadcast radio 15 years
from now, let alone IBOC?




	
		
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