[BC] Creating the right sound on HD

[Kent Winrich]

Jeeez James.  Look out!  You are going to be tagged a CHEERLEADER 
now.  You have been assimilated!

I have set up a few HD stations myself, and found that the processing 
is much pickier than on analog.  Some of the Chicago CC stations have 
done a great job.  Have not been over to Cleveland yet, but will be 
heading to Detroit between Christmas and New Years.

But the point is, processing is everything on HD.  There are some 
pretty bad sounding HD stations out there with a lot of "digitalness".

If you ever find yourself in the car, heading towards Ft Wayne, IN 
try out WBOIs HD3 feed.


On 12/20/06, James Somich <<mailto:jsomich at gmail.com>jsomich at gmail.com> wrote:
WNCX (CBS-Oldies) in Cleveland is set-up so that there is absolutely NO
change when the Sangean blends to HD. WGAR(CC-Country) sounds perceptively
better in HD. This is not a big difference, but I think the improvement is
appealing. WGAR also has the best sounding HD-2 (Classic Country) in the
Cleveland market. It has no competition on the HD-2 dial. The others sound
underprocessed or not processed at all! Thin, dead, lifeless, boring.
WMJI (CC-Oldies) sounds very much the same in HD or Analog. Ditto WMVX (CC).

My Conclusions: HD radio has more sonic potential than the Cleveland
broadcasters are using (except for WGAR). I don't go in for these little
table radios with the micro speakers. The Sangean lets me hear "everything."
And I don't hear a lot of digital artifacts on anybody's station.

. . .

HD is relatively cheap to implement and the public will gradually be buying
radios that have HD capability. I don't think it is going away, but it's not
going to be a revolution either.

It has some warts, but it really isn't a bad system. And I was a skeptic.