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Apparently the 2019 Danish FM closure deadline has been abolished, the new agreement states that FM can be closed no earlier than two years after at least 50% of all radio listened to is digital, and we're nowhere near than coverage.
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Oct 19, 2015 13:12
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KozmoNaut posted:Apparently the 2019 Danish FM closure deadline has been abolished, the new agreement states that FM can be closed no earlier than two years after at least 50% of all radio listened to is digital, and we're nowhere near than coverage. Yeah, no suprise if it was your radio stations behind that too. When digital TV was rolled out on a schedule, people just had to deal with it and upgrade. But radio stations are probably afraid people won't make the switch and will just stop listening to them. Fo3 has a new favorite as of 13:34 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 13:31
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KozmoNaut posted:Apparently the 2019 Danish FM closure deadline has been abolished, the new agreement states that FM can be closed no earlier than two years after at least 50% of all radio listened to is digital, and we're nowhere near than coverage. The UK were going to shut off FM a few years ago and came up with a similar compromise when nobody was listening to DAB,
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Oct 19, 2015 13:37
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Ha, DAB is a joke in Finland. The Finnish Broadcasting Company (or YLE) was the only one to try it, and it lasted from 1997 to 2005 when it was shut down. IIRC they had all of two channels working during that time, and unsurprisingly people didn't want to buy new radios just to hear those channels. So FM is here to stay.
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Oct 19, 2015 13:38
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Fo3 posted:Yeah, no suprise if it was your radio stations behind that too. When digital TV was rolled out on a schedule, people just had to deal with it and upgrade. But radio stations are probably afraid people won't make the switch and will just stop listening to them. And for good reason. The digital TV switchover happened some years ago (2009 in Denmark), before proper high-quality video streaming was a thing and broadband fast enough to support multiple simultaneous streams was widespread. So there was no real alternative to broadcast television, unlike today where going completely without broadcast TV is not only possible, but in some cases preferable to a lot of people, thanks to widespread streaming of sports, Netflix, Youtube etc. But broadcast radio has had viable alternatives for a lot longer than broadcast TV. The introduction of MP3 in the mid-90s and the release of SHOUTcast in 1998, coupled with a general move from per-minute billed Internet access to flat rate billed access allowed anyone anywhere to listen to a virtually unlimited number "radio stations" from all over the world literally as easy as clicking a link on a webpage. Even more importantly, anyone could setup their own stream as long as their upload speed was high enough. Digitally Imported is a great example. Today they have over 100 different channels with all kinds of genres, but it all started as a hobby project stream run by a single person in a dorm room at Binghamton University. In addition to that, broadcast radio is threatened by podcasts and other on-demand content, because you can listen whenever you want instead of going by the station's schedule. Admittedly, that's a downside to DAB and traditional streaming radio as well. I think FM mostly survives because of the older generations who think DAB is too complicated and because FM is more tolerant of bad reception. You can still make out a legible signal even on very bad FM, but DAB just cuts out if the signal quality drops below a certain level. So a lot of people who live way out in the middle of nowhere can at least get some FM reception, but would be cut off if only DAB was available. The robustness of FM (and the relatively simplicity of FM tuners) also makes it ideal for emergency broadcasts. A battery-powered FM radio can run for a long time on barely any power, and the signal will probably stay up even if the cell phone network goes down. I don't think FM is going away completely for a long time. It's just too simple, robust and widespread for that to happen. For for general mainstream listeners? It was already outdated 15 years ago, and the big established radio stations know it, and fear the consequences. KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 14:09 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 14:06
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So why do governments want to ditch FM? Do they want to free up frequencies for other uses, like how old analog TV bandwidth is now being repurposed?
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Oct 19, 2015 14:09
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Krispy Kareem posted:So why do government's want to ditch FM? Do they want the bandwidth frequencies for other purposes, like how old analog TV frequencies are now being repurposed? Digital signals are a lot more bandwidth-efficient, so you can pack more channels into the same bandwidth. More channels = more licensing fees. And of course digital radio has some benefits over FM, like channel ID, current program information, program schedule, emergency channels etc. Some of that (like station ID and sometimes current program info) has been retrofitted to FM, with varying success. KozmoNaut has a new favorite as of 14:18 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 14:10
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At least here, the main argument is to allow a larger number of channels of arguably better quality within the same frequency band as before.
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Oct 19, 2015 14:36
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I don't know what your digital radio codec is like, but in the US it's loving terrible because the quality of the signal changes in jumps rather than on a gentle continuum like FM. So you're cruising along and suddenly the music gets really tinny and awful, then goes back, then it's poo poo again. Very jarring.
