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

[Phil Alexander]

On 16 Jul 2005 at 18:13, Kevin Tekel wrote:

> 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.  

That had a lot more to do with Gen. Sarnoff and a lot less with "the
industry" unless RCA was the industry's sole representative. A good
result for a bad reason IMHO.

> 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.  

The stations are there and the receivers will be soon. OEM in new cars
soon.

> 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.

Stumbling was not exactly the adjective I'd use for the attitude in
Las Vegas.

> 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".

It is a business decision. Emotion - cold feet or lack there of - has
no part in it.
> 
> 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.

There will be no significant analog consumer electronics equipment built
that will sell at a reasonable price. That will happen within the next
generation. I'd prefer radio, as the sole remaining mass user of analog
CE equipment not fall victim to that unhappy fact.

> After all, the basic technology used in producing a newspaper hasn't
> changed in hundreds of years.  

Oh how little you know of publishing. Horace Greely would not comprehend 
it either.  Why do you suppose Harris Intertype bought Gates in 1957? The
handwriting was on the wall even then.

> Maybe the text is a littler crisper and the
> images are now in color, but it's still just ink on paper, 

It does not get there the same way, not even close if you look at the
chain from reporter to delivery.

> yet it has survived the proliferation of radio, TV, and the Internet.

50 years ago this market had 3 daily newspapers, now it has one. And,
that plant prints I don't know how many other papers in this region of
the country.

> 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.

Its programming is questionable, but the durability of the technology is
not. It is walking dead. That was clear when Bell Labs invented the transistor
and T-I started putting bunches of them on a single IC. It has taken some
longer than others to figure it out. Analog is over almost everywhere in the
consumer world. Digital has more capability and until it is the basis for
our industry we won't begin to explore its development potential. Change is
the only constant. Yesterday was great, but like the song, yesterday's gone.


Phil Alexander, CSRE, AMD
Broadcast Engineering Services and Technology 
(a Div. of Advanced Parts Corporation) 
Ph. (317) 335-2065   FAX (317) 335-9037





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