[IRCA] Radio programming

I've enjoyed reading the current IBOC thread, and I am happy that, in my retirement, I have enough things to do that I don't need radio! Our tastes are set, I think, when we are in our early to mid teens, and the music I enjoy most, as a result, is the music of the '40s and '50s. Not much of that on radio anymore.

Collectors Choice music catalogs are welcome arrivals in the mail, here, and I finally broke down a couple of years ago and bought a modest CD player. (Of course, our cars now come with CD players ... one of the two cars has combo CD-Cassette.) I suppose, since I expect to live another 25 years and counting (my mother is 95 and still alive and alert), I ought to explore some updated means of converting those 500 or so grand 33 1/3 LPs I have into something that'll play in 2030 as my activities taper off. I haven't gone shopping for a phonograph needle in a long time, so I suppose I'm probably too late to figure out how to transfer LPs to CDs, much less mp3 or whatever. I've begun to duplicate some of the material via Collectors Choice purchases, which I'll probably be able to do until Medicare goes belly-up.

When I was in my early teens, I began DX'ing during the TOH and BOH station breaks, with most of the programming block programming from NBC, CBS, ABC and MBS. I enjoyed the radio comedy shows, the personality DJs and in-depth news coverage ... all of which are long gone, save for some content on NPR. (Try to find news in depth form a commercial station, even on the all-news stations. KRLD this fall cut the 8-minute CBS feed at 7 a.m. Central to 3 minutes .. it was the one fixed radio point in the Callarman household.) I'll have WRR on occasionally when I'm too lazy to put a CD into the player, and late at night, Janice can't go to sleep without the noise of a talk show ... she has a knack, most nights, of (just before she drops off) pushing the off button. In the car, when we're together, the radio is just noise. Going cross country, we try to find a top-of-the-hour newscast to keep semi-informed, but two minutes of news doesn't cut it. Unfortunately, "All Things Considered" doesn't run during most of the hours we're on the road.

On the road, even during the daytime on AM, there isn't much difference between the noise floor (particularly when you're avoiding the interstate highways and driving parallel to a power line) and the IBOC noise. KRLD and KMKI, by the way, eat up the adjacent channels at least 150 miles out between here and Amarillo ... almost all of which is in ground conductivity 30 on the maps ... I haven't checked driving south, where the ground conductivity pales ..

There will come a time, I suppose, when we will have to replace our analog TVs with HDTV units ... unless satellite somehow keeps us supplied. I doubt that we will purchase an HD radio (except, maybe, what comes with the new car) because there isn't enough available programming to sustain our interest. We are in one of those niches that no longer appeals to even broadcasters who are seeking a viable niche for the seventh or eighth signal they own in the market.

We who have been professional newspeople recognize the perception-reality relationship and how hard it is to counter those who become masters of spinning and skewing to turn an undesirable reality into a profitable perception.

I do not feel qualified, though, to comment on the viability of IBOC. I hope, for the sake of the industry I used to love, it turns out to be everything its proponents say it will be. Regardless of the quality of the signal, I do not expect suddenly to find programming that will appeal to me. I recognize the fact that I am part of a dwindling minority that is no longer a money-making market for even the most skilful niche programmer.

That's my reality, at age 70. I'm not taking sides in the IBOC argument because 1) my kind of radio will not rise from the ashes and 2) stations aren't going to sign off at midnight to return at 6 a.m. or run sunrise-to-sunset. There's a great difference between a listener and a DX'er, but I may wind up soon being neither.

I am thankful this season that there are many other enjoyable, productive ways to spend my time that I really won't miss radio!

There. I'm living up to my title ... the Krumudgeon from Krum.