Dark side of the loon?

Hey, did you hear the one about Glenn Beck raping and murduring a girl back in 1990?

Well, so goes the latest meme crawling around the web. It claims that the FOX 'News' squawker has a very dark and sordid past. Very dark and sordid. Allegedly, he committed rape and murder.

And one site is looking to expose the high-strung wingnut screamer. The accusing site even claims to have evidence, including a police report. And if all the crazy stuff Beck spews is true, then perhaps this is as well. After all, the information is presented in the same ways Beck frequently uses to target his adversaries and subsequently lose his advertisers.

Hey, I'm just sayin'.

Nobody really knows whether Beck raped and murdered that young girl back in 1990, but the meme seems to have the fingerprints of a group of internet pranksters all over it. The website Mediaite suspects it's all the work of a group with the likely moniker 'Anonymous'. They're a powerful clique connected with hacker/prankster site 4chan, and have created elaborate stunts like attacks on the Church of Scientology and the flooding of YouTube with porn clips. Some of their stunts were beyond the pale (such as an attack on a support forum run by the Epilepsy Foundation of America). But hey, they did harass white supremacist shortwave radio talker Hal Turner and they launched online support efforts for Iranians to contest the questionable presidential election there earlier this summer, so they,'re not all bad. And they even designed the cool Beck/Joker pic shown at the top.

But, what if it is all real (sarcasm alert), and the meme is being spread by people aware of Beck's grim past? Needless to say, this meme is an interesting example of how fast bullshit travels across the tubes in the internet era. If the Beck rumors are indeed false, doesn't that cast doubt on the various falsities spread by right-wingers over the years? Can we finally stop talking about the Swift Boat vets, President Obama's birth certificate, 'death panels', the pending American nazi/socialist revolution and the Clinton Body Count? After all, if they claim without a doubt that the Beck rumor is a lie, what does that say about the fertilizer they spread? After all, if he can launch a smear campaign against the President, calling him a racist and accusing him of hating white people (and we all know the flack that Kanye West got when he said something similar about our previous president), well...

Regardless of where it came from, the meme has spread like wildfire, as the just-launched website has accumulated thousands of page views. The perpetrators have launched a massive viral campaign, using sites like Fark, Yahoo! Answers, Reddit, Twitter, and others. All that's left is for Beck to deny it.

You see, in Beck's world, the burden of proof lies with the accused, rather than the accuser. It's a really old trick used in campaigns (Lyndon Johnson, after seeking to spread one wild rumor, said something to the effect of "I wanna see the sonuvabitch deny it!"). The wingnuts live and die by this dirty trick, using it for bullshit accusations such as the Swift Vets smears on John Kerry and the recent birther movement that threw the legitimacy of Barack Obama's birth certificate into doubt. Glenn Beck uses this trick more than others, and drools whenever others do it. So, if he thrives on playing this kind of game, shouldn't it be up to Beck to prove that he didn't rape and murder a young girl back in 1990? And should we really sympathize with him, as if he's the 'wrong man' in an old Hitchcock flick?

Mediaite says:

People will ask the question and not answer it, insisting that Beck “prove that he didn’t;” supposedly, this parallels Beck’s argumentative style. The bottom of glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com reads, “Notice: This site is parody/satire. We assume Glenn Beck did not rape and murder a young girl in 1990, although we haven’t yet seen proof that he didn’t. But we think Glenn Beck definitely uses tactics like this to spread lies and misinformation.” Really, though? It all comes across as a malicious, masterfully executed prank whose pranksters were grasping for a higher political justification.

As one poster on Fark puts it:

FootInMouthDisease: ...Instead of actually refuting the facts. I know. Not one person has come in here with a link to Glenn Beck's murder record to prove that not one of them involved a rape and a girl in 1990. For real. What is he hiding? You know... If it weren't such a big deal, you think he would just go on tv and clear the air. Just show us all the long forms, seriously, is it that hard, cchris_39? you could just lay it all to rest, with the official, undoctored, signed, long-form investigation certificates. Or that, if it were so obvious that glenn beck raped and killed a girl in 1990, weren't true surely there would be some reputable source we could cite?

(snip)

Not to add to the rumor mongering, but have no knowledge of any plausible alibi Glenn Beck has that would prove he didn't rape and murder that girl in 1990. Lexis Nexis provides 0 articles that state Glenn Beck didn't rape and murder a girl for the entire year of 1990. Some say Glenn Beck has spent possibly THREE BILLION DOLLARS to cover up the fact that he raped and murdered a girl in 1990. Why won't Glenn Beck release her death certificate? WHERE GLENN WHERE HEY. The State of Hawaii issued a Certificate of Live Death. That's all the evidence you need. And they said that after glenn beck raped every orifice, he ate her dead body with arugula and spicy mustard in 1990.

So, is this all fair game? Did Beck really do what they claim he did back in 1990? True or not true, shouldn't Beck come out and deny it all? Granted, it's a rather tasteless prank (if that's what it is). Accusations of rape and murder are kinda pushing it a bit. But it also proves the old saying, what comes around goes around. Beck and his ilk make millions of dollars to spout lies, insults, racist and xenophobic taunts and various other inanities across alleged mainstream news media outlets. Live by the sword, die by it. In other words, if you get in bed with the devil, you'd better be ready to put out. Beck has gotten in bed with the devil, using vicious means to attack his so-called enemies, then cowardly claiming it's all entertainment. However, considering Beck is everything short of clinically insane, I wonder just how many people really take this bloated coke-fueled sack of elephant shit seriously.

Regardless of whether the rumors are true or not, if Beck's bottom line is hurt by accusations such as these, I have no sympathy. It's the price one pays for collecting huge paychecks for being an insufferable asshole. That's life.

Now, do I believe that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990? That's for you to decide. As far as I'm concerned, though, that coke-snortin' jerkoff can go cheney himself.

Hey, did you hear the one about Lou Dobbs and his Mexican love child?

Online political junkies swing to the left

In the midst of the most-talked about presidential election in recent times, independent online political news sites have seen their numbers shoot through the roof. And the biggest one-year gains are being enjoyed by left-leaning websites.

Comscore, a group that monitors internet trends, released the report showing which politically-oriented sites, blogs and online communities have been the most popular in this election cycle. The survey monitors only independent sites, and not ones associated with any newspaper, magazine or broadcast media entity.

The big winner – and the most-read independent political site of them all – is Huffington Post. The three year-old news and commentary site, an ambitious effort by namesake Arianna Huffington and others, was yet another attempt at creating a headline clearing house to rival Matt Drudge's conservative-leaning Drudge Report. In addition, the headlines were supplemented by a long list of bloggers (including Hollywood celebrities) and even sections devoted to media and entertainment news. While many Drudge-inspired sites have come and gone, this effort has paid off. Big time. During the period spanning September 2007 to September 2008, HuffPo saw its readership numbers surge a whopping 474%, reeling in over 4.5 million unique visitors.

Coming in second is another relatively new site, the just over a year old Politico. The non-partisan site, founded by several former Washington Post staffers, has also seen strong one year gains, up 344% to over 2.3 million unique visitors during the past month. Politico has been a must-read site for political junkies, and has even broken some big stories, including the most recent scandal involving the Republican Party's $150,000 shopping spree for Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. While Politico also puts out a magazine, it is clear that it is the site that fuels the whole thing, and not the other way around. Politico plays it straight down the middle ideologically, and does not favor any particular candidates. Readers on both sides of the political spectrum have criticized the site for being slanted toward one side or the other, which means that they are obviously doing their job.

