[BC] ... content ... or control ....

[DANA PUOPOLO]

Besides, it's no secret that audio processing is the main reason that FM
sounds as bad as it does. Programmers DELIBERATELY trash the sound! How do we
know that they won't do the same thing to digital radio?
Evidence so far is that they will.

If you think about it, this makes no sense. Take a medium capable of high
fidelity, crunch, limit, equalize and clip that fidelity into oblivion, then
replace it with another  "Hi Fi" medium and do the same thing!

What's even crazier is that FM is capable of BETTER fidelity then 96K
perceptual coded audio! Everyone knows that audio bit reduced this much has no
high end over about 12 kHz or so. FM goes out to 15 kHz. The main advantages
are an increase in S/N ratio in weak signal areas (out to the "cliff point"
that is) and no multipath distortion . With diversity radios even these two
problems were eliminated a long time ago (and for a lot less then a HD radio
is going to cost). 
Why the automotive industry largely ignored diversity is puzzling to me. I've
heard it used in cars and it really works well. 
 
-D 


------ Original Message ------
Received: Tue, 17 May 2005 08:10:25 AM PDT
From: Reader <reader at oldradio.com>
To: broadcast at radiolists.net
Subject: [BC] ... content ... or control ....

http://www.radiomarketingnexus.com/2005/05/the_premature_d.html

c "It's Digital!" i.e., better audio quality? To the industry (and any 
consumer who does their homework) HD Radio is positioned as "Pure Digital. 
Clear Radio." The pitch, in other words, is that this is technologically 
better radio. Where's the evidence that audio quality is a meaningful 
benefit, that "bad audio" is one of Radio's audience problems? Most people 
don't have a problem with the audio quality of their radios. The vast 
majority of your audience is not comprised of audiophiles. In fact, your 
listeners are less likely to be discriminating musicologists and more 
likely to be tone deaf.

As Marketing guru <http://www.sethgodin.com>Seth Godin wrote me on this 
topic: "Yikes, [audio quality as a benefit for HD Radio] is such a hard 
sell. I just spent thousands of dollars LOWERING the quality of my stereo 
at home by switching my CD's to MP3s and buying a 
<http://www.sonos.com>Sonos player. The iPod vastly outsells turntables 
because people don't want quality, they want control."

And where's the "control" with HD Radio? In the hands of broadcasters, 
that's where, not listeners.



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