Part of the reason for the flurry of HDRadio posts is the issue of FM translators (FX) being “fed” by HD 2\/3\/4 channels, to essentially carve out a brand new FM radio station that doesn’t even count against the BigRadio™ limit on number of stations in a market. While the FX is limited to 250 watts, put it on the tallest building in town, and your $20k translator becomes worth millions of dollars. Is the HDx channel even “on the air?” Who has the time to check? All that matters is the technicalities were met. The incentives to do this are just too strong, HDx fed translators are not going away, and they have the bonus of blocking new LPFM stations from being licensed. Goliath seems totally scared of David.<\/p>\n
Case in point – from this morning’s newsbag
\n“93.7 K229CC Winterset will complete its move to downtown Des Moines as Country \u201c93.7 The Outlaw\u201d rebroadcasting 102.5 KSTZ-HD2. Positioned as \u201cLegends & Young Guns\u201d the new format will bring competition to Cumulus\u2019 combo of \u201c97.3 Nash-FM\u201d KHKI and \u201c92.5 Nash Icon\u201d KJJY.”<\/p>\n
Read More At: https:\/\/radioinsight.com\/blog\/headlines\/94682\/saga-launching-des-moines-outlaw\/<\/a><\/p>\n This means it is highly probable that K229CC is going to sprout a web site and stream – it is a radio “station” that can be heard on existing radios. Nobody but lawyers care that it is really KSTZ\/HD2. You’ll hear the two call signs at the required top of the ID, but it’s a pretty good bet high school students in Iowa won’t be asking each other if they lstened to K229CC last night. Making things even worse is FX call signs are tied to the frequency. On FM, changing transmitter frequencies is just an option in software. If the station has to (or wants to) change frequencies or towers, the process at the FCC doesn’t require nearly the paperwork – but if people did get used to K229FC, tomorrow it might be K232GJ. <\/p>\n Figuring out how to “not break” this when the FX call sign changes is a problem. There is no reason one HD channel couldn’t feed multiple translators in a metro area. You might hear the same “station” on 5 different frequencies by the time this runs its course. The “brand” will be “93.7 The Outlaw”, with no reference to the call sign <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Part of the reason for the flurry of HDRadio posts is the issue of FM translators (FX) being “fed” by HD 2\/3\/4 channels, to essentially carve out a brand new FM radio station that doesn’t even count against the BigRadio™ … Continue reading