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Post by oldiesfunhouse on May 15, 2023 8:39:24 GMT -6
For I believe it was Tardis. If your radio has presets, you can preset an HD2 or 3, (that is if there's one you'd want to preset), and, when you go to that preset, it will take a couple extra seconds to load, but that would give you one touch access to those stations. You mentioned sports talk. I find the audio on 102.7 HD2 to be better than 97.5. Although, as discussed earlier, I think that's one of the ones you'll have to turn up a bit, but, once you do, the audio's not bad.
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Post by David on May 17, 2023 12:10:13 GMT -6
FWIW: KOOL FM 105.1 HD2 has been broadcasting nothing but dead air for at least the past two days. ☹️ The last time I heard anything on the channel was this weekend, when a University of Utah baseball game was on. The KOOL FM streaming feed is still working, and the HD1 & HD3 channels are still on.
If Broadway Media and the other Salt Lake City broadcasters want to encourage people to invest in an HD receiver, it would behoove them to pay attention to the status of their subchannels. If listeners tune their radio to their favorite HD channel and hears nothing but dead air, chances are those listeners will not return.
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Post by CAwasinNJ on May 17, 2023 13:33:20 GMT -6
Here it's working now.
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Post by David on May 17, 2023 14:46:55 GMT -6
Wow, that was fast! Maybe someone from Broadway reads this board. 🙂 Thanks for the heads up, CA.
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Post by christopherjohn on May 18, 2023 0:51:47 GMT -6
Primary HD1 is a one time fee. It is the HD2 etc that is an annual charge. But it's not much. As for the equipment, if you are purchasing a new transmitter. It is not much to add HD capability. We launched our HD when we installed a brand new Nautel back in 2017. I'm sure the licensing fees don't help from a broadcaster adoption standpoint. :/ Broadcasters must pay annual fees, correct? And HD broadcasting equipment is more expensive? I might be remembering incorrectly, but that's what I seem to recall.
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Post by christopherjohn on May 18, 2023 0:53:52 GMT -6
You can get HD radio's fairly cheap. I have seen this one from Best Buy as low as 30 bucks. www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-tabletop-fm-hd-radio-black/4888900.p?skuId=4888900It may not be possible to say "x is what's wrong with HD Radio and y is how you fix it." Like life, it's not that simple. Certainly one problem is a lifetime collection of radios. I have twenty-something radios and only one of them is capable of hearing HD, and that I just got less than a year ago. Sure I could replace all my radios, but that brings up another problem: expense. I can pick up a standard AM/FM radio for $10. An HD one will run $100 and up. That's a big expense and without any experience listening to those additional stations what incentive is there to spend that much? There might be more, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head from the consumer side. From the broadcaster standpoint, as I mentioned previously the big radio companies are in financial trouble. The additional streams cost money to license. If nobody is listening that's an easy way to shave a few bucks off the expense sheet. The transmitters are already bought, paid for and installed, so there's no reason not to run the HD1. That also gives them the option to add HD2/3/etc if they ever want to. It will be interesting to see what happens when those transmitters need to be replaced and whether stations will opt to replace them with non-HD models. I wonder if that's what happened with KRCL. I asked them if there were any plans to resume HD broadcasts and got no reply.
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Post by christopherjohn on May 18, 2023 0:57:58 GMT -6
It's called lazy engineering. No reason it can't match the HD1 audio. Some stations just have HD to serve translators, not really caring about how the audio is sounding. It just makes it bad for the people who actually do care about their product. I am OCD. I have to make sure everything is right on mine. I think the audio on a lot of HD subchannels is quieter than the main channels. All these other companies should be required to take lessons from KSOP. They do it right.
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Post by David on May 28, 2023 12:46:25 GMT -6
KUDD's main HD channel isn't working, which means the HD2 and HD3 channels are off the air. The HD indicator on my Sangean HDR-14 flashes when the radio is turned to 105.1, but the HD signal won't lock.
IMO, the technical difficulties with HD radio signals are one of the reasons that HD radio is generally ignored by the public. The average consumer can't be bothered with something that doesn't work 24/7/365; and with so many other sources available to stream music and other audio content, most listeners won't bother with HD radio if it doesn't work properly and takes several days for the engineers to fix. They'll just find something else to listen to.
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