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WWFD 820 AM Becomes First All-Digital AM Station

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

Walk of Fame Participant
https://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n35675

In Washington DC, WWFD 820 AM The Gamut will be the first full time, all-digital AM radio station in the U.S. In an effort to keep up with the ever-evolving demand for digital, The Gamut will be turning off its analog signal and will no longer be accessible through regular AM radio beginning today, Monday, July 16 at noon. This announcement comes as a result of a collaborative effort between The Gamut and HD Radio, an Xperi Corporation brand, to give AM broadcasters parity in the car dashboard with FM HD Radio, satellite and internet streaming, among others.
"My belief is that AM needs to start trending in this direction," said Dave Kolesar, the station's engineer and program director. "We're excited to be doing this extremely innovative project that has tremendous potential to make AM much more viable to distribute all formats."
"Since the launch of HD Radio technology, Xperi has been committed to serving the current and future needs of terrestrial radio broadcasters," said Joe D'Angelo, SVP broadcast radio, Xperi. "Hubbard's decision to convert to all-digital operations illustrates the industry's continued commitment to over-the-air broadcasting and a long future for broadcast radio. With twenty percent of the vehicles on the road in the listening area equipped with an HD Radio receiver, the time couldn't be better for an all-digital trial."
The conversion to all-digital is primarily expected to provide listeners with better sound quality and include new display features such as artist name, song title and even album artwork.
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Umm interesting how this station is going to survive on a digital only AM outlet.
 
They are taking a big chance. I can't image there are that many HD radios out there. But it's going to save a lot of money on transmitter costs (if I understand the power bill situation correctly. Maybe an engineer can chime in?)

But years ago, AM stations took a chance by operating in the expanded band (1610-1700) and that's seemed to work out.
 
Feel free to correct me, but if I remember the announcement correctly, the AM was on the HD channels of at least three FM stations. So the AM in whatever form is still just the source for the HD. And I always thought that the transition to all digital on AM did not require any regulatory approval.
 
K6JHU said:
Feel free to correct me, but if I remember the announcement correctly, the AM was on the HD channels of at least three FM stations.
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Also on a translator, so why not give it a try? Right now the highest and best use of Ancient Modulation is the land the stick(s) sit under.
 
DrAkbar said:
Also on a translator, so why not give it a try?
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At one point they had two FM translators, but apparently they will now only feed the one in Frederick with this signal.

Seems to me they bought these translators from WAMU?

They're only doing this HD thing for a year, so I doubt they'll sell the tower land.
 
TheBigA said:
Seems to me they bought these translators from WAMU?
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WWFD's 94.3 translator in Frederick was a move in from Pennsylvania, bought from a religious outfit I believe. WWEG's translator at 93.5 was bought by Manning from WAMU, today it relays WWEG HD3 as "Max Country"
 
Well, this is the drop that starts the deluge. Before you know it, every AM radio station will either leave the air or go all digital.
 
blackgold said:
Well, this is the drop that starts the deluge. Before you know it, every AM radio station will either leave the air or go all digital.
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Not until radio manufacturers get on board, which won't happen until consumers indicate that they want to spend on new radios.
 
There is one important point to realize in all this:

The programmer for WWFD/The Gamut is the Chief Engineer for Hubbard - Washington. Since the bread and butter for Hubbard is WTOP, my guess is instead of donating (or selling for a song) the signal of 820 after Washington Post Radio went belly-up they took the CE’s suggestion that he could at least prevent it from losing a bunch of money. The upside is he can somewhat experiment musically and technically...Hubbard suits don’t care so long as “The Glass Enclosed Nerve Center” still sounds good 24/7 and is a license to print money.

All-digital AM broadcasting is pretty neat. I had the privilege of listening to the first official test of all-digital operation about 3 years ago when KKXA-AM in suburban Seattle did some overnight broadcasts. The signal was much better than hybrid operation and got out much further as well. Definitely way better than hybrid operation which never seems to properly work and sounds like a 16kbps stream.

I may be in the minority here, but if AM wants to avoid gradually becoming a hobby broadcast band, all-digital operations will probably have become the rule rather than the exception over the next decade or two.

Kudos to those folks dipping their toes into the digital water! Radio still needs folks willing to experiment when financially possible!

Oh, and lastly, the programming on 820 is also simulcast on WTOP’s two FM transmitters in HD. Their digital operations are at max power (10% of analog) and they cover the DC metro very well (especially in suburban VA). My guess is 90% of any listening to The Gamut is via 103.5/107.7’s HD
 
Buying a new radio will not save AM. Making radio's that can already receive analog AM, obsolete, won't help either. I would not be surprised if most listening for WWFD, will be done via the two FM HD channels.

Did a quick search for a good priced AM HD radio and did not find one. Is there an AM HD radio portable or table model for under $100?

With most listening being done in the car, there are more HD radio's now in cars. But still some are regular analog for both AM and FM. So a new radio to get the programming on WWFD may still be needed for the car listener and at that point will they listen to the actual AM HD signal or one of the FM HD channels carrying WWFD. Or will they find something new on the FM HD channels they would rather listen too.
 
SPARC also has a much better one for a hundred and a half which is also marketed by Grace Digital,
and I do not know if it the same company that changed names or if the new one bought the marketing rights,
but I owned the exact same unit under the Insignia brand a few years ago;
very good audio and it remembers which subchannel to go to after power is restored.
 
seattlesarchiebunker said:
I may be in the minority here, but if AM wants to avoid gradually becoming a hobby broadcast band, all-digital operations will probably have become the rule rather than the exception over the next decade or two.

Kudos to those folks dipping their toes into the digital water! Radio still needs folks willing to experiment when financially possible!
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I'm not a broadcast engineer, but I personally participated in some of the Amateur Radio spectrum discussions during the deployment of digital in California. The big hangup was all the spectrum was busy. There wasn't spectrum available to run analog and digital side-by-side. Similarly, I think AM may have to go the way that Television went and just "go digital". At least one station at a time.
 
Digital-analog AM converters will be the next hot thing, I'm sure..
 
I came upon one of these a couple of months ago. You'd set your AM radio to 1400 kHz then use the FM converter to do the tuning.
 
They already make the converter for AM/FM HD. The three radio's listed above look like nice radios if your looking to buy something new.

You never know, all digital AM might find it's footing. But I think it would be from organic growth versus being mandated. You can do regular AM, IBOC + AM or pure digital(IBOC).

Once some one gets the formula for return on the investment, for All digital AM, others will follow. But sooner than latter otherwise those nice radio's above will just have WI-FI and maybe FM.
 
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