Sep 14, 2007 – Sept. 14 was the first night that AM stations were allowed to commence overnight HD Radio operations as per the FCC's second report and order on IBOC. Radio magazine has received reports that some stations decided to operate in the hybrid IBOC mode after midnight when the rules took effect.

This raised some controversy for those who object to the new digital carriers that can be received on analog radios. Kent Winrich posted his listening experience to an e-mail list. Winrich lives near Raleigh, NC.

I received HD Radio carriers from 710 WOR New York, 760 WJR Detroit, 1100 WTAM and 1210 WPHT Philadelphia. I actually decoded WPHT for a while.

With all of those stations I looked for interference to neighbors. While decoding WPHT (about 420 miles) I was still able to pick up 1200 WOAI San Antonio (about 1,300 miles away) without any hash. Likewise, 700 WLW Cincinnati (about 500 miles away) was clean with the WOR (about 520 miles) carriers, 1110 WBT Charlotte, NC (which does not come in well here), was clean with WTAM's (550 miles away) HD Radio carriers, and 750 WSB Atlanta (390 miles away) and 770 WABC New York(520 miles away) were clean with WJR's HD Radio signal (710 miles away).

For the AM listening, Winrich used a GE Super Radio III and a Kenwood TS-940S. For the HD Radio listening, he used a Radiosophy HD100 with stock AM loop.

While this listening experience is not scientific, it is a good example of typical consumer listening.

Radio magazine wants to hear about your AM HD Radio night-time listening experiences. Send them to radio@RadioMagOnline.com.