[BC] Listener perceptions/preferences & FM/AM

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 02/13/2007 10:28:20 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
Xmitters at aol.com writes:

> I grew up in the 60's and my experience is similar to yours. My mother 
>  actually introduced me to FM! She told me "FM sounds like you're sitting 
in 
> the 
>  studio with the announcer" I tried it, started listening in monaural to a 
> local FM 
>  that played top 40 at night (1969). The station was located in a college 
> town 
>  and the announcer would read greetings from one college kid to others. I 
>  loved it!

I just loved it, because the MUSIC I loved so much sounded SO much better. :) 
For a time, there was an automated station I enjoyed listening to (late 70's) 
because after a couple days, the sequence of music repeated. This way, I knew 
that after song "A", a certain favorite was coing... so I'd set up the 
cassette deck, and sure enough, there would be the song. :) Usually, they let the 
sequence repeat 3 times, then they shuffled it, adding new and deleting old 
cuts. It was always the same announcer, 24/7. Primitive VT in the days of reels 
and carts. After a while, though, I got tired of that... and tuned to a station 
I knew had LIVE announcers... just for the "human contact" aspect of it. They 
played less of my favorites, but I liked knowing it was a real person at the 
controls. Eventually, I'd dial back to the RoboStation for more of the music I 
liked. I alternated for some time, between the two formats. Finally I became a 
Christian, and that music no longer appealed to me so I stopped listening to 
it, entirely. That was late '85 / early '86.

>  It would appear that you and I are saying the same thing but in a 
different 
>  way. It's not delivery, it is content. Notice that there are few, if any, 
>  elevator music stations on the air.

Exactly. Did those listeners all drop dead at once? I seriously doubt it! It 
would have been major news... no, they did not... but their *stations* pretty 
much did! I can't imagine that each major market couldn't have one such 
station that would prosper. After all, they would be *alone* in the market providing 
that format... and I am quite sure that there are plenty of businesses who 
would like to play a radio (set to that station) in the lobby. Now, their only 
choices are "Smooth Jazz" (in markets that have it) or Classical.

> However, once FM took off and stations 
> started 
>  to full wave rectify their audio with their stupid processing strategies, 
I 
>  moved to CDs.

I wouldn't quite call it full-wave rectify! ;) That would essentially double 
the frequency.

>  It would be great if in the future, the broadcasters, music producers and 
>  the radio audience were treated as a unit. Every receiver would have every 
> song ever recorded, stored in memory. The listener would pay a subscription 
fee 
> to some entity, that would entitle him to listen to music.
I know, it's "only a dream", but you DO realize just how implausible this is, 
right? ;)

Let's just say that it will have been completely hacked and the "hack" 
distributed to the WWW within *minutes* (Ok, maybe hours, but at the most days) of 
this unit's release? Suddenly, everywhere, these units would be "wide open" and 
people could play anything at any time, without restriction.

There are a LOT of very clever and determined hackers out there. Such a 
project would be "The Brass Ring" to them! The temptation would just be utterly 
intoxicating! DMCA or no, they'd be salivating profusely to take a chance at 
cracking that thing! They'd line up in the rain, some might even threaten others 
with a weapon, just to get in line to buy one ASAP, and then run home and start 
ripping it apart... the race would be on! Who could hack it first? On your 
marks... ;)

> The radio station 
>  would simply transmit a play list and commercials to the receiver rather 
> than audio in a bit stream. Depending on the political structure, the 
listener 
> would not have to pay the fee if he/she listened to the commercials. Now if 
a 
> listener 

Clever idea, but totally impractical. The station may as well stream 
everything. You couldn't have anything live & local with that scenario, either.

Willie...