In third place is a surprising entry. Since it's founding in the early days of the internet, the Drudge Report has been one of the most-visited sites on the internet. It seemed as if everyone read it, and was a go-to for news and political junkies. And it has been copied, imitated and parodied by many over the years. But years later, Drudge seems to have become more and more irrelevant, eclipsed by other sites with more content, more vibrant layouts and original content. Perhaps readers grew bored with the c. 1995-style plain text layout. Or the blatant right-wing spin and mock outrage-stirring. Drudge even got some egg on his face last week by playing up the hoax attack involving McCain campaign volunteer Ashley Todd. He hyped it heavily, after reportedly being tipped off by Republican operatives (where he gets many of his stories), and found himself in a rather embarrassing spot when it was discovered Todd lied about the whole thing. Are we finally seeing the tide turn to the point that Drudge will slide into obscurity? Will Drudge Report fizzle out into obscurity like Excite, Metaverse, “The Spot” and many other ancient relics of the early web? To be fair, his readership has gone up during the election season, up 70% to 2.1 unique visitors, but it is evident that the site has lost much of its clout, having been eclipsed by younger, scrappier up-and-comers in HuffPo and Politico.

Perhaps the bland mid-90s Windows 95 look, which Drudge devotedly still clings to, also hurt reactionary message board community Free Republic, which actually lost readers from last September, sliding 3%

Several sites in the top 20 enjoyed massive gains in the past year. The non-partisan Real Clear Politics, which concentrates heavily on polling data, shot up 481% to #4. And Talking Points Memo, the left-leaning blog run by Josh Marshall, shot up 1,321%, placing it at #11, thanks in part to a heavy breaking news approach that employs real-time election data. The venerable Daily Kos shot up 381% to #7 on the list. Crooks and Liars, a blog that has been a go-to destination for television news show clips, is still quite popular (and does drive a lot of traffic to other sites, as I can personally attest). Media Matters for America saw a slight gain. And Americablog makes its first showing on the list this year. Of the left-leaning sites listed the only one that has declined is the five year-old Raw Story. This earlier attempt at a left-leaning Drudge Report dropped 3%, most likely eclipsed by the similar HuffPo. Nonetheless, it's still a good site, particularly for stories regarding the mainstream media.

A few right-wing sites did enjoy gains. Newsbusters.org, part of Brent Bozell's consortium of phony outrage, enjoyed a 547% gain in readers who like to piss and moan about liberal bias in the media. Redstate.com is up 514%. Townhall.com, World Net Daily and Michelle Malkin saw some gains as well.

Some new non-partisan sites have made quite a splash too. CQ Politics, fivethirtyeight.com and Pollster have started making a big splash as of late.

And before writing this, I had no idea what Capitol Advantage was. As I did a little digging, they're the folks who publish Roll Call and other publications. They are also heavy into federal government directories.

In addition to the aforementioned sites, there are many other useful ones. A longtime favorite of mine is the nonpartisan electoral-vote.com, which monitors the latest polling data for the presidential, senate and congressional races. The site also features an interactive roll-over map with the latest electoral college estimates. And the relatively-new Democratic Convention Watch has continued even past last August's Denver shindig. Initially, they tracked delegate and superdelegate numbers through the primary season, but as of late have been following campaign headlines and newspaper endorsements, as has Editor and Publisher. And of course, there's the traditional news sites, such as television and newspapers, as well as news aggregator portals such as Yahoo!, Google and MSN.

However you get your political fix, there's plenty of ways to do it via the World Wide Web.

Here is the list (color coded by yours truly) of the top twenty political web sites:

Fairness, schmairness and panic in the streets

Two words strike absolute fear into the hearts of right-wingers across the landscape. Two words that make crybaby conservatives burst into tears. Suffice it to say, it scares them more than having the depressing John McCain as their favorite party's nominee.

Those two words:Yep, you guessed it - the Fairness Doctrine.

So, what is this "Fairness Doctrine?" It was enacted in 1949, and mandated that various viewpoints be represented on the airwaves. Sounded okay in theory, but as time progressed, it became clear that you can't lead a horse to water and expect it to drink. In short, you can't force broadcasters to do quality radio.

Back in the old days, there weren't that many talk radio stations. AM in those days was the main band - most stations played music or entertainment programming. There were the so-called 'full-service' stations that were big on news and information. There were also the occasional partisan and confrontational talk show hosts such as Father Charles Coughlin and Joe Pyne. And even the Top 40 hits stations had hourly news updates. There were even a few scattered talk stations, with some featuring a balance of partisan right-and-left talkers. But talk radio didn't start becoming popular until the higher-fidelity FM band exploded in popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s and started putting AM music stations out of contention. With no other place to go, many of them, even the big Top 40 stations like WABC and WLS, switched to talk. Most talk radio was local at the time. The most common syndicated fare in those days was late night fare such as Larry King and Talknet. Most of it was rather non-controversial. Overly partisan talkers like Rush Limbaugh easily got around the doctrine by claiming they were doing an 'entertainment' show.

But with the Reagan Administration forcing the end of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, the increased use of satellite transmission, the increased abundence of talk stations and the rising costs of using local talk show talent, there was a demand for more syndicated programming. ABC Limbaugh out of Sacramento to come to New York, with the intent of launching a daytime ultraconservative talk show to air across the country. It got off to a slow start, on some rather small stations, but eventually wound up gathering steam and even snared some big-signalled stations. In the world of radio, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Everyone copies off each other. As a result, Rush clones popped up all over the dial. First came G. Gordon Liddy. Then came the guys like Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. Then, seemingly every local right-wing radio hack in America wanted his/her own syndicated talk show. And the station owners and program syndicators loved it. Their rationale was, if Limbaugh was successful, then perhaps their low-hanging fruit would be as well. It wasn't politically-motivated as it was lazy radio-related. Conservotalk was the radio format flavor of the month.

Conservotalk grew so much that radio stations even ditched, neutered or converted their liberal talkers. They wanted an entire schedule of Limbaugh clones. Soon, the talk radio landscape was chock full of empty suits shouting the same GOP-generated talking points. They also claimed that they were the antidote to the so-called 'liberal media,' which in their minds consisted of the broadcast networks, CNN and the print media. Of course, they offered no real proof of this, but as the saying goes, tell a lie long enough and it will become truth in their eyes. After all, as I was watching all those TV news channels back in 2004 and seeing how much face time the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were getting (even though they were spouting obvious lies), I couldn't help to think how 'liberal' the media was (sarcasm off).

With the Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, there has obviously been talk of reviving the Fairness Doctrine. And the mere thought has made right-wingers crap their drawers in fear. Some Republican politicians have even tried to draw up support for an outright ban on a return of the doctrine, while Democratic counterparts have threatened to bring the issue to the table once and for all. The biggest thud occurred earlier this week when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that she indeed supported the revival of the fairness doctrine, in effect, putting the brakes on the wall-to-wall right-wing propaganda cluttering the AM landscape by balancing out ideas and opinions on the nation's airwaves. Of course, the right-wingers went completely apeshit. They derided it as the "Hush Rush" bill. How dare the Democrats threaten their gravy train! The nerve!

Ehh, not so fast. Luckily for them, the whole Fairness Doctrine thing is a red herring, likely to scare the hell out of nervous wingnuts. It's not on the table now. Though Pelosi supports it, she's got more important things on her plate. She won't call for a vote on the issue any time soon. So breathe easy - the Fairness Doctrine isn't coming back. As I said the other day, you can't put the shit back in the horse.

The overabundance of wingnuts on the radio is overstated, in my opinion. Combining all of the many, many stations airing hundreds of different Rush clones, the listening numbers still suck. Limbaugh probably gets no more than 5% of the national listening audience on average, and I'm probably being generous here. Everyone else below him gets far less. So, needless to say, it's a rather small and rather loud echo chamber. Most people really don't give a shit about screaming political talk, whether it be from the right or the left. They'd rather have "Everything that Rocks" and "Your Twelve in a Row Variety Station"on the FM side. That's the fact. Talk radio only preaches to the flock. And, truth be told, that flock is getting pretty long in the tooth. Listeners to conservotalk are, on average, quite a bit older than many advertisers like. In short, they don't trust anyone over 54. That's the big problem on the horizon for the format, and one many people don't talk about. Wonder why you don't hear Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley on the radio anymore? Their fans are too old in the eyes of the advertising world. Same goes for conservotalk. Eventually, the audience will become too old for advertisers to care about. And once they go, the format's gonna haves some serious problems. Now, I'm not denigrating the older generation. Just simply stating a reality in the business. Radio has to figure out a way of staying relevant with the listener demographics that advertisers covet.

