[BC] WCBS dumps IBOC, returns to "High Definition" AM

[Kevin Tekel]

After less than a week of transmitting the IBOC buzz, NYC's 880 WCBS has
returned to "High Definition" analog AM with crisp, clear 10 kHz audio.
A possible reason for this may be the numerous complaints they received
due to the 8-1/2 second delay the IBOC exciter added to their audio, which
made their Yankees play-by-play out of synch for people listening at the
game or while watching it on TV.  I first noticed the IBOC hash generator
was off during a Yankees game today, but now during normal "Newsradio"
programming it is still off, and their audio sounds a lot better too.

When they had the IBOC on, their analog audio was still pretty crisp
(they had it in 8 kHz bandwidth mode) but it had a strange kind of
clipping distortion which made the announcers sound like they were holding
their nose while they spoke, and for an all-news format that can get
rather annoying.  There was also some rather obvious slack in the AGC;
when jumping from one programming element to the next, the audio would
often start out very quiet and gradually ramp up in level.  With their old
processing (Optimod 9100?) now back in service, there is still a little
gain-riding in these instances but it is a lot smoother and all of that
nasty distortion is gone.  And of course on a wideband receiver there is
no mistaking that beautiful full-bandwidth audio!



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