DX LISTENING DIGEST 4-078, May 9, 2004 edited by Glenn Hauser, http://www.worldofradio.com Items from DXLD may be reproduced and re-reproduced only if full credit be maintained at all stages and we be provided exchange copies. DXLD may not be reposted in its entirety without permission. Materials taken from Arctic or originating from Olle Alm and not having a commercial copyright are exempt from all restrictions of noncommercial, noncopyrighted reusage except for full credits For restrixions and searchable 2004 contents archive see http://www.worldofradio.com/dxldmid.html NOTE: If you are a regular reader of DXLD, and a source of DX news but have not been sending it directly to us, please consider yourself obligated to do so. Thanks, Glenn CONTINENT OF MEDIA 04-03 [low version only], available from May 5: (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0403.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/com0403.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/com0403.html NEXT AIRINGS OF WORLD OF RADIO 1229: Mon 0100 on WBCQ 9330-CLSB Mon 0330 on WSUI 910, webcast http://wsui.uiowa.edu [Extra 47] Mon 0430 on WBCQ 7415, webcast http://wbcq.us Wed 0930 on WWCR 9475 WRN ONDEMAND: http://new.wrn.org/listeners/stations/station.php?StationID=24 OUR ONDEMAND AUDIO [also for CONTINENT OF MEDIA, MUNDO RADIAL]: Check http://www.worldofradio.com/audiomid.html WORLD OF RADIO 1229 (high version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1229h.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1229h.rm (summary) http://www.worldofradio.com/wor1229.html WORLD OF RADIO 1229 (low version): (stream) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1229.ram (download) http://www.w4uvh.net/wor1229.rm WORLD OF RADIO 1229 IN MP3, WITH THAT TRUE SHORTWAVE SOUND OF 5070: (d`load) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_05-08-04.mp3 (stream) http://www.piratearchive.com/media/worldofradio_05-08-04.m3u ** ALASKA. The final payment for the 100,000 watt transmitter, has been sent. This transmitter, which will enable us to send digital programing, will be delivered and set in place in the next few weeks. In the next few months, it is our goal to raise the additional $535,000 that is needed to complete the construction of the third tower and curtain antenna in Anchor Point, Alaska [KNLS] (WCBC Latest News via DXLD) See also MADAGASCAR ** CANADA. RADIO-CANADA ANNONCE DE GROS CHANGEMENTS POUR SES DEUX RESEAUX RADIOPHONIQUES PAR PATRICK WHITE MONTREAL (PC) - Radio-Canada a annoncé vendredi la réorganisation de sa Chaîne culturelle radio, qui deviendra en septembre une chaîne entièrement musicale, alors que la Première chaine sera plus culturelle. Environ 90 pour cent de la programmation de la Chaîne culturelle sera modifié d'ici le début septembre, alors que 12 heures de programmation culturelle seront ajoutées par semaine sur les ondes de la Première chaîne à compter de la mi-août, a precisé Sylvain Lafrance, vice- président de la radio française de Radio-Canada. Radio-Canada changera entre autres le nom de la Chaîne culturelle, qui diffusera désormais de la musique classique, du jazz et les musiques du monde de 6h à minuit. Il y aura davantage de contenu canadien et les talents locaux seront mis en valeur. Radio-Canada compte faire jouer les musiciens et musiques qui n'ont pas leur place ailleurs. Durant la nuit, la société d'État visera les 16-34 ans avec des émissions sur les nouvelles tendances musicales. Le techno, le hip hop et le rock alternatif seront entre autres au rendez-vous. Le format musical nocturne s'inspirera de l'émission Bandeapart.fm, dejà diffusé à Radio-Canada. "Il était temps que le service public s'attaque à la diversité musicale", a dit M. Lafrance, qui a affirmé constater une homogenéisation du contenu musical sur les ondes des stations FM au pays. "On doit reussir avec notre chaîne musicale ce qu'on a reussi avec la Première chaîne", a-t-il ajouté lors d'un diner de presse à Montréal. Pour la Première chaîne, M. Lafrance entend conserver les acquis de la chaîne généraliste d'information tout en ajoutant 12 heures de programmation culturelle par semaine. Les domaines visés sont ceux du théâtre, du cinéma, de la danse, de la littérature et des arts visuels. "Nous sommes très contents de la Première chaîne. Nous ne voulons pas la bouleverser", a-t-il dit. M. Lafrance n'a pas donné de détails de la nouvelle grille-horaire, mais a parlé d'une émission hebdomadaire de style café littéraire et d'un programme de type plateau culturel, le dimanche après-midi. Radio-Canada compte aussi diffuser davantage de "grandes séries" d'affaires publiques. Pour l'actuelle Chaîne culturelle, qui diffusera d'un océan à l'autre à partir de cet été grace à l'ajout d'émetteurs à Victoria et Edmonton, il s'agît donc d'un répositionnement complet de sa programmation étant donné les faibles côtes d'écoute. Le public vise se situe entre 35 et 54 ans. "Sur Montréal, ça ne va pas bien. La durée d'écoute est faible", a affirmé M. Lafrance, qui compte bien changer cette donné. Il espère que la nouvelle chaîne musicale atteindra son rythme de croisière d'ici deux à trois ans. Christine Leblanc assurera la direction de la nouvelle chaîne, en remplacement d'Andrée Girard. L'ensemble de l'opération se fera `a l'interieur du budget actuel de la radio de Radio-Canada, et la société d'État entend maintenir les emplois actuels. Les discussions avec les producteurs d'émissions se feront au cours des prochaînes semaines afin de déterminer la grille-horaire. M. Lafrance a expliqué qu'il s'attendait aussi à un transfert de certaines émissions de l'actuelle Chaîne culturelle à la Première chaîne, et vice-versa. La nouvelle chaîne musicale aura également des bulletins de nouvelles specifiques, sauf pour le Radiojournal de 8h00, midi et 17h. (c) La Presse Canadienne, 2004 Publié le 2004-05-7 (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** CHINA. Radio Guangdong has verified my reception report for their English transmission via WRN1 after 343 days. The card depicts Guangdong Broadcasting Center. V/s Nil. 73s (Swopan Chakroborty, Kolkata, India, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** CUBA. Glenn, Too late as a news item, sorry I didn't write sooner. Tuesday evening tried to catch DXERS UNLIMITED [UT May 5]. From 0130 to about 0310 RHC was broadcasting in Spanish on all frequencies. Pulled up the latest EIBI schedule and tried every frequency listed there. Had no idea RHC broadcast on that many frequencies at one time. Every one of them had the same program in Spanish. At about 0310, almost in mid sentence, English started and carried on as if nothing had ever been wrong. I can say that I've verified every frequency listed for RHC in the EIBI schedules between 0100 and 0200. This afternoon (Saturday) at 2030, the only frequency being used was 11760 and it dropped out about three times for several minutes at a time (John H. Carver Jr., Mid-North Indiana, May 8, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Yet another screwup, this time in feed lines, apparently. I was monitoring 11670 and 13750 from 1400 UT Sunday May 9 for the start of Aló Presidente from Venezuela, and they were open carrier until 1409 when suddenly both came up with the show in progress. This is not at all unusual for Aló (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** DENMARK. WORLD MUSIC RADIO TESTING ON 15810 On 9 May at 1405 noted World Music Radio from Denmark testing on 15810 with fair signal. Within couple of minutes they verified by e-mail and said mine was the first reception report of 15810 test. Power was 500 Watts at that moment (Jari Savolainen, Kuusankoski, Finland, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Weak reception in the French Alps at the present time. 15810.0 : 1525 UT - SIO : 242 At 1527: clear ID: "World Music Radio" followed by Laura Pausini: "Surrender". Equipment: JRC 545 DSP - Wellbrook ALA-100 loop antenna and 130m L-W. Where is the transmitter located please? What about its power? (Patrick, F8AIH, LOCATION : South-East France. French Alps, near Chambery (Savoie - 73) 45 27'55"N 5 59'38"E - JN25 XL - 290 m.a.s.l playdx via DXLD) This is the first legal shortwave broadcast from Danish soil since Radio Denmark closed down its shortwave transmitter at Herstedvester. Besides 15810 kHz, WMR has also been assigned 5815 kHz (Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via DXLD) The new Danish shortwave station World Music Radio is now testing on 15810 kHz. First heard here with very weak signal around 1930 UT, fading in and out of the noise with 60s/70s pop and jingles/ announcements. (According to Stig Hartvig Nielsen via Henrik Klemetz, DXplorer, they will be using 15810 for the time being and breaks in transmission are liable to occur.) The address is: WMR, PO Box 112, 8900 Randers, Denmark. Email wmr@w... [truncated] 73s (Dave Kenny, Caversham, AOR 7030, May 9, BDXC-UK via DXLD) ** EGYPT. 11725, R. Cairo in English. 2315 5/3/04. G-F with muffled audio and QRM. Pips followed by (presumed) NA into ID and News bulletin - trouble for Sharon in Israel re withdrawal from Gaza, Africa Telecom Conference opens in Cairo (Jim Clar, NY, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** ERITREA [non]. Behaviour of Eritrean opposition radio on 9 May --- Please note that the news bulletin of the opposition radio, Voice of Eritrean People, on 9 May was a repeat of a bulletin broadcast on 11 April 2004. Source: BBC Monitoring research in English 9 May 04 (via DXLD) ** GREECE. Re 4-073: ``Hellenes Around the World``, the only real chance for North Americans to hear V. of Greece in English, was once again preëmpted by stupid ballgame from ERA Sport April 24 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` I've found the Voice of Greece in English at 1830-1855 fair to good on 12105. I believe it's daily, but I don't know if it's a US relay or direct (Harold Sellers, Ont., May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Direct; well, Central North Americans (gh) ** HAWAII. I too am very saddened to hear of Chuck Boehnke's passing. I just finished re-reading some saved e-mail messages that I received from Chuck in December of 1999 when we were having some very long discussions about PARAN broadcast antennas. He was a wealth of knowledge that will be missed (Patrick Griffith, NØNNK, Westminster, CO, NRC-AM via DXLD) Chuck was quite the engineer. A consultant for several stations and he worked also with Alan Roycroft. Chuck worked for California Microwave for years. He was a very smart guy (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) Too bad about Chuck Boehnke. I would have preferred that he stay around for a long, long time. He was a sharp fellow, a good DXer, a wise person and a top notch engineer (Chuck Hutton, WA, ibid.) Really tough to lose someone so close and a top notch DXer. 75 is not that old today either. Especially for someone who took good care of himself, not smoking, drinking, etc. But you never know in this World how long a person will last, so enjoy every day of your life. 73s, (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) I am saddened to learn of Chuck's Passing. I didn't know him, but do remember some of his posts here on the list. He has also tried several times for my 1570 WGSR DX tests and reported to me via email. He seems to be a highly knowledgeable fellow and a great friend to the DX Community. I used to live in Honolulu, and indeed the place