Listed below are current extra letters to the editor of Radio World.
Sustain the warmth on AM
Paul, a belated notice with reference to your very attention-grabbing interview with John Zimmer (“5 Challenges for Small- and Medium-Market Radio”):
As a gaggle proprietor, every of the issues talked about are worthy of notice. However for my part, he leaves out one main level: The electrical automobile is NOT his buddy.
He ought to be utilizing his (and his FCC legal professional’s) appreciable political clout to decry the truth that EV producers are eliminating his AM stations from their on-board radio receivers.
He ought to be screaming bloody homicide over the truth that the geometrically growing variety of EV charging stations are spewing out uncontrolled RFI, regardless of very particular FCC rules on the contrary.
If his AM stations are being eliminated, can his FMs be far behind?
Until these very actual threats are confronted with nice vigor proper now, a number of the points he talked about in your dialog will diminish, together with a significant portion of his general enterprise.
— Robert Richer
Mandate radio in telephones and tablets
I recognize the efforts being made to maintain AM receivers in cars. Certainly the interference points with EVs are solvable. Maintaining radio as a available choice for most individuals ought to be thought of a vital a part of the emergency data ecosystem.
One other innovation might enormously improve the provision of emergency broadcasts for the general public. Congress ought to require that each one cellphones and tablets come outfitted with an AM/FM receiver chip. Fewer individuals have radios of their properties than previously, however most individuals now carry a smartphone. When cell towers are down or overloaded and electrical energy is out, the vast majority of individuals would nonetheless have the ability to obtain radio alerts through their telephones, even when their automobiles have been destroyed within the emergency.
A contented facet impact of that is that making radio reception extra accessible will seemingly enhance day by day radio listening. It is going to additionally assist free radio listening from dependence on web suppliers and knowledge plans, thereby democratizing the provision of radio alerts as soon as once more.
— Tim Lynch, Normal Supervisor, KALX(FM) UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Calif.
It is going to take a village
Timothy Cutforth’s article is spot-on with reference to the approaching departure of AM radio from … in all places (“Optimize AM Receivers Earlier than Giving Up”).
Automobile tuners are infamous for being simply plain terrible, going again to the Seventies. Add the experiment that was AM IBOC, which restricted the published bandwidth even additional. I don’t know if it has returned even now when AM HD has been principally retired.
In 1973 my Toyota Corolla’s “TEN” AM/FM tuner had an honest FM sound, however the AM tuner was the pits. In 1974, a brand new Corolla with an AM-only radio supplied first rate constancy. My 1979 Honda Prelude had a proprietary Honda tuner; it was doable to tune barely off-frequency to catch some extra highs. A 1991 Infinity Q30 had an AM stereo receiver that might widen the bandwidth on demand. It sounded fairly good.
However even the Bose techniques in my subsequent autos carries shameful AM constancy. Most stations have rolled off the underside finish to attempt to appropriate the dearth of highs on the frequency, rendering them simply barely higher than the climate band frequencies.
It’s a standard proven fact that intelligibility of AM receivers is pitiful. Maybe the declining variety of AM stations can considerably alleviate the interference. However and not using a concerted effort to repair all the issues going through the “customary” band, will probably be misplaced. It’s going to must fall on all concerned, and the earlier the higher.
— Dave Mason, San Diego, Calif.
Shortwave radios don’t inform tales
A number of factors of curiosity concerning shortwave broadcasting. Though I’ve been retired from Voice of America as a Overseas Service Officer and subject engineer for over a decade, a number of factors are nonetheless value noting.
In my expertise of residing and dealing around the globe for 20 years, most radios bought abroad are a mix AM/FM and shortwave. So there are radios obtainable to most of the people.
Second is the great thing about shortwave. Broadcast may be despatched over giant distances and be extremely efficient at reaching the specified viewers. AM broadcasting can solely attain a smaller listener space and with out extraordinarily excessive energy should be in fairly shut proximity to the meant viewers. FM broadcasting has even better limitations in respect to closeness to the meant listener.
As we now have adopted new expertise akin to the worldwide web, we don’t appear to have a grasp of its inherent limitations. I witnessed this firsthand within the Center East the place web sites or data deemed inappropriate are simply blocked or deleted from a rustic’s web stream. Proxy servers and different VPN strategies do little for the people striving for freedom of knowledge. Info concerning utilizing and trying to find these companies is definitely gathered by web service suppliers and can be utilized to intimidate or prosecute.
Shortwave radios don’t inform tales. Frequency recollections may be deleted simply, and there’s no approach to inform what broadcast have been being listened to, particularly on analog scale radios.
We have to reevaluate our strategic considering and keep in mind that shortwave works successfully and has for a few years. Folks around the globe have relied on SW broadcast for years as a supply of dependable information and data that their host nations didn’t need them to listen to.
— Walter Konetsco
The writer is a former Overseas Service officer and Voice of America radio engineer.
Waze has its place
I want to touch upon the letter from Hans Laetz of KBUU, “Why I Don’t Belief Waze”:
Over the previous 10 years I’ve performed site visitors reviews for a number of markets for 3 Philadelphia Site visitors companies: TangoTraffic, GeoTraffic and USTN (is it MY fault they ALL went below?)
It’s Journalism 101 {that a} good reporter by no means copies one other report or declares data with out verifying through a second supply or at the least including a disclaimer of the place the data got here from.
Once I do Washington, D.C., site visitors for a suburban station, Waze is simply one of many instruments within the toolbox, together with the DOTs, velocity sensors, metropolis bulletins, tweets and listener reviews.
It seems like Mr. Laetz is skilled in multi-sourcing site visitors data, so I’m not certain about his feedback aside from to warning inexperienced broadcasters to not rely solely on Waze because the know-all and be-all.
As with all kind of reporting, be it information, sports activities, climate, leisure or site visitors, the extra sources that agree on the knowledge, the extra correct your reporting shall be.
— JR Russ, Marcus Hook, Pa.
Nothing is ceaselessly
Sure, “There’s No Such Factor as a Everlasting Set up.”
Again within the day, I keep in mind putting in an analog audio console for the third time. It had been moved from one studio location to a different in possession modifications. I advised the supervisor, “That is the LAST time I’m going to reinstall this console!” The following change was to digital.
As we all know, radio is in a continuing change of flux at an ever-accelerating fee with digital connectivity.
— Mark Individuals, CPBE, W0MH, Brainerd, Minn.
[Check Out More Letters at Radio World’s Reader’s Forum Section]
