Wait until the patent expires

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.

The 75th anniversary of FM broadcasting

On November 6th, 2010, WA2XMN will once again take to the airwaves from Alpine, NJ on 42.8 MHz.  Beginning at 12 noon, EDT, the station will rebroadcast the 2005 commemorative broadcast.  WA2XMN holds an experimental license which expires in 2015 for the purpose of recreating Armstrong’s original Yankee Network.

I am not sure if they will be using the GE Phasitron transmitter or not.

Armstrong Tower, Alpine, NJ

The Armstrong Tower is located just off of the Palisades Interstate Parkway, on a bluff west of the Hudson River.  After the World Trade Center site was lost on 9/11, all of the NY City TV stations relocated there until permanent facilities could be build at the Empire State Building.  Empire had always been the home to most of the NYC FM’s except public station WNYC, which was also on WTC #1.

Lots of interesting pictures and history on the Columbia University blog, here, here and here.

For those interested in the history of FM broadcasting, Empire of the Air by Tom Lewis is a great read.

On this, the 72 anniversary of War of the Worlds

It was early evening when most people were sitting down to enjoy the latest edition of Mercury Theater on the Air on CBS.  After a brief narration by Orson Wells, which is set a year ahead of the actual date, there was a flash forward and brief weather forecast.  It then seemed that the show was not going to be on as Ramon Raquello and is orchestra were performing dance music when the music faded down and the announcer came on the air slightly out of breath:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you this special bulletin from the intercontinental radio news…

It was a great piece of theater, too realistic for many, others tuned in late and panic ensued.  People raced out of their houses, went to confession, and didn’t pay for gas.  There were reports of long alien ships landing in New Jersey and incinerating crowds with heat rays. Then the black poison gas, oh, the black poison gas.

The day after, New York Times reported that up to 1.2 million people felt they were in grave danger and the world was ending.  It is hard to imagine how they came to that number, especially overnight for printing the next day.

Naturally, those commie federal regulators were having none of it, and the FCC proclaimed that broadcast hoaxes would not be tolerated, even promulgating a rule, 73.1217, stating, in part:

No licensee or permittee of any broadcast station shall broadcast false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe if: (a) The licensee knows this information is false; (b) It is forseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm, and (c) Broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm.

There are some radio stations that still broadcast this show every Halloween, with the appropriate disclaimers, of course.  For those that want to hear the War of the Worlds, go to Radio Heard Here.  It is really a great show.

Happy Halloween!

Update:  Occasional reader Sandy sends along this link to the WKBW 1968 version, which was purported to be every bit as real as the 1938 version.  The station was deluged with phone calls.  In fact, legend has it that when the broadcast ended a little after midnight, show producer Jeff Kayne slipped his resignation letter under the General Manager’s door.

WOWO EBS activation

An oldie, but a goodie, February 20, 1971, WOWO gets an EAN via AP teletype and follows the procedure:

Back in the days of EBS, there were weekly closed-circuit tests via AP and UPI teletype. In the event of a real Emergency Action Notification (EAN) there was a red envelope that contained a set of code words for each month. The test code words were on the outside of the envelope. If an EAN was received, the envelope would be torn open and the actual code words would be matched against the code words in the message. If it were authenticated, then the station would do just what WOWO did right then, send the two-tone EBS alert for 25 seconds and break into programming.

It is amazing that this did not happen more often, especially on a Saturday morning with a sleepy Airman in Colorado pulling the wrong message tape off the rack at the message center responsible for the whole system.

It happened more recently when an EAS message was sent to evacuate the entire state of Connecticut.  An EAN was sent in Chicago warning of a national attack when state officials were testing their new system.  I am sure that others have been sent as well.

I suppose the emergency notification has always left something to be desired.