The recent doctrine debate even reached as far as the presidential race. Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama does not favor it's resurgance. "He considers this debate to be a distraction from the conversation we should be having about opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible," press secretary Michael Ortiz said. "That is why Sen. Obama supports media-ownership caps, network neutrality, public broadcasting, as well as increasing minority ownership of broadcasting and print outlets."

And once again, Obama comes out as the one person making sense here. Since the demise of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, the radio landscape has changed drastically. And ideologically balancing out the airwaves in this day and age is easier said than done. The root of the problem these days is the corporate monopolization of the radio dial. The big radio conglomerates own stations they don't even care about owning, and often use them to dump cheap syndicated programming on, mostly from the low-hanging fruit of conservative talk radio. It's inexpensive, proven, easy to automate and has something resembling an audience. What would happen if some smaller group owned that very frequency and decided to put on something they really cared about, rather than the conglomerate's dumping of content filler on an otherwise unimportant spot on the dial?

The recent unraveling of some of the biggest conglomerates, such as Clear Channel and CBS, was a step in the right direction. Little by little, we're starting to see smaller, regional groups step up to buy cast-off broadcast properties. In television, FOX is even selling off some of their stations.

Granted, many of the big buyers are hedge funds and venture capitalists, who care only about achieving the bottom line. But this may also bring about even further change. Technology and the way we access media is changing rapidly. Portable audio players such as the iPod allow us to listen to whatever we want, instead of what Clear Channel and the others think we want to listen to. A segment of soon-to-be abandoned television spectrum was snapped up earlier this year by wireless communications companies like AT&T and Verizon. The much-ballyhooed WiMax wireless internet technology could make the web available everywhere for a reasonable price. And just the other day, Chrysler announced that they would make internet access available in their 2009 models. While the thought of someone surfing the web while driving is a bit frightening, this does open the door to the advent of streaming audio content on the road, where many people listen to the radio. So, instead of listening to conservative blowhards read their daily heaping of think tank-generated show prep, one could dial in whatever they want. Want Air America? It's only a click away. Real cutting-edge radio like Radio Paradise? No prob.

If the car makers can integrate this stuff easily into car radio receivers, it'll be a game changer. And it could signal a wake-up call a rather lazy and indifferent radio industry, who are too scared to break the mold and do something totally different that could actually interest listeners.

So, no Fairness Doctrine on the horizon? That's okay, we don't really need it. But I don't mind them talking about it, since it so annoys and terrifies right-wingers.

Midweek roundup part deux: All the news that didn't fit

Here's a continuation of some of the stuff I didn't cover yesterday, with two items involving progressive talk stations, and two concerning the digital television transition.

WWRC: Is it live, or is it Lionel?

Thanks to reader NYLefty, who dropped an email this morning. NYLefty fired off an email to Bill Hess, operations manager of WWRC (1260AM) in Washington, DC, wondering why the station was running day-old programs from Lionel in the 9-noon slot. Ironically, Air America feeds Lionel's show live to affiliates during that time slot. Talk about a head scratcher.

Hess responded right away, claiming that technical limitations would not allow for that, since the station records the show to air on delay later in the evening (7-10P) and in overnights (3-6A). He didn't say it, but the likely culprit would be the station's automation software, which records and replays syndicated shows. Many Clear Channel stations have had this same problem. The studio is currently undergoing a redesign, which will correct the problem.

In the meantime, the email prompted Hess to begin airing Lionel's show live, and to seek another show to record (or air live) for the evening broadcast. Everything should be working normally by Monday.

Wilmington, NC makes the DTV switch early

Last week, I wrote a bit about the television industry's transition from analog to digital broadcasting, a move that will conclude for full-power stations on February 17, 2009.

As of late, the FCC has been looking for test markets where the stations are willing to shut down their analog signals early, in order to prepare themselves for the digital era. One market has finally stepped forward. On September 8, 2008, Wilmington, NC will become the first market to switch to all-digital broadcasting, Mayor Bill Saffo said on Wednesday.

“We'll be the first in the country,” Saffo said, adding that he was “honored” to have his city take the lead.

The NBC, ABC and FOX full-power affiliates in the Wilmington area, as well as the Class A low-power CBS station are all prepared to pull the plug early. No word yet on the local PBS station (which does have a digital transmitter), or the other two low-power stations (one is a MyNetworkTV affiliate, the other is a translator for a religious network), both of which currently do not have digital facilities. Low-power television stations and translators are not required to shut down their analog signals next February.

In addition to Wilmington, stations in Orlando, FL will simulate the shut-off of their analog signals at various times during this summer. KVBC in Las Vegas conducted a similar test last week.

NBC Plans 24-Hour News for New York, other areas

Last week, via a comment on the DTV entry, I posed a question of sorts about digital subchannel programming. There are quite a few services catering to subchannel affiliation, such as ones dedicated to weather coverage and classic TV shows. What I was wondering was, why isn't anyone making a 24/7 news operation available? A few stations, such as KSTP in the Twin Cities, rerun the main channel's newscasts around the clock. But no national network has stepped up to the subchannel plate.

Granted, CNN, MSNBC and FOX News already have plum placement on cable and satellite systems, and don't want to jeopardize that. And starting up a news operation from scratch is an expensive and difficult undertaking. But ABC News Now, a full-time news operation which has crummy cable clearances on the few services that actually carry it, would be an obvious choice for the network's affiliates, just as Weather Plus fills a subchannel void for NBC stations. ABC once offered the news channel to affiliates for local digital carriage, but their current strategy seems to be web-based, via streaming. Needless to say, it only goes so far. Let's face it, they could use an edge. And cornering the 'rabbit ear' market via over-the-air digital means is a pretty good way of doing it.

Well, the over-the-air all-news channel idea is not a forgotten concept. Yesterday, word surfaced that NBC plans to roll out a dedicated 24/7 local news channel in New York. The upcoming news operations will be operated by flagship affiliate WNBC, and will originate from NBC's Rockefeller Center headquarters.

The news channel will get digital-tier cable coverage across the region, as well as the 4.4 digital subchannel. In addition, if the WNBC experiment succeeds, they may look at expanding the news channel idea to their other owned-and-operated stations in markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. The network also owns NBC affiliates in San Francisco/San Jose and Washington, DC, co-owns affiliates in San Diego and Dallas/Ft. Worth, and is currently looking to sell their affiliates in Miami and Hartford.

New Yorkers can look for a debut of the yet-unnamed service this fall or by early next year.

Rayburn talks to the Times

Finally, fans of WXXM (92.1FM)/Madison host Lee Rayburn should check out an interview he did with The Capital Times. You can find it here.

LTR rocks the box

Seeing as I've grown a bit weary of the ongoing presidential primary soap opera that seems to be dragging on until the 2012 primary season begins, I figure it's time for a change of pace. While Barack and Hillary beat the crap out of each other over crazy pastors and whatnot, let's talk about something we can really relate to. Let's talk television. Or, the future of it. And along the way, we'll test drive the hot new electronic gizmo everyone's talking about - the DTV converter box.

Most likely, you've heard the story before. I even wrote about it last Summer. Come next February, that old electronic box in your living room may produce nothing but electronic fuzz. That is, if something isn't done to bring it into the modern age. What is happening, as you have likely no doubt heard, is what will perhaps be a major milestone in broadcast television history, rivaling the old days of pioneers like Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin, the day in 1928 when W2XB in Schenectady, New York and a few others fired up and started beaming 48-line images via the airwaves, and 1950, when stations started experimenting with broadcasting in color. Simply put, the way television's been transmitted more or less for the past 80 years is changing drastically. Say goodbye to Depression-era technology. And to static and ghost-like images. Say hello to digital television.

