no HD on BZ?

[Brian Vita]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
> [mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org] On
> Behalf Of Keith Fornal
> Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 10:40 PM
> To: 'Boston Radio Interest'
> Subject: RE: no HD on BZ?
> 
> I have noticed that since Friday.  Perhaps it got laid off as well.
> Other
> CBS AMs like WCBS & WINS are still in HD.  I know it is blasphemy to
> say
> this here but I like HD.
> 
Ditto for me also.  We monitor WBZ at WMWM for alerts and I noticed that the
beautiful FM quality of the AM-HD signal had dropped to, well, AM quality
when I checked it at the station Saturday.  We have a roof mounted AM
antenna and I speculated that we had some icing.  
[Brian Vita] 
I noticed that I couldn't get HD on my office Sangean receiver today also.
Based on that I guessed that they were operating off an auxillary
transmitter but I didn't realize that they were down to 10Kw as Scott
pointed out.

For all of the whining on the radio boards about AM-HD, it does serve its
intended purpose; making AM listenable to a more critical audience than the
previous generation.

Face it, most of us grew up in a time when AM was the only show in town and
FM was just coming into play.  We learned to mentally tune out the defects
of the heterodyne whine or station fade.  When we wanted to hear a song we
listened until our favorite DJ played it or, if we REALLY liked it, bought
the 45 or tried to tape it off the radio (in MONO).

Today's generation grew up with Napster, IPOD's and illegal file sharing
which brought instant gratification.  They simply don't see the need to put
up with AM's idiosyncracies.  Why strain DXing for a new AM station when
there are 10,000 or more available on the web in much better sound quality?

Most folks under 30 that I've run into equate listening to AM as I would
consider listening to white noise.  At least when they have the HD turned
on, WBZ sounds like an FM station.  As a side note, I've always considered
WBZ-HD to be a bit to crisp (spitty) and wished that they'd roll off the
high end a bit.  When was the last time that you suggested that to an AM
station?

I wish that WRKO would light up in HD.  On the rare occasion that I feel
like listening to Howie, it'd make it listenable in my office.

I now submit myself for tarring and feathering.

Brian