ANALOG VS. IBOC: KSD 93.7 St. Louis, MO

 

Frequency/Station                              Before KSD Went IBOC                                     After KSD Went IBOC

 

93.3 KNSX Steelville, MO                   Semi-local signal in Stereo                               Interference to Stereo pilot*

93.5 MHz                                               KRMS-FM Osage Beach, MO**                         Wiped out by KSD’s IBOC sidebands

93.9 MHz                                               Either Lincoln, IL or Fayette, MO**                    Wiped out by KSD’s IBOC sidebands

94.1 KPVR Bowling Green, MO        Semi-local signal in Stereo                               Interference to Stereo pilot*

 

* denotes when the antenna is pointed in a southerly direction

** denotes occasional reception

 

In this case, two good channels for distant stations are lost to the IBOC sidebands, while interference to the Stereo pilot tones for KNSX and KPVR are strongest with the antenna pointed directly at KSD’s transmitter site in southern St. Louis County, MO; some interference was even indicated to KNSX’s stereo pilot when pointed directly at KNSX’s transmitter site in Franklin County, MO. As a result, 93X loses a good chunk of coverage in southern St. Louis County and City. In addition, the sidebands can also be heard clearly on 93.4 and 94.0 MHz. As a result, 800 kHz of spectrum space has been wasted. FM Stereo is already capable of CD-quality sound within just 200 kHz of spectrum space.