Television has evolved in a major way since the beginning. Many of us grew up in an era of watching only a few channels - NBC, ABC and CBS, the non-commercial station that played Sesame Street and perhaps one or two rerun channels, all via a box with two metal sticks sprouting out of the top. Soon cable TV arrived, which allowed us to watch faraway stations, HBO and porn without those silly metal sticks. Satellite TV gave us an alternate to the evolving cable monopolies, especially in places not yet wired, and also gave us gargantuan dishes in the backyards of America. Then came the VCR and the old laserdisc players, which gave viewers the ability to play program director. The VCR and laserdisc gave way to DVD and DVR's, and digital cable suddenly gave us access to hundreds of channels. And now, over-the-air television is playing catch-up.

Even with the penetration of cable and direct broadcast satellite into homes across America, 30-40% of television viewers across the country still watch the old fashioned way - with rabbit ear antennas pulling signals out of the air. That translates to tens of millions of people who either don't want to pony up to the cable or satellite monopolies, aren't interested in it, can't afford it, or just don't watch enough TV. Those are the people that will really notice the coming transition to the world of DTV.

DTV has been in the works around the world for over a decade. Researchers, developers, broadcasters and governments realized that the transmission of ones and zeros was much more efficient than that of clumsy, bandwidth-hogging analog waveforms. Countries around the world realized that this form of transmission would evolve very fast, and would eventually replace analog transmission. They started formulating switchover dates. European countries were the first to jump, and the United States even began setting their own analog shutoff dates. A early target of 2002 for the analog switchoff came and went, but nobody was even close to ready. A hard date of January 1, 2006 also came and went. Finally, Congress set it in stone - February 17, 2009 would be the day that full-power television broadcasters would officially turn off their analog transmitters and go solely digital. This time, everyone was ready. All television sets manufactured in the past year or so and sold as new in the United States are now required to be DTV-compliant. But the ones manufactured before that date that only receive analog signals will need a little help. Enter the digital converter box.

To make this whole DTV conversion palatable to the masses, lest they march the streets of Washington with torches and pitchforks over the prospects of shelling out hundreds or thousands of dollars for a new TV set during a recession, the government wisely allocated funds to cover an unprecedented voucher program, The little plastic cards, free for the asking, could be redeemed for DTV converter boxes, which at that point didn't yet exist. The boxes themselves would enable reception of the new digital signals. Fast-forward to February 2008, which saw the mass unleashing of said little black boxes to the marketplace. Coupons, good for $40 off the price of these $50-60 devices, were sent out to viewers who requested them (provided they didn't already subscribe to cable or satellite.

Now, being a connoisseur of cheap hi-tech electronics, and one who finally ditched cable and the ridiculously high fees and monotonous programming that went along with it. I couldn't wait to get my vouchers in the mail (they send out a maximum of two per household). I even did a little research on each of them, just to be prepared. Upon receiving mine a few weeks ago, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting (that's the government for you), I went shopping.

My first box of choice was the Zenith DTT900, since I heard so many good things about it. I went to my neighborhood Radio Shack, which was one of the stores that supposedly stocked them. Every Radio Shack in town was sold out of them, according to the sales clerk, but they had quite a few of another model, the Digital Stream DTX9900, for the same price. I had never heard of it, nor Digital Stream for that matter, and was wary since I didn't do any research on this obscure model. Besides, it was butt-ugly. Later, I read that it was actually a pretty good box. The clerk who pointed me to the Digital Stream box said the Zenith model was hot, and selling very fast, but a new fresh shipment would arrive within a week or so.

I couldn't wait. I want my DTV! I ventured off to Best Buy for my backup option - their privately-branded Insignia box (which I knew they had in stock). Now, I suspected that this one and the Zenith were the same exact unit (I later found out they basically were), so I guess it was a fairly decent backup plan. Best Buy was obviously prepared for the masses, as they had quite a few of these in stock. Sold! At the checkout lane,the clerk also said that they were selling like mad. I noticed several red voucher cards scattered around her terminal.

So I got home and went through the ritual of ripping open the box to reveal the sexy contents, a process that, for hardcore tech geeks, is almost as exciting a process as peeling the clothes off a hot date. I proceeded to connect the wires to the back of the set (instructions? I don't need no stinkin' instructions!). I hit the power button on the remote, and the first thing it did was pop up a setup wizard on the screen. It asked me to specify an aspect ratio (seeing as my main set was about five years old, it was one of those tube-style sets with a 4:3 picture size). Then it did a search for channels. Now, I had doubts that it would pull in a great number of channels, since analog reception was basically crap with my chintzy antenna. I was proven wrong. This nifty little box pulled in a whopping 22 different ones (including the many various subchannels - the local PBS operation has 9 between their two stations). I even pulled in the local Ion channel, which I had never gotten. Not bad.

Of course, there were a few drawbacks. One of the reasons my reception sucks is that, even though I live no more than fifteen miles from most of the transmission towers in the city, there is an airport nearby. That messes up reception pretty bad sometimes. Instead of static and ghosting, with the new box I would occasionally find pixelation, frozen pictures or a plain black screen. Welcome to the world of digital. I realized that my old, crappy amplified antenna (purchased for a mere $10 at the local Big Lots) wasn't going to cut it. I did more research (antennaweb.com is a handy resource for this) and came up with a simple, somewhat attractive unit from Radio Shack that set me back around $20. Lo and behold - it worked! Now, all the signals in town came in crystal clear (the box has a signal strength meter that can be viewed for each channel). And I even pulled in a few low-powered stations, including the local signal-impaired Telemundo outlet (yes, I watch occasionally, even though my Spanish sucks). Now I'm able to watch soccer, Hong Kong martial arts flicks dubbed in Spanish, raunchy soap operas and whatever else they show.

Other drawbacks to almost all of the boxes available are the lack of better connection possibilities. My set is only five years old and fairly sophisticated, so it has connections in the back for S-video and component video hookups. The only options enclosed with the unit I purchased were an RF cable antenna jack and a little yellow composite video plug. At least there were two-channel stereo jacks. Also, on this unit, there is no analog pass-through, which some TV geeks and low-power broadcasters are griping about, though there are a few rare boxes that do have it (since my set has different input settings, I was able to plug the antenna straight in for analog capability). In addition, technological issues mean that your soon-to-be-obsolete VCR won't work quite the same when recording shows once analog goes bye-bye.

Of course, change is rather difficult for some, especially when it comes to the ubiquitous television set. So it goes without saying that this digital transition will be a bitter pill for some. How exactly does one explain that people will have to send in for a coupon, in order to go out and pay an average of $10-20 for something that enables them to get what they once could for free? And to buy yet another set-top box, of all things! Well, alongside this stick comes some pretty nice carrots. First of all, the picture and sound with DTV is near flawless, as far as television goes. The picture is DVD quality, and the sound is pretty close to CD.

The icing on the cake is that there are indeed more stations. If you live in a metropolitan area, all the local stations should come in static-free with some minor antenna positioning. In addition, some stations are carrying subchannels on their main digital signals. In other words, you get 2, 3, 4 or more stations for the price of one! Many public television stations are running multiple feeds, geared toward different audiences. During the early round of the NCAA basketball playoffs, CBS affiliates ran split feeds that showed up to three games at once. The Ion Television network, formerly Pax, a slowly improving, yet rather unremarkable operation located on small, often out-of-town UHF stations, runs stale reruns and a ton of infomercials. They do, however, carry some interesting programming, including such movies as "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," which was on last week. And then there's the Battlestar Galactica (the original) and Baywatch reruns on weekends. DTV allows Ion to penetrate more households than they could have ever hoped to before. Most of the network's affiliates have three additional subchannels, including one for kids (Qubo), some quasi-religious network called Worship and Ion Life, which, as far as I can tell, runs many episodes of a show called Get Out!, which is best described as very attractive women in bikinis setting off on outdoor adventures such as bungee jumping and alligator feeding (Okay, I admit - I've watched it).

