[BC] IBOC AM Quality

[Rich Wood]

------ At 09:09 PM 3/22/2007, James Kuzman wrote: -------

>Is it FM quality?  No, even though the promos we hear daily tell us 
>it is; does it bring new life to music on the AM 
>band?  Absolutely.  I realize that most AM stations have been 
>resigned to carry sports, news, and talk where the benefits of 
>improved audio would be negligible, but for music - the audio 
>quality is significantly better.

I have to agree, though my experience been with talk. specifically 
with WBZ, Boston. The noise was gone. I suspect the higher quality 
came as much from gentle processing as from anything IBUZ did for it. 
It also depends on the processing of the source material. The live 
announcers sounded clean. The agency spots with heavy processing were 
loaded with artifacts. They were splattering all over the place. The 
only AM anywhere nearby doing music is WTMI, Hartford. When I made my 
series of trips with the Kenwood I was unable to get them in IBUZ in 
Hartford. I was able to receive WOR's data but not the IBUZ audio 
just South of Hartford where the analog was very listenable.

By my reading of the puffy press release, the head of iBuckuity has 
become multiorgasmic. He insists on repeating the myth of CD quality 
for FM and FM quality for AM. I understand he has to puff up the 
claims. I'll give it seedy quality for FM and entertainment quality for AM.

>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.

You have to have a continual supply of very good weed to believe the 
same grunge processing won't be used on the digital signals. It has 
to be. Otherwise the constant mode switching in cars will drive the 
listener nuts. Bad processing habits are very hard to break. The 
minute the General Manager hears his signal softer than the 
competition the order will go out to make it loud.

I realize my insistence that IBUZ be allowed to run 24/7 isn't 
popular. However, we can't fix the problems until we know what they 
are and stations get the opportunity to spend fortunes improving 
their transmitter sites. I've resigned myself to the fact I'll never 
be able to receive the normally strong KDKA nighttime signal ever 
again. WBZ's IBUZ wipes them out during critical hours, already.

Even more important is our contribution to the legal profession as 
lawsuits keep their families fed and their Beamer payments made on 
time. Just imagine the legal profession not having to rely on 
ambulances, anymore. There'll be enough work in interference cases to 
warrant my going to law school to afford a couple of McMansions and a 
yacht to entertain clients. The only downside is that I'll have to 
move someplace where the's lots of water. Back to San Diego, I guess.

Rich