is chock-a-block full of RF across the band! That was a small reason I enjoyed sailing (with the Navy) to the Neighbor islands and beyond. Getting a crack DXing the unused channels, and following out different stations during the day to see what kind of range they got on salt water. One example that stuck in my head was AOR formatted KPOI 1040 (this was in the 1980s) was listenable for about 940 miles out (headed toward Guam) during the daytime. That was near the same for 690 KKUA (Then Pop formatted sometimes // with sister KQMQ 93.1). I used a Panasonic RF 1150 (single ~6" speaker, a tweeter, gyro ferrite rod antenna, signal strength meter/battery meter combo, AM/FM/SW/CB/MB... really nice radio! Ran on A/C or 4 D cells (Ronald C. Gitschier, FL, ibid.) Hi Ron; Yes, the 80s was something else for Hawaiians. Here on the Oregon coast KKUA, KPOI, you name it were in night after night with local like signals. The Hawaiian conditions just aren't the same as they were. In the early 90s I was tape swapping with Chuck and I sent him a tape and opened up the beginning with "It's Just A Matter Of Time" by Randy Travis. I recorded it off KHLO-850-Hilo. The signal was S9+45DB!!! Unbelievable signal. It was splattering all over the place. Chuck turned to his wife after putting the tape in the machine and said "Why did Patrick send me a tape with Randy Travis on it? Not knowing it was KHLO from the Oregon Coast. At the end of the song was "K-H-L-O Hillo, a Brewer Station". Chuck was shocked. In the next tape to me he asked if I flew over to Hilo to record it. Those were the days. I still have the copy of the tape around somewhere. But those Hawaiians really got out (Patrick Martin, Seaside OR, ibid.) ** KIRIBATI. I decided to record 9825 kHz last night to discover how open the frequency might or might not be in the evenings, in anticipation of Kiribati. From 0700-0800 the frequency was clear, but a strong Radio Japan via Yamata dominated from sign-on at *0801 in mid-song to sign-off at 0958*. This morning I dug up some old loggings and realized that R. Kiribati on this frequency had actually been logged in the USA as early as 0530, with most loggings between 0630-0730. Some logs were in the 0830 timeframe. If memory serves me right, there used to be QRM from Radio Havana 9820 up until 0700. Tonight I'll have to set the recorder earlier. Wasn't there another Kiribati frequency in the 31mb, around 9810 or 9815 at one time? (Guy Atkins, Puyallup, WA, May 9, Cumbre DX via DXLD) ** MADAGASCAR. Great News from Madagascar! Kevin Chambers, Director of Engineering and KNLS Station Manager returned on April 11th from a trip to Madagascar. His purpose was to locate the land on which World Christian Broadcasting can build a new shortwave radio station. He was successful! Traveling with Chambers was Earl Young, World Christian Broadcasting`s friend and consultant. Young is President of the United States- Madagascar Business Council and is directly responsible for World Christian`s involvement in Madagascar and with the excellent rapport with Marc Ravalamanana, the President of that country. The final papers are being processed as we go to press, but it appears at this time, the land will be given to World Christian Broadcasting at no charge. ``If indeed we do receive this land as a gift, it will be the direct result of the outstanding relationship Earl Young has with the Malagasy government and President Ravalanmanana and his great work on behalf of World Christian Broadcasting. I can`t thank him enough,`` said Charles Caudill, President of World Christian Broadcasting. ``And what a wonderful job Kevin did. He accomplished more than we could ever have expected and in a very short time. Kevin is a great asset to this ministry,`` he added. World Christian had estimated a need for approximately 100 acres. The site contains 42 hectares, which is slightly more than the desired 100 acres. Plans are to begin the fundraising for the Madagascar Project once the additional facility in Alaska is completed (WCBC Latest News via DXLD) See also ALASKA. Obviously separation of church and state is a concept foreign to Ravalanmanana (gh) ** NIGERIA. 15120, Voice of Nigeria, fairly good in English at 1720 May 4, 1728 program title and ID given. Program was "'60 Minutes,' one hour of news, views, comment and analysis coming to you from the Voice of Nigeria, Lagos." Also good at 0650 May 5, English news at 0700, transmitter hum. Still there and fully readable at 0859 when the hum suddenly disappeared and announcer gave program preview, GMT and Nigeria (UT +1) TCs, ID and into news, then "Heritage" at 0905, ID and TC 0915. It is certainly unusual to be hearing Africa at ECNA local sunrise, even on this high frequency. I continued to follow this on- and-off, and it held up pretty well past 1200. When I checked at 1330 I believe it was still there, but it was way down in strength and rendered essentially useless by QRM from HCJB-15115, which is scheduled in Spanish at 1300-1500. Nigeria was still there at 1500 after HCJB went off, although not as strong as earlier, and LSB was necessary to escape strong QRM from the Spanish speaker on 15130. Heard at various times on subsequent days as well (Jerry Berg, MA, NASWA Flashsheet May 9 via DXLD) [non?]. I noticed some heavy co-channel to RCI 17800 on May 8, I think around 1230. Not English but almost equal level with RCI; gone after 1300. I doubt it was VON (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. This is too late for those in the ET and CT zones, but the second item on CBS` Sixty Minutes, May 9, about Saudi Arabia obtaining false confessions from British expatriates by torture, involves the head of the former SW clandestine Sawl al-Islah, Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, Sayeed el-Fagih (sp?). This should air at approximately 6:17 pm local in the Mountain zones, 7:17 pm in the Pacific zone, etc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** SUDAN [non]. 11665, UNITED KINGDOM, Sudan Radio Service, *0259-0335 May 5, Opening with instrumental music and ID, frequency announcement and mentioning studios are in Nairobi. Gave standard e-mail addresses but a Nairobi postal address. News followed by program The Road to Peace. Good signal. E-mail report to Jeremy Groce replied to in less than an hour mentioning: "In the mail you should receive a letter and an SRS brochure. Given the mail system in Kenya, however, it may take a few weeks or more. Please be patient." I'm curious as to the reply that I may in fact receive from the Kenya studios (Rich D`Angelo, Wyomissing PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** UGANDA. 4976, Radio Uganda, *0300-0335 May 8, xylophone interval signal followed by a woman announcer with opening ID ("This is Radio Uganda") and brief orchestral anthem. The woman returned at 0304 with ID, opening announcements and frequency announcements. A program of local vocals followed hosted by a male announcer. Fair signal (Rich D'Angelo, PA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** U K. [uk-radio-listeners] Re the absence of Big Ben from Radio 4 over the past week, here's my tuppenceworth on the subject from the Sunday Times today: Big Ben is silent - on Radio 4 if not at Westminster. I miss it most at 6 pm when those unhurried and reassuring bongs herald the news and at last I can pour a drink without undue guilt ("cool the verandah that welcomes us in", Betjeman wrote, "to the six o'clock news and a lime-juice and gin"). By the time you read this, normal service may have been resumed, in which case Big Ben will ring out again at 10 pm tonight. But as I write, on Tuesday, it has not been broadcast for four days and the airwaves are simply not the same. The hour chime, the technical term for the big bongs that number from one to twelve and are made by a hammer arm striking the biggest bell, is unaffected. But the quarter chimes, the smaller bongs heard every 15 minutes and made on four smaller bells, have not sounded since before dawn on April 30. "A steel shaft broke in the mechanism that drives the four quarter bells", explains Mike McCann, Keeper of the Great Clock - now there's a job title - at the Palace of Westminster. "A fracture had developed in part of the locking lever, in a place not normally visible." He was hoping to repair the Victorian machinery by last night, but says it will have to be stripped down again in about five years' time. The fact that the hour chime is not affected does mean, of course, that Radio 4 could carry on broadcasting it (at 6 pm and midnight seven days a week and at 10 pm on Sunday, and always live) just as it has for decades. Its spokeswoman claims it is "easier and cleaner" to use the pips as a temporary substitute. That may be true. But the only pips one wants at 6 pm are those in a slice of lemon. Is there prescience in the timing? Consulting his records in the world's most famous clock tower, McCann points out that the last time the quarter chimes fell silent through breakdown - as opposed to a planned maintenance stoppage - was in May 1997. For the whole time Tony Blair has been in power, in other words, these quarter chimes have been behaving themselves. Now they are coming apart just when his own position is being openly questioned in his own party! What can this augur? Still, in the interests of balance I should point out that the last time the hour chime broke down was in 1994, under John Major, and the last time there was a real outcry about it, when it was silent for four months in 1990, was in the era of the Iron Lady. I love the sounds of Big Ben, on the hour and on the quarter. They speak of the ravens in the Tower, the white cliffs of Dover, the peoples of the Commonwealth and a country called Britain before the BBC started calling it "four nations". They have been part of the daily bread of broadcasting since 1924, ushering in new years, a new century and a new millennium. They punctuate the inexorable passage of time with moments to take stock and give pause. And they are a tribute to all those in the 1850s who sweated and toiled at Whitechapel Foundry to fill a mould with molten metal and would never have believed that, more than a century later, their handiwork, allied to that of many engineers, would prove so sound that the mighty clock would be no more than a second out and some of its chimes would be available to every home in the land at the precise moment they were striking in Westminster (via Paul Donovan, May 9, uk-radio-listeners via Paul David, Swprograms mailing list via DXLD) ** U K. 15495, ENGLAND. "Leading the Way" broadcast via Merlin- Rampisham. Tuned in Fri, May 7 at 1705, heard man preaching with woman translating into Farsi. This went on until 1723 when the woman took over, followed by a bit of closing orchestral music. Programming stopped at 1725 but the carrier remained. UN Radio in English started at 1730 via the same transmitter. Strong signal. -- Checked again on Sat, May 9 and found station coming on at 1700, music and then into an English story of Abraham, this time translated by a man into Russian. No ID heard as such, but at 1707 a mention of Dr. Michael Youssef, LTW principal, and twice again at 1720. Music from 1722 to 1730*. Also heard *1700-1730* May 9 with repeat of Russian from May 8. Armchair signal quality. -- This is http://www.leadingtheway.org/ Click on "About Us," which mentions broadcasts in Farsi, Russian and other languages. Sked via Rampisham 1700-1730 Tue/Fri/Sat/Sun (Jerry Berg, MA, NASWA Flashsheet via DXLD) ** U S A [and non]. Goodbye on the 26th -- yes, it will be real nostalgia in the nostalgia world of pop music on the last Saturday of June 2004. Steve Cole just gave us the sad news last night on his WBCQ's Different Kind of Oldies Show. The issue here is what Mr. Cole was waiting from listeners like me? Though we enjoy his one of a kind show in SW, I guess very few of us are able to be supporting financially his good work. If sales department of the radio stations don't do this we'll be losing so many other programs. It's O.K. what Allan Weiner is offering with those seem to be low prices in air time to producers, but doesn't seem to be enough. One listen to some stations because of some specific programs; once they are gone it will hardly caught our attention again. It's the case of SRI long ago with the Two Bobs. Furthermore SRI didn't have the decency to gave us an appropriate farewell after 60 years on the air. Then you had the departure of Ian McFarland's SW Listening Digest from RCI and most recently Radio Netherland's geniuses decide that it's O.K. pulling from the air the warm treatment of Media Network, and send it to the cold Internet. Those stations keep being good but in my case I quit my listening on them. Another thing is the way WWCR deals with "Rock The Universe". It gives me the impression that this is a kill-the-spare-time program for the schedule it has, at a time at least in the American Continent is too early in the morning, but as we are SW listerners, this has to be forgiven. But we got to be aware that nothing is forever. All things, sooner or later, must pass. Surely I would like to know there's still the Hudson type locomotives pulling the luxurious New York Central's 20th Century Limited... That it's 1964 again and I will turn on my daddy's old Philco Tropic to receive Hill Edell's WW Hit Parade on WRUL... That the SW bands are crowd again with Cold War Time broadcasters long gone... But despite the arrival of the threatening, even in Costa Rica BPL, let's take it by the good side: as many huge broadcasters are aiming to the Internet, we will enjoy more pleasant DXing in the coming years over the then uncrowded bands, when there will be few or no splatters at all, or is it the interference and hets what make SW listening more exciting? (Raúl Saavedra, Costa Rica, rulex44 @ yahoo.es May 9, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. Word floating around has it that Air America missed payroll Wednesday --- plus the many ads that were running have been replaced by PSA's. The network`s demise and setting sun isn`t far off, it would appear from the outside (Bob Carter, May 7, NRC-AM via DXLD) ** U S A. Re Air America: It's worth noting that XM has an all-liberal talk show channel called "Talk Left" (and an all-conservative channel called "Talk Right.") The real problem with Franken and Garofalo as radio hosts --- ignoring their politics --- is that neither is an inherently funny person. Give them a script, like on "Saturday Night Live," and they can deliver funny material in a funny manner. But ask them to improvise on the spot --- which is what talk radio is all about --- and they just can't do it (Harry Helms W7HLH, Las Vegas, NV DM26, NRC-AM via DXLD) Then they shouldn`t try to be funny all the time. This is serious business. No one ever mentions the i.e. America network, which has been going for quite a while with a leftist perspective. But does it have many (or any) affiliates? No --- see below (gh) Now, Michael Moore, on the other hand... or Molly Ivins... and there are others who have something to say, have the gift of wit, and can do both spontaneously (Helms, NRC-AM via DXLD) I agree. Franken CAN be funny, but he is not a Radio host. The Only "Proven" Host on "Air America" is Randi Rhodes who was the #1 Daypart on WJNO in West Palm Beach, FL....Even beating Limbaugh in his hometown. Sadly, she was forgotten in all the Air America hoopla. Well, All I care about is Randi finding a good gig. She will be on many Stations --- I wish her the best (Juan Gualda, Ft. Pierce, FL, ibid.) I can`t stand Randi Rhodes --- politics quite aside, she is gratingly abrasive, and keeps complaining about how she can`t smoke anywhere in NY. Tough! To boot, she has it in for Ralph Nader, the only candidate who hasn`t sold out to special interests (Glenn Hauser, DXLD) Can they keep it up day after day? (I don't know, it's very possible they *can*). Being good at public speaking is one thing. Being good at talk radio is a completely different skill. IMHO you don't have as much time to prepare for changes in current events, and you have to have a new routine every day (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, http://www.w9wi.com ibid.) Err... Franken wrote much of that funny material. I think they do OK for the most part. The hardest part of Talk Radio, if you have some talent to start with, is getting used to all the external factors. Hitting breaks on time, keeping on schedule with guests, etc. This comes with time and experience. You can tell that Randy Rhodes (sp?), for example, is an old radio pro (Kevin Olson, ibid.) I've listened to Franken's program. It sounds like I'm listening to NPR. The woman on the show talks in that same monotone voice that is a hallmark of NPR. I did a bio check on her and sure enuf, she comes from NPR [no, she comes from MPR, and I`ll take `monotony` any time over screaming and yelling --- gh]. Now Randi Rhodes --- she can be a talk show host. Prior to her being the politico talk show host she is now, she did a half smutty loaded with double entendres show on WIOD in Miami in the evening. It used to be on here in Tampa also. Same program Neil Rogers was on. You know, speaking of Neil, I'm surprised he never got nailed for obscenities like old Bubba did. It's too bad it looks like this network is failing, much faster than I ever thought. Must not have been funded very well. I have to admit, I found myself listening some, but it wasn`t very entertaining. For that matter Rush doesn`t entertain much anymore. I miss all the great bits he used to have (Paul Smith, W4KNX, Sarasota, FL, ibid.) I don't think credibility has anything to do with their problems. When they started. I felt they had three big problems, and I think nothing has changed: 1) Starting up any large, involved and technically demanding project with limited resources is always dangerous. 2) Liberal talk would be perceived as less friendly to commercial interests (which probably would be true), scaring off advertisers. 3) Most of the best outlets have programming they are reasonably happy with or would charge tremendous rates. Getting stations to air some dayparts is one thing, getting them to air a whole day (and change their identity) with an unproved product is another. So you are likely (especially early on) to get the dregs, the poorly managed, poorly equipped and signal-poorest stations. I am not sure how "hard core" I am, but I have not found it boring when I have listened. But I don't listen to it all that much. I may suffer from non-Conservative disease. Without sounding pejorative here, it seems to me that Conservatives love the sense of community and evangelization that radio talk provides. There almost seems to be a sense of the oppressed minority syndrome at work here, keeping the faith alive. Liberals (and not to their credit) generally just don't seem to have the passion. I suspect they would just as soon listen to music most of the time (Kevin Olson, ibid.) I disagree that Liberal talk is perceived as less friendly to commercial broadcasting. Broadcasters would put a monkey on the air singing the "who let the dogs out" if they can sell the time to an advertiser. All you have to do is listen to some of the bilge that is aimed at kids on the radio to know that is true. When was the last time you got much of anything cerebral on TV from the likes of Fox Broadcast, or UPN. Need I go any further??? And the rest of the news will follow Sybil the soothsayer --- Howard Beale was right (Paul Smith, W4KNX, Sarasota, FL, ibid.) I guess the grass is always greener. On conservative talk radio you often hear lack of passion as the reason for there being few large rallies and marches for conservative causes. Air America probably should have taken the same approach Fox did when it started the Fox TV network. Start with a small amount of original programming and build from there. Establishing a complete 24/7 network in one shot is probably not do-able. It would have been a lot smarter to establish a core of two or three successful programs and build from there. Either that, or buy a radio station in some place where liberal talk is likely to do well and then start syndicating as the shows get listeners (Jay Heyl, CA, ibid.) It would be smarter to begin grooming potential 'liberal' hosts for radio. The talent is out there. I hear it on college and NPR-like stations and on a very few local commercial outlets. There should be enough to launch a few names and try to get a trend in motion. Ted Turner has been seen at at least one anti-Bush demonstration. Where's he in all this? (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) INTERNET RADIO FOR THE LEFT Daily, hour-by-hour listings follow additions/notes... Please Scroll Down for the Listings and Links to the Live Streams ADD: John Rothman, 3-5 pm Fridays Only and Saturday 2-7 am KGO San Francisco http://www.kgoam810.com ADD: Gil Gross, Fill-In Host, Thursday & Friday, 10 am-1 pm, KGO San Francisco REMOVE: Karel, http://www.kgoam810.com/ 8-11 pm Monday (Still on Sat./Sun. at the same time) ADD: 12 Midnight-2 am ET (10 pm-Midnight MT) Bev Smith Nationally syndicated from WWRL 1600, NYC. http://www.wwrl1600.com/ (Requires Flash 6 Player) Alternative stream at: http://www.wamo.com/station/am860wamo.shtml (WAMO, Pittsburgh) ************************* February 25, 2004 Update. IEAmerica goes off the air as of 2/27. Mike Malloy's last show was 2/25/04. The following IEAmerica programs will continue over the air in various cities and over the internet (status on Sirius Radio Left is unknown): All America Talk Radio will continue to stream at Icicle, 5-7 pm ET http://www.iciclenetworks.com/ All American Talk Radio host is Peter B. Collins. He is based in San Francisco and has some great guests!! Thom Hartmann will continue to broadcast live on various stations and over the internet from noon-3 pm ET and from his own website http://www.thomhartmann.com/ It is unknown at this time if he will continue being aired at Icicle http://www.iciclenetworks.com/ Radiopower.org has no indication if his stream will stop being carried there as of today (2/25); check for updates. http://www.radiopower.org Finally, Doug Stephans continues to broadcast in 425 cities and also via the internet, with Nancy Skinner as co-host from his own website. http://www.dougstephan.com/ M-F, Midnite-9 am and LIVE 5-9 am ET "Doug Stephan's show features two-way caller driven conversation on the news of the day along with nationally recognized guests from senators to celebrities." Stephans, from what I've heard of it, runs a "balanced" show, and airs all views. He's on Clear Channel stations, so I suppose he treads a fine line. Sat & Sun, 6-9 am ET Doug Stephan's TalkRadio Count Down Show features the week's top 10 biggest stories as determined by radio audiences nationwide. The three hour review is produced and co-hosted in cooperation with Michael Harrison