Many NBC affiliates air a heavily-localized "Weather Plus" channel, designed to give The Weather Channel a much-needed run for its money. The AccuWeather Channel is also a competitor in this segment. New, niche-oriented networks of various types are quickly popping up that are geared toward subchannel coverage. A few entrepreneurs were smart enough to realize that the licensing of old dramas and sitcoms from the 50s-80s are relatively cheap and easy to obtain. Retro Television Network (RTN) is popping up on subchannels across the country, since so-called classic-oriented TV Land has started ignoring chestnuts such as Mission:Impossible, Happy Days and Hawaii Five-0 in favor of Fresh Prince marathons. Similar concepts such as Columbus' Dot 2 and MeTV, located on stations in Chicago and Milwaukee, have also taken flight. Stations in some smaller markets are even using subchannels to pick up network affiliations that don't otherwise exist there, such as The CW and the utterly pointless MyNetworkTV. Even big gun FOX has approached stations in rural areas with the idea of adding their affiliation to the subchannel, for those few fortunate souls who haven't yet heard of American Idol. Some individual stations are even using subchannels to set up separate independent operations.

In addition, the availability of the space-saving digital form of transmission allows for the broadcast of high-definition programming, not really possible before. Imagine watching a golf tournament played in lush surroundings where you can actually see the individual blades of grass. Unfortunately, you'll need an expensive HD set for the full effect, since the simple little converter box won't do hi-def. But the HD picture does indeed look sharp on an old tube TV. I can tell the difference.

Getting back to my new toy, one thing I noticed about the Insignia box (and the Zenith and a few others) is that it allows for switching the picture layout. Now, this part gets a little bit confusing. With the change to digital comes an overall new picture formatting standard, which is slowly being phased in. The longtime aspect ratio has been 4:3, or 4 units wide by 3 units tall (or 1.33:1). Let's assume that this is what most people still have in their homes (see picture at right).

The new standard, as you've no doubt seen on newer sets, is 16:9, or 16 wide by 9 tall (1.85:1). The 16:9 ratio is closer to what is shown in movie theaters and on letterboxed DVDs. Think wider. On a 4:3 set, you'll see black rectangular bars at the top and bottom of your screen, as you can see by the second image on the right, taken from an HD version of the same newscast.

Now here's where it gets a little mind-boggling for owners of old TV sets doing the digital upgrade. When the image is in letterbox setting, or 16:9 mode, the fields of black are on each side of the picture for shows in the standard format. This works out well for owners of newer widescreen TVs. Same height, just a slightly squarish image when showing standard definition programming. But for older sets, this makes for a rather strange image when in letterbox mode, in which the 4:3 picture has a rather chunky black frame on all sides. One weird example was a local commercial cut-in, a trailer for the upcoming widescreen flick Speed Racer, which showed a tiny, scrunched ultra-widescreen image surrounded by a large field of black (as shown in the third image). Not to worry. Some of the boxes, including the Insignia, Zenith and others, have a 'zoom' button that corrects this manually, but it requires a little button pushing. Be sure the box you purchase has this. This glitch has not gone unnoticed. NBC and the Tribune Company are among the broadcasters working on their own software fix for this stuff, and this "postage stamp" effect should be resolved as more individual stations correct this.

This ongoing lead-up time to next February is when we'll see many of the kinks of DTV ironed out. Transmission issues will also likely be fixed, enabling coverage consistent with the soon-to-be previous analog signals. Over the remaining months, broadcast engineers will be making final adjustments for their digital makeover, with some even shutting down their analog signals early (a few already have) in anticipation of the switch. Many stations will be moving to different channel allocations, but through the magic of digital mapping will still appear on 'virtual channels' (this is one part that I will not get into here, lest I really confuse all of you).

So far, the heavily-promoted DTV converter box program surprisingly seems to be working. Over 10 million vouchers have been requested to cover over 5 million households in the first few months of the program, and no doubt more are on the way. The boxes themselves have been flying off the shelves, likely rivaling the success of the much ballyhooed (and cool as hell) Nintendo Wii.

So, with less than ten months to go before the dawning of the new digital area, being prepared for the switch will ensure that people who watch TV the old fashioned way will continue to do so. It will also usher in a new experience for television viewers, with clearer pictures, sound and content. I, for one, extend a hearty welcome our new DTV overlords.

Converter box vouchers, good for $40 off any approved unit, can be requested at dtv2009.gov.

Have any of you bought a DTV converter box yet? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Cleaning out the closet Part 1: The industry shell game

Quite often, there are many little goings-on in the radio and media world that are difficult to really flesh out into individual articles. Or there is quite a bit that I may have missed over the course of a few days or weeks or whatever. Over the past month, there were a few items that fell by the wayside. As I write this, I found that I had so much to talk about that I actually had to split it up into three parts. Let's play catch-up, shall we? Here's part one, in which we touch base with happenings in the broadcast industry.

First, there's been a lot going on in the industry. The Sirius/XM merger got closer to reality, as the Department of Justice gave their stamp of approval to Sirius' $5 billion buyout of its satellite radio rival. despite the hurdles thrown out by the land radio-based lobbying group National Association of Broadcasters, regulators felt that the merger is not likely to substantially hurt competition or consumers. The merger still has to pass FCC muster, but it looks like it will get the green light from Chairman Kevin Martin, a notorious fan of overly-consolidated radio.

Although the merger of the only two satellite radio companies will basically create a monopoly, the move could be good for listeners who have had a difficult time choosing between the two. Sirius honcho Mel Karmazin has been floating around the idea of a la carte packages, available for as low as $6.95 a month, to make it go down smoother.

Though detractors claim that the satellite radio merger will create a sanctioned monopoly, all parties involved may see a new kind of competition, from the phone companies. AT&T and Verizon were the big winners in the recent FCC spectrum auction, in which chunks of the 700MHz broadcast spectrum were sold to the two telephone giants. In addition, the conditions of the sale will also allow third parties, such as Google, to participate in one form or another. What's to become of the so-called "C Block"? Likely, we'll see some form of the much-promised Wi-Max technology, which will bring more wireless internet service to portable devices. And with that, people could simply listen to internet radio or more personalized services such as Pandora. with much more efficiency. Nobody knows what exactly will go on with this reallocated spectrum, which is currently being used by television channels 52-69 and will be vacated next February when the country switches full time to digital broadcasting. Which reminds me, have you antenna heads requested your DTV tuner box coupons yet?

While Sirius, XM and the telecommunications industry have something to smile about, the same could not be said for Clear Channel, a company that saw its fortunes skyrocket during the Bush Era. Unfortunately, those same fortunes turned to dust as the Bush Era economy has gone down the toilet. With banks currently afraid of lending money to anyone, this bodes poorly for their proposed sale to a pair of venture capital firms. What comes around goes around...

Elsewhere in the radio industry, the HD Digital Radio Alliance only wishes it had the problems of these 'Masters of the Universe' (borrowing a line from Tom Wolfe). Yes, HD Radio is still around and they're still peddling this poorly-promoted technology, which as of late seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. The cure for this ailment? A new marketing campaign, of course.

