Radio World - November 19, 2008 - (Page 5)

November 19, 2008 NEWS er, a Swiss Army knife and a cigarette lighter. (I’m being sarcastic.) Thomas Richardson Missouri City, Texas It’s a Good Idea I believe it would be ultimately beneficial to all consumers were the FCC to require that all SDARS receivers (e.g., XM and Sirius) be capable of AM/FM DAB (“HD Radio”) reception as well. In their arguments for a waiver of FCC SDARS ownership rules to allow them to merge, XM and Sirius argued that as a service, SDARS competes more with other media technologies than they do with each other. This premise is fundamentally flawed unless every SDARS consumer, by definition, is able to use the same device to access other media technologies. … Requiring SDARS receivers to have HD Radio reception capability would also provide a convenient means of “jump-starting” the nascent DAB migration for AM and FM. A chief problem with the migration has been the inability for consumers to purchase receivers; what few are available are often very difficult to purchase in a store, and not much easier to purchase on-line. While it arguably is not the FCC’s job to stimulate a private business … it is the FCC’s job to act in the interest of the public. The FCC has already decided that it is benefit to the consumer to migrate AM and FM reception to a Digital Audio Broadcasting solution, and the iBiquity HD Radio solution has been formally accepted by the FCC, and the National Radio Systems Committee, as the official DAB standard for the United States. Ergo, the FCC has a mandate by default to promote HD Radio for the betterment of consumers. I do not believe the addition of HD Radio reception will prove prohibitively expensive nor difficult to implement due to size. The chips themselves are just IC chips; not terribly big. The existing displays and concerns on virtually all SDARS receivers can act as software controls for AM/FM reception just as easily. And when done in bulk, the individual costs per unit inevitably drop substantially. Moreover, since all SDARS receivers will have to be re-tooled to accept transmissions from both XM’s and Sirius’s satellite networks, this is an excellent would be enjoyable. “Processing at the studio included an Aphex Compeller, with CRL pre-processing, Dolby SR encoders and an Optimod stereo generator. The composite output from there was fed through the Dolby decoders, a phase chaser and another compeller and finally an Omnia that fed the transmitter,” Arnout said. Buterbaugh built new studios for WJR in the Fisher Building in downtown Detroit in the late 1980s and oversaw periodic upgrades for WJR and its FM sister stations. “He was amazingly talented and truly WJR is his broadcast legacy,” said Fezzey. Buterbaugh won several awards from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters along with other industry honors and presented many papers on AM radio at radio engineering conferences. Buterbaugh is survived by his wife, three children and nine grandchildren. See related story, page 6. opportunity to “get in on the ground floor” as it were, and drastically reduce later implementation costs. One oft-cited concern is that HD Radio tends to require external antennas to function properly. However, this is no different from SDARS, which also effectively requires an external antenna to receive the satellite signal. If necessary, it would be an acceptable compromise to have the SDARS receivers sacrifice internal antennas of any kind in exchange for external antenna jacks (twin-lead for AM, coaxial F type connector for FM — the most common for external antennas). Aaron Read Canandaigua, N.Y. The above author also is an occasional contributor to RW; opinions are his own. Unnecessary Appendage I am an amateur radio operator with license KB1OKL as well as a concerned citizen and this bill H.R. 7157 Rep. Markey is sponsoring is ridiculous. He cites part of the reason to include HD radio in sat-rad receivers as public safety. First of all, I have not seen a car built since 1972 that hasn’t come with an AM-FM receiver already built in and this included my brand-new 2009 Pontiac which includes XM satellite as well as AM and FM analog. Analog radio works much better than HD Radio. HD shortens the receive range to a mere 10–15 miles and interferes with adjacent channels, especially on the AM radioworld.com | Radio World Mandate Continued from page 1 errors and punctuation have been modified here for ease of reading. We will publish additional comments as more are filed. Let the Market Decide No