of "Talkers" Magazine. Guests include news and opinion leaders from across the country. Jim Hightower's whereabouts at this time are unknown. He is listed at Radiopower.org but I do not see him on the schedule. Previously, on IE America, his commentaries were aired during other shows. TIME CHANGES: Enid Goldstein is now on from Noon to 3 pm MT on 1510 KRNC, Denver (2-5 pm ET). John McMullen is now on from 11 am to 1 pm ET (9 am-2 pm MT) on Sirius Left and via webcast. Politics and more. Topics for the day and week listed at the site. (from http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm via DXLD) Page on down for extensive listings of lefty shows on Gloria Lalumia`s site from Las Cruces, but be careful of the dates; and times are in UT -6 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. THE TIMES, THEY`VE BEEN A-CHANGING --- Commentary Last Thursday, May 6th, WQMA 1520 AM in tiny Marks, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, ended its Top 40 format. According to the authoritative www.100000watts.com, WQMA was the last stand-alone Top 40 AM station in the country. That format on AM is now a part of history. It all started 51 years ago after Omaha-area farmer Todd Storz returned home, persuaded his father and brothers to mortgage the family farm and buy sleepy KOWH 660 AM in Omaha. He had observed in his long hours in Army PX’s that customers and waitresses dropped their nickels in the jukebox to hear the same hit records over and over. He tried out his idea on KOWH and, despite its daytimer status, the station became an overnight sensation, beating out the city’s leaders WOW and KFAB. Next, Mr. Storz put the format on the unsuccessful classical music WTIX 1450 AM New Orleans, and once again, and in a bigger market this time, the format was a phenomenal success. That was 1953. The first crop of baby-boomers was only seven years old, but those of us born just before and during World War II were entering our teens, and suddenly we had a voice that was ours. It is hard to know, if you did not live it, what a phenomenon Top 40 radio was. It swept the country by storm, much to the horror of parents and the contempt of established broadcasters. But these latter were holding on to a fading dream. Already the great radio network programs were making the transition to television, and those that did not or could not soon faded into static. What Storz did was find a new format, a new vade mecum for radio, a new purpose. He was so creative and so intuitive in what he judged people would like and listen to that his Top 40 creation only began to fade in the 1970’s with the advent of FM and head music born of the drug culture. Bill Haley and the Comets. The Cats. The McGuire Sisters. Petula Clark. The Shirelles. The Crystals. The Ronettes. The Toys. The Beach Boys. Jerry and the Pacemakers. Elvis Presley. Jerry Lee Lewis. Little Richard. The Moonglows. The Platters. The Four Freshmen. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. Peaches and Herb. The Supremes. The Four Tops. The Beatles. The Rolling Stones. The Dave Clark Five. WABC New York, WLS Chicago. KABC Los Angeles. KQEO Albuquerque. WMC Memphis. KAAY Little Rock. WPLO Atlanta. WQAM Miami. KXOK St Louis. WDOK Cleveland. CKLW Detroit. KLIF Dallas. KOMA Oklahoma City. WDGY Twin Cities. . . [lengthy lament about morality, abortion, etc., omitted by gh] . . .We drift deeper into the new millennium more jaded, more pampered, more controlled, more litigious, more threatened, fatter, wickeder, unhappier. Now AM Top 40 is gone. It follows by many years the departure of the baby boomers` youth --- a youth that many boomers still haven`t gotten around to accepting. Everything from physical fitness workouts to wrinkle creams, hair transplants, and sexual performance enhancers is constrained to deny that inexorable march of time. Two years from now, the first of the boomers will reach 60. Since most of them never wanted to be particularly bothered with more than one or two children --- it would cramp their lifestyles --- there consequently is a small percentage of the population following them. On that small percentage will fall the problem of supporting their aging parents. The self- obsessed boomers will then find themselves held in disdain. Worse, beyond all this lies the inevitable, the one thing that creams, workouts, transplants, plastic surgery, and yoga won`t make go away. The marvelous top 40 has long disappeared. The turntables have stopped and been junked. The 45s fill up attics and flea markets. The Age of Aquarius is over. WQMA is gone (Michael Dorner, editor, Catholic Radio Update May 10 via DXLD) You will recall that WQMA ran a well-received DX test this winter, and the perpetrator was equally proud of its unique format (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** U S A. ON PUBLIC STATIONS, MUSIC FADES AS NEWS PROGRAMMING CALLS THE TUNE By Marc Fisher Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 9, 2004; Page N06 For a quarter of a century now, lovers of public radio's gently serious approach to the news have set their clocks to wake up to National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." In Washington for most of that time, that meant tuning to WAMU (88.5 FM). But for the past few years, "Morning Edition" has been available both on WAMU and on what used to be the area's classical music public station, WETA (90.9 FM). Why do the region's two big public radio stations air the same programming at almost exactly the same times, both in the morning and again in evening drive time? Wouldn't it be more of a public service (after all, this is public radio) if one of them offered something different -- say, classical music on WETA or bluegrass on WAMU? The two stations once devoted huge amounts of airtime to those minority interests, but as public radio has changed, becoming much more influenced by market research and demographic targeting, public stations across the country have become much more alike, transforming themselves largely into news/talk stations delivering programming from National Public Radio. "Morning Edition" airs on WETA from 6 to 9 and on WAMU from 5 to 10 a.m. (Both stations repeat all or part of the show, which runs two hours.) "All Things Considered," NPR's afternoon newsmagazine, airs on WETA from 4 till 6:30 and on WAMU from 4 to 8 in the evening (except for half an hour of the business news program "Marketplace" at 6 p.m.). WETA received thousands of letters of protest when it dropped its morning classical show in 1999, reducing its classical programming to nighttime and five hours at midday. Similarly, WAMU was flooded with howls of opposition when it killed off afternoon bluegrass programming in 2001. Despite such protests, public stations say the move to news makes sense -- financially, at least. The primary justification WETA offered when it dropped morning classical was that "Morning Edition" is simply the most popular program it could offer listeners during drive time. And indeed, although WETA's ratings did not soar when it replaced the classics with news, donations to the station did increase. And that's the key: News shows often draw more ears than music programming, but more important to many public stations, the news attracts more donation dollars, essential for stations that depend largely on listeners for the revenue that buys programming. For more than a decade now, a culture war has raged within public radio over whether public stations exist to serve the largest possible audience, or to serve smaller audiences whose desires are not fulfilled by commercial radio. The maximize-the-numbers crowd has won in most cities, accepting the view of public radio's most influential consultant, David Giovannoni, that any station's job is to attract the most listeners. Opponents argued that public radio should sound more like it did from the birth of FM through the 1980s, with a mix of news, talk, classical, jazz, folk and other kinds of music that you can't otherwise hear on the radio. As government funding for public radio declined, Giovannoni won the day. After WETA dropped morning classical, the audience for WGMS (103.5 FM), Washington's commercial classical station, did not double. Many of the 300,000 weekly listeners to the music on WETA simply stopped using the radio as their source for the classics. Some probably switched to CDs, MP3s or satellite radio -- the overall audience for old-fashioned broadcast radio has dropped steadily in recent years -- but many others likely did as they were told and started listening to the news in the morning. As for classics on public radio, for the most part they have become, as Mozart predicted, a little night music. Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher is the author of a forthcoming book on radio and American pop culture. (c) 2004 The Washington Post Company (via Mike Cooper, DXLD) ** U S A. As cume slips, duo aims to keep PBS `relevant` Programming co-chiefs John Wilson and Jacoba Atlas devise minimum ratings, seek `format` series http://www.current.org/pbs/pbs0407atlaswilson.shtml (Current via DXLD) Another critique of PBS: KQED AT 50 --- Liking KQED is like loving the Warriors http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/29/DDG4S6BR471.DTL&type=tvradio (via Current via DXLD) ** VENEZUELA [non]. Rádio Nacional da Venezuela !!!! Caros amigos, VENEZUELA VIA CUBA - Apenas a título de esclarecimento, como já foi alertado pelos colegas José Elias Díaz Gómez e Glenn Hauser: a Rádio Nacional da Venezuela não foi reativada em ondas curtas! Há um equívoco em informes postados em listas de discussões, baseados em notícias de um sítio do governo da Venezuela. O que ocorre é o seguinte: o pessoal do governo venezuelano pega alguns programas e despacha para a Rádio Havana Cuba retransmitir. Assim, para o dexismo, segundo o qual vale o local do transmissor, quem está no ar é a Rádio Havana Cuba. Combinando vários informes de correspondentes dexistas, Glenn Hauser, na edição do Rádio Enlace, emitido, em espanhol, pela Rádio Nederland, em 7 de maio, informa que os horários são os seguintes: às 1900, em 13740 kHz. Também às 2000, em 9550, 15230 e 17705 kHz. Já às 2100, em 6000 e 11875 kHz. Por fim, às 2300, em 9820 e 11760 kHz. Reparem que até as freqüências que a Rádio Havana Cuba usa para emitir em português estão no esquema da emissora venezuelana! (Adalberto Marques de Azevedo, Barbacena - MG - Brasil, Sócio do DX Clube do Brasil, http://www.ondascurtas.com Faça parte desta família!, Conexión Digital via DXLD) Hoy domingo a las 2345 UT, estoy escuchando a Radio Nacional de Venezuela a través de la frecuencia de los 11760 kHz de Radio Habana Cuba. La señal del transmisor de RHC está llegando muy bien. Faltando cinco minutos para las 0000, la señal de RNV por los 11760 kHz de RHC quedó interrumpida bruscamente cuando se transmitía una canción y no hubo despedida de la transmisión. A las 0000 comenzó a sonar la señal de intervalo de RHC, pero la misma fué cortada para identificar a la emisora como de costumbre, pero la misma fue cortada también y apareció el locutor de RHC leyendo las noticias. Este no fué un buen principio de transmisiones para la emisora internacional cubana. Atte: (José Elías Díaz Gómez, Barcelona, Edo Anzoategui, Venezuela, May 9, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RADIO EQUIPMENT FORUM +++++++++++++++++++++ THE NRC IBOC THREAD CONTINUES Barry, you're quite right, there is far, far more to it than just this one report - it Part 3 of a 3 part Ibiquity report compiled last year and very recently submitted to the FCC. The entire docket consists of 444 records, a few of which are quite lengthy. But, NOTHING else matters because all recommendations for night time IBOC have their basis in the field "tests" reported in Part 3. You may forget about the other 443 documents because this one will be the pillar of mush the FCC will use for the foundation of their ruling on night time use. This is a direct link to the index of FCC Docket 99-325: It is quite long and may need pasting in some mail readers. http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/websql/prod/ecfs/comsrch_v2.hts?ws_mode=retrieve_list&id_proceeding=99-325&start=1&end=442&first_time=N I feel compelled to point out that, back on March 5, the NAB filed a letter to the FCC recommending that blanket authorization for nighttime AM IBOC operation be given to any stations with current authorization to operate at night. In the letter, they cite three reports from iBiquity, which they claim support this position. The reports were also submitted to the FCC on that date. Actually, it was one report in three parts, but as you say, the NAB letter and Ibiquity report were filed SIMULTANEOUSLY, on March 5, although the dates of the sections of the reports are May 23, 2003; Oct. 30, 2003 and Oct. 31, 2003. This may be seen at: http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6515784942 ``In essence, the letter states that although there will be "limited" interference from IBOC to analog reception, this is an "acceptable tradeoff", given the benefits of the new digital mode.