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Oct 19, 2015 14:41
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Computer viking posted:At least here, the main argument is to allow a larger number of channels of arguably better quality within the same frequency band as before. So the answer to medium that is plagued by repetitiveness and slowly losing marketshare is to make more channels available? I guess it could be, if the barriers of entry are lowered so that there's more competition. Like the illegal Hispanic radio station that used to bleed into my phone service. In a digital world they could salsa all day long to their own dedicated and crystal clear channel.
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Oct 19, 2015 14:53
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Pham Nuwen posted:I don't know what your digital radio codec is like, but in the US it's loving terrible because the quality of the signal changes in jumps rather than on a gentle continuum like FM. So you're cruising along and suddenly the music gets really tinny and awful, then goes back, then it's poo poo again. Very jarring. The original DAB spec used MP2 at bitrates of 128kbit/s or less, which was somewhat worse than FM, but would have been just fine at 160kbit/s or above. DAB+ uses AAC+, which is a massive leap in sound quality, even at bitrates as low as 64kbit/s. I haven't noticed any jarrying jumps in quality, but I have only used stationary DAB radios. Sirius XM is the digital broadcast radio used in all the US, right? I don't know what kind of codec that uses.
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Oct 19, 2015 14:56
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KozmoNaut posted:Sirius XM is the digital broadcast radio used in all the US, right? I don't know what kind of codec that uses. Sirius XM is the satellite based subscription radio service. It uses a codec called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_audio_coder The free terrestrial digital radio standard in the US is HD Radio. It uses a codec based on HE-AAC, but modified in a proprietary way that requires a licensing fee for both the radio station and for every radio sold. lazydog has a new favorite as of 15:40 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 15:26
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KozmoNaut posted:
Sirius XM is satellite broadcast. Terrestrial digital radio in the US is HD Radio (Hybrid Digital). It is a digital simulcast that sends the digital single above and below the analog transmission. It uses a propriatary codec that was based on HE-AAC. My limited experience with it was that when the digital signal gets too low, it will switch to the analog signal, but the radio we had that supported it would cut out the audio completely for a couple seconds while it switched. It was pretty irritating.
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Oct 19, 2015 15:28
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Krispy Kareem posted:So the answer to medium that is plagued by repetitiveness and slowly losing marketshare is to make more channels available? It's somewhat different over here, where the largest broadcaster is our BBC-equivalent. The two large commercial national channels are very samey, but the added DAB-only content is more varied - I see at least one small company that bid and failed at an FM license and later got a DAB license in there. You can take a look at the wikipedia list, though I haven't got a DAB radio at hand to check how up to date it is. Oh, and as far as I know https://radio.nrk.no/ isn't region locked. If you so desire, you can click "Hųr direkte" and get your daily dose of foreign gibberish. Computer viking has a new favorite as of 16:20 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 16:15
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Lowen SoDium posted:Sirius XM is satellite broadcast. The sound quality from Sirius XM is great. Except if you get stuck under a bridge, even if it is a 2 lane bridge, signal might cut out on you.
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Oct 19, 2015 16:32
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drgnwr1 posted:The sound quality from Sirius XM is great. Except if you get stuck under a bridge, even if it is a 2 lane bridge, signal might cut out on you. When driving in rental cars so new that the Sirius trial was still active, I found that the signal would cut out for an instant whenever you drove under an overpass, even at freeway speeds.
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Oct 19, 2015 16:45
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Pham Nuwen posted:When driving in rental cars so new that the Sirius trial was still active, I found that the signal would cut out for an instant whenever you drove under an overpass, even at freeway speeds. Correct, I deal with this on a constant. It isn't all overpasses though, just when it seems to miss a transfer. They should really increase the buffer for how often it happens.
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Oct 19, 2015 17:39
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Fo3 posted:There's got to be some pull with current FM radio stations here. I think if the FM broadcasters shut down, millions of people without a digital receiver would just go without the poo poo and just listen to music on their phones or ipods in their car or at work. I'm one of those guys who eschews radio. I was a big radio listener up until I finished high school. I always turned on the radio to the local rock station before bed (I sleep easier with music playing), at the cost of having to wake up to Bubba the Love Sponge starting his simulcast as I woke up for school. But in 2011, mere months after expanding their lineup to include less "classic rock" bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica, they suddenly dropped the station in favor of simulcast AM talk radio. Everyone left that frequency in droves, and I ended up getting an iPhone shortly after that happened and loaded it with music. Now with Pandora and Spotify, radio is just a local last resort. I can hook up my phone to the car and play exactly what kind of music I want with no problems. I even decided to pay $13 a month for Spotify Premium so I can use it as an album replacement. No need for CDs when you can stream the content straight to your speakers.