They're claiming that consumer awareness of HD Radio is high, at around 77%. But let's get real here - the Alliance's bungling has made it too difficult, expensive and confusing to actually obtain a radio capable of hearing it. Granted, a few auto manufacturers have signed on, most notably Ford and Volvo. But just try finding an after-market audio unit that doesn't require a separate tuner (bringing back the dreaded days of the old FM converters for AM factory units back in the 70s). The earlier generation HD Radio units had their flaws, and seem to have disappeared from the marketplace. Retailers have no clue how to sell them. And where are the portable units? People don't listen to radio that's plugged into a wall socket, unless they're at work, and broadcast signals often have problems penetrating those big glass cubes that house many of these workers. HD Radio has potential (except for the AM part of it, which is a really bad idea), the side channel concept is a really good one, and the technology has room to grow. But it's simply not ready for prime time, and until the Alliance becomes less concerned with collecting royalties off it and becomes far more focused on attracting consumers, it may go the way of AM Stereo. Such wasted potential.

Post-holiday soundbytes

UPDATED 1/4/08

Here it is, the year 2008, and it's time to do a little post-holiday cleaning of some stories that have been missed. I didn't get a chance to write about any of this stuff,

1. Mr. K is Mr. Gone

In anticipation of their sale (again, it isn't to Mitt Romney), Clear Channel has been cleaning house at stations nationwide, slashing overhead and staff. Funny, I thought that usually happened after he corporate raiders took over. The sole progressive talk victim is at KTLK in Los Angeles, where Marc Germain, a.k.a. Mr. K, gets his walking papers. In the interim, weekenders such as Johnny Wendell are filling in. No permanent replacement has been named.

2. Stacy Taylor starts new gig today

Down the coast in San Diego, as previously reported, Stacy Taylor starts his new job today, doing the afternoon shift at XEPE (1700AM). You can hear him from 4-7PM PT (that's 7-10PM ET). Thankfully, "San Diego 1700" streams, so you can check out Taylor's show here. Like taylor's former home, KLSD, XEPE offers podcasting. Whether Taylor's show will be archived in whole, in parts or at all is unknown. And you can read a really good article about Taylor in San Diego CityBeat.

3. Apple bets on HD Radio

Earlier last year, I claimed that HD Radio would at least have a chance of surviving if two things were to happen. First, a portable device (i.e. one that runs on batteries) needs to be introduced. Second, Apple would have to get involved. Well lo and behold, Ibiquity, the bumbling company behind HD Radio, has indeed teamed up with Steve Jobs and company as Apple is getting ready to roll out HD Radio-compatible boomboxes and iPod docks at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco later this month. The new receivers will have tagging capability, which enables songs played on HD-equipped radio stations to be 'tagged' and pulled up on iTunes later, for preview and/or purchase. So far, many of the big radio station owners are working at encoding the music at their end to make it iTunes compliant.

Ibiquity has stumbled badly with HD Radio over the past few years, with product rollouts being mostly mediocre, unwieldy or overpriced. It seemed the company was more concerned about intellectual property than with putting product in peoples' hands, which has slowed down the rollout of HD Radio and gotten them some horrible press. HD Radio does have some technological issues, but all new innovations do. Those get ironed out. HD Radio in itself is not a bad idea. I've heard it and think that, with some simplification of the product, that it could work, even if Ibiquity does their best to shoot themselves in the foot. Apple knows how to create and move products that people don't realize they want. The iPod wasn't the first high-capacity MP3 player, but they soon dominated the market. Last year, they got people to pay $500 for a cell phone! Needless to say, Apple knows how to do what Ibiquity obviously doesn't. And that's pushing new technology. Ibiquity should stop being so overprotective, step back and see how it's done.

4. Goin' digital

There's only a little over a year to go until our TV dial goes completely digital. Come midnight on February 17, 2009, all full-power television stations are required to turn off their analog signals and broadcast in digital-only. if you've got an older set with rabbit ear antennas pulling in signals from the air (imagine that!), you'll get a lot of static. However, if you go out and buy a special converter box, you'll get all your local channels and then some, in crystal-clear digital (depending on where you live in proximity to the stations). January 1 was the first day that the public was able to apply for $40 vouchers good toward purchase of these converter boxes (slated to run $50-70). So, where are the converter boxes? Look for them in your favorite electronics store next month. In the past two days, the government has gotten over half a million requests for vouchers.

So, are you all confused by this? Don't feel bad, you're not alone. To boil it all down, if you already have cable or satellite service, do nothing. You won't notice anything. If you bought a new set within the past year, it's probably already DTV-compliant.

Why is the government switching off analog? The analog spectrum takes up a ton of space in comparison to DTV (not to be confused with HDTV, which is only a part of this whole technology). The rest of the world is currently in the process of doing this upgrade, and much of Europe is moving quickly to change over as well. The advantages are many, with clearer pictures and sound, multiple channels (many NBC affiliates are already carrying local "Weather Plus" side channels and public television stations already have a wide array of subchannels as well. In the near future, expect to see other stations adding more channels as well.

If you are going out to buy a new television (and the prices for DTV-compliant sets are dropping like mad), be aware. All new sets manufactured since last March are required to be compatible, but there may still be a few older units that aren't. They'll be tagged as such, but ask a sales associate to be sure. If you see older sets at too-good-to-be-true prices (like those portable $10 B&W jobs at Walgreens), chances are you'll need that converter box by next February lest it become a paper weight. See the government's site, DTV2009.gov, for more information and to apply for a voucher, or call their hotline, 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-800-388-2009). You can see an earlier article I wrote here that describes the digital switchover in more detail.

Oh, and if you have one of those portable radios that pick up VHF TV feeds, they won't pick them up at all come next year. So far, there are no similar radios being made that will have that same function for DTV channels.

5. DeFede's got a brand new gig

Jim DeFede, former columnist with the Miami Herald and Miami New Times and former morning host at WINZ in Miami is back on the radio. AllAccess says that DeFede has been hired to do 4-7PM ET at WFTL in Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach. The new show starts January 7.

"I’m thrilled to be back with my own show and to be working for WFTL," said DeFde. "I came here because no other station in South Floida is as committed to local talk as WFTL. And let’s face it, living in South Floida, we all should be committed."

6. Open up the pipes

And finally, some good news for readers who would like to leave comments here but don't want to sign up for Google accounts. As part of a reconfiguration by Blogger, OpenID is now configured for LTR. Meaning that you can sign in and leave comments via OpenID-enabled services such as WordPress.com, LiveJournal, and AOL Journals, or even with an AOL/AIM account. You can read more about OpenID here.

"The Daily Show" hits the web

Fans of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" who were miffed when Viacom/MTV Networks ordered clips of the show pulled down from YouTube are in for a treat. Because the show is coming to the internet in a big way.

At noon EST today, DailyShow.com goes live, presenting nearly the entire video archive of the show for the past nine years.

That translates to over 16,000 video clips that include headlines, correspondent pieces, celebrity guest appearances and classic commentary segments from Lewis Black and Stephen Colbert. The new site will also feature community-oriented features such as message boards. You won't be able to get complete episodes, but those could, for the most part, conceivably be pieced together by those that really feel the need to do so. And since the online archives so far go back only as far as 1999, fans of the show's original host (and there may just very well be), Craig Kilborn, will have to wait until next year, when the first three years of the show are made available.

Clips from the previous night's episode will be posted early the next morning. A timeline feature will help users locate archived clips by date and search tools. Tags based on names of correspondents, guests or even specific subjects (such as "Iraq") will also help in searching out clips

The new site will be the only place to see legal "Daily Show" clips online, though a spokesman said that a few selected clips could become available on sites through syndication deals. The show recently did this with Yahoo for correspondent Rob Riggle's reports from Iraq. Whether clips will be made available to linking by other sites and blogs, ala YouTube, is unknown at this time.

Comedy Central also has plans to roll out a similar site for "The Colbert Report" sometime next year, as well as the network's other programming.

HD Radio: Bat Out Of Hell

Like with many people, it was a new technology I had heard quite a bit about, but thought it was all just a myth. A rather elaborate and expensive hoax.