`` Part 3 of the report goes even further and says essentially there is no real interference in primary listening areas. It's insanity, pure and simple, insanity. ``Hmm... I wonder how AM broadcasters in Canada and Mexico, not to mention the small players in the US who can't afford to convert to digital, will view those "benefits"?`` At the moment, all are irrelevant. :-( The "small players" in the US are destined to remain irrelevant, until such time as they perish. It is possible that Canada and Mexico may wish to pursue remedy through the diplomatic channels open to them in the governing treaties, but that will take years. Remember that the adjacent channel problem is a function of the hybrid analog/digital system which is temporary until such time as the analogs go dark. (See the NPRM [opening document] of 99-325 at the bottom of the docket index.) ``You can download the NAB letter and the iBiquity reports from the FCC ECFS website. Just go to http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/comsrch_v2.cgi type in 99-325 in the Proceeding box, and click on Retrieve Document List.`` Using the very long link at the top of this post will take you directly to the full index of 444 docket entries where you can open any of them via the hot links provided. ``Links to the aforementioned documents will all show up on the first page of results.`` Here is the direct link to the NAB letter. http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6515784775 ``Those who listened to the WOR/WLW nighttime IBOC tests in 2002 will be particularly interested in the report entitled "Field Report - AM IBOC Nighttime Compatibility" (listed as Part 3 of 3 of the iBiquity submissions). The report concludes that the introduction of IBOC "will have an impact on very few listeners", but hey, the authors of the report could be just a little biased. All three reports are excellent examples of selective use of data, shaky assumptions, leaps of logic, and general spin doctoring.`` Which may be the reason the report so thoughtfully detailed their authors' credentials and their approval by the NRSC. ``The scary part is that, in the five weeks since the NAB recommendation was filed, there has been exactly *one* comment filed. This one is quietly slipping under the radar screen, and eventually the FCC will apply their rubber stamp and open the floodgates. As someone on another mailing list put it, conversion to AM IBOC is a process of "mutually assured destruction", and I think it's an apt description. The FCC needs to be told that this stuff is *not* in the public interest, and now is the time to get your comments in.`` It appears that time may have run out. There will be a meeting Thursday in DC, of the full Commission, and IBOC is on the agenda. All significant reports and comments are on file therefore it may be moved to lift the night time limit of the first Report and Order before going on to the business of a new NPRM to begin finalization of the "grand plan" for IBOC rules. Look here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-245919A1.pdf It is my hope that somewhere in this process enough rope will be lent to the respective heads of the FCC and NAB that they may find they have hung themselves, however doubtful that may appear at the moment. There is a possibility that, ultimately, questions will be raised in Congress provided enough Representatives and Senators are copied on complaints of interference TO PRIMARY (protected) LISTENING AREAS by their constituents. To think of stopping the FCC at this point with simple reason is quite naive, and that is an understatement. Bob, Neal may be less than charitable toward Ibiquity, but that doesn't mean he's wrong. I've heard a few rumblings in private conversations that lead me to believe Ibiquity may put the old telco "it's not our line" to shame once IBOC lights up around the country and complaints start pouring in. Incredible contempt may just become the order of the day. It's not so much "overloading", although that claim can be expected, as it is "emerging sidebands" which are a "characteristic of obsolete analog radios". IOW, (sound of trumpets) HD Radio works, because Ibiquity says so, and the FCC has approved of this message. :-[p (Pssst! Wanna buy a bridge?) So, march right out to your local retailer and buy that overpriced piece of junque with the HD logo - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! So, sayeth Ibiquity. |G| Sorry, but I have to laugh to keep away the tears. The problem is they have co-opted the lexicon of the discussion and are setting the standards, making the rules, while the FCC sits there, rubber stamping all of it because they have lost all ability of discerning anything except politics. At least that's my opinion of them based on their recent actions (Phil Alexander, CSRE, Indianapolis, ibid.) I still hold Tom in high regard, I consider him a friend, and I'm going to come to his defense (to an extent) here in reply to some of the postings from Powell, Kevin and others. Tom's got a job to do. He's paid by Buckley to keep WOR on the air and competitive, engineering-wise, in the nation's #1 market. Many of us who are employed in the business have said it before on the list (and in some cases have been driven off the list as a result): Like it or not, the first, last and only factor of economic importance to ANY AM radio station these days is its coverage within its home market. If Tom's been dismissive of the DX community in some of his interactions with us, it's because we've failed to respect that reality. So if you're the chief engineer of a standalone AM facility with one of the best (some would say THE best) signals in the #1 market in America and you get the opportunity to test out a system that has the promise to make you sound as good as an FM (and without the nasty multipath that afflicts FM in the core of that market), are you going to say no? Of course not. Tom wouldn't be doing his job for his station's owners if he had let that opportunity slip away. I deleted Tom's actual words here, so I'm going to have to paraphrase, but I actually agree - from his point of view - with many of the points he made. I've seen his measurements and listened to his signal (both in analog AND digital mode - can anyone else here say that?) and I agree with him that the signal he's putting out is compliant with the NRSC mask and thus 100% legal as far as the FCC is concerned. As Phil Alexander has pointed out - far better than I ever could - the problem is that the mask was never meant to handle the kind of constant energy so far off-center from the carrier that IBOC puts into it. But that's a regulatory issue. It's not Tom's problem. I also agree with Tom's comments about the restricted bandwidth he's now putting out on his analog signal. As we discussed in the QOTW thread last week about AM sound quality, there's certainly no question that an AM signal can still sound incredibly good with proper processing at the transmitter end and a wideband receiver at the listener's end. But I'm the only person I know who's using a Denon TU680NAB to tune in WXXI 1370 here in Rochester. The signal that sounds so very good on that setup here at home doesn't sound anywhere near as good in my car, or at my parents' house, or even on the air monitor at work - and like it or not, THOSE are the radios that the real-world listeners are using, if they're bothering with AM at all. That's not an ideal situation for AM broadcasters, and we can all use our 20/20 hindsight to figure out what could have been done better - but it's not going to change at this point. So, again, put yourself in Tom's shoes: if you can alter your analog signal in a way that will be noticed by only a tiny fraction of your listenership in exchange for getting that digital signal on the air, are you going to let a vanishingly small number of complaints stop you, especially when you know they're coming from people who weren't regular listeners to begin with? And I'll also point out that the comments quoted from Tom on the list yesterday were taken somewhat out of context. I believe they were meant largely as a reply to a certain incessant critic who's managed to make himself a pariah in most of the engineering community. I don't want to start a flamewar, but suffice it to say that a little sugar goes a lot farther than all the vinegar that's been spread around on another messageboard - and that Tom tried to reach out to the individual in question and even invited him to visit the WOR transmitter site and studios and see the system for himself, an invitation that was refused. That doesn't enhance that individual's credibility in my eyes, and I know I'm far from alone in the broadcast community in refusing to have any further dealings with that person or any of the message boards in which he's involved. I don't blame Tom for responding as caustically as he did; he was only responding in kind to the criticism he was receiving. Tom maintains an open-door policy. Anyone who's interested in what he's doing at WOR is generally welcome (within the confines of Tom's schedule, of course) to come out and to see and hear the testing that's being conducted. Tom has been very conscientious about sharing all the details of his testing via the WOR engineering website and in the industry trade periodicals (I've lost count of how many articles he's done in Radio World, and in the interest of full disclosure I should note that I've written at least once for RW about Tom's testing.) And anyone who's had the chance to meet Tom in person will find that he's anything but a mouthpiece for Ibiquity and can in fact be quite critical of the system. That's part of the testing process, after all; the Ibiquity developers depend on the feedback they get from engineers like Tom to know what's working and