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Technology Stocks : XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XMSR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (2794)	8/22/2006 9:22:19 PM
From: pcstel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3386

<, announced today that it will replace now-defunct KZLA-FM (93.9) as sponsor for Los Angeles' largest country music festival "Country Bash '06,"> Indeed an interesting development... Initially, IBOC was viewed as simply an additional simulcast outlet for the primary analog signal.. While Emmis has been on the cutting edge of providing alternate formats on it's IBOC channels, few would have contemplated a swap of the analog format to the digital format. Are their alternative choices on the FM dial for country music in Los Angeles? Sure their are.. But, the are not "per se LA local", they are instead located in nearby San Bernardino via CBS Radio owned 50 KW KFRG-FM, whose 54dbu contour easily covers most of Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange Counties. So it is not like Country music is being "rescued" by any measure. The Ratings of KZLA have been on a downward trend for the last several years. With KZLA only coming in with a ~20 rank and a 1.7 share in LA, while the CBS Country Radio giant at KFRG ranking a 5.8 share ranked 2nd in the San Bernardino Arbitrons. But, the interesting point to be considered is where the future of Digital Radio will lead? The first thing I would expect to see will be lower cost Plug and Play HD Radio Receivers at CES IN January. The bigger picture will become how the Terrestrial broadcasters attempt to leverage the technical advantages of IBOC to persuade the FCC to allow flexibility in the FM Band Plan. For example. In a case like KZLA with an EiRP of 35Kw, the nearest FM station on the same frequency is KBBU in Modesto. I would expect that in the future, you will find the NAB proposing an NPRM to allow lower power terrestrial repeaters for the Digital Signals only. This makes complete sense as the Analog FM Band is very inefficient in frequency re-use. So you could see the Emmis station at 93.9 in Los Angeles purchase KBBU at 93.9 in Modesto, as well as 93.9 KFMF in Chico, 93.9 KHDV King City and 93.9 KRLT S. Lake Tahoe. Co-Channel interference is not such an issue with digital only transmission. So in effect. Stations could build a statewide network by owning all the licenses for a given frequency in a given state or area and deploying low power repeaters through out that area to enhance the main transmitter. Other technologies born in cellular communications such as soft handoff will allow receivers to be controlled by broadcasters to automatically switch the receivers frequency to the identical broadcast stream on a different frequency as the receiver moves from town to town. Much like SDAR receivers do. PCSTEL