HD Callsigns

[Ken VanTassell]

The WEEI legal ID now Lists WVEI-FM HD2 as a seperate part of the ID

I have a HD radio in my car and the coverage on that radio here in
chelmsford is pretty bad. The Boston stations go in and out of HD all
the time so the HD-2 channels are all but useless.

-Ken

On 11/19/07, Mark Casey <map@mapinternet.com> wrote:
> The rules don't seem to say that a station has to identify whether its'
> digital signal is on AM, FM or both.
>
> So, if WINS's broadcast was available in 3 places:
> An analog signal on 1010, a digital signal on 1010, and was carried on
> (102.7FM) WWFS-HD2, would an ID of "WINS, New York and WINS digital" or
> WINS, New York and WINS HD" suffice for any combination of the AM & FM
> digital similcasts?
>
> Or, would the ID have to be "WINS, New York, WINS HD(WINS Digital), and
> WWFS-HD(or WWFS-HD2, or WWFS Digital, or WWFS-Digital 2) if WINS was on all
> 3. The rules could use a bit of clarification.
>
> Do any of the Boston area FM's have an AM station on their digital channels
> yet, or are there any plans?
>
> Haven't heard any stations using "Digital" in their ID instead of "HD", and
> I don't expect to, but it looks like the rules permit that choice.
>
> Any comments on available HD car radios? Circuit City had one for $99 a
> couple weeks ago. I'd rather keep the factory radio or upgrade to factory
> HD. In Sept., Ford announced the 2008 models will have HD available and for
> retrofit down to 2005. I asked the local Ford Dealer out here and he said
> that they don't have any info on it yet. One source on the internet quoted a
> customer saying it was about $300 for the conversion on a 2005+ Ford factory
> radio.
>
> Mark Casey
> K1MAP
> Western Mass.
>
>
> When the rules for the Digital Radio Service became effective on
> September 14th, HD Radio's experimental status ended, AM-HD was
> authorized for nighttime use, and the legal ID rule (73.1201) was
> amended to add the following text:
>
> "A radio station operating in DAB hybrid mode or extended hybrid mode
> shall identify its digital signal, including any free multicast audio
> programming streams, in a manner that appropriately alerts its audience
> to the fact that it is listening to a digital audio broadcast."
>
> I would gather, from that wording, that leaving the ID as "WINS New
> York" on WWFS's HD2 channel is probably not sufficient (that does not ID
> the stream as being a digital broadcast), but then, I'm not a
> communications lawyer either.  A simultaneous ID of "WINS and WWFS-HD2,
> New York" might make more sense for those puzzled over hearing WINS on
> the FM band.
>
> Sid Schweiger
>
>