[BC] Re: HD receiver

[Xmitters@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/13/07 12:00:58 PM Central Standard Time, 
broadcast-request at radiolists.net writes:

<< >  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...
  >>

Willie;

You are thinking in terms of today's technology. Given today's technology, 
the hackers would do as you suggest. I cannot predict the future any better than 
anyone else can. If such an idea were deemed practical/profitable, I'm sure 
that securing the data could be done. 

Regarding the streaming, my idea would not be worth much in the case of an 
all-news station or any other format that was not music heavy. Such a technology 
may very well cause some new formats to sprout. 

The idea that I could "download" any song from my receiver and add it to my 
music collection, is very appealing :-) Full of technical hurdles, you bet! 
Easy? No way! Marketable? I don't know ;-) Maybe, maybe not. 

If this day ever comes, I'm sure the "receiver" that I describe will be very 
different from what I describe. I only hope that my suggestion will at least 
stimulate some "outside the box" type of thinking. I hope that in the many 
years to come, our idea of improving radio "broadcasting" will go beyond that of 
simply digitizing it. To be creative, sometimes you have to start out by 
sounding like a crazy person. 

Here comes the guys with the white coats! I gotta go!

Jeff Glass
Northern Illinois University.