Sure, the broadcasters bragged about improved sound quality that made AM sound like FM and FM sound like CDs. And there were those subchannels, a station within a station that allowed an alternate channel playing obscure programming like blues, 80s new wave or bluegrass to be heard. They told us that it would basically double the number of station choices in town. And there would be no static. And we could hear it in cars or in our Walkmans, which is where roughly 70% of radio listening occurs.

Well, that's fine and dandy, and being the tech geek that I am, I even talked about this new technology, dubbed HD Radio, a few months back. Sure, satellite radio is still there, but it costs a monthly fee, and gets a bit tiring after awhile. iPods in the car are cool, but do we really want to be fiddling with that little dial thingy while driving? And it looks like widespread WiFi, which could realistically mean the ability to listen to online radio on the go, itself has a long way to go, particularly with so many metropolitan areas backing out of citywide wireless access deals. Other wireless options are basically the domain of the small crowd of dedicated geeks, though it is possible via cell phones and the like. In short, this stuff hasn't made it big in Peoria yet. With all of this working in their favor, HD Radio seemed to have at least some potential. Because after all, we still have a love/hate affair with radio, no matter how irritating it can be.

A while back, I did a little investigating. I checked out a few of the big electronics retailers in town, particularly since I was in the market for a new in-dash receiver for the car (the factory unit is not satisfactory for me). I checked out the JVC KD-HDR1, priced between $170-199. Not a bad unit, though it lacked the iPod adapter in the front, which is a must-have for me. Sad to say, it was one of the very few mobile HD Radio units available in the marketplace. I decided to check it out. I went to Wal-Mart to see theirs. To my utter astonishment, they had it hooked up, but there was one problem - the antenna wasn't plugged in (this is necessary for digital signals, otherwise all you get is silence). And in the big cinder block and metal warehouse that housed this Wal-Mart, good luck with pulling in anything. And I was sure the $6/hr. clerks working there would be no help. If I mentioned "HD" they would likely direct me to TVs. So I went to Best Buy., thinking they would have their act together. After all, I had bought other car receivers there, and had good results. Their unit wasn't even plugged in. At all.

Regardless, I soldiered on. Next on the agenda was Radio Shack, since I had to go there for something anyways. Now, they don't do car audio, but at least I'd be able to check out one of those ubiquitous overpriced tabletop radios, the type that the HD Radio folks were trying to push on the masses that had no use for such an appliance. Not surprisingly, Radio Shack's tabletop demo wasn't even working. That certainly didn't stop the middle-aged sales clerk (and those guys at Radio Shack are persistent) from trying to sell me the damned thing in the most half-assed way possible:

Clerk: Are you familiar with HD Radio?
Me: Hey, is this thing even working?
Clerk: Uhh, no. It's broken. But with HD Radio, uhh... you can pull in alternate channels like classical music. Are you thinking about buying an HD Radio?
Me: I've done some research on it. I was kinda curious to see it first hand. But it seems like nobody has a display unit that works. Besides, I'm not an early adapter of new technology. I let others pay to do the beta testing.
Clerk: It's only $200. Uhh... wanna buy it?

Now, I basically stopped this guy, particularly since I probably knew more about HD Radio than he did. But at the same time, I was scratching my head at all of this. Is iBiquity shitting me? Is this really the way to roll out a product? I remembered back in 1997 when DVD came out, and it exploded on the marketplace. At Best Buy, they had a huge setup playing "GoldenEye" and it looked and sounded freaking amazing, much better than the crappy VHS tape version I had at home! Needless to say, DVD players and discs flew out of stores and became one of the biggest tech rollouts in history, especially years later when the price dropped down to virtually nothing.

As for product variety for receiving HD Radio, there's hardly any. It was mostly tabletop radios, a high-tech version of the kind of unit your grandparents had in their living room. Let's face it, in order to take off as an audio medium, HD Radio has to be portable. Nobody wants tabletop radios these days. People want their radio on the go. And that mostly means car audio. Unfortunately, the HD Radio folks must be living in the past, because many of the car listening options available were add-on units, similar to those old FM converters (that plug in to the factory AM unit) your dad probably had in his '76 Plymouth Volare. And some of us remember what a pain in the ass those were. What about stuff for the current generation, like boomboxes and pocket units? Or even fully-contained in-dash units like the JVC model? Initially, portable units weren't feasible, allegedly the power draw of the first generation of HD Radio chips was too staggering. Supposedly, this is close to being remedied and they promise an actual HD boombox in the coming year. As for why there aren't more in-dash units, who knows?

Now, I certainly didn't expect HD Radio to come out of the gate like DVD did. Hey, it's radio. That's old school compared to HDTV, TiVo, XBox, iPods, HD-DVD, BluRay, Nintendo Wii, Dolby Digital Surround home theater systems and all the rest. Radio just isn't as sexy to most people. But I at least expected there to be a little bit of hype. Or even some salespeople who knew what it was, aside from the iBiquity training manuals. Or even working demo units. This HD Radio thing was starting to resemble other dismal product rollouts of the past, like the Edsel, Betamax, DIVX, and the Arch Deluxe. Too bad, since with all its flaws, HD Radio wasn't an altogether bad idea, though it needed some serious refining to make it ready for prime time.

But just when everyone thought HD Radio was dead in the water, it is now showing signs of life as it rises kicking and screaming from the ashes. The HD Radio Alliance has been on a roll as of late. More stations are adding sidechannels with original programming. And retailers actually have working displays now. I was in Best Buy last week picking up "Death Proof" and saw an endcap display with not one, but two working units. And they actually pulled in stations! Sound wasn't too bad either, and I acutally dialed in a few of those ballyhooed subchannels quite easily. I was shocked I tell ya, shocked!

In addition, home shopping channel QVC is currently shilling HD Radio. Smart move for the Alliance. Speaking as one who actually worked for a home shopping channel many years past, people who watch channels like QVC will buy any kind of shit they see on TV, whether it be gaudy jewelry, porcelain dolls and even mattress sets. Once they hawk it, the stuff flies out of warehouses! Utterly jaw-dropping. They do HUGE business! Convicted infomercial huckster Kevin Trudeau still sells tons of bogus self-help books, snake oil remedies and other garbage thanks to TV, and that's with most of the population knowing he's a complete fraud! Ron Popeil sold spray-on hair in a can! People will buy anything they see on TV. And this bodes well for the HD Radio people.

And just yesterday, the Alliance has reeled in its biggest whale yet. Enter the Ford Motor Company, which this week announced that they will offer HD Radio as a dealer-installed option in many of their 2008 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models. They'll also do a huge promotion of it, via POP displays and a big media blitz. Now, this is pretty big news for the Alliance. Sure, BMW added it to their audio options a few years ago. But that's BMW. This is meat-and-potatoes Ford we're talking about. Now, the hype can be heard in an F-150 or the ubiquitous Mustang. The dealers are also able to install it in 2005-07 models as well. Quite a coup for the HD gang.

I predicted last time that some day, the people behind HD Radio would get their act together and make it work. With so much money tied up in it by iBiquity and the radio station owners who have partnered in promoting it, they have little choice. Sure, HD Radio has a long way to go. The technology is still a bit crude, with signal strength issues, erratic sound quality at times and that whole controversy about HD on the AM band and the associated interference issues. But technology has to start somewhere. Hey, it took Edison hundreds of tries before he made a working light bulb. With the world of technology moving so fast, in a day and age when I can cram my whole album collection in a little device half the size of a Hershey bar, it will be interesting if this whole HD Radio thing succeeds, and what it will be like years from now, once they iron out the kinks.

And make radios that people would actually want.

The revolution WILL be televised

Okay, imagine this futuristic scenario.

The date is February 18, 2009. You wake up in the morning, pour yourself a cup of coffee and get ready for work while you flip on the telly to the Today show for your morning news fix. Only thing is, there's nothing there. Just static. Flipping furiously though the channels, you notice the same thing. No picture, no sound. Nothing but static. What happened?

