The Evolution of Radio

 This is kind of an appropriate graphic in more ways than one.  But, it nicely illustrates a few concepts I've been witness to and a party of which I will illustrate here.  

When I first started in he radio business, there were these little vinyl discs called "45's" and big vinyl discs called "33's" and little 8 track looking tape cartridges we used to call "carts".  These things had pretty much been the standard tools of radio broadcasters for a long, long time.  

I saw the death of the 45's and 33's when the compact disc (or CD as you may know it) came to radio stations in the late 80's.  It was a strange sort of promotional gag DJ's used to lay out on the air, "coming up, brand new music from Bruce Springsteen on a brand new format.  We'll play it from a compact disc!"  Oh yeah, those were the days.

We were bouncing little microwave signals all over the city from a thing called a "Marti" that got us from a car lot filled with hot dogs, balloons, smarmy radio people and even more smarmy used car salesmen.  All of the things were the miracle of the day, yet they were so commonplace to those of us who worked around it we always thought there would never be a change.

Then I saw the death of the CD.  That's when it all changed.

Computers were already established tools in the broadcaster's studio but now they were increasingly gaining the trust of the bosses.  It was always a joke that we would all be replaced by these machines.  Sadly, we pretty much all were.  How prophetic... and pathetic.

So, instead of complaining about it, I decided it was time to embrace the technology with the caveat of putting these machines in their proper place.  Hence Radio Memphis.  (For more on that, read the previous posts)

During my time with the "evil empire", the corporate apes came up with this novel thing called "HD Radio".  Capitalizing on the new trend of HDTV (among other things), these suits thought it would be cool to have a digital signal with some serious "High Definition".  As it turned out, not so much.  The transmitters are still locked in at certain broadcasted rates of information and what you thought was HD Radio was nothing more than a fairly clear signal right up to the second you left the broadcast radius of the tower you were listening to.  Then, BAM! You got nothing.  So, to save this cool moniker of "HD Radio", it was decided to split the existing signals down to other stations so one station could have 2 other sister stations you could only pick up with (you guessed it) an HD Radio.  

Here in Memphis, there are about 40 or 50 of these magical boxes around, most of which are owned and housed in the radio stations themselves as a monument to their "ingenuity".  The concept of HD Radio is pretty much a failure and a minor joke amongst radio people.  

If you'll notice in the picture at the top of this post, the guy in the lead seems somewhat concerned that he is being followed by monkeys.  Ever since we went on the air, as it were, as a strictly local station with a global audience and the acts of "murder" committed by the evil empire behind us, all the other stations (corporate monkeys themselves) love to throw around the word "local".  Kind of tough to live up to that when the music they are playing is anything but.  Not to mention the fact that all of their management are no where within 100 miles of Memphis.  Local?  I think not.  So yes, we seem to be followed by monkeys.  But back to being "high definition".

Enter internet radio and all of the sudden, these things about "high definition" and increased fidelity become a real issue.

When I built Radio Memphis, I felt damn lucky to have a signal on the web that was running right at FM quality.  Then my server guy had a stroke over the amount of data I was shooting to the server.  So, he put the kibosh on me and ran me down to a transmission rate that is slightly less than FM.  Claiming there is no difference.  But, I know better.  Meanwhile, I make the acquaintance of one Crafton Barnes who proceeds to hip me to Web 2.0 and the joys of cloud computing and the unlimited potential of internet radio stations just waiting to be tapped.  Enter our "High Definition" signal.

You can hear it HERE.  This is the test of a new way for Radio Memphis to deliver the station to you, the humble listener.  What you are hearing, which may be subtle to you, is pure CD quality audio.  It has it's little issues from time to time.  Shit, what doesn't?  But, this is what we are testing.  Should this be successful, we will be able to deliver to you a radio station in this highly defined audio in a clarity that terrestrial radio stations cannot.  Scary, huh?

So now, we have evolved ourselves from a little rough signal just under FM quality to something that has surpassed FM quality in the blink of an eye.  Something that would have taken years has now happened in mere weeks.  How's that for evolution?

Oh, but wait, there is so much more to come that even as I try and understand the power of and the simple concepts behind... well, let's just say, it's going to be one hell of a ride!

Stay Tuned...