NPR expects to finish testing the secondary or supplemental digit...

setting much store by the success of the supplemental audio channel as a way of increasing coverage in light of spectrum shortage and to promote localism, an issue that has come to the fore after the FCC decided to raise the ownership limits for commercial TV broadcasters. Starling said testing had been almost completed on schedule Sept. in 4 markets when iBiquity unveiled its new HD Codec (HDC) to replace the PAC Codec. Starling said data collection was done based on the PAC codec at KALW San Francisco, KKJZ L.A., WETA Washington, a long- standing test station for iBiquity, and WNYC N.Y.C. The introduction of the HD Codec in Aug., which drew “rave” reviews from more than 40 broadcast engineers and executives, meant “all our test data on PAC Codec was not conclusive of what would be the real world coverage characteristics and that we have to do several rounds of some regression testing.” The new testing would be confined to Washington and N.Y., Starling said, because those stations were on the air permanently, whereas in L.A. and San Francisco the testing was done on “loaner” transmitters. It won’t be necessary to go back and redo all of those data, he said. Asked whether there had been any preliminary findings on the viability of the 2nd channel, Starling was cautious, saying he didn’t want to be “premature about our expectations.” He said it was believed internally that if a city grade coverage contour of 70 dBu was achieved it would be substantial enough to “warrant asking the Commission to endorse this option” as part of the interim service rules for digital radio. “We think we will clearly exceed that, but I wouldn’t want to predict where we will wind up,” he said. “We will probably be somewhere between the 60 and 70 dBu contour as you could generally expect.”