[BC] Uselessness of HD

[Mike McCarthy]

The difference Bob is two fold.

1) Society has a much faster adoption rate than 40 years ago.  What took 
20 or more years to reach critical mass mid-last century is less than 
half that today.  It's simply because the communications channels and 
supply lines have all become so hyper fast.  If HD were a hot commodity, 
they'd have >80 million receivers out there today. Not merely 8 million.

2) The issues with HD's tertiary channels revenue sharing rubs many 
licensees the wrong way.  FM and FM Stereo never had that hurdle to over 
come.  3% is enough to make or break an operation's profitability or 
survival these days.  The fact most senior managers have directed their 
bean counters to ignore the bleeding of HD>1 for so long is telling.  
They either have a crystal ball telling them to stay the course or 
they're afraid they'll be booted out for hemorrhaging millions into a 
black spittoon.

MM

On 6/28/2012 7:26 AM, Bob Stroupe wrote:
> Amazingly, this happens when our HD stations go off the air or have issues.  I'm old enough to remember when FM was about at the same penatration where I lived, Memphis in the late 60's.  My favorite station was WHBQ-FM that had an automated Drake format and not many commercials either (most were likely bonus spots for an AM buy).  My family didn't have car with a factory FM radio until 1975.  Many FMs, especially in rural areas, had less than optimum coverage then because the minimum power for a full class C was 25 kW.
>
> While in college, I worked for an owner in Starkville, MS that put a class A FM on the air in 1967 with a separate format.  Business was so bad that he dumped the seperate format and simulcast the FM with the AM after about a year. The simulcast continued until 1980.  Some people don't want to remember when FM had some of the same challenges as HD has now.
>
> Bob Stroupe
>