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Oct 19, 2015 17:41
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chitoryu12 posted:I'm one of those guys who eschews radio. I was a big radio listener up until I finished high school. I always turned on the radio to the local rock station before bed (I sleep easier with music playing), at the cost of having to wake up to Bubba the Love Sponge starting his simulcast as I woke up for school. But in 2011, mere months after expanding their lineup to include less "classic rock" bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica, they suddenly dropped the station in favor of simulcast AM talk radio. Everyone left that frequency in droves, and I ended up getting an iPhone shortly after that happened and loaded it with music. Fixed, now it sounds more like a commercial.
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Oct 19, 2015 17:48
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As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content?
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Oct 19, 2015 17:49
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Ozz81 posted:Absolutely no chance they didn't green screen a forklift out of this picture flosofl posted:My dad still has one of these he purchased new somewhere between 1978-1982 in his workshop, powering some JBL cabinet speakers from the 60s.
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Oct 19, 2015 17:55
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Putting SXM in my car (about 6 years ago) was the best thing for my commuting sanity. Every so often I'll get a rental without it, tune to FM, and just feel like punching the steering wheel until one of us bleeds. The commercials, the same goddamn songs, the same formats... If that's the best FM radio can do while fighting its own demise, it deserves to die.Computer viking posted:As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content? 98%, tops.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:01
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Wondering at this point if I should post info about my Pandigital Planet. It runs nothing better than Gingerbread and the company went under in 2011. EDIT: Slash is not period.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:04
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Computer viking posted:As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content? I'm in Canada but generally AM is garbage and I can actually see that going away very soon. You do get right wing stuff on sometimes here, but you also get sports channels where the on air banter when there isn't any sports on makes you want to blow your brains out. There's also a news channel here owned by a telecom that will plug their deals as "breaking news" which I'm sure violates all kinds of advertising ethics but who the gently caress actually listens? Also it's worth asking if anybody remembers AM being any good and if so what was it like?
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Oct 19, 2015 18:10
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Computer viking posted:As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content? AM Radio is a crazy place. Religious talk. Mexican music. SPORTS TALK SPORTSPORTS! Some cities have a news station - in Philadelphia we have a very obsolete one - KYW 1060 which just repeats news reports/traffic/weather every 22 minutes. It's a local fixture. They have a catchy singing jingle, fake typewriters in the background and a loud honking version of the jingle for the traffic report. The traffic report is entirely unintelligible to someone not from the area because they refer to the roads by their local nicknames rather than the road numbers. Blueroute jammed (476). Schuylkill expressway (76) jammed. Vine street expressway (676) jammed. black horse pike (NJ-42) jammed.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:16
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The extreme range on AM means it isn't going away anytime soon. You can easily pull in stations from hundreds of miles away in the evening.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:21
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I live about 300 miles from Chicago and listen to AM Chicago sports stations on my drive to work.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:24
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0toShifty posted:AM Radio is a crazy place. Religious talk. Mexican music. SPORTS TALK SPORTSPORTS! Same thing happens near Boston. Though they refer to the highways by number 90, 93, 128 (which is a part of 95), and infrequently 495. But its the locations that if you aren't from here you won't have any idea where they are. I-90 out past the police barricades. Tobin Bridge. Sumner Tunnel. Though for the most part you can just assume most of it is near Boston and if you are driving outside of 128 you are fine.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:37
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drgnwr1 posted:Fixed, now it sounds more like a commercial. It actually took me a while to figure out what you had added there.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:41
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Computer viking posted:As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content? Depends where you are, you'll always get a lot of Jesus and ultra-conservative talk radio, but for example around San Francisco there were at least 2 Hindi-language stations and a few Chinese stations. Out here in New Mexico, there's a station that plays less-common rock and roll from the 50s and 60s. Trabant posted:Putting SXM in my car (about 6 years ago) was the best thing for my commuting sanity. Every so often I'll get a rental without it, tune to FM, and just feel like punching the steering wheel until one of us bleeds. The commercials, the same goddamn songs, the same formats... If that's the best FM radio can do while fighting its own demise, it deserves to die. Based on what I've listened to on SXM there's no ground to bitch about FM's song variety... I kept hearing the same songs every hour or so.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:42
