AM HD TURNOFF PACE ACCELERATES

[badjef]

On the "same but different" note, I just got the gigaware HD radio add-on to my iPad. It is FM only and also works with an iPod and iPhone. It is also a portable type of a device where the antenna is the wire of the headphone or in my case, the jumper to the software defined radio's jack.

But it is FM only.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

[badjef]

On the "same but different" note, I just got the gigaware HD radio add-on to my iPad. It is FM only and also works with an iPod and iPhone. It is also a portable type of a device where the antenna is the wire of the headphone or in my case, the jumper to the software defined radio's jack.

But it is FM only.

Oh, I forgot to mention, it was in the "clearance rack" at Radio Shack.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

[KB1OKL]

I don't want to get too excited but WFAN 660's hash machine has been off two nights in a row now at night. Not sure about daytime.

[Schroedingers Cat]

Maybe they figured out that they were interfering with themselves (WSCR 670 Chicago) like WABC and WJR did, and WRVA and WDFN, WISN, and KFAN did.  Was it during PBP?  Lots of stations turn it off during PBP.

[StephanieNYC]

I think this has been mentioned before - but it bears repeating. 

CBS Radio (parent company of WFAN and WCCO) will not get rid of HD on AM for one simple reason. 

Glynn Walden - CBS corporate director of engineering - is one of the ones responsible for the AM-IBOC system.  As such, he has a vested interest in keeping the system in place.

[Savage]

And Dan Mason, corporately clueless president of CBS, is Walden's IBOC co-conspirator.  They are both former top iBiquity executives just prior coming to CBS.  As part of their departure from iBiquity they likely got big chunks of stock and God knows what other financial perks, so they'll keep trashing their own signals and that of other broadcasters until someone compels them to stop. 

[Tom Wells]

WSCR 670 Chicago
 is still clean as of this morning, so we're over a month of downtime on the HD....seems a bit long
for getting around to trying it again.  Only time will tell.  They sound really fine the way the are now.

[DavidEduardo]

And Dan Mason, corporately clueless president of CBS, is Walden's IBOC co-conspirator.  They are both former top iBiquity executives just prior coming to CBS.  As part of their departure from iBiquity they likely got big chunks of stock and God knows what other financial perks, so they'll keep trashing their own signals and that of other broadcasters until someone compels them to stop. 

Dan Mason started as a jock in Atlanta, ended up as PD at WPGC before becoming a national PD for PGC's owners. He soon became, at age 27, the GM of KTSA in San Antonio.

He was later the head of Westinghouse's broadcast division, surely among the finest radio companies to exist pre-consolidation. He was in charge of the CBS Westinghouse Infinity merger, and was head of Infinity until 2002 when he retired and did consullting...

http://www.sabomason.com/dan_mason_bio.php

During the 2003-2007 period, Mason did consulting, including a partnership with Walt Sabo and the clients ranged from CBS to SBS to iBiquity and Sirius and many, many others (see the Sabo Media site).

Mason was never an employee of iBiquity, and to call him clueless is to negate volumes of success stories programming, running and managing some of the demonstrably best stations in the US.

Talk about "clueless..."

[DavidEduardo]

Even with the software defined radios, the AM sound is still lacking in the quality. I remember AM radio having the capability of a much higher fidelity.

I remember putting on my first FM in 1966 in a market where there was no other FM before it. And I remember listening and thinking, "this is eventually going to bring down AM because AM sounds so bad compared to FM."  Within a year, I had 5 FMs on the air.

[badjef]

Even with the software defined radios, the AM sound is still lacking in the quality. I remember AM radio having the capability of a much higher fidelity.

I remember putting on my first FM in 1966 in a market where there was no other FM before it. And I remember listening and thinking, "this is eventually going to bring down AM because AM sounds so bad compared to FM."  Within a year, I had 5 FMs on the air.

David, with all due respect, I said, "I remember AM radio having the capability of a much higher fidelity." I did not say it sounded better than FM.

To toss AM broacasting in the waste basket of technology, would be akin to turning off all the OTA's in favor of internet listening. Each has its own distinct characteristics.

By your own admission, the observation was 45 years ago. AM is still around.

Sounds as though FM does not have a very healthy future, eh?

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!