HD Radio Fourfold Power Increase Compromise Seen as First Step
A new compromise between National Public Radio (NPR) and the maker of equipment for digital radio that would allow boosting maximum FCC power levels fourfold for HD broadcasts is seen by proponents as paving the way for a larger increase. NPR executives said increased geographic separation between first-adjacent channels is necessary to prevent a digital broadcaster from interfering with another’s analog signal. But two of the 16 radio broadcasters that in July sought a tenfold increase from the commission (CD Oct 7 p14) said they'd still like that in-band-on-channel (IBOC) boost and with few, if any, conditions.
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NPR tests finished last month found that stations could broadcast in digital at 4 percent of their maximum allowed analog levels without causing additional interference, said Chief Technology Officer Mike Starling. “Noncommercial educational stations are more vulnerable to interference from higher power IBOC operations,” he said. “We've been big boosters of HD and proponents of a managed power increase for quite some time, once it became evident there was a shortfall in coverage and indoor power issues” of digital versus analog. “With additional mileage safeguards between particular stations, with these conditions” of further separation between stations on neighboring frequencies, NPR would support an increase to 10 percent of analog power, added Starling. The broadcaster had asked the commission to hold off approving a power increase until it finished its tests, the results of which it will release in about a month, he said.
NPR and iBiquity Digital, maker of HD Radio gear, agree on the use of different power levels for multicast radio programming to allow for one stream’s level to be lowered to prevent interference, their executives said. “Safeguards” for asymmetrical sideband operation and “remediation standards that have teeth” are sought by NPR, Starling said. “We think that asymmetrical sideband transmission is a useful capability and have been working on it for awhile,” CEO Bob Struble of iBiquity said.
“We are working hard with all industry parties on a compromise and remain hopeful we will get there,” Struble said. “As we recommended to the FCC, the 6 dB interim increase seems to us to be a good basis for that compromise.” The full commission likely would have to approve any compromise, said two radio lawyers not representing either side. Approval can occur as soon as FCC members get the NPR study, Starling said. “It is important that the increase be authorized in an expeditious fashion and I would say that NPR would support the increase if the commission adopts all the conditions that we are recommending.”
Conditions are a non-starter for some radio companies. That “just jumbles it up,” said Chief Technology Officer Paul Brenner of Emmis. “If there are any limitations for how stations can implement, where they can implement, it’s not good enough,” he said. “If there are stipulations that would somehow preclude some of the most powerful stations in the United States from participating, it weakens the value.” A quadrupling of digital power “comes pretty close to replicating FM coverage” but isn’t “the ideal situation,” said Brenner.
The fourfold increase “will clean up not all but a good many of the mobile reception issues,” Engineering Vice President Milton Smith of Greater Media, which ran a study of its own, said. “But it will require a full 10 dB to get parity with portable devices like the Zune and the new Best Buy insignia portable radio … that tend to have abbreviated antenna systems.” Smith is hopeful an increase to 6 dB “will pave a road to go into the full 10 dB as we get more experience,” he added. “I am hesitant to see any hard and fast restrictions or any permanent rules put into effect” besides asymmetrical operation and helping radio services for the blind go digital. “I think we need to get the experience first.”
Radio stations have increasingly focused on introducing new services including HD Radio to remain competitive during the recession, and would benefit from regulatory certainty, sole law practitioner Michael Berg said. “It’s so important that an agreement happens and that they just take that to the FCC,” which “absolutely” would prefer to approve a compromise over setting its own mandate, he added. “A compromise reached between iBiquity and NPR will certainly carry a lot of weight with the FCC,” said lawyer David Oxenford of Davis Wright, who represents some groups that initially worried about problems because of power increases. “The biggest concern that people were having is that people were not able to pick up FM or HD Radio inside of buildings unless they were able to squeeze their antenna up against a window.”