[BC] AM Stereo

[Rich Wood]

At 03:52 PM 11/23/2010, Dana  Puopolo wrote:

>His fight added 5+ years to the adoption of AM stereo, which gave FM time to
>kill popular music on AM. The original system (Magnavox) picked by the FCC
>worked GREAT-and if it had been quickly adopted music AM would have had
>another ten years. Don't believe me? Look at Australia, where AM music
>stations QUICKLY embraced AM stereo-and music was popular on AM until the mid
>1990s.

I don't buy that. When the Magnavox system was chosen all Hades broke 
loose and manufacturers and engineers objected to it. That's what 
caused the "marketplace" decision. There are many people to blame. 
The multi-system chip would have solved the problem. Egos all around 
torpedoed that one. Motorola could just as easily have manufactured 
that chip. They wouldn't, so they lost almost the entire market. I 
can't believe they made money on chips or equipment. Like IBUZ almost 
no one knew they had AM stereo. They didn't ask for it. It was just 
there. My Jeep's Jensen radio was stereo. I had no idea until I came 
across a stereo station I usually didn't listen to and noticed a tiny 
unmarked red light. Previously, I just thought the station sounded 
good until I noticed the stereo image.

I was very involved with AM Stereo. A friend and I started the AM 
Stereo Association. There wasn't much interest in AM Stereo, just 
like IBUZ today. We returned the members' money. I believe I still 
have the first newsletter somewhere.

The ABC sent someone to try and convince me to move to Australia and 
run the radio division. At the time they felt AM Stereo would slow 
the growth of FM. The government owned stations were AM and FMs were 
just being licensed. AM stereo did nothing to slow the growth of FM 
in Australia. The same was true in New Zealand. I was offered a 
similar job there. At the time I was the only programmer with 
experience with AM stereo.

As I look back on it, I see the same major problem that IBUZ has. 
There was an almost total lack of interest on the part of consumers. 
I don't care how many teats they add to IBUZ, none of them will get 
consumers to replace the estimated one billion receivers in use.

I can remember one fan of XTRA in stereo. The GM of KHJ called me to 
tell me he listened in his office all the time. He used two radios 
slightly off-tuned to get stereo. That was another advantage of the 
Kahn system even though most listeners wouldn't make the extra 
(pardon the pun) effort to use two receivers. Listeners wanted the 
content. FM didn't grow because of stereo. It took off when Rock 
formats migrated there. This horrified FM's Classical and Easy 
Listening listeners. Again, content. The improved audio quality 
without buzzes and whistles didn't hurt. Remember that the first FM 
Rock formats were creative, innovative and entertaining. AM was still 
doing Top 40 in the same cookie cutter way all radio does formats 
today. The only advantage AM had were the great personalities.

We're finding that the little extra effort to connect a smartphone to 
a car radio is too much heavy lifting for many when a listener is 
commuting. That extra minute is a deal killer for many. Start the 
engine and the radio goes on tuned to a favorite station. No heavy 
lifting. Simple. I always have my iPhone 4 with me. Even I'm too lazy 
to connect it for short trips. I choose silence. For long trips I do 
it. Pandora works well even on AT&T's EDGE network and is far more 
reliable than IBUZ here.

Blaming Leonard Kahn for AM stereo's abortive history is 
intellectually dishonest. Before any other system was available, 
Leonard had convinced almost all the New York 50kW AMs to run it. The 
same is true across the country. They were forced to drop it when 
Motorola won. I believe they won not because of the quality of the 
system but its political clout and wads of cash.  As cranky as 
Leonard can be, the engineers at the time trusted his expertise. Give 
him credit for his passion for AM radio and his system. For Motorola 
it was just a hoped-for cash cow. For Leonard it was passion.

I seem to recall the matrix the FCC released from a survey of 
engineers. Kahn was considered the best, then Harris, then Magnavox, 
then Motorola. I think even Belar had a system. Beyond the #1 
position I could be wrong about the positions of the others.

That's all spilled milk now, as is IBUZ.

I think it's time to stop holding a grudge against a brilliant man 
and get on with life.

Rich