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Computer viking posted:As a foreigner, my impression of AM talk radio is wall-to-wall racist religious ultraconservatives. That doesn't seem likely to be 100% true - so out of curiosity, what's the typical mix of content? Yeah here in Australia most commercial talk back radio is used by racist ultraconservative old white people. But there is government run (or part funded) AM stations that have things like national news, urgent broadcasts (like for fires and other disasters that people need to know about), and other programs like gardening, sports or whatever. E: and plenty of foreign language only stations for immigrants to listen to. Fo3 has a new favorite as of 18:52 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 18:47
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My city has 2 AM sports channels that I listen too.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:55
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Something I picked up at a garage sale for $30: +  =  I sold it on our local craigslist-equivalent for $250, I'm just not interested enough to get into film photography.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:55
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evobatman posted:Something I picked up at a garage sale for $30: nice, I bought a pistol handle like that from an old camera store and still use it on newer DLSRs. Mine doesn't have the analog cable though, just a useless trigger.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:58
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Pham Nuwen posted:Based on what I've listened to on SXM there's no ground to bitch about FM's song variety... I kept hearing the same songs every hour or so. Yes. I've experienced Sirius in numerous rental cars, and my initial thought: "Hey, a dedicated 80s station on a subscription service? Man, that's gotta be great, you've got 24 hours a day to play from a ridiculously broad and deep amount of music. I bet I'll hear poo poo I haven't heard in years." Nope. Same 50-song playlist FM 80s stations have, same songs at the same time of day, every day. Just the artist's #1 hit, nothing off his less-known albums, no deep cuts off the #1 album, just same old overplayed poo poo. If that's what I want, I can get FM radio for free, with the bonus that I don't have FM radio stations calling me up at home to sell me their useless service. Howard Stern's good, but aside from that, gently caress SXM.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:58
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Phanatic posted:
Only a minor adjustment needed. 
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Oct 19, 2015 19:04
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Phanatic posted:Yes. I've experienced Sirius in numerous rental cars, and my initial thought: "Hey, a dedicated 80s station on a subscription service? Man, that's gotta be great, you've got 24 hours a day to play from a ridiculously broad and deep amount of music. I bet I'll hear poo poo I haven't heard in years." I looked it up and Sirius is $14.90 a month. Spotify is $13 a month and lets you just play whole albums with a fuckton of variety, or make a playlist of whatever you want and put it on shuffle. On the way to Atlanta I was playing 1970s Styx albums in full. And premium comes with no ads, so you just get 24/7 music if you want.
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Oct 19, 2015 19:07
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Phanatic posted:Yes. I've experienced Sirius in numerous rental cars, and my initial thought: "Hey, a dedicated 80s station on a subscription service? Man, that's gotta be great, you've got 24 hours a day to play from a ridiculously broad and deep amount of music. I bet I'll hear poo poo I haven't heard in years." I was shocked when I hooked my phone up to my car's sound system and found that Slacker Radio's stations have a far better mix of stuff. I went from hearing the same repetitive mix on Sirius to songs I haven't heard in years due to being left off those recycled playlists. It has ads if you don't pay and a lovely DJ that lazily rattles off trivia between songs, but I'm willing to endure those for the better song variety.
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Oct 19, 2015 19:17
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Hmm. Either I listen to a few good SXM stations (Little Steven's Underground Garage, Liquid Metal, Deep Tracks, Lithium) or I'm just not listening long enough each day to see the repeats you're all describing. So I'll just say it works for me, at least compared to FM. Meanwhile, on obsolete technology: my car (base 2005 Infiniti G35) doesn't have line-in, Bluetooth, or any other audio input available. That means my after-market SXM radio actually uses an FM transmitter for playback through the car's speakers. So it's subject to (a) overpass interference, (b) terrestrial radio interference, and (c) lower audio quality. It's a beautiful combination Getting some of the more modern car conveniences would be very nice, and the gas mileage blows, but it's so hard to justify getting a new car when my current one still runs like new. Or maybe I'll just man up and eventually add an aux input plug myself.
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Oct 19, 2015 19:40
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drgnwr1 posted:The sound quality from Sirius XM is great. Except if you get stuck under a bridge, even if it is a 2 lane bridge, signal might cut out on you. Quality is only that good on a music channel. If you listen to one of the talk formats, it can be like a throwback to late 90's RealAudio. TuneIn Radio has some sort of premium content thing going plus they have the MLB license and Audiobooks for about 9 per month. Not sure how they are positioned for music, but they might start challenging. The big problem with streaming services and satellite (from my perspective) is that they are devoid of local information. Time and temp are pretty at your finger tips if you have a smart phone, but lots of people don't and that information is wanted by someone. News and sports too. Maybe you'll get covered off on big events or top level teams, but there is nothing on satellite radio that will deal with an increase in your property taxes in Topeka, Kansas, nor will there be anything about your AAA baseball team Montgomery, Alabama (Go Biscuits!).
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Oct 19, 2015 19:49
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