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

[kent.Winrich" <kwinrich@gmail.com>"@mxbackup01.virtbiz.com]

Hmmmmmm something rotten in Denmark here.

Just about every other station that runs games, eliminates that delay 
in the analog audio during the games and keeps the HD running.  What 
is your source for these "complaints"?

A number of stations running Harris transmitters usually have to send 
the exciter back to the manufacturer for reajustment after the 
initial install.  Sounds like that is what happened here as well.

In regards to watching it on TV, most TV stations have at least 5 
second delay so that doesnt make sense (some stations look to ADD 
delay to try and match up to the game on TV).  And really, how many 
people are AT the game listening to the game?  100?  200??  Kind of 
pales compared to their main listening base doesnt it?

How do you know that the 9100 never went out of service?  What is 
your source?  With two seperate audio streams going into seperate 
exciters, there is no real reason to eliminate the 9100.


On 6/28/06, Kevin Tekel 
<<mailto:amstereoexp at yahoo.com>amstereoexp at yahoo.com> wrote:
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!