HD Callsigns --> Question re AM HD

[Howard Glazer]

----- Original Message -----
From: Sid Schweiger <sid@wrko.com>
To: 'B-R-I' <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:03 AM
Subject: Re: HD Callsigns --> Question re AM HD


> >>Will *all* AM stations be able to broadcast in HD?<<
>
> They can now.
>
> >>We all know the racket that WBZ makes from 1010 to 1050 kHz, but what
> if WBIX were also
> transmitting HD. Would it affect WBZ's HD signal, or vice-versa? (I
> doubt
> WBZ would let it). And WCRN and WEEI are even closer on the
> dial...would
> their HD signals interfere with each other or with the analog
> service?<<
>
> The reports that have appeared across the Internet on message boards,
> remailers and newsgroups seem to confirm that HD on AM has some
> wide-ranging effects on other stations, and during nighttime propagation
> conditions those effects can extend for hundreds of miles from the
> transmitter sites.  Bob Savage, the owner of WYSL, 1040 kHz in Avon NY
> has filed an action with the FCC claiming damaging interference at night
> from WBZ so as to substantially reduce his nighttime interference-free
> contour.  According to Savage, that interference doesn't exist when
> WBZ's HD is off.  Citadel's DOE has ordered HD operations to cease at
> night on all the AMs they own, even though nighttime HD operation has
> been legal since September 14th, because of some reports of interference
> between Citadel stations and others (including other Citadel
> stations...for example, WJR and WABC, which are on adjacent channels).

Why should Citadel care whether someone 200 miles from New York City can
hear a Detroit station, or vice versa? Is WJR selling Syracuse to its
advertisers as a market they can reach? As for WYSL ... geez, I've been a
BCB enthusiast for years, but even I realize that the stations on the band
are intended to serve their cities of license and immediate areas, not DXers
in far-off cities with local broadcasters of their own. How, exactly, is
WYSL's complaint actionable? Seems to me that as long as people in Avon and
its immediate vicinity can hear WYSL, any other listeners the station might
lose to IBOC splatter from WBZ don't matter, right?

Howard