[BC] HD Kills

[Rich Wood]

------ At 12:52 PM 4/29/2007, RichardBJohnson at comcast.net wrote: -------

>As usual, Rich is being too logical. Your (our) media will continue 
>to teach that Kahn is an emotionally disturbed idiot. This, and 
>similar input (read money) will consolidate all communications into 
>something that big business and its government agents can control. 
>Small privately owned radio stations are uncontrollable and, 
>therefore, dangerous to the "new world order." I couldn't make 
>something like this up if I tried!

If IBUZ is part of the New World Order they need to get their act 
together. I did another "Where in the World is Carmen IBUZ" retailer 
tours yesterday and discovered not a single IBUZ receiver in 
operating condition. The HD Dominion is pumping out puffy press 
releases about deals with Best Buy. Allegedly ALL their stores are 
carrying assorted receivers. In my market the only one on display (no 
antenna connected) is the JVC integrated unit with the false claim of 
CD quality, clearly trying to imply there were almost as many 
channels as satellite that were free.

Tweeter used to carry the BA, Polk and Yamaha. The Yamaha is gone and 
the rest are inoperative. They're closing many of their stores 
including this one.

The Best Buy salesman had no idea what digital radio is. He told me I 
needed a special digital antenna for the JVC - "just like satellite." 
He said only a couple of people have asked about it. I was one. The 
massive promotion is a single pamphlet. There are no tabletop 
receivers on display or in stock. The JVC was about 10 ft. from large 
XM and SIRIUS kiosks and even closer to the satellite radio accessory 
displays. I won't even mention the size of the DirecTV display. The 
salesman told me anyone who asks for HD anything gets sent to the TV 
department.

Circuit City carries a couple of "HD Ready" headends but the tuner is 
still a special order item. I couldn't walk out of the store with an 
operating radio. There were no tabletop receivers on display or in 
stock. At least a dozen SIRIUS and XM receivers were in both the car 
audio section and their own kiosks and accessory displays. Every 
outboard satellite tuner was on display and in stock. Again I won't 
bore you with the size of the DirecTV displays.

A saleswoman at Radio Shack told me, with a straight face, she had 
sold "dozens of them" and everyone loved them even though they 
couldn't demonstrate the radios in the store. I asked why there 
wasn't an outdoor antenna and she called the Manager who said they'd 
only sold a couple and it wasn't worth the effort to put an antenna 
up because they have both satellite radio and the Dish Network. He 
did mention the bad quality of Seedy Quality IBUZ and the bad audio 
quality of the receivers he had. Only 3 people have ever asked about 
it. I was one. The saleswoman was justifiably embarrassed at her bold 
faced lie. Again, only a pamphlet was available. Two other Radio 
Shack stores said all receivers had been returned as defective, both 
the Accurian and the BA. All Radio Shack stores here have the BA and 
Accurian on display but not plugged in.

"We can't receive the stations in digital" is the universal answer. 
Several of the stores are line of sight to most of the transmitter 
sites with strong analog signals.  Combine all this with the 
stations' lack of interest in non-revenue producing digital and the 
likelihood the digital won't be operating and we have a revolting revolution.

Rich