Yo cdj86,

Tragically, the FCC just last week ok'd AM-HD for night broadcasting. So, the 125 AM stations in the country that are doing HD currently can now run it at night. The side-band hash issue has been brought up with the FCC numerous times; it seems to fall on deaf ears. The Feds are only concerned about what is happening within a station's primary coverage area.

Unlike many of my mentors in the biz, AM holds no mojo for me. I am an audio guy first and foremost; hearing 8khz audio (at best) is not what I would describe as enjoyable. That said, there hasn't been an AM radio made in the last 20-yrs that is worth a hoot (notable exception for the GE Super Radio, of course). I cannot speak to AM-HD as I really have no idea what the future holds for the band. IMO: as long as mfg's keep making lousy radios, AM will suffer - digital or not.

Speaking to your last point - you have hit the nail on the head. Radio stations have processed music heavily for years - the idea being to make the station sound loud and dominant on the dial. About 10-15 years ago, the Producers and Record Labels started pushing the Mastering Engineers to heavily compress and limit albums to achieve the same questionable goals. Now, what happens when an aggressively mastered song single is played on a radio station with aggressive processing? A sonic slushy results. It is my opinion that kids nowadays have come to expect music to sound like that. So, the trade-off of fidelity-versus-convenience is an easy one to make for the younger set - they live in blissful ignorance :lol: .
-D

Collegedj84,

Thanks for the response to our podcast! Although, I have some thoughts about this, you ask some pretty detailed questions (good ones!) so I'm going to let Darren field this one!

Your comments are greatly appreciated and informed! Don't be a stranger!

J. Pisano :smile:

Hey guys, entertaining and informative podcast!

I haven't yet had the opportunity to use an HD radio set. However, I understand that FM HD signals can cram at least one secondary "station", which I think might be a nice feature to potentially add more variety of music and programming.

As for HD AM, I agree that it is pretty lame. I've heard some stations that use it in daytime, since I'm pretty sure the FCC hasn't allowed IBOC nighttime clearance yet. Each time I've heard it, the first and second adjacents are filled with a nasty scratching static hash that makes those channels unlistenable. The actual station itself sounds like it's broadcasting out of a tin can, and it was typically lower in volume that other non-IBOC AM signals.

Speaking more broadly on the AM band in general... is it worth investing new technology to save? Or should the band be abandoned? Plus, what makes AM IBOC different or better than other AM improvement technologies tried in the past, like AM stereo? I actually heard WJR-Detroit on a car stereo with AM Stereo capability, and it sounded pretty good, especially compared to some of the IBOC AM signals I've heard.

That delay you mentioned regarding live sports broadcasts... I agree that that is truly annoying. In the Cleveland area, you can notice a clear difference during Browns football broadcasts between the TV feed and 100.7 WMMS radio feed. WMMS is even the FM flagship, so I can only imagine other network affiliate delays would be even longer.

Finally, you were talking about quality of the audio feeds being somewhat degraded. I know that I can get annoyed sometimes with a poor bitrate mp3, but the vast majority of my generation I think has learned to tolerate it, so maybe high quality audio takes a back seat in priority for many future broadcasters.

Keep up the good work at MusTech!