[BC] the Deja VU meter is pegging (was: IBOC)

[Kevin Tekel]

Phil Alexander wrote:
> You, like the rest of us, will get what the FCC gives. The only 
> difference is we have to make it work. You, OTOH, have the luxury
> of listening, or not listening, as you choose.

Well, remember that the FCC _did_ give tentative approval to the CBS
spinning-disc method as the standard for color TV -- much the same as
they have given tentative approval to IBOC/"HD Radio" as the standard
for digital radio.

But instead of saying "we have to make it work", the industry didn't
support the CBS color system.  Many receivers were promised (from eight
different manufacturers, I believe), but only a handful were actually
manufactured.  It was clearly a flawed system, and the industry wisely
chose to reject it, until something truly better came along (NTSC).

Now, look at IBOC.  While there is industry support for it, it's far
from universal, especially on the behalf of AM stations and reciever
manufacturers.  We have about 8 brands promising IBOC receivers that
will be "on the market soon" -- or so they claim.  IBOC is clearly a
flawed system, and while the industry might not explicitly be rejecting
it yet, clearly many companies are not explicitly supporting it, either
(such as the automakers, which have been promising us vehicles with
IBOC-equipped radios since 2003, but have yet to actually get any into
production).

The CBS color TV system stumbled along for about two years until it was
abandoned in favor of NTSC.  Now, we've been stumbling along with IBOC
for the past 2-1/2 years, and it continues to stumble even as we speak.
You might not have cold feet about supporting IBOC, but clearly _many_
other people and companies do, and that's not something to be poo-poohed
for the sake of "progress".

Radio doesn't need digital to compete with satellite any more than it
needed moving pictures to compete with TV.  As long as it can find a
niche for itself, such as by offering LIVE, LOCAL PROGRAMMING which you
can't find on satellite, it will continue to do just fine.

After all, the basic technology used in producing a newspaper hasn't
changed in hundreds of years.  Maybe the text is a littler crisper and the
images are now in color, but it's still just ink on paper, and it dates
back to long before the concepts of "analog" vs. "digital" even existed!
But yet it has survived the proliferation of radio, TV, and the Internet.
And as long as radio has the flexibility to serve the kind of programming
which its listeners are attracted to, then it will have this same kind of
long-term durability.



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