READER COMMENTS: WHY ARE YOU SUCH AN HD RADIO HATER?

REGARDING COVERAGE OF HD LEMONS & INSTANT FM LEMONADE

I received a confidential message from a well-known and highly regarded consulting engineer:

Geez Ken, why such an HD Radio hater?

I sent this reply:

I am not an HD Hater.  I am a realist.  I approach this like I was a GM at a station looking for what works.  HD channels are a great way to feed FM xlators.  Since the FCC opened this path to FM for HD operators, why not use it.  If you were at WFIU would you wait and wait for HD Radio to get a life or do something (like creating a new INSTANT FM station that could help your business now?  Ken.

And I received this message back:

Ken thanks for the clarification. I wouldn’t wait, and I’d probably do something similar to what Steve Yasko did: An HD2 channel devoted to Baltimore bands and make the thing intensely local. Then I’d build a consortium to buy a bunch of portable HD Radio receivers and give ‘em away.

I would also look at iHeart Media’s use of HD Radio data and see what I could do to rent some of my data bandwidth to at least break even on the HD Radio equipment upkeep.

NEW INSTANT FM STATION COMING TO DULUTH

American Public Media (“APM”) is buying FM translator W215CG 90.9 FM from a religious broadcaster for $45,000. According to the paperwork filed with the FCC, 90.9 FM will repeat APM’s WCSD HD2 channel that airs The Current.  Here is W215CG’s coverage:

This will be competition for Duluth’s Triple A station KUMD. WSCD HD2 also feeds The Current to INSTANT FM STATIONS in Ely and Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

REGARDING ONGOING COVERAGE OF KUSP, SANTA CRUZ

 

In my column on 6/26/15 KUSP RECEIVES ANONYMOUS $100,000 DONATION [link] I wrote:

The last-minute entry of an interested person with a bag full of cash is odious and not worthy of an organization that seeks the public’s trust.

Aaron Read commented:

I think this is a definite possibility but I think one could just as easily view it from the other direction: there's a definite number of extremely wealthy people living in and around Santa Cruz/Monterey. Like, people for whom $100k is pocket change. It's entirely possible one of them just doesn't want KUSP to disappear overnight and is giving them enough time to get their act together.

Would it have been much, much better if KUSP could've used the $100k as a "challenge grant" concept to launch a massive capital campaign to help fix their problems? Of course it would, but the impression I've had is that time is a luxury they don't have…

And, a comment from a confidential source close to KUSP:

I do not know who the donor is and it's driving me crazy! But I am reliably told the gift was prompted by dismay over the behavior of the leaders of the KUSP Forward group [led by] a former employee who, to put it kindly, had anger issues…