[BC] Citadel to shut down night IBOC ??

[Gary Glaenzer]

from radiomagonline.com

http://radiomagonline.com/digital_radio_update/digital-radio-update-102407/#citadel

Citadel AM Night IBOC Shutdown Has Message Boards Buzzing
A corporate decision by group owner Citadel Broadcasting to discontinue
nighttime operation by its IBOC-equipped AM stations and reportedly
disseminated by DOE Martin Stabbert on Oct. 1 has set the North American
radio engineering community on its ear, as well as triggering a flurry of
postings on online forums.

The uproar on radio message boards began when an anonymous Citadel source
reportedly leaked an e-mail sent out to Citadel Chief Engineers by Stabbert.
The communication was said to have requested AM stations within the group to
immediately discontinue HD Radio operations during nighttime hours, pending
resolution of unspecified issues. About 20 of Citadel's 66 AM stations had
commenced night IBOC digital transmissions after the FCC green flagged such
operation back on Sept. 14.

Stabbert was quoted in an Oct. 2 edition of dxing.info an online radio
hobbyist publication, as saying that Citadel "received a number of comments,
calls and emails involving (interference with) several different
stations...we are just taking a step back. We need to evaluate our results
and act on that." More recent reports indicate that Citadel is consulting
with Ibiquity and engineers from other groups and is moving to address the
issues in a deliberate fashion. Even so, the company has yet to provide any
definitive indication of when its AM stations might resume IBOC digital
night operation.

A casual survey of various radio-oriented message boards nationwide reveals
that Citadel's actions are clearly touching more than a few nerves in that
community. Longtime critics of AM HD Radio technology are taking a
told-you-so approach, triggering a number of vigorous responses both pro and
con.

Citadel is currently the nation's third largest radio group.

Look for an interview with Citadel's Martin Stabbert in the Radio magazine
Insight to IBOC supplement coming in the November 2007 issue.