35 Radio One stations on-air with Harris HD Radio transmitters
and/or multicasting solutions by the end of 2006
Harris Corporation’s Broadcast Communications Division today announced that Radio One, the nation’s seventh-largest radio broadcasting company, has exclusively purchased Harris transmitters for its third round of HD Radio(TM) conversions. Radio One will install Harris transmitters at 18 stations (17 FM and one AM) through the end of the year. All FM stations will receive
Z-Series(TM) transmitters with the Harris(R) FlexStar(R) family of HD
Radio(TM) products (HDI-100 Importers, HDE-100 Exporters and HDX-FM
exciters) for multicasting. Harris also will supply a DAX(TM) transmitter with its DEXSTAR(R) exciter for the AM installation, and will deliver FlexStar(R) products to three existing HD Radio installations to initiate multicasting.
Radio One was the first commercial radio broadcasting group to purchase HD Radio transmission equipment in 2003. Since then, the company has exclusively purchased Harris transmitters. A total of 35 Radio One stations will be on the air with Harris transmitters by the end of 2006. The incorporation of FlexStar(R) HDI-100 importers at certain stations will allow Radio One to launch supplementary channel programming alongside its main HD Radio channel program.
“Radio One’s early HD Radio experiments came at a time when only beta test sites existed for commercial HD Radio,” said John Mathews, vice president of engineering, Radio One. “My experience with Harris, which began with a training session at the company’s Quincy, Illinois facility, instilled the confidence that its HD Radio product research and development was ahead of its peers as far back as 2003. The consistent transmission performance and product support we have since received from Harris, coupled with its continued advancement of multicasting technology, have kept us firmly in the Harris camp for HD Radio.”
Most FM stations in Radio One’s second round of HD Radio conversions will install Harris(R) Z-Series(TM) solid-state transmitters, which feature the industry’s most successful FM amplifier design. Dallas station KSOC-FM will use the Harris proprietary Split-Level(TM) combining method, which sums the output from an existing analog FM transmitter and a common amplification FM-HD Radio transmitter. This increases combining efficiency, reduces existing FM transmitter power requirements and improves overall system efficiency.
“Radio One’s decision to exclusively install Harris transmitters for HD Radio shows enormous confidence in our ability to deliver technically superior transmission systems that also meet the business requirements of its HD Radio conversion plans,” said Debra Huttenburg, vice president and general manager of Harris Broadcast Division’s Radio Broadcast Systems business unit. “Radio One has been a true pioneer in delivering HD Radio to the public. We are pleased to have played an important role in its early HD Radio deployments and to continue to be an important factor in future conversions.”