what isn't. Having said all that, I want to be very clear that I don't think the Ibiquity system as it now exists will be the good thing that broadcasters hope it will be. I've been saying for years (and Tom would happily agree with me, I think) that WOR is about the least representative test station for the system that it's possible to find - no stations of any consequence on either first-adjacent channel and a considerable distance to the second-adjacents, plus a blowtorch signal that completely blankets its home market day and night. As Phil A. and others have pointed out, when the system makes it out into the real world, most stations won't get those same results, and we'll see a huge disconnect between the few "haves" and the many, many "have- nots." The likelihood, as Phil accurately assesses, is that the regulators will botch it, big time. But that's not Tom's problem to fix, and I can understand why he bristles at the criticism that's aimed his way for the system as a whole. His job was merely to try the system out on his one signal, and he did that in an incredibly open way that I think should be a model for the engineering community as a whole. It's now up to the regulators, not to Tom, to figure out where to go from here. s (Scott Fybush, NY, Apr 14, ibid.) Scott: You left out the fact that Tom has made terribly innacurate technical claims about receiver overload being the cause of interference reports and audio quality of the codec that was eventually rejected. Less significantly, he also was terribly dismissive and closed-minded when he was posting to some radio lists. (Chuck Hutton, WA, ibid.) I've had a similar experience. He is rather thin skinned regarding IBOC issues. I was in Lancaster PA when WOR and WLW were running tests and When WLW was on IBOC, you couldn`t hear WOR and when WOR was on WLW could be heard but it no one would listen long. I sent a not to Mr. Ray and told him of my findings. He sent a very curt reply back that I was not in his listening area, and WOR did not care about my findings. Even though Lancaster is within the .5mv contour of WOR....Hmmmmm. I'm not trying to flame him. He is a proud advocate of this technology and chooses to ignore the obvious. Thankfully, there are other engineers that silently are working in the background to make IBOC better or at least not so prone to interference (Paul Smith, W4KNX, Sarasota, FL, ibid.) As I pointed out once before on this list, many major league sports teams make six, seven and even eight figure time buys on stations, or receive a similar total in rights fees. This approximately three hour program is essentially an infomercial for the team to push tickets and merchandise. These teams, especially for baseball, NEED to reach beyond diary areas since a vast majority of teams have fans scattered over several states. A network can fill holes, but not all of them. And with baseball, vacationing fans well beyond diary areas want to listen to their team's games when at the beach or in the mountains. These are the same people who have the diaries for the home market and support the advertisers. When the Phillies and Tigers switched their coverage from 1210 and 760 to stations on regional frequencies, the clubs were inundated with complaints, and continue to be. I have a friend in Valley Forge (west suburb of PHA) who has great trouble picking up WPEN at night. I work every week with VP's of Marketing for teams. They're concerned with the "here and now" of sales, not for some hoped for technology ten or more years down the road and what it might do. If they find that sales are lagging, and customers are greatly annoyed because of radio interference, they will come running to us and ask for an explanation why they're paying bundles of cash for what can be construed as a watered down product. If you have a 50k signal on a fairly clear frequency, why even the playing field with the competition? (Bob Galerstein, WB2VGD, Morris Plains, NJ, ibid.) While I certainly agree with your basic statement about the local area, I want to point out that, as per Paul's post, "local area" or "coverage area" means different things to different people, and included on both sides are a number of broadcast engineers. But I don't think it is necessary (nor responsible) for someone in his position to have made some of the statements he has. I don't know where the line is between what he truly believes and what he feels professionally compelled to say, but sometimes it's better to say less than to inflame and give ammunition to your opponents. And sometimes exaggeration, and 'wishful thinking' statements are not the way to win an argument. A good portion of the negativity has been directed at him in various forums is, something he has at least partially brought upon himself. And none of my comments above should be interpreted as saying he's a bad guy or that he's lying or not a good engineer or any of the like. He just hasn't handled this whole thing very well IMHO, and has made his own mess worse than it needed to be (Russ Edmunds, PA, ibid.) Looks like existing daytime stations can go immediate night IBOC with a routine STA --- How much you bet WOR is first.... (Paul Smith, W4KNX, Sarasota, FL, ibid.) Viz.: Released: 04/14/2004. COMMENT SOUGHT ON USE OF DIGITAL AM TRANSMISSIONS DURING NIGHTTIME HOURS. (DA No. 04-1007). (Dkt No 99-325). Comments Due: 06/14/2004. Reply Comments Due: 07/14/2004. MB. Contact: Charles N. Miller or Ann Gallagher at (202) 418-2700 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-04-1007A1.doc http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-04-1007A1.pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-04-1007A1.txt (via Paul Smith) Before we criticise radio stations or their engineers or other official personnel, perhaps it would be well to stop a moment and reflect on the station`s purpose of existing. Whatever else is significant, no station exists for the benefit of the random DX listener. They exist to draw listeners in their normal coverage area, to sell air time to advertisers seeking to reach that audience. If they can't draw a consistent audience and enough sponsors to pay the bills, they are soon out of business. I have a cousin who is Director of Engineering at a major outlet and half a dozen smaller stations and 4 FM's. He can relate numerous stories of DXers who write letters that end up in his office and the station's public file. Some DEMAND a QSL for an all but worthless report. He has abusive letters in response to a denial of a QSL due to insufficient details. He has received abusive and demanding letters DAMNING him, the station, the management and anyone else in sight for something. These can include among others, AM stereo tests back when that concept was new, IBOC today, somebody did not hear a top of the ID, their newscast was too conservative, or the same news was way too liberal. That they did not support the President or that they did support an unworthy President. Condemning regardless of circumstances, demanding never asking. In general disrespectful, demanding and rude. He mentioned several names familiar to him for repeated letters of this type. Perhaps I should not have been surprised, but I was, when I realised that 3 of those he considered the worst offenders are actually NRC members. I wonder how often a CE has failed to QSL a report from an NRC member because another NRC'er had blasted in a complaint. The result is a black eye for the NRC and for DX'ers in general. Remember the old saw, "you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. Think about it (Ken Chatterton, ibid.) I agree with Ken's honey/vinegar analogy. Rude, boorish behaviour will turn an opponent into an enemy and also cost support from potential allies. Reach people who might otherwise disagree, by taking a strategic, creative approach. Don't get mad, get results! DXers must speak clearly, articulately and loudly about issues that affect the hobby. If our polite, respectful intervention means less cooperation re QSLs and DX tests, then so be it. If our intervention is civil and thoughtful, it will be more effective, and we will maintain more of our positive connections with engineering staff. Keep in mind the fight is largely against bloated bureaucracies (FCC, Industry canada, CRTC...) that isn't serving the public interest, and also a few large, well-connected companies. The engineers just work for (some of) them and most probably want to do what's right. Perhaps, by contacting local engineers about IBOC and getting to know them in the process, and getting them to see us as allies, we will increase the odds they will QSL reports and run DX tests, because they will know who we are and appreciate our help (Saul Chernos, Ont., ibid.) First, my apologies - I WAS WRONG - time for opposition remains. However, I remain dubious about the good it may do. Here's the link to the FCC notice inviting comment on night time IBOC use: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-04-1007A1.pdf - - Now, on with our program - - |g| (Paul Smith, ibid.) ``If Tom's been dismissive of the DX community in some of his interactions with us, it's because we've failed to respect that reality.`` And, those who have not worked IN broadcasting can't possibly feel the pain of that reality. Unlike Scott, I don't know Tom Ray although I've read some of the things he's written. I'll neither endorse, nor condemn him. (The same is true of Jeff Littlejohn.) Sometimes, I think he is overly influenced by the folks at Ibiquity, but he gets to see the BEST they can produce, and I would expect he's constantly bombarded by their rosy expectations for the future. A little too much enthusiasm on his part is understandable. I very much doubt they tell him ALL about the other side - the problems, known and expected, that they are trying to resolve. I do wish Tom would consider one of the problems of IBOC when repeating the Ibiquity "party line" That is that there is, or will be, a HUGE disconnect between expectations and practical results. IBOC has been sold as a way to transition to digital within the present spectrum, seamlessly, with legacy support for analog until a natural turnover replaces most of the analog sets with those equipped for digital. Yet, the only place IBOC seems to work well is under carefully controlled (almost laboratory) conditions. That is the beginning of the idea that, "It's just your obsolete analog junk receiver causing the problem." IF A SYSTEM PROPOSES AN EVOLUTIONARY ADVANCE IT SHOULD BE BACKWARD COMPATIBLE WITH ***MOST*** OF THE EXISTING EQUIPMENT OF THE PREVIOUS GENERATION. From what most of us have seen, IBOC is NOT, else the, "Hey, it's YOUR receiver, NOT our product, that's at fault." would be unnecessary. However, Tom is not the problem, nor is the FCC the problem - although the present group of commissioners is a significant part of it. THE problem is a vastly different attitude of the general populace toward technology as compared with that prevailing 40 or 50 years ago. Technology is infinitely more complex and much harder for the average person to grasp. It's my experience that when understanding fails, most people turn political in the sense that it's all about opinion. As we know, everybody has one. |g| However, the technically inept appointing the technically ignorant is ultimately a prescription for disaster, sooner or later to be rectified at substantial cost. A good example is the Detroit of the early '70's and the Japanese auto invasion that resulted. Now, it's a bunch of politicos lacking the technical ability to follow the directions for programming a VCR appointing LAWYERS to supervise the operations of an agency that, at it's most fundamental level, is based on the laws of physics. As I used to say to a fellow I worked for, "I don't give a damn what policy memo you write telling apples to fall upward off a tree limb, they WILL fall down, and if you are under one when that happens you probably won't like the result." ``The likelihood, as Phil accurately assesses, is that the regulators will botch it, big time.