It probably won't happen this way, but It's a somewhat realistic scenario for some. Particularly since there are still people out there that rely on the ubiquitous rabbit ear antenna to pull in over-the-air signals direct to their television set. This task will take on some rather profound changes in the next year and a half.

Currently, we are in the midst of a digital revolution. And a major part of this involves television. In the 1990s, the federal government laid down the path for an eventual conversion from the 60 year-old analog broadcast standard to a digital one. Yes, if all goes as planned, the analog television standard will be history come February 18, 2009. This date was set two years ago, after a couple other ill-advised set dates were changed. Gone will be the fuzzy signals, the ghost-like images, and various interference often found on the box. In its place will be crystal-clear images, sharp sound, multicast channels, widescreen dimensions and a lack of static and ghosts.

Undoubtedly, many may have noticed digital TV, often called DTV, in the world around us. From the frequent mentions of "Available in High Definition" on TV stations, to the wide array of plasma and LCD widescreen sets that have taken over the shelves of Best Buy, the digital revolution is going on right here, right now.

Yesterday marked a milestone in digital television. USA Today published an article on the front page of the Life section, laying out what's in store for television. More importantly, the FCC released the final and official list of DTV assignments for broadcast stations. Yes, many of the stations you watch are changing channels. Many of them are even going to UHF.

Again, what the hell is going on here?

Well first, an explanation of what DTV is. The FCC's page on DTV claims it to be "an advanced broadcasting technology that will transform your television viewing experience. DTV enables broadcasters to offer television with movie-quality picture and sound. It can also offer multiple programming choices, called multicasting, and interactive capabilities."

Currently, most TV stations are using two separate channels: Their long-established analog channel and a temporary one for digital broadcasting. Since UHF signals are better suited for this purpose, most digital channels can be found here, though some higher VHF channels (ch. 7-13) are also adequate for this. Lower VHF channels (ch. 2-6, a.k.a. the low FM band) are not very good for digital broadcasting, as they are prone to interference. That's why many of those stations are moving. The FCC's newly released list shows the channels that stations have opted to use once their analog signal is shut off.

So, why exactly is analog going away? Is it a plot by the federal government to force us all to subscribe to cable or buy a satellite dish? Are the lobbyists representing those industries that good? Actually, no. The U.S. is not alone in switching to digital. Most every country on earth has either converted, are in the process of converting, or have made plans to do so. Luxembourg and The Netherlands have already gone completely digital. Finland and Switzerland will follow in the next few months. And Sweden, Germany and Austria will join them next year. The U.K. has already begun the analog shutoff in various parts of the country. Many more will follow in the years ahead.

In addition, the move to DTV allows the FCC at the same time to make some long-desired adjustments to the television spectrum. A couple decades ago, the commission removed channels 70-83 from the spectrum (remember when the old UHF tuners went that high?) and reallocated that chunk of the airwaves mostly to cell phone providers, public safety, land mobile and other wireless communications concerns. Now, they'd like to get rid of channels 52-69, as they can rake in billions of dollars by selling this spectrum space for use by advanced wireless services.

With digital television and the massive channel switch to follow, this process will be rather simple. How, you ask? Well, it all boils down to something called digital channel mapping, or the concept of the 'virtual channel'. To the right is a sample list, using Chicago as an example. As you can see, WMAQ channel 5, a long-established VHF station, is currently broadcasting their digital signal on channel 29, and they have opted to move there permanantly. Even though they are already broadcasting digitally on 29, their digital channel still maps to channel 5. Therefore, WMAQ will still show up as channel 5. They'll still be found at channel 5 on the local cable systems as well. When the changeover takes place, the actual physical channel location will, in many instances, mean little to the average person. WMAQ will be 'channel 5' in name only. Just like channel 2 will still be channel 2, channel 9 will still be channel 9, and so on.

So, what does this really mean, anyways? Will my TV work in 2009, or will it just become a rather large paperweight taking up valuable living room space? Do I really have to take out a mortgage and buy one of those expensive new plasma large screen TVs? Not exactly. Sure, most sets built before two years ago are not equipped with digital tuning capabilities. They need something else. Namely a set-top box. By the end of this year, or early next year, you will see digital converter boxes available in your local retail outlet. This little black box, which will likely sell for anywhere between $50-70, will effectively do the job in pulling in these digital signals. Another option would be to purchase a newer DVR, DVD recorder or VCR (if those are still around) equipped with digital tuning. For cable and satellite subscribers, nothing to worry about, since the current set top box will work as it did before. But isn't this whole thing merely just a raw deal for poor and elderly people who can't afford cable? After all, the government is asking people to go out and spend more money for something they currently enjoy for free. Starting early next year, the FCC is making available vouchers with a value up to $40, good toward purchase of a new tuner box, but are rather vague on the details. As for the rabbit ears, they'll work just fine.

But along with the stick required of buying yet another electronic box to plug in to the TV set, comes the proverbial carrot. Digital TV offers some pretty nice advantages. First off, the stations will be clearer. Even standard definition will look better in digital. Reception may improve in many cases, as digital signals are sent out differently than analog - you either get the station or you don't. There is no in-between.

Furthermore, and this is the cool part, digital viewers will get more channels, much like HD Radio. With a digital signal, TV stations have access to quite a bit of wavelength. This can be used to broadcast in high definition with surround sound. Or it could be used for multicasting. With up to five subchannels available, stations can virtually program multiple channels. One widely-used example is NBC, which has designed a 24/7 highly customizable and localized weather service for their affiliates called "NBC Weather Plus." AccuWeather has a similar DTV service available. Public broadcasting stations, often among the first to implement new technology, make heavy use of subchannels. PBS has several services available, including an HD service, a Kids Channel, an educational channel and a network called Create, which offers a variety of lifestyle and how-to shows, including some of the best travel programming found on any type of television.

Individual stations often opt to make their own programming choices. In some smaller markets, a station may use a subchannel as an affiliate of another network (some stations have picked up the CW network affiliation to put on their subchannel). WDJT in Milwaukee and WCIU in Chicago, both co-owned, use their subchannel (58.2 and 26.2 respectively) to expand the signals of low-powered local sister stations. WOWT in Omaha established their own separate independent station, 62O, on a subchannel (6.2). And a few third party networks have struck deals to program subchannels. The Tube, which carries 24/7 music videos, is carried by many stations owned by Raycom, Tribune Broadcasting and Sinclair. Retro Television Network (RTN) is a newer network, specializing in older, classic TV shows that TV Land and others have long since ignored, and appears on a few subchannels. Even networks that most have never heard of, like America One and Omni, may find new life via subchannel carriage. Ethnic viewers may find more viewing options as networks targeting the Asian and Hispanic communities could quite possibly show up on DTV.

Okay, sounds pretty cool, you say. And you're probably thinking about just going ahead and buying a TV anyway. Well, this gets pretty confusing. Make sure whatever TV, DVR, DVD recorder, tuner box, etc. you are buying is digital ready. It doesn't have to necessarily be a high definition unit, and the cheaper ones won't be. Nonetheless, there is an abundance of new LCD flat panel models going for very reasonable prices. And they're smaller, lightweight and put out a great picture. If you happen to run across a clearance model or older tube-style TV, buy it at your own risk. Many of these may be quite old and may or may not be compatible without a tuner box. Target and Wal-Mart have just started labeling non-compliant units, and Best Buy will start soon. Make sure you know what you're buying. Ask a salesperson. And those $20 black-and-white jobs at Walgreens? The thing will be useless in a year and a half. Avoid.

So, will the DTV transition fly? Will there be riots in the streets from irate people who can't watch Judge Judy? The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) estimates that a third of the nation's households has at least one TV that pulls in signals from the sky. And more than 60% of the nation's population has no idea that big changes are in store. Likely, the February 2009 cutoff will stick this time around, as the television industry and the FCC have been making big plans for this. Hopefully, we'll all be ready.