Authorizing full-time use of in-band on-channel (IBOC) technology...
Authorizing full-time use of in-band on-channel (IBOC) technology on AM and FM stations not only would provide listeners with the “digital experience they have come to expect from satellite radio” and other digital sources, but “will enable significant advances…
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in alerting and warning technology through the use of the digital data stream on AM and FM HD Radio stations,” Sage Alerting Systems told the FCC. Sage -- which helped develop the Emergency Alert System (EAS) the FCC approved in the mid-1990s -- urged the Commission to require EAS compliance in the IBOC domain “from the very beginning to insure that listeners tuned to the digital data stream do not miss potentially life saving messages and announcements.” It also asked the FCC to begin probing new and improved alerting techniques made possible through digital broadcasting. For example, IBOC technology can beam “specific and localized” emergency announcements to the front-panel displays of HD Radio receivers in cars and homes, but the capability also exists to turn radios on and off selectively using that data stream, Sage said. “Addressability down to a much smaller area than is currently possible in the EAS protocol would facilitate reaching only those who would be directly effected by severe weather, chemical [spills] or terrorist activities. These capabilities would be a vast improvement over the existing EAS system and could be implemented either voluntarily or by FCC mandate in all new AM and FM receivers equipped with HD Radio.” Sage said it believes the cost of implementing such “digital-interrupt” technology would be “no greater” than the current cost of deploying EAS capability at an analog station, and products could be brought to market “very quickly.”