[BC] IBOC AM Quality

[Kevin Tekel]

Jim Kuzman wrote:
> All of that being said, however, if you feed quality audio in, and
> process carefully - by which I mean keeping the sound open, not dense,
> and being careful about how you handle the high bands - AM IBOC can
> sound quite nice.

Listeners have become accustomed to AM's warm, mellow sound, especially
for talk radio.  They attach this type of sound to the personalities they
hear, and any drastic change in the sound will seem shockingly different,
and not necessarily for the better!

I've witnessed this effect myself, when listening to my favorite AM talk
radio host via the station's web stream. With the bright but heavily-
artifacted audio and very light processing, it makes him sound like a
totally different person, and makes him seem less compelling and engaging
because it's missing AM's "front row seat" sound.  Even programming
elements like the liners, traffic/weather sounders, and TOH ID / news
intro seem less authoritative and "important" if they come in softly due
to the change in (or lack of) processing on the digital audio.

It's just like HDTV.  Many TV hosts are scared of it beacause the high res
will show every wrinkle and zit on their face.  Some may already be using
the extra-soft "Barbara Walters" camera filter to compensate for it.




 
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