[BC] Wow, I wonder if y ou feel the same way about AM?

[Dana Puopolo]

Jeff, you are correct that analog FM took a long time to catch fire-and that
IBOC has only had about ten years-BUT I reply that the paradigm has changed.
Things digital today move MUCH faster then their analog cousins did then.

Think about the computer you were using in 2000-ten years ago. I had a 330 mHz
AMD K6 with 32 megs of RAM and a 3.2 gB hard disk running Windowes 98-a
completely state-of-the art machine for its time. My Internet connection was
28.8 dial up. IBOC had a five year window before it became obsolete. Five
years is about the average time products have today to catch fire. Five years
is a LIFETIME for digital today. Would you be caught dead using a five year
old cell telephone?

Today there are new codecs (AAC+), new modulation schemes and people equate
digital with BETTER. IBOC isn't better-at 96 kbps it's about the same and with
an HD2 or 3 added, it can actually be inferior to analog FM.

The biggest thing holding technology back is the FCC! It takes them ten years
to change a rule. They cling to antiquated rules in a fast changing world. If
the FCC regulated transportation, we'd all still be using horses and
carriages, using blimps to fly and their biggest lobbyiest would be the buggy
whip manufacturers. They have to go!

-D 

From: Jeff Glass <Xmitters at aol.com>

In a message dated 2/3/10 2:38:55 AM Central Standard Time, 
broadcast-request at radiolists.net writes:

> I have to agree that the consumer didn't ask for IBOC, though I don't  
>  think we needed to start somewhere.  I'm not sure we needed to start  
>  at all.
>  
>