SBS Gets Its First HD Radio Station; Beasley Adds One Too

Two stations in Miami have turned on HD Radio, including the first station in the Spanish Broadcasting System group to go IBOC digital.
Beasley station WKIS(FM) and SBS outlet WRMA(FM) share a combiner and antenna system. They are both using Broadcast Electronics HD Radio equipment.
Beasley also is on with HD Radio in Miami at AM stations WQAM, WSBR and WWNN as well as Philadelphia’s WXTU(FM).
BE released a description of the installation:
“The two Miami stations, which share a master Alan Dick combiner and antenna system, feed HD Radio signals and analog signals bi-directionally into the master combiner for combined input to the antenna. Each station purchased BE’s FSi 10 signal generator, FXi 60 exciter and FMi 201 transmitter. The BE equipment was installed separate from the analog FM transmission path as part of an isolated HD Radio system. …
“By dual-feeding the antenna, the stations were able to use one polarity of the circularly polarized antenna for HD Radio and the opposite polarity for analog FM. The approach reduced the injector loss typical of high-level combining (10dB loss in HD Radio and a .45dB loss in analog), eliminating the need for Spanish Broadcasting and Beasley Broadcast Group to purchase higher-powered HD Radio transmitters to handle the injector load.”
Ralph Chambers is DOE for the southeast operation of SBS. Bob Demuth is VP/CTO of Beasley Broadcast Group.