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Heylistentome

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I don't know why no one comments on this great oldies station. They sound top notch great variety of oh wow cuts 1,000 song library from instrumentals to classic songs. I know this would not fly on any main signal but they really sound refreshing and at least you don't have to have satellite or the net for good oldies IMHO they are betters than Sirius xm's 60's with all that talking and reputations songs..
 
Then why does it exist, and don't tell me it's sole purpose is to feed translators.
 
Heylistentome said:
Then why does it exist, and don't tell me it's sole purpose is to feed translators.
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They expected it to be a success, but reality is only some aftermarket stereos have HD built in and a few car brands offer HD as an marginal optional. And yes, broadcasters are using more and more HD channels to feed translators. That's the way it is.
 
broadcastguy said:
They expected it to be a success, but reality is only some aftermarket stereos have HD built in and a few car brands offer HD as an marginal optional. And yes, broadcasters are using more and more HD channels to feed translators. That's the way it is.
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Many car brands have HD standard, and many more have it with their better audio systems. Over 30% of last year's new cars have HD and it may reach the 50% level this year.

One of the reason is that some significant traffic services use HD to update gps devices.
 
Heylistentome said:
Then why does it exist, and don't tell me it's sole purpose is to feed translators.
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The first reason is to allow a digital simulcast of the analog programming. Then the second reason is to create additional programming. Among the most successful are quite a number of ethnic services in most of the larger markets. And then there is fact that an HD can be relayed on a translator without counting against company market caps.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Many car brands have HD standard, and many more have it with their better audio systems. Over 30% of last year's new cars have HD and it may reach the 50% level this year.

One of the reason is that some significant traffic services use HD to update gps devices.
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I'm quite related to the car industry (I see lots of new or almost new cars every week) and from 20 cars maybe only 1 has HD, the majority have XM or Pandora. Most brands offer HD in certain models as an optional upon buyer request but it's in no way a massive thing.
 
broadcastguy said:
I'm quite related to the car industry (I see lots of new or almost new cars every week) and from 20 cars maybe only 1 has HD, the majority have XM or Pandora. Most brands offer HD in certain models as an optional upon buyer request but it's in no way a massive thing.
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My base model Mazda3 came with HD radio. Wasn't optional.
 
Heylistentome said:
I don't know why no one comments on this great oldies station. They sound top notch great variety of oh wow cuts 1,000 song library from instrumentals to classic songs. I know this would not fly on any main signal but they really sound refreshing and at least you don't have to have satellite or the net for good oldies IMHO they are betters than Sirius xm's 60's with all that talking and reputations songs..
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The directories of HD Stations are still listing 102.9-2 as "Hot Traxx," after - what? - three or four years as Oldies. Maybe more people would listen if they could find out what's on these sub-channels.
 
Bob Eubanks said:
My new car came with it standard, but it's not terribly intuitive to operate, and not on the menu alongside Pandora, XM and your own phone/music player.

Pretty much a "tree falls in a forrest" scenario.
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Not sure what you mean? I have an HD radio in my car and HD Radio is radio - just with extra stations. Radio is one of the sources, like CD, Aux, Bluetooth, USB and Sirius. The only thing that is possibly confusing, is you when you scan, you have to wait a few seconds for HD to kick in before continuing to scan the sub-channels (otherwise scan goes to the next station). Anyway, it's not more complicated than an analog car radio (of course, car radios have all gotten more complicated).
 
The problem with car radio is the dashboard has become an advertisement, a way for car companies to make money. So Sirius XM spends a lot of money to get a special button on the dashboard. Same with Pandora. It's why you will see Pandora and not Spotify. If FM radio was owned by one single national company like those two, you'd have a similar button on the dashboard.
 
TheBigA said:
The problem with car radio is the dashboard has become an advertisement, a way for car companies to make money. So Sirius XM spends a lot of money to get a special button on the dashboard. Same with Pandora. It's why you will see Pandora and not Spotify. If FM radio was owned by one single national company like those two, you'd have a similar button on the dashboard.
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Well, the NAB or RAB could always do it, if they so chose.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Well, the NAB or RAB could always do it, if they so chose.
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Sirius/XM and Pandora are single corporate entities. The moment you market via a coalition of companies that together constitute a monopoly in a sector, you run into issues of collusion and restraint of trade. In other words, the reason why the NAB Radio Code had to be abandoned decades ago.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Not sure what you mean? I have an HD radio in my car and HD Radio is radio - just with extra stations. Radio is one of the sources, like CD, Aux, Bluetooth, USB and Sirius. The only thing that is possibly confusing, is you when you scan, you have to wait a few seconds for HD to kick in before continuing to scan the sub-channels (otherwise scan goes to the next station). Anyway, it's not more complicated than an analog car radio (of course, car radios have all gotten more complicated).
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True that most radios have to some degree or another become more complex. But the radio in question doesn't make it clear there are "sub channels" to explore. You're pretty much expected to know what the soft button with the HD marker is intended to do, otherwise scanning takes you on up to the next "standard" station. Maybe that's universal, I don't know. But I do know it's not terribly likely someone who doesn't know there is such a thing as a sub channel is going to stumble across them. (Or perhaps one has to read all however-many-hundred pages of the owner's manual in all its glorious tediousness and maybe that will jump out at someone on page 286.)
 
Bob Eubanks said:
True that most radios have to some degree or another become more complex. But the radio in question doesn't make it clear there are "sub channels" to explore. You're pretty much expected to know what the soft button with the HD marker is intended to do, otherwise scanning takes you on up to the next "standard" station. Maybe that's universal, I don't know. But I do know it's not terribly likely someone who doesn't know there is such a thing as a sub channel is going to stumble across them. (Or perhaps one has to read all however-many-hundred pages of the owner's manual in all its glorious tediousness and maybe that will jump out at someone on page 286.)
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Mine does not have a "soft button." You get to sub-channels by scanning or tuning from the main channel. Then you can set a push button for a given sub-channel. The big problem is there are formats no longer available on main channels/analog - some of them missing formats with devoted followers - and nobody is doing much to let people know about it. Not even iBiquity, who has the most to gain immediately.
 
Oscar Madison said:
Mine does not have a "soft button." You get to sub-channels by scanning or tuning from the main channel. Then you can set a push button for a given sub-channel. The big problem is there are formats no longer available on main channels/analog - some of them missing formats with devoted followers - and nobody