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Renda stations were in HD?

andrewduong77

andrewduong77

I was wondering if Renda stations were in HD before and they took off their HD signal due to signal problems with their primary analog signal. I was also wondering when or if they will ever broadcasting in HD again in the near future. I was very curious about this last year because I like KMGL a lot. It is a good AC station. I also like HD Radio although some people have bad opinions about HD Radio, and I wish KMGL was in HD.

I found these 2 articles last year while trying to research if Renda stations did broadcast in HD.

As quoted from the TribLive News article in Nov 11, 2005:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_393398.html
"Tony Renda Jr., general manager of Green Tree-based Renda Broadcasting Corp.'s four Pittsburgh-area stations, said his company has signed a deal with IBiquity to convert all of the company's 24 stations in Pennsylvania, Florida and Oklahoma to HD radio sometime next year.
Renda said he's not concerned about the current lack of HD radios on the market."
So Renda really start investing in HD transmitters and start broadcasting in HD at that time?

As quoted from the TMCnews article in Apr 20, 2008:
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/04/20/3397271.htm
"Renda recently switched off its HD signals for three stations -- KOMA-FM 92.5, KMGL-FM 104.1 and KRXO-FM 107.7 -- because of a few coverage holes -- areas that received a poor signal -- at least until the spring ratings period ends.
"It's a temporary problem," Pollnow said. "Our engineer is working on it with the manufacturer.""
So KMGL, KOMA, and KRXO in OKC were actually in HD and they took it off somewhere around Spring 2008? Hmm... and they never brought back their HD signal since 2008? I'm assuming they had too much trouble fixing the technical problem and decide to drop their HD broadcasting license afterwards and never had their stations in HD again, right?

Hmm... Really? So KMGL, KOMA, and KRXO in OKC and all other Renda stations in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Florida were in HD around 2006-08? I knew about HD Radio back in 2009 and I got my first HD Radio (Sony XDR-F1HD) in Summer 2010. I live in Dallas and I visit OKC with my mom once in a while. None of our cars have HD Radio, I don't have any portable HD Radio, and none of my family members in OKC have an HD Radio either. So, I'm completely unsure if KMGL or other Renda stations in OKC are currently broadcasting in HD, but it's a doubt and I believe they're just broadcasting in plain vanilla analog with RDS right now.

Does anybody in OKC who had an HD Radio at that time know...
When did KMGL, KOMA, and KRXO in OKC broadcast in HD?
When did they stop broadcasting in HD?
When will or will they ever broadcast in HD again?
 
The key point here is, who has a HD radio? There aren't that many out there and if the HD transmission ruins analog transmission in any way, why would renda continue to use it?
 
stan said:
The key point here is, who has a HD radio? There aren't that many out there and if the HD transmission ruins analog transmission in any way, why would renda continue to use it?
Click to expand...

Exactly. The only people who care about HD radio are the people who can afford high dollar equipment in their vehicles, and most people don't care. To me, HD radio is really a gimmick. It was just a way for stations to multiplex to appeal to wider audiences, and it never really succeeded the way they thought it would.
 
Excellent points, all. I understood AM stereo (although it could have benefited from something like HI-FI-AM as the brand, or something similar); when I first heard about HD radio, I thought, "why?"

Then, after I heard "HD" radio was actually data-compressed, I was REALLY confused.

Multiple channels would have been nice, but nobody promoted their HD channels and those who had HD channels were running some national source... even as a radio geek, I just couldn't justify the cost of a new HD radio.

HD radio was a bad solution in search of a good problem. I'm sad AM stereo didn't last... "HD" FM, I'll never miss.
 
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