"Terrestrial" radio (was "Can WBCN lead listeners...")

[Paul Hopfgarten]

Ummmm.....ET was 1982....

Close Encounters was 1979....if that is what you were thinking about.

I listened to FF WBCN (WZLX HD 3) and the bus man kept harping on the 'new 
listeners due to the NYT story' and talking about how they want to make BCN 
a full blown replica of the 1968-early 80s brand of WBCN.

-Paul Hopfgarten
-Epping NH

-----Original Message----- 
From: Eli Polonsky
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 3:47 PM
To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
Subject: "Terrestrial" radio (was "Can WBCN lead listeners...")

I'm getting annoyed by the wide misuse of the word
"terrestrial" by radio listeners these days. The
word literally means "on the Earth" or "from the
Earth", as in that humans are "terrestrial" beings,
and space aliens are "extra-terrestrials". (Anyone
remember the cheesy '70s sci-fi movie "ET"?)

Many people are now labeling any form of radio that
is not conventional analog broadcast radio as not
being "terrestrial", including HD radio and internet
radio.

As far as I know, the only type of radio that is not
"terrestrial" is satellite radio (such as Sirius/XM)
because the signal (that we receive) is rebroadcast
from a satellite up in space.

HD radio is broadcast from the same transmitters as
their parent analog stations, ON THE EARTH, so it's
making me cringe when I keep hearing people refer to
HD radio as not being "terrestrial".

I don't see anything about internet radio that would
classify it as not being "terrestrial" either, though
I keep hearing people also calling it not "terrestrial"
as opposed to analog radio (though some wireless forms
are rebroadcast via satellites).

I wonder if it will become one of those words that will
have its official dictionary definition changed due to
wide misuse?

Eli Polonsky