Radio World article: "Power Boost or Bust..."

[K4NBF]

I recently came across an article (http://www.rwonline.com/article/75514) which seems to hold the position that the 10 dB power boost proposal is the only hope left for IBOC. Perhaps more important is the confirmation that less than a million receivers have sold, and that a small number of stations are beginning to shut down their HD transmitters.

Here in Southern California, Ibiquity's list of HD stations (http://ibiquity.com/hd_radio/hdradio_find_a_station) has dropped several AM stations, and of the 6 AMs remaining on that list, a total of 4 in the Los Angeles market still run IBOC, and only 2 at night. On the FM side, 3 stations (KRCV/KRCD and KLYY) have turned off their IBOC over a month ago and have not switched it back on. The FMs are all owned by the same company, Univision, and all turned off their IBOC at around the same time, which leads me to believe it isn't temporary equipment failure.

I'd be interested to know how IBOC is currently faring in other markets, and of course, any thoughts on the power increase as something that can "save" IBOC.

[cd637299]

In south FL, WRMA 106.7 (which I believe was our first IBOC station) has shut theirs off (yip yip yippee!), whilst WLVE aka MIA 93.9 was supposed to have smooth jazz Love 94 on its HD2, but it has been missing for over a day.

On the AM side I get the HD-logo on 560, 990 & 1260. I believe 1140 WQBA once had it.

Bizarre---560 (WQAM) is the HD3 of WPOW 96.5. So, why in the world 560 even bother having IBOC? <shrug>

cd

[Mike-CT]

There's really only one HD AM station here and it's WTIC 1080. There are days its iboc is on and then there are days when it's off. You never know.
FM is a different story. There are between 15 and 20 stations running iboc (maybe more) on FM. None of the HD2 channels interest me. Do they interest anybody? That's the question. Does anyone but me have an HD radio? HDs time has gone, I think.
CC sold off Radio 104 on 104.1. Their IBOC and RDS has been gone for months. They don't seem to be a hurry to get it back. I wouldn't be either.

[cd637299]

Well mainly the idea of IBOC/HD was to compete w/ Sirius/XM & with no "monthly payments." Yet, looking at the so-called "variety" on HD Radio-----welllllllll.....

I dunno how long it has been around (since I only received mine last week), but WEAT 104.3's HD2 is "The Strip"---lounge music, mainly for fans of the "Rat Pack." Actually, with the retirement community here, one would think that either a standards station, or a Tampa WDUV-like station, would fare well....however, nobody wants to risk it. So "The Strip" is the closest....but who 55+ knows what HD Radio is, much less owns it?

Things that make you go "hmmmm."

As to my 560 & 1260, the HD in the daytime keeps going in and out. Forget 990.

I'll be interested, come DX season, to see what FM HD signals come in. I just don't want a power-boost if it affects selectivity on my new toy!

cd

[K3PHL]

The Philadelphia metro market has over 20 stations running HD on FM. Nick and I actually alert each other when one of them randomly goes off the air so we can DX the adjacents.

No one I know talks about HD radio and I don't know a single person outside this forum that has one.

The medium needs to be easily accessible. Until it is available in EVERY radio sold, it will never catch on. Analog radio is having a hard time holding it's footing to the many options available to listeners, HD is only fragmenting it further.

Plus, I don't see the benefit to rural and fringe listeners who normally put up with some fading and choppy analog signals on the fringes. Digital's in or out type reception especially when HD-2 signals revert to Analog-1 signals when the signal fades is another frustrating side-effect.

The general radio listener doesn't want to make too much of an effort to get a signal.

Oh and did I mention that each station has to pay Ibiquity an annual fee to transmit in HD. Don't get me started.

Perhaps in a perfect world, they could've opened up the analog Channels 5 and 6 (76.1 - 87.1) and made that a pure HD digital band. But I am applying logic where logic doesn't apply.

I hope for the day where HD goes by way of the Edsel and DXing becomes fun again.

[dlp85x]

Here in DC, WPRS 104.1 turned off their IBOC permanently about a year ago. This was great for me, because now 103.9 and 104.3 can be DXed. WPRS' signal is so strong here that, previously with IBOC, its adjacents were unusable even with strong Es.