`` Actually, Scott, my point was (and is) that they HAVE done that already. |g| In the chaos of the real world, IBOC will be, at best, barely workable. It will cost many marginal stations that were added after 1965, and may hurt some who think it won't happen to THEM. However, the damage will be done by the time that's recognized. FWIW, my attitude, as one who sooner or later must deal with making it play, is that it's what we have been given, try to make it play as best we can, and hope those responsible suffer the consequences. (Does it surprise anyone that I'm hoping for later rather than sooner? |g|) My expectation is that night time IBOC will be approved. Stations will begin lighting up around the country, and chaos will ensue. The only resolution I can see is accelerating the date of analog cut-off and forcing the digital signals into center channel. The problem will be with older cars. To save the "AM" band, it will require forcing FM to kill analog at the same time as "AM" IMHO, because anything less than that will dry up "AM" ad revenue overnight. The IBOC Night time card is missing two punches before they can approve. As has been earlier reported the final date for reply comments is July, thus, if they run true to form, the first non- experimental night time IBOC should light up shortly after Labor Day The FCC phrase is Primary Area. That generally means the 70 dBu for FM and the 2.5 mv/m daytime - NIF night time for AM. The NAB has recommended that ALONE is important to the broadcasters and losing everything else is insignificant compared with the gains (? - don't ask!) of wunnerful, wunnerful (sound of trumpets) HD radio. ``The vast majority of the criticism here, as others have said before here, belongs to iBiquity and their play-toys, the FCC Commissioners.`` Someone appointed them, and the Senate confirmed them. Both clearly were wrong - but it goes back a long way - far beyond the present crew. This is another child of deregulation, in this case, run amok. When IBOC was first approved, I read all the propaganda and thought it was a very promising solution. In fact, I was very much in favor of the idea as the way to equalize broadcasting with satcasting. Then, early one evening in August, I heard the WLW tests and tuned 690 and 710. This was on a basic Delco radio. That's when I realized we were in BIG trouble. Since then, although the audio codec may be a bit better, both the actions of Ibiquity and every unbiased report I've heard confirm what I heard that evening. HD radio is a disaster in the process of happening (Phil Alexander, CSRE, Indianapolis, ibid.) It's interesting that you should mention Jeff Littlejohn. Two years ago, he produced a report that anyone interested in AM IBOC should read. You can download it at http://www.nrscstandards.org/Clearchannelrprt.pdf (fear not, unlike some of the weighty tomes from iBiquity, it's short and easy to read). The report gives the results of field tests to determine the impact on reception of WARK-1490 when WTOP-1500 runs IBOC. Basically, they loaded up a van with half a dozen different AM receivers and drove to a number of locations where they could receive WARK, measured the field strength of both WARK and WTOP, and then cycled IBOC on and off on WTOP while observing the effect on the received audio quality with the various receivers. The tests were done in daytime only, so skywave was not a factor. The key parameter in these tests was the ratio between the field strength of the desired station and the field strength of the undesired first adjacent station, commonly referred to as the D/U ratio. The report gives results for eight D/U ratios, ranging from 12:1 (21.6 dB) down to 1:4 (-12 dB). The *only* case in which IBOC interference was not noticeable was for the 21.6 dB D/U ratio (not surprising, since this puts the primary digital sideband that hits 1490 some 37.6 dB below the desired signal). In this location, WARK was at 1.2 mV/m field strength, while WTOP was a mere 0.1 mV/m. For all other test locations, WARK was initially listenable on all radios, but when IBOC was added, the interference ranged from "noticeable" to "significant" to completely blotting out the desired signal (at -12 dB D/U, WARK would have an SNR of about 4 dB when IBOC was turned on - not good!). What is really significant about these tests is that they directly contradict the test results previously provided by iBiquity. In those results, iBiquity claimed that all of the tested receivers were unlistenable when first adjacent D/U ratios were 1:1 (0 dB) *without* IBOC. So, even though IBOC made things a lot worse, it didn't matter because straight analog reception was so bad that nobody would be listening under those conditions anyway. This struck a false note with me when I first read it. Consider nighttime AM reception when you tune through a part of the band where you have no locals - signals are often roughly the same strength as you go from channel to channel (i.e., roughly 0 dB first adjacent D/U ratios, but you're getting it from both sides). You may have lots of problems with co-channel interference, but not really from adjacents unless they are much stronger than the station you're tuned to (unless your radio is really a piece of junk). Yet, to hear iBiquity tell it, AM reception would be unlistenable in such a situation. In contrast, Littlejohn says that analog reception was fine at 0 dB D/U on a variety of receivers in his tests. Not only that, it was still listenable when the D/U was 12 dB worse than that - something that would seem impossible if you believed the iBiquity test results. Clearly there was something about those tests that did not reflect reality (and Littlejohn says as much in his report), but they were an important part of the case for giving AM IBOC the green light. Littlejohn was clearly dismayed by these results, and considering that he's employed by Clear Channel, a major iBiquity investor, he didn't pull his punches (much, anyway). He concluded that "if the results found in our abbreviated field test can be extrapolated to all situations, we feel that the impact of adding IBOC to the AM band will be profoundly deleterious". CC subsequently recommended that the digital signal be reduced by 6 dB to reduce the interference, but this wasn't met with much enthusiasm, since it reduces the digital coverage considerably. Now, fastforward to 2004. A couple of months ago, Littlejohn was appointed to iBiquity's board of directors: http://beradio.com/ar/radio_iboc_update_feb/#littlejohn I guess that means we won't be hearing any more of that "profoundly deleterious" talk from his lips! The kind of interference studied in the Littlejohn report becomes much more prevalent at night. A station may not have groundwave first adjacents with levels approaching 0 dB D/U, or it may happen only in a portion of their coverage area that is nearest to the interfering IBOC station, but at night it almost certainly will occur, and it will be all around their coverage area, not just in one sector. And it will likely come from both sides. And there may also be serious interference from second adjacents. Even the suspect iBiquity test data showed serious problems with some receivers subjected to second adjacent IBOC interference, but neither the WARK/WTOP nor the WOR/WLW field tests looked at this problem at all. The evidence that has been put forward in support of AM IBOC operation at night is lame and unconvincing. The FCC should be given this message loud and clear during the next month. The tactic of iBiquity has always been to downplay the interference problems, with the hope that by the time the true extent of the problems come to light, there will be so much investment and momentum behind IBOC that there can be no turning back. Maybe there's still a chance to let some air out of those tires (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ibid.) The other difference is in Jeff's immediate boss structure at Clear Channel. I don't think the people he reports to now would be riding around in a van listening to WARK and WTOP, or would even know what WARK and WTOP are. I know for a fact that his boss back in 2001 was riding with him and was directly involved in the engineering behind that report. The future of IBOC might be very different if that boss were still in charge ---and that's about as much as I can say about that. s (Scott Fybush, ibid.) It may be that money will be the main constraint. How many small AM's can put $50K to $150K into their plants with no promise of increased return? It will take an Ibiquity exciter, a very good PDM transmitter and a clean transmission system including (a) low Q tower(s) and broadband matching. Even at 500 W or 1 kW, this is not cheap. Then there is the audio and audio processing which is another 15 to 50 K$ (for those going the conventional route). We may not see very many IBOC's light up below market #50 until the day of conversion to full digital is upon us, and then, some, perhaps half, may go silent (Phil Alexander, CSRE, Indianapolis, ibid.) FCC EXPLORES RULES FOR DIGITAL AUDIO BROADCASTING. Goal to Promote the Introduction of Digital Radio Services for Americans. News Release. Comments Due: 06/16/2004. Reply Comments Due: 07/16/2004. Adopted: 04/15/2004. News Media Contact: Michelle Russo at (202) 418-2358 MB. Contact Ben Golant at (202) 418-7111, TTY: (202) 418-7172 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A1.doc http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A2.doc http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A3.doc http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A4.doc http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A1.pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A2.pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A3.pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A4.pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A1.txt http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A2.txt http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A3.txt http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-246150A4.txt (Posted by Harold Richards from the F.C.C.s Daily Digest Vol. 23 No. 74, for the vacationing Fred (Nickleman) Vobbe who is off to Las Vegas, ibid.) And an IBOC story: Tom Ray cornered me in the hallway yesterday to tell me a true tale from back home in NYC. He said WOR's IBOC encoder glitched a couple of nights ago, taking the digital off the air for a few hours. Two people called the station to complain about the missing digital - and Tom says they weren't engineers. So apparently two people, at least, now have receivers (and 17,999,998 in WOR's market still don't, hi...) s (Scott Fybush, NV, ibid.) This is from the "PUBTech" discussion list (for engineers at NPR stations) about an HD listening session conducted at a recent conference by the Harris