[BC] They can't give 'em away!

[Craig Healy]

> At both places, the big challenge has been a lack of receiver
> availability, so the $38 car stereos and the $49 Sony XDR-F1HDs have
> been welcomed with open arms...

A reason the Sony XDR-F1HD has been a hot seller is the fact it's probably
one of the best analog FM tuners to ever come along.  To many purchasers,
the fact that it can receive HD Radio is completely irrelevant.  I've had a
number of good receivers, such as the Blaupunkt Bremen MP74 Twinceiver in my
truck and the Yamaha T-85.  This Sony is better than either.  I wish they'd
taken a fraction of the time and money put into the development of IBOC and
put it into making top quality analog radios.  I think we'd all have been
much better off.

That's assuming the rest of the HD Radio development time/money was put into
making great programming instead of the rather sad cookie-cutter formats out
there today.

Question:  Have any of you broadcast techs received calls complaining about
the audio quality of your stations?  In the nearly 40 years I've been doing
this, I've had less than a handful.  In all cases it was a repairable
problem like a hum or flipped channel phase.  *Never* has someone said the
sound wasn't good enough.  HD Radio is a solution to a problem that never
existed.  That's why no average Joe consumer gives a rat's hindquarters
about it.  The "big challenge" is programming, not audio quality!

Then there's the physics issue.  No signal in the AM band is going to
acceptably penetrate a steel and concrete building.  Doesn't matter if it's
analog or digital.  Further, the business model of requiring expensive
licenses for the HD equipment is absurd.  It's like the federal government
requiring you to buy a new Buick to drive on the Interstate.  Ridiculous!
Should have been open source from the git-go.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI