They’re turning off HD in Washington, DC
Well, this time it’s not an anomaly or a digital exciter glitch—at least not that we can see. For weeks now the Washington, DC market has been turning off its HD Radio signals en masse. There is no longer any station in the market on AM broadcasting in HD. ESPN Deportes Radio/Red Zebra’s 730 WXTR-AM long ago shut off the signal. But now that list includes 630 WMAL (Citadel); 570 WTNT (Clear Channel); Red Zebra’s 980 ESPN Radio; and 1500 WFED-AM (Bonneville). The FM list now includes 106.7 WJFK-FM (CBS Radio); 102.3 WWMJ-FM (Radio One); 104.1 WPRS-FM (Radio One) and 107.7 WWWT-FM (Bonneville).
RBR/TVBR observation: The most likely culprit is licensing fees. Just not worth it for some in tough economic times. Also, these FMs did not have HD multicast (HD2) signals, and two of them were broadcasting in mono—so what’s the point? For the AM side, unless you are 50,000 watts, most radios can’t pick up AM HD very far from the tower array. WFED is 50-kW, but you’d never know it because of its higher frequency—just doesn’t propagate well.
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Any comments as to why some FM-HDs are being shut off? Any comments as to whether this is happening elsewhere - surely!
http://www.ibiquity.com/i/pdfs/Licensing_%20Fact_%20Sheet_2008A.pdf
The other yearly fees are rather small - I don't get it.
"The Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) has just begun a new round of negotiations and we are told that ASCAP is now wanting broadcasters to have a second music license to cover HD2 (HD3, etc.) signals. ASCAP’s negotiators say they should receive fee payments for those new stations because the only reason most aren’t producing revenues is that broadcasters have chosen to run them commercial-free in an effort to build audiences for the future. When RMLC representatives responded that the stations are mostly running commercial free because there are hardly any HD receivers in public hands, ASCAP hauled out a Parks Associates study mentioned in an RBR/TVBR Intelligence Brief predicting that there would be 30 million HD receivers in the marketplace by 2012."
http://www.rbr.com/radio/8361.html
Is RBR talking about these potential fees?
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