[BC] feedback on IBOC

[Mike McCarthy]

Nothing new to the readers on this list.  IBOC AM has a very long road to 
hoe before it gains traction despite claims that all the big stations are 
running it.  The big stations they refer only amount to 5-10% of the 
stations out there.  The rest either can't afford the necessary upgrades, 
can't make the upgrades at all at any price, or simply choose to not spend 
the money on a system which clearly has problems, is of questionable 
business sense, and doesn't appear to be of interest to the general 
public.   FM...that has a better chance at being successful as it brings 
the ability to have multiple audio streams.  But that's about it.  It does 
nothing to clean up the signal at greater distances...which many stations 
depend on as their markets have out grown their signals.

MM

At 06:30 AM 3/19/2007 -0500, charles adkins wrote
>Well, I talked to a trusted radio friend of mine who heard AM IBOC for the 
>first time and he was not impressed. He thought AM sounded like a bad 
>Windows Media feed with a lot of artifax. He wasn't that impressed with 
>some of the alternative formats being offered.
>
>Does anybody on this list really think IBOC is going to save radio as we 
>know it? What is going to happen with the smaller stations and will they 
>be able to upgrade?  In a time of disaster, the big signals will be gone 
>from AM.
>
>My friend is an audio file and is first to buy all new electronic stuff 
>and on IBOC, he passed.
>
>My wife who is very tech challenged has Sirius in the car and hasn't gone 
>back to radio at all. Whey? Because she feels she's hearing the same thing 
>all the time on the radio.
>
>Does this concern broadcasters at all? I think not. We will just say, 
>"well Sirius repeats too" and stick our head in the sand while our 
>industry continues it's "bury our head in the sand and maybe it will go 
>away" attitude.
>
>I haven't even talked about how these new IBOC radios probably aren't 
>useable for millions of blind folks who are the biggest radio users but, 
>if we mattered, would radios like that be built in the first place.
>
>Just some happy Monday morning thoughts. thanks for reading. I would 
>imagine my thoughts will be written of because who am I? I'm just a 
>listener and not a brilliant tech engineer.
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