WBZ, IBOC for AM, and the BMC proposal

[Aaron Read]

 > If WBZ does see a profitable future in covering more of New England
 > than the Boston area, then maybe HD radio would be a cost
 > effective vehicle.
 >

With but a few exceptions, stations do not "sell their skywave", so to 
speak.  Granted, WBZ is sometimes one of those exceptions, but even so, 
I don't think WBZ has a whole lot of advertisers that're buying because 
WBZ can be heard in Bermuda at night.  They buy because WBZ has a 
dominant signal (and, *partially* related to that, WBZ has dominant 
ratings) in the Boston metro area.

BTW, HD Radio carriers generally don't provide anything approaching good 
coverage once you get past the protected contours.  22 miles is about 
that distance (daytime) when you're talking WTIC...toss in perhaps a 
local source of interference, or a lousy groundwave path to your 
location, and no wonder HD performance is poor for you.

Anyways, I do wonder if regionalizing certain signals...like WBZ, WEEI 
and maybe WBUR...on HD2 channels across New England would be a viable 
concept.  New England is the only region of the lower 48 that is clearly 
defined as a quasi-separate entity by virtue of the six states, and it 
sure as hell has a quasi-separate mentality going for it.  Ordinarily I 
wouldn't endorse using HD2 to repeat an already existing signal, but in 
this case...well, it's certainly no worse an idea than a lot of the 
boneheaded HD2 formats I've heard.

BTW, who's seen this interesting item?
http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0048/t.16138.html

-- 
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Aaron Read                  |  Finger Lakes Public Radio
friedbagels@gmail.com       |  General Manager (WEOS & WHWS-LP)
Geneva, NY 14456            |  www.weos.org / www.whws.fm