Clear Channel ‘tests’ found no problem with ‘HD’ power hike

[BRNout]

Gee, nobody complained in 60 days so that makes it okay.  How simplistic and idiotic.  Most people were probably annoyed but didn't think to complain.  The public rarely complains about such things to the authorities.  Take a look at pirate radio, for example.  Just because no one complains doesn't make it acceptable.

CBS is in the tank for IBOC, so they're not going to complain about losing audience for WCBS-FM in Suffolk and Fairfield Counties; Cumulus should have complained loudly - but perhaps were convinced to be "quiet."   Just wait and see what happens when the digital power is increased for WPDH, WCBS-FM, and WWBB Providence (don't forget about them).  It will be a mess.  

As someone who has to author technical documents, I just cannot believe how simplistic Clear Channel's submittal to the FCC is.  It reminds me of the kind of argument that a 3rd grader would come up with.  No one complained, so the increase should be permitted - QED.  How absurd.  

[Savage]

As noted earlier - it's all about getting something - ANYthing - "positive" on file about the digital power increase in light of NPR's stiffening opposition.  Any official filing purporting to report "positive" results can thus conveniently serve as a pretense for allowing the tenfold power hike.  It allows the FCC staff to indulge in their typical, "draw the curve, then plot the data" sophistry in brushing aside legitimate opposition and seize upon cherry-picked predetermined results.

Recall the "exhaustive field tests" of HD-AM after sunset - consisting of a couple hours, on a single night, of WOR vs. WLW.  Both CC and Buckley were in the tank for HD, so of course the reports of "no interference" were glowing.

The situation will be finessed with a the usual HD "let's just put it in service and see how it does" cynicism.  Then, naturally, the focus will be to ignore the inevitable interference complaints, marginalize critics, and force implementation.

All of which tactics will produce more of the same results which have marked HD Radio as the industry's most notorious engineering, programming and marketing debacle in the once-proud 90 year history of radio broadcasting.

[SUPERCASTER]

No listeners = no complaints.

[pocket-radio]

So, that's it the FCC just rolls over, surprised? Don't be these are the same idiots who can't run the post office,
who will make a mess out of heath care and will bankrupt the United States of America. 

Like it's already been said, then there's the real world where ratings and budgets matter big time..
and where revenues follow ratings.

 

[ve3jf]

This is actually a pretty interesting case.  On the surface, it appears to give some convincing evidence that the power hike skeptics are all wet.  Consider the situation with WKCI and WPDH: only 93 km apart, which is 76 km less than the usual minimum spacing for 1st adjacent Class B's.  If WPDH got no interference complaints caused by WKCI's IBOC, even at the 10% power level, surely this proves that the power increase would be fine just about anywhere, right?  Well, no.  There is the little matter of topography.  In between WKCI and WPDH lie the Taconic and Berkshire mountain ranges, effectively isolating the two stations from each other.  Despite the short spacing, their coverage areas are essentially disjoint.

Clear Channel is right about one thing: the formula proposed by NPR is deeply flawed.  As the WKCI example shows, contours based on the FCC F(50,50) and F(50,10) curves often do a lousy job of predicting real world coverage, and interference.  I assume that NPR knows this too, and will soon be proposing a more sensible scheme.

I think the WKCI example also illustrates something else: that the half-dozen or so transmitters used by iBiquity & friends for the high-power tests were carefully selected to minimize the chances of serious interference to adjacent channel stations happening (or at least that the "victim" stations had to be owned by fellow members of the IBOC consortium, as was the case with WKCI and WCBS-FM).

[Tom Wells]

And pigs think everything smells just fine.

[TheBigA]

It reminds me of the kind of argument that a 3rd grader would come up with.  No one complained, so the increase should be permitted - QED.  How absurd.  

However, that's exactly how the FCC operates.  They're speaking FCC language.  I read reports of obsenity on the radio all the time.  But if no one complains, it didn't happen.  I read reports all over R-I about pirates.  No one files a complaint, they don't exist.

[trojanrabbit]

Inside Radio is reporting this morning (8/25/09) that Clear Channel engineers performed “extensive tests” in Connecticut and determined that a full 10-dB increase in “HD” digital signals on the FM band wouldn’t cause interference with other Clear Channel stations.

Quote fixed.

[stormy01]

And CORPORATE pigs think everything smells just fine.

[chrisradioanimal]

The WKLB 10db increase didn't cause interference for me even though I thought it would. In Billerica I can pick up 102.1 clearly and sometimes 102.3 WWHK Concord, NH and 102.9 WBLM in Maine with a regular radio. In Sandown, NH I get all of those stations clearly without any problem at all on a regular radio. Also With my HD portable I can get WKLB to encode HD in Concord, NH now.