The Fate of AM HD?

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The Fate of AM HD?

Postby jon » Tue Aug 16, 2016 4:56 pm

An article from an upcoming issue of the IRCA's DX Monitor publication:

The Fate of AM HD

KFI stopped broadcasting in AM HD (IBOC) on August 8 at 9:00 a.m., when their signal began being simulcasting on KOST-FM-HD2. “KFI was among the first to broadcast using HD, and it is — or was — considered one of the best success stories for HD digital broadcasts on the AM band.” (“Is KFI switch a sign AM radio is really dead?” by Richard Wagoner, Los Angeles Daily News, August 12, 2016)

Despite the title of his article, Richard focuses more on the impending death of HD on AM than AM itself. On a positive note, Richard says: “The loss of HD wouldn’t be a bad thing if AM stations would open up their audio as they did during the AM stereo days; audio bandwidth was cut drastically on the analog signal to make room for the HD stream. Without HD, perhaps wideband AM can return. Wideband analog AM sounds wonderful on a good radio, though still noisier than HD.”

Elsewhere, XEKAM-950 was one of the first AM HD stations in Mexico. Canada was also late to IBOC, thanks to a failed attempt at a new digital radio frequency band. In the last few months, a lot of new FM HD stations have appeared, often piggy-backing one or two AM stations on HD2 and HD3. There are no known plans for any AM HD stations in Canada.
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