[EAS] HD developer proposal for EAS

[Alex Hartman]

I utterly fail to see this as anything more than a money grab. The audio is the audio, regardless of delivery method. Coining it "digital" is stupid. The problem is not at the station level, it's much further ahead than that. Listen to those weekly and monthly tests that sound like a walmart PA microphone. RDS is a perfectly capable text method as well for hearing impaired. (put it in RT, you have 64 characters to get the point across)

As for multi-lingual, making the TTS engine available i think qualifies. It's not my stations duty to inform every ethnic language in the listening area. But common sense comes into play. If you have a spanish station, yeah, speaking spanish for the alerts makes sense, that's your core audience. Speaking Farsi on a country station in central Nebraska because "maybe there's people there"? That's feel-good legislation if i ever saw it.

HD is a cool technology, but trying to force it in because "it's digital, we need it for EAS" is nothing more than Xperi trying to get a digital mandate to laugh all the way to the bank.

 
--
Alex Hartman

On Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 7:44 AM <tpt at sevenrangesradio.com> wrote:
>I own three stations in a small market. If you look at markets where HD is grabbing some shares--you will find the HD2 signal is on a translator.

>There is no significant advantage for me to spend my money on HD. Does not provide any competitive advantage against the 12 other signals my sole metro station competes against. From an emergency perspective, I have both studios and two of three transmitter sites on generator.  The money to add HD would be better spent on a generator for that third transmitter site--especially since there are 4 translators for AM stations at that same site. (Although only my station has an emergency generator at the studio--and this includes the local AM/FM relay for the statewide EAS).

>FM--in the 70's--added new programming to markets then dominated by a handful of AM stations. HD is additive to already mature markets. There is not enough added value to the audiences to drive any significant growth. From a programming standpoint, in smaller markets formats are "merging"--oldies moving into AC territory, CHR not significantly different from hot AC. With "bro" country, classic country, and regular country-how many country stations can the market support.  Little edge for an HD2 signal--even if a translator can be found?

>Again--HD is a solution in search of a problem. EAS on HD?  Makes more sense to find spectrum in the FM band for NWS radio--and use that for expanded EAS.

>__________________________________________________________
>The EAS Forum Discussion List is hosted by the BWWG (Broadcast Warning Working Group). The Core members of the BWWG are Adrienne Abbott, Clay Freinwald, Suzanne Goucher, Barry Mishkind, David Ostmo, Darryl Parker, Richard Rudman, Gary Timm, and Sharon Tinsley. http://eas.radiolists.net
>Please invite your friends to join our Forum! The sign up is at: https://lists.radiolists.net/mailman/listinfo/eas
>___________________________________________________________