mandate! Let the market and manufacturers decide if they want to include iBiquity’s proprietary, low-resolution junk format in the same box. HD Radio’s pathetic adoption rate should be a huge red flag here. It was an answer to a question no one asked, highlighting the frittering-away of the public’s interest performed by the FCC when it adopted it as the sole “standard.” … The public places great value in the consumer radio spectrum, which has always been best-served by analog radio. Clear Channel places great value in the consumer radio spectrum too. Who do you serve? David Deckert Woodstock, Ga. Turnabout is Fair If it is fair to require Sirius XM to include HD Radio in their radios, why would it not also be fair to require the opposite? That all HD Radios have a receiver for satellite radio? It is ironic that it would be required to include a component (HD Radio receiver) in a unit (satellite radio) that people are purchasing in order to avoid terrestrial broadcasts and the commercials/ homogenization that goes with it. Brian Hardenstein Walnut Creek, Calif. And the Kitchen Sink No, no, NO to requiring satellite-radio receivers to also carry HD Radio receivers! I am an XM subscriber. HD Radio is fancy-schmancy terrestrial radio, still with commercials. Satellite radio is, on most channels, commercial-free. So why should I be forced to pay extra for an HD receiver? Republicans supposedly believe in “the free market,” right? So let HD Radio continue to be an add-on option for a satellite-radio receiver. Either that, or go even further: Every satellite-radio receiver must also include an HD Radio receiv- band at night where it is now a mess of white noise masking AM stations all up and down the band. HD needs to be shut off for public safety, not added as an unnecessary, unused appendage to an already established albeit struggling industry known as satellite. Robert D. Young Jr. Millbury, Mass. Where Does FCC Authority End? I respectfully submit that it is well beyond the bounds and abilities of the FCC to design and develop electronic equipment for the 21st century. Imposing a mandatory design requirement that all radios must be capable of receiving multiple, fully non-compatible signals is unacceptable. Where does your supposed authority end? Why didn’t the commission direct Blu-Ray DVD makers to include HD technology? Perhaps you should have imposed Beta technology on VHS manufacturers, too. The FCC would have tried, except for the fact that those markets couldn’t be coerced by your outdated and self-serving licensing practices. The market will decide which services are desired and supported, and which are no longer needed or in need of change to become desired again. … I hope that this commission will show a glimmer of honor, and stop the pandering to special interest groups representing a dinosaur industry. Bruce Meinhold Chester, Md. Comment on this or any article to radioworld@nbmedia.com. Buterbaugh Continued from page 3 had fun, too, during that time,” said Pam Buterbaugh. Ed Buterbaugh was chief engineer and vice president at CKLW before leaving in 1986 for Detroit’s WJR. He spent 20 years at WJR perfecting the sound of the “Great Voice of the Great Lakes,” colleagues said. “Ed insisted the fidelity [be] maximized to its fullest potential. He processed AM like it was FM,” said WDIV’s Arnaut. This as true even on remotes. When other AM stations were using POTS codecs, Arnaut said, “WJR was using a three-line Gentner frequency extender, which was also fed through a Dolby SR noise reduction unit in the field.” Arnout described the extensive audio chain Buterbaugh designed at WJR as “maximized to ensure no fidelity was sacrificed” so the listening experience http://www.radioworld.com http://www.audemat.com http://www.relio.us

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Radio World - November 19, 2008

Radio World - November 19, 2008 IBOC+Satellite? Subscribers Not Impressed The New World of AM DA MoM Contents Newswatch Buterbaugh Legendary in Upper Midwest From the Editor Buterbaugh: His Colleagues Look Back Workbench: What’s Wrong With This Picture? KFI Back at Full Power With New Tower 3G or Not 3G? That Is the Question Exploring HD Radio Availability in Philadelphia HD Radio Scoreboard Digital News GEP For That Bird Without a Wire A Chat With Bay Country Radiolicious Brings Radio to iPhones People News Belar FMHD-1 Clears the Skies Reader’s Forum Radio Thrives in Digital Age A Vote for Change

Radio World - November 19, 2008

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