Stern dollars

[Dan Strassberg]

I don't think IBOC will blow up FM. If it really gets going on AM, though,
it could blow up AM, whose current state of health is rather tenuous. The
mixed-mode technology just doesn't work well enough with AM's limited
bandwidth--and it never will. OTOH, IBOC could work on the AM band if the AM
part of the system went away and the digital info on the sidebands were
moved to the center of the channel. This would leave an overly complex,
poorer performing, proprietary version of DRM whose only real reason for its
being used (as opposed to the real DRM) would be the need to keep iBiquity's
royalty stream alive. Presumably, AM stations that invested in HD Radio
would preserve their investments, but given the magnitude of the changes
that would be necessary with the elimination of the AM part of HD Radio,
that assertion would have to be proven in practice. My guess is that the
changeover would be just as painful and almost as costly as the initial
installation of HD Radio. Moreover, the assertion that HD Radio receivers
can be reprogrammed to work with a modified system that lacks AM signals
would also have to be proven in practice. I think this two-phase approach to
an incompatible (with analog) all-digital AM-band version of HD Radio would
leave such a bad taste in the public's mouth that they would simply walk
away from the AM band when analog transmissions that they can receive on
existing receivers cease to be available. Maybe the industry will wake up to
the enormity of this self-inflicted mess before it's too late, but I'm not
sure.

--

Dan Strassberg
dan.strassberg@att.net
Fax: 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: SteveOrdinetz <steveord@bit-net.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 7:41 AM
Subject: Re: Stern dollars


> Bill O'Neill wrote:
>
> >Just tuned over to Stern and he's pushing his new medium.  In typical
> >Stern style, he predicted that sat radio will blow up FM in five years.
> >He likens his planned move (as are some columnists) to Uncle Milty moving
> >to television from radio.
>
> I'd like some of whatever it is Stern is smoking.  While satellite radio
is
> a good place for shock jocks like him, Bubba the Love Sponge, Dopey &
> Anthony and others of their ilk, I can't see it "blowing up" FM anytime
> soon, if ever.  If anything "blows up" terrestrial radio it will be IBOC.
>
> I'm amazed that his "persecuted artiste" schtik has held up all these
> years.  Would serve him right if the move bombed badly.
>
>