Citadel’s AMs are still not transmitting in IBOC at night.
The company’s AMs returned to daytime-only IBOC operation as of Oct. 1 due to interference concerns. The owner has received interference complaints from listeners and stations on adjacent channels, the latter from both Citadel- and non-Citadel stations in and outside the markets.
Most of the complaints stemmed from the Northeast, Citadel Director of Corporate Engineering Martin Stabbert told me this week.
Stabbert said no formalized test and measurement plan is in place yet.
When contacted later for comment, an Ibiquity spokeswoman said the technology company does have test plans for Citadel, but she couldn’t yet go into specifics.
I also wanted to follow up with Cox, which has turned off IBOC on four or five AMs due to self-interference concerns which were causing a faint buzz in the background on some wide front-end Chrysler radios.
In response to my query, Sterling Davis, VP of engineering for Cox Broadcasting, said he hasn’t heard anything lately about the issue. He was careful to stress that the interference concerns Cox has experienced are different than Citadel’s situation
An Ibiquity spokeswoman said she could not comment on the Cox situation.