folks. Remember, this is primarily for FM stations, but it's still pretty interesting in light of the discussions(?) that have been raging here lately. The gist: 96K data rate is fine, and even 64K produces reasonably clean audio, as long as you DON'T use the crappy audio processor that they're marketing along with it (Neural Audio's "Neustar" processor)!! (or until the bugs are worked out of the latter. The guy who wrote this up was going to do some testing & tweaking of his own with Harris's blessing) (Randy Stewart/Springfield MO, ibid.) --------- Folks, For those of you who didn't hang out to the bitter end of the PREC HD Listening session on Saturday April 16th here are a couple of notes. I was not happy with the audio quality during the HD Radio demo Harris did that Saturday evening. All of the tracks Harris played exhibited significant artifacts even at 96K data rate. Just to make sure I wasn't just having a bad auditory evening, I asked several other folks at the demo what they thought of the audio quality (including several of the big HD Radio proponents from NPR) and the consensus was that the audio presented by Harris was not good. At the end of the Harris provided cuts we were able to submit our own disks for a listen. Gordon Carter, WFMT, played a classical cut which sounded strident and just plain wrong. There was no HF "air" and the decay of sound was truncated unnaturally. Imaging was vague and unstable. The sound was flat with no depth. Tonal quality was hard and harsh. Rich Parker, VPR, played a violin and piano cut. The violin didn't remotely sound like a violin. Again very flat sounding, no HF air and truncated reverb tails. The tonal quality of the violin reminded me of fingernails on a chalkboard. These tests were done at 96K data rate and they were to my ears 100% unacceptable. After several discussions with the Harris folks by Gordon and myself we asked them to remove the Neural Audio processor, NeuStar, from the chain and play the same cuts again. With the NeuStar processor removed, the audio quality improved dramatically. In fact it improved so much that the general consensus among the engineers was that for Classical and Jazz the 96K data rate would be acceptable. The violin cut imaging stopped "swimming" and there was depth to the image. Tonality improved remarkably to the point were the violin sounded like a violin, not a cat being tortured. On the classical cut the strings had some air and depth. The reverb tails were restored and imagining was stable. Tonality was greatly improved. We also auditioned the same cuts with the NeuStar Neural Audio processor out of the chain at 64K (Tomorrow Radio data rate) and found that the audio quality was reasonable. As someone who has been highly critical of the HD Radio audio quality it was quite a revelation as to how good the 96 K data rate was once we removed the NeuStar from the chain. If you are thinking about using Harris HD Radio equipment you might want to forgo putting the NeuStar Neural Audio processor in your air chain until Harris gets a handle on these issues. Harris has committed to sending me a NeuStar and I have committed to trying it and sharing my setups with them and all of you when I have tweaked it. For better audio... Mike Pappas, Chief Engineer Jazz 89, KUVO Public Radio 303/988-0976 http://www.kuvo.org "Never have so few done so much with so little for so many." KUVO Engineering Department motto (via Randy Stewart, NRC-AM via DXLD) Kevin Redding wrote: ``Why can't people understand that it's the programming? . . . . . Programming. Not audio quality. Programming.`` I'm getting onto this topic late, but Kevin nailed it with those observations. The reason why I have XM in my office and car is for the programming, more specifically the programming options. I get over 100 "stations" running every format imaginable from ersatz 1960s Top 40 to pre-1960 country (when was the last time you heard Bob Wills on AM or FM?) to the Velvet Underground. All with better than FM sound, no commercials, and it's just $10 a month. Even if all AM and FM stations go IBOC, they will not be able to match the programming choices available on XM or Sirius. And you'll still have to wade through those on-air spots to hear anything decent anyway. Outside of DXing and Howard Stern, I NEVER listen to terrestrial radio any longer. I'm "gone" from the AM/FM audience and I'm never coming back. And it's not because of the codec, or because "it's digital," or any of the other numbnuts reasons IBOC boosters like Tom Ray like to parrot. It's because of what I hear coming out of the radio, not how it's transmitted. People like choice and are willing to vote for it with their dollars. That's why more people get TV via cable now than through antennas. It's also why Radio Shack is getting clobbered by "big box" stores such as Circuit City, and why "Mom and Pop" stores have been made extinct by Wal-Mart. People like having choices, and --- IBOC or no IBOC --- there is no way AM and FM can offer the programming choices available via XM and Sirius. Why does this matter for AM/FM DXing? Because eventually you're going to see a lot of terrestrial broadcasters go dark as a result of competition from satellite radio and nascent technologies such as WiFi radio. We're in for a very interesting and exciting few years as these new broadcasting technologies take hold. I'm sticking by my prediction that we will see fewer AM stations in 2011 than were on the air in 2001. Maybe in 2024 we'll take a break from the Chelsea Clinton-Jenna Bush presidential race and relax by doing some DXing on an AM band that sounds more like it did in 1964 than it does in 2004 (Harry Helms, W7HLH, Las Vegas, NV DM26, ibid.) While I would be delighted if your prediction would come true, I doubt that it ever will. Because no matter how many stations go dark, there will always be someone who will want to take over that frequency. Whether it be for "community" radio, to serve some niche market, or just someone who enjoys hearing their own voice, there never seems to be a shortage of people wanting to operate radio stations. Maybe the economics don't make sense, but as one example, look at the number of religious stations on the air. These people aren't nearly as concerned about breaking even as they are about getting their message out. I think that these types of operators will fill the vacuum left by the commercial broadcasters who find that they can't make it anymore. I think it's doubtful that the FCC will ever care enough about the AM band to take the opportunity to "thin out" the band. Unless of course the stations that are left decide to use their clout to get the FCC to do it. In which case you'd probably be looking at an all-digital AM band (Brian Leyton, Valley Village, CA, ibid.) The IBOC digital signal is not confined to the station's own channel; some of it is transmitted in the two adjacent channels. Actually, analog stations also transmit some signal in the two adjacent channels, if the maximum modulating frequency exceeds 5KHz. (in countries like the USA where stations are 10KHz apart) However, in analog this out-of-channel energy doesn't exist very often, only when the station is transmitting an audio frequency above 5 KHz. With IBOC, the out-of-channel energy is there *all the time*. Some DXers are reporting IBOC causing interference to stations more than 10 kHz from the IBOC station (for example, WOR-710 causing problems on 690 and 730) This cannot be explained by the IBOC theory - there shouldn't be any energy in 2nd/3rd adjacent channels. But I'm hearing these reports from DXers who I trust to understand what's going on, and who are using good receivers at a considerable distance from the transmitter, so I believe these signals are actually present. My best guess is there's some kind of non-linearity in the transmitter causing the IBOC digital carriers to mix with each other, creating mixing products outside the band where they're supposed to be (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66, May 7, ibid.) There's really no mystery here, Doug. Interference from 2nd adjacent IBOC was well documented in the original test reports produced by iBiquity. Unfortunately, hardly anyone read those reports, and the NRSC, who were responsible for evaluating them, just glossed over the interference problems. No surprise, since the NRSC is stacked with industry types who have a vested interest in seeing IBOC succeed (this is why some insiders say NRSC stands for "National Rubber Stamp Committee"). Anyway, three out of the four receivers tested showed moderate to severe impairment to reception when subjected to 2nd adjacent IBOC at 0 dB D/U. The only one that wasn't significantly affected was the Delphi car radio. And guess what - this is the one iBiquity chose to use in their interference modeling studies! Go figure. The susceptibility to adjacent channel interference depends on the receiver's IF filter characteristics. Receivers with relatively good 1st adjacent rejection, like the Delphi, are very much affected by 1st adjacent IBOC, because it appears as co-channel noise. If the IBOC is on the 2nd adjacent, the IF filters do a pretty good job of taking care of it. Most AM receivers, OTOH, have poor first adjacent rejection, so they're already badly affected by the analog interference, and adding IBOC doesn't make a whole lot of difference. But their 2nd adjacent rejection is much better (getting into the steeper part of the IF filter rolloff), so it takes out the analog interference, and instead they get zapped by the IBOC sideband that appears on the first adjacent. I really don't think it's a transmitter issue at all (obviously it wouldn't have been in the well-controlled lab tests). The WOR engineering guys got their noses out of joint when accused of radiating stuff outside the emission mask, and I don't blame them. You can be sure that they, and most others running IBOC, took particular care in setting up the transmitter and checking the radiated spectrum, probably with considerable hand-holding from iBiquity. Does that all make sense? (Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON, ibid.) Fred, they must measure the entire NRSC mask which extends out to a floor to catch all spurs and harmonics. Anything in the +/- 30 kHz range will be very closely observed. However, that's not the problem. As Barry has pointed out, the real problem is that the mark was never intended for this purpose. The mask limits are listed in IIRC 73.44 or near that, and titled performance measurements. (It's late and I'm befuddled or I'd know it of the top of my head.) Now, in addition to that, there apparently is a new problem with "emerging sidebands", or regrowth. This my not be new at all, but apparently iBiquity is looking at it, or trying to spin it that way. It appears that as operating conditions change, the sidebands tend to start growing, sometimes through the mask limits. What's not yet clear is the extent of this. If it happens in transmission, in reception, or exactly how. I'd be very interested if anyone hears mention of that phrase, "emerging sidebands" anywhere (Phil Alexander, CSRE, Broadcast Engineering Services and Technology, (a Div. of Advanced Parts Corporation) Ph. (317) 335-2065 FAX (317) 335-9037, ibid.) OPINION: AM Must Roll or Risk Gathering Moss Tom Ray addresses some common concerns about IBOC. http://www.radioworld.com/reference-room/iboc/04_rwrf_may_5_part_1.shtml (Radio World May 5 via DXLD) ###