Harris Lands Buckley Group Deal

Harris Broadcast said it has won a groupwide HD Radio deal with early digital advocate Buckley Broadcasting Corp.
The owner of 19 radio stations and a syndicated radio network chose Harris as its digital transmission preferred vendor. The platform includes the ability to launch multicasting at Buckley’s FM stations.
The deal covers four years and involves provision of HD Radio transmitters, Flexstar HD Radio products and Dexstar exciters for Buckley’s 10 FM and nine AM stations. The first install is underway at WDRC(FM) in Hartford, Conn. Next up is WSEN(FM) in Syracuse, N.Y., and KWAV(FM) in Monterey, Calif.
Tom Ray is VP and corporate DOE for Buckley. According to Harris, one of the company’s reasons for choosing the system was that it allows processing at the studio, which is particularly important for engineers in California who face site access problems due to snow.
Buckley station WOR was the first high-power AM station to launch a daytime HD Radio broadcast, and Ray has been a vocal supporter of HD Radio. Most of Buckley’s FM stations will use the Harris Split-Level combining method. WOR uses a Harris AM transmitter and is installing Harris 3DXT-50 AM transmitters at a new RF site as part of a previous deal.