The recent RBR report on the CEA's support for XM on music payouts (
5/22/06 RBR #100) again shows the broadcasters dumb enough to hop into the sack with this bunch of anti-broadcast thugs known as the Consumer Electronics Association (similar in nature to our own NAB, whose sole purpose is the selling of floor space to manufacturers) that the decision to dance with the CEA for HD purposes only spreads the satellite source material from pay sat-radio on a little thicker.
Try to remember from last September that the chip sets populated with HD software for the in-band on-channel polluter also contain software for one or both of the sat guys with the push of a button. As for all of the promotion provided by the 21 HD guns, check with your local Radio Shack and note the reply from the local manager and staff concerning HD receivers and their multiple features aside from HD Radio. Did anyone notice the mailer from Tweeter/Sound Advice where the last few pages had a clip about HD Radio? Notice the selling of iPod and Sat Radio along the same path? It might sink in some day to some of our broadcast executives that they alone have given new life to their pussy cat enemy of satellite radio, not to mention the further denigration of the free media spectrum introduced by adjacent channel digital interference on both the AM and FM channels.
My complaint is not that this industry is top heavy with non-broadcasters or that the technical minds are shut down on this discussion for fear of losing their jobs. My gripe is that this transition to digital transmission is also the ideal time to improve the spectrum with better receivers capable of enhancing both FM and AM analog rather than receiver chipsets designed to force feed HD only down our throats, cutting coverage and further damaging the next 20 years while digital is sorted out. We are denied access to the technical papers provided by the current de facto digital provider setting up standards for use of their chipsets in those factory provided radios and the short term effect these changes will have on basic analog for the present. You already have a theatre to observe this process - it is called listening to any post-2005 auto radio in analog on either AM or FM and noting how these sets deal with power line noise, adjacent channel noise on either AM or FM and the newly introduced variable audio bandwidth for both AM and FM all gifts from lobbying by the digital pushers-its all about killing off analog in the "hear" and now. The selling out of media in America has the full endorsement of our "supply" industry and just for the sake of the transition to a weaker vessel with a digital nametag. If you were asleep at the wheel or too young to drive during AM Stereo or NRSC "improvements" in the 80s and 90s, it is worth reviewing the power plays that drove the industry into the dirt 20 years ago. Somehow many of the same players are back touting different nametags and titles.
Jerry Smith
Free Radio Tech Consultant
Good Morning - Gain a personal edge on today's business day. Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
