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Station Finds Digital AM Is No Good If No One Knows It’s There
One of only two stations in the U.S. that’s been fooling around with an all-digital signal on the AM band has given up on it, after discovering a complete and utter lack of interest from listeners. (Surprise!)
WIOE, a one lung outlet at 1450 in the small town of Warsaw, Indiana (that broadcasts to Fort Wayne, best known as the home of WOWO) had essentially gotten rid of its analogue signal and went all digital, while still maintaining an FM repeater.
But the station found most listeners believed it had simply signed off the air for good and they decided to stop the experiment and go back to the way things were. Besides, no one actually has a radio that can get it, so you have to wonder why they bothered at all.
1450 is one of the worst frequencies on the AM band and goes nowhere, especially at night. The owners discovered that one of the benefits of the new technology was that the signal traveled farther and because it was digital, sounded better.
But if a radio station signs off in a forest and there’s no one there to hear it, it apparently doesn’t make a sound.
“We purchased a billboard to spread the news of the changes, but people seemed to think the AM station just went off the air, just static, which is not what we intended obviously,” [Owner Brian] Walsh told Radio World."
Only one other American station has taken this plunge. WWFD 820 in Frederick, Maryland is now the sole AM station in North America that’s totally digital on the AM band. It also has an FM repeater and is on several HD FM settings in nearby Washington, D.C., so it's not losing much with the experiment.
Still, if this is the future of the old band, its time is obviously not here yet.
Indiana AM Station Suspends All-Digital Transmission
WWFD Website
- radiokid
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Re: Station Finds Digital AM Is No Good If No One Knows It’s There
There in my opinion is a few mistakes made here.
1. Doing this in such a small market. It makes it hard as availability/acceptance of new technology like HD is going to be smaller
2. the Demographic of the station. They are running a OLDIES format from their website. This really is a audience who typically is not going to rush out and buy a new radio, understands the technology well enough and really is a format with smaller audiences every year based on stats. Yes I know they can be dedicated.. but sadly, not enough to buy a new radio for every radio in their home or car.
3. AVAILABILITY OF THE RADIOS. As a industry there needs to be a push to ensure EVERY radio available on the market for a home or car has HD already in it. It shouldn't be a option, a "luxury feature" type thing. You can not get people to spend time finding a radio with HD features. It needs to be made as easy for everyone.
4. There needs to be a national plan to move AM to HD full time. This combines with RADIOS having HD by default. AM is a dying and can be useful if moved to digital full time. The only way this will work is a national plan to flip everyone over at once, like TV did.
5. Marketing about the move before and after. You can't just flip tomorrow... They should have spent months pushing people saying they needed a new radio to continue to listen and explain why. Billboards after the fact don't do much as listeners have moved on OR moved to their FM repeater to get the same programming without having to pay a cent for a new radio.
6. Ease of use of HD radio. Radio as a industry needs to work with the makers of HD and come up with a better way to find stations, making it easy to find etc. Sadly, most find it too confusing to dial up a frequency... wait... then press up for HD 2 etc. etc. It should work like a app. Press the logo and boom it's there!
I think without some national plan and radios having HD by default in cars/stores, no matter who tries this move will fail. AM should be the focus of any of these plans as it's the one band that has been bleeding listeners the most. For now, a hybrid Analog/digital format is where AM should go to make HD available, but more needs to be done if this is to work. Sadly, if AM is to be saved for the future, I think the industry can't just sit and wait. It's already past the point we should be at.
- mace
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Re: Station Finds Digital AM Is No Good If No One Knows It’s There
I am a technologically challenged old fart. Why would I want to upgrade to an HD radio. In most, but not all, cases all you get are clearer AM signals. Having been a DXer for at least 50 years, I can handle interference on that band just fine.
- Radio111
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Re: Station Finds Digital AM Is No Good If No One Knows It’s There
The article is off a little bit. WIOE FM is in Warsaw, but 1450AM is in Fort Wayne proper. It was probably best known as WLYV, a Top 40 station in the 60s and early 70s.
As someone who has been to Fort Wayne a few times, I can say it certainly has one of the weakest signals once you leave the Metro. Other than WOWO, WGL on 1250 is probably the strongest AM signal.