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Opinion: Cam-D Is Better Than IBOC

The IBOC system threatens both the AM and FM industries and thus threatens free radio broadcasting.

Now is the time for all good broadcasters to come to the aid of their country and their industry.

This statement may appear to be an exaggeration, but I truly believe that the IBOC system threatens both the AM and FM industries and thus threatens free radio broadcasting. Furthermore, it is no stretch that while our country is at war and that our homeland is subject to further attack, supporting technology that interferes with AM radio that is essential to alerting Americans of an attack is clearly not in the public interest.

The real question is: What can station owners, GMs, engineers, PDs, talent and everyone else who makes a living in radio broadcasting do to come to the aid of free broadcasting and our country?

Simple: write a short (or long) letter to the FCC and then give the commission your comments re the impact of IBOC on AM broadcasting. Even though you have until June 14 to send the commission your comments (Docket 99-325), the sooner you get your comments in, the sooner people who watch for such filings will react to your views. Please e-mail me at [email protected] so I can spread your words to other people that want to save broadcasting.

Better approach

As you may know, I have been opposed to the original and the revised IBOC systems for over 10 years, long before Kahn Communications Inc. developed the Cam-D System, so you can be certain that I would be opposing the wideband IBOC system even if Cam-D had never been invented.

Cam-D’s slim spectrum not only makes you a better spectrum neighbor, it increases your coverage, drops power-line buzz, reduces fading and is capable of the best-ever AM stereo. It works night and day. It’s not afraid of the dark.

Also, your listeners can see your music information, name of artist, tune and where “viewers” can get a copy. It can also give weather reports, road conditions, stock market prices and scores of your local teams.

And most important, Cam-D allows you to provide three channels to the government so it can protect us at locations even beyond your present best coverage.

Another important use of the Cam-D’s scrolling visual display system is that it provides service to the 29 million hearing-disabled Americans. Since Cam-D’s narrow spectrum allows high- and low-powered stations to coexist, a hearing-disabled person will not be denied warnings of dangerous local storms.

KCI is developing battery-powered Cam-D radios incorporating flashing lights to alert users of emergencies, such as storms and early warnings of military attacks.

Finally, you do not have to argue against the digital age, you just want the best of both analog and digital worlds without infuriating the American public by making their property, their radios, useless – thus destroying the main advantage AM and FM radio has over all of its incompatible competitors, the 800 million radios Americans rely upon every day of the year.

There really is an IBOC system that is truly in-band and is in the public interest. Write today.

RW welcomes other points of view.

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