[BC] Monitoring IBUZ Secondaries - NOT

[Rich Wood]

------ At 01:43 PM 2/8/2007, Kent Winrich wrote: -------

>OK so that happened to ONE station.  So?  Life goes on Rich.

Hmm. Then why did a member of the HD Dominion warn that all would be 
lost if stations didn't pay attention to their secondaries. It 
appears it's happening regularly. It isn't an IBUZ issue. It's an 
issue of how important stations consider their signals. It happens 
even to automated analog signals where no one pays attention. I 
believe I read it in an interview in one of the trades. Since 
virtually no one has receivers, they don't pay attention. That was 
the guy's concern because it affects the ability to sell receivers 
based on "extra" channels. I believe it was an interview with the 
Dominion's head guy where he asked stations to pay as close attention 
to secondaries as the analog. I just got rid of several years worth 
of magazines, so I'll have to ask Barry, Paul McLane, Chris Scherer, 
Jim Carnegie and Tom Taylor who remembers publishing the interview. 
I'll get back to you on it and we can include it in our WGN chat.

>I listen to HD2 stations quite often and never once here a repeated song.

That's a programming issue. This station sounded like a skipping 
record, not a repeated song. About 4 seconds of music repeated over 
and over for a very long time. It was happening when I tuned in and 
continued for about 45 minutes. I don't know how long it had been 
going on before I heard it or how long it would have continued if I 
hadn't called to tell them.

>Basing the HD rollout on one station... well I would question your
>statistics.

Where am I basing the rollout on one station? I've been surveying 
retailers of all kinds for quite a while. While my statistics come 
from visits to retailers they agree with the most recent Bridge 
results which are much more statistically accurate. Their bottom line 
is consumers have "more awareness, less interest" than previous 
surveys. I realize, as IBUZ's #1 cheerleader that you would never 
accept any such report.

I'm having trouble receiving any AM and few FM IBUZ, signals with an 
Accurian (so far the most sensitive tabletop receiver I've used), yet 
you seem to be able to receive stations from the other end of the 
country. I actually have an external antenna in the attic in a 
windowed turret. It's the highest point on the house - an old 
Victorian. You also seem to have forgotten that Kenwood loaned me a 
receiver and I drove about a 100 mile radius that included Boston, 
Albany, Hartford, Worcester and a number of smaller markets. I'm very 
well aware of how IBUZ works in New England's mountainous terrain.

>By the way, you put up words about what would happen to WGN versus WGCI, if
>WGN went HD.  Shall we chat about that situation?  Looks like it blew up in
>your face Rich.

How's that? The Fall 06 Arbitron (the most recent full book) has WGCI 
with a 5.8 12+ compared with WGN's 5.4 12+. I called WGN and was told 
IBUZ is on the air. What would we chat about? I have to call the 
Director of Engineering to get a date it went back on the air so I 
can begin the 5 book count. 5 books takes 15 months. Nothing blows up 
until that period passes. I realize your ratings analysis competence 
is likely low, so I'll tell you not to include trends, only full 
books when all the weighted data are available. After I speak with 
Jim Carollo I'll have confirmation that it's actually on. The guy I 
talked to wasn't absolutely sure. Not sure enough to be quoted in 
print. He asked me to call Jim.

As a former Tribune employee in New York (you might recall they own 
WGN) I'm actually rooting for WGN. I was with the company at WPIX-FM, 
New York, when WGCI first beat WGN. It was a sad day for us. Almost 
as much of a shock as if someone said KOIT-FM beat KGO, San 
Francisco. It wasn't possible, we thought. Wayne Vriesman, then head 
of Tribune Radio, was at WPIX the day the advances came out. Not a 
day one forgets.

Hold your hair in place. We still have at least another year before 
anything blows up.

Rich