not to slight the Morning Show at all, i realize it has a longtime loyal fanbase and i enjoy some of the music they play, but a cool use for the multiple channels on 89.3 when it's rolled out would be a station with regular 89.3 music in the morning, or possibly an alternate morning show?

just a thought :)

also, something i think would be cool to do even now on 89.3 would be to have music news updates every so often during the day, just like the regular news updates. there's plenty of online sources of music news that would make up a decent 3-5 minute slot every few hours, even if it's just the same news repeated throughout the day (unless there's some "breaking" music news that is :)

How about the "Morning Show" channel--Jim Ed and Dale's kind of music whenever you want it? I have the feeling that the audience that likes the "Morning Show" but doesn't care that much for the rest of the Current would appreciate it.

And along the same lines, how about on the Classical service doing a channel of "serious" classical music, including experimental and avant-garde works? This would relieve what certain listeners seem to complain about the most when it comes to the Classical service--or would they just complain about having to buy an HD radio instead?

I'm pretty excited about digital, even if I'm somewhat skeptical about how much fidelity can be retained when multiple streams are being crammed into the signal. Well, I just have to wait until I've got a receiver in front of me to answer that question personally. A bigger problem will be retaining high quality in the programming itself. Many of the new channels that have been made available on digital TV and digital cable have honestly not been very good, but maybe things have improved since I last checked it out.

If you look at the Wikipedia article on "public broadcasting," there is a list of critera defining a public broadcaster. Well, it doesn't necessarily apply, since it describes how things are in the United Kingdom where there are nationwide broadcasting entities (though you can consider Minnesota a "nation" unto itself if you want ;-)

Obviously, for the regional stations, The Current should come as a subchannel so that all programming is made available across the state. MPR should also ensure that it is serving the underserved by including more minority programming (then again, getting the underserved to buy HD Radios could be a problem). Even now, more ethnic music would probably be good. A greater focus on educational material might be warranted as well.

Since there's a love-hate relationship between MPR and IPR, this could be difficult or impossible, but it might be good to re-air "cream of the crop" programming from other public radio stations in the state. In particular, since MPR is based in the Twin Cities, it would be important to create or get shows from the outstate area. Then again, a service composed entirely of reruns would grow old (hah! *cough*)

I think Mark Jeffries's comment above alludes to the fact that many people who will buy HD Radio systems will be audiophiles and technophiles who are already interested in MPR programming and want to see boundaries pushed even farther. Figuring out how to do that in a high-quality manner without spending gobs of money is a big challenge, though ;-)

Still, I'd be open to a simple service or two, such as an automated box that just reads out weather reports, traffic notices, and whatnot.

(Oh, and Sarah, be careful about your use of the term "HD-ready"—in many cases that just means that there's a port that says "plug in HD receiver here," like we've seen with "HD-ready" televisions where a tuner has to be purchased separately. Annoying, I know...)

I would be very unhappy with IBOC/HD Radio if the sidebands either reduce existing analog reception.

So far I have not heard complaints of impaired reception on KSJN due to the HD signal being added. We did some measurements, and the impact was dependent on the radio. Most radios showed little if any increase in noise from the addition of the HD carrier. Things change a bit on the fringe, but for the most part the impact was minimal.

As for Multicast...
The current Multicast capable receivers that are out there are manufactured by Kenwood. Almost all of their recent car radios are "HD Ready". You need a separate HD Radio tuner box (similar to a Sirius receiver) to actually receive the HD signals.

JVC and Panasonic also both have all in one car radios that can receive HD Radio signals, but I'm not sure if they can pick up the multicast channels.

Boston Acoustics and a company called "Radiosophy" are supposed to have home and portable versions of Multicast capable HD receivers available by the end of the summer.

--
Shane Toven
MPR Engineering

Some ideas for "back channels"...These suggestions are largely "labor-free" in order to minimize the need for duplicative staffing...

(1) A rotation of archived Current in-studio and Current sponsored live recordings (like what you can get on the web, but on the air instead)

(2) A "member-driven" music rotation, something like an on-air juke box where Current members (and maybe the public;) ) can "slot" songs from an on-line database of Current material. This presumes a large hardrive at Current HQ that could play the songs without CDs.

(3) Better for a future date (maybe when we all have digital receivers), "Yesteryear's Current", playing in it's entirety the broadcast of 10-years-ago-that date; like a time-warp radio station. Some broadcasts would be nostalgic, some funny, but we'll likely appreciate how far we've come and little things change. This presumes that memory costs are low enough to archive years' worth of broadcasting.

(4) Somewhat more labor intensive, "Minor League Current", where members/public/amateur DJs, etc. can come in and try their skills. Like (3), some programming might be ridiculous, but there would likely be some gems, and like the Minors, this would be a place to grow future on-air talent.

I read something on the web about a new feature NPR is testing that would continuously broadcast a news update, and receivers would store it in memory so that when an "information" button is pressed, the news update starts "on demand" right when the listener wants it. I think that would be an interesting feature that would further separate public radio from the rest of the pack. Presumably this doesn't take up as much bandwidth in the HD Radio bitstream as a normal channel since it can be sent at a slower data rate to the receiver, and the receiver can play it back at normal speed when it has the whole thing in memory.

Other than that, would it be possible to broadcast, say, CBC Radio 1, or BBC World Service, on a 24/7 sub-channel of MPR's News & Information stations? There might be some interest in that.

I quite like the later ideas here; however, using the service to try to serve anyone with an income that is not at least middle-class is probably programming to a deaf ear. I guess that's one strange thing to me regarding TPT's HD-only channel as well as 'HD'-radio; it doesn't really feel like public broadcasting when you need equipment that runs in the hundreds (or in the case of HDTV, thousands) of dollars to actually pick it up.

Thanks for all your comments. You have some really good ideas. My task is to come up with the recommendations for how we'll move forward with new streams .... so keep the ideas coming.

It's true that the radios will be expensive in the early days, whether as stand-alone units or in more-expensive cars. But when you look at the price of an Ipod, it makes you realize that a lot of people will buy a device if the application is compelling.

Heh, I quite like Olson's idea #2, since Viacom has torn asunder all former remnants of The Box (they even sold off channel 13 here in Minneapolis recently, and it now carries Univision).

The BBC World Service would be a very easy thing to do--MPR already pays for the 24-hour feed, which they generally only use overnight. Slapping it on as a subchannel to the N&I stations is a no-brainer.

OT: FWIW, HDTV needn't cost thousands of dollars. Yes, the HD quality displays are quite expensive, but a converter box that allows the use of a regular television and regular antenna is available for just under $200 at major retailers.

I still tend to agree that the equipment is a big issue here though. I have been hoping that public radio stations will find a way to supply their listeners / members with HD Radios at a discount, or as part of a pledge drive.

A chill-downtempo-intelligent electronica and triphop channel would be an amazing addition to the HD selection.