[BC] HD Radio multicasting bandwidth

[Rich Wood]

------ At 10:15 AM 10/18/2005, Barry Mishkind wrote: -------

>         over those who can hear the artifacts are
>         really moot, aren't they?

They are now. The fix is in. I yearn for the day when all radio 
sounds like SIRIUS and XM's traffic channels. Maybe they're so 
embarrassed by the quality of the "talent" that they don't want 
anyone to hear their full vocal spectrum.

>         192, 128, 96, .... the listeners don't mind 48,
>         for the most part.

I haven't heard IBUZ FM, yet, so when someone says 48 I think of MP3. 
Maybe I'll change my mind when I hear it. MP3 at 128 annoys the 
daylights out of me, so I wonder what miracles have been performed to 
make 48 sound better. I encode everything at 192. It's the lowest 
rate I can tolerate for any length of time with headsets. In a car 
with lots of ambient noise I guess I could stand something lower if I 
never encountered a red light.

I'm surprised NPR and Classical music stations have bought into this. 
At WGBH, Boston, we prided ourselves on the great quality of our 
audio. WFMT, Chicago, did, as well. WNCN, New York, under Dick 
Sequerra was a sound to behold as was WQXR, under Herb Squire. In 
some cases processing was only done during drive time. The rest of 
the day was pristine. Even at WPIX-FM, New York, the audio was as 
good as the source. Of course, the source was often smashed and 
mashed before it got to us. In the time I was there we did 87 
versions of AC, thanks to the (lack of) programming expertise of the 
GM. In his Book, Rick Sklar called it "format du jour."

Those were the days when audio magazines gave awards for FM audio 
quality. Now they rarely even discuss it.

Rich