Category: HD radio

If I had to pick, one of the most egregious things about HD Radio™ is the fact that it is a proprietary system. Ibiquity owns the licenses for the IBOC HD Radio™ technology.  If the FCC were to force radio stations to convert to all digital transmission, as they did with TV, then one corporation would then own the modulation method for all of the radio stations in the country.  It would also own all of the secondary (HD2 and HD3) channels by virtue of the password-protected software and would, as current contracts are being written, be allowed to inspect the books any time they want.

This could lead to some very interesting situations, especially if Ibiquity chose to flex some muscle regarding programming content, formats, music, politics, news coverage, or what have you.  Let’s not forget, Ibiquity’s investors are large broadcasting companies like Clear Channel, Cumulus, Citadel, Univision, and so on.  Smaller broadcasting companies could likely get caught in a go-along-to-get-along situation.

If you have never played with an HD Radio™ exciter, let me tell you, everything is locked down.  Every function needs a password from Ibiquity and there is no way around it.

Ibiquity’s proponents dismiss this concern and continue to say “Just wait until the patent expires, then it will be an open system.”  Except that the “patent” is not going to expire.  Ibiquity owns 70 patents for their IBOC system.  Only one patent needs to be in effect for the HD Radio™ system to remain proprietary.  The last patent was issued on May 10, 2010.  Ibiquity simply needs to make some small change, update, or tweak and they can file for a new patent, which will add another 10 years.  This can continue indefinitely.

The patent is not going to expire.

It has been about a month now, has anyone taken them up on this:

iBiquity Digital and Citadel Media announced a partnership which will enable stations to upgrade to digital while avoiding cash expenditure. Stations will have the opportunity to provide on-air inventory to Citadel Media in exchange for the HD Radio license fee and equipment supplied by Broadcast Electronics, Continental, Harris and Nautel.

I was sure that my former employer, now that I have left the company, would at least look into this.  I know there are many other frugal like-minded companies out there that look at trade as being “free.”  Anytime I had a building project, like paving the parking lot or replacing the roof membrane, the first question asked was “Can we trade it?”  I hated dealing with trade.  Often, it would end up as a half-paved parking lot and the general manager asking “Gee, what happened?”

I would be surprised if this iBiquity scheme didn’t generate at least some interest in the HD radio holdouts. Has anybody heard anything else on this?

Or, it could also be phrased “A solution that causes more problems.”  Radio World, once again, has a good article on the consequences of increasing IBOC power of the FM hybrid system.  Especially telling is figure 24, a fuzzy 400 Hz sine wave showing how much distortion is added to the analog signal by a mere 4% HD  signal.  I’d be especially interested to see the results of the full 10% now allowed.

Naturally, HD proponents will cry “But this is only temporary!  Wait until the transition to all digital!”

Bunk.

If HD radios were indeed flying off the shelves as iBiquity claims, and if the public expressed interest, okay, maybe.  Clearly, that is not the case.  The only thing that HD radio is doing is creating more interference. Period.  More interference to the parent station and more interference to the adjacent channels all for an audience that does not exist.   Another way to put it: NOBODY IS LISTENING.  One of the stations that I service had a Harris Deathstar go offline for four days.  NOT ONE PHONE CALL, NOBODY CARES!

The public did not perceive a technical problem with analog FM broadcasting.   Of course, that can always change as the band gets filled with interference.

Let’s see where FM IBOC stands:

• Rolled out with 1% digital power vs analog carrier, the system was found to lack building penetration and generally performed poorly in mobile listening environments (NPR labs study, Nov 24, 2009)
• FCC allows up to 10% digital power vs analog carrier to overcome these problems, a few stations implement some type of power increase
• This shows that self-interference is the largest problem IBOC needs to fix, one that is un-fixable due to the laws of physics
• The public yawns, turns on their iPod

IBOC is a failure, both in AM and FM bands.

We are watching the self-destruction of radio broadcasting in the US.