(A response to the letter in the February ‘06 RAP from Dave Scott about Marshall Such’s Surround Sound article in the January issue!)
Mr. Scott,
With all due respect to your success with TM Century and Scott Systems, you have no authority to speak to the viability of 5.1 for radio.
If I need CD dubs or music on hard drive, I’ll call you. For what’s going to make radio more competitive as a source of entertainment, I think we need a little more imagination. I fear that your pan on 5.1 may be a self-fulfilling prophecy because too many radio executives might share your baseless opinions.
It’s a good thing that you prefaced your anti-5.1 opinions by admitting: “I can’t give you a logical explanation as to why 5.1 won’t happen”. It’s hard to believe you actually mean the things you actually wrote:
“Who has four ears?” - If a tree falls in the woods right in front of you (or behind you), it must not have made any noise...
“Doing great production in 5.1 is too much trouble” - I think you forget that the RAP audience is made up of people who STRIVE to do great production, LOVE doing great production, and would, in fact, welcome the open canvas afforded to creative production and programming by 5.1. Your comment belongs in the boardroom. If your criterion of a successful radio station is to hire a producer capable of squeezing out 4 promos an hour, then of COURSE it’s too much trouble for you.
“The radios aren’t out there” - Neither were CD players, and you may want to go back to your perceptuals to find out where so many of your listeners went...
“The hard drive space isn’t in here (my stations)” - WHAT?! Google the phrase ‘hard drive’ and you’ll find a 250 gig Seagate for $70. That’s $.28 per GIGABYTE!!! Things must really be tight at your station....
Regarding your comments on Dolby encoding, it seems to work pretty okay for most everyone I know (including myself). All you have to do is pop a DVD in your player - if all you have are two speakers, chances are pretty good that your audio will play just fine in stereo.
I hope you don’t speak for most radio station owners, because thinking like yours is what has led us to the mediocre place radio now holds on the listener’s entertainment menu. It’s a shame that we’re taking a back seat to CDs and iPods.
Mr. Scott, I don’t know if 5.1 will work for radio. I for one, however, don’t put much stock in the arguments of someone who serves the radio industry. I’d rather spend my time reading ideas from people who serve the AUDIENCE.
Kind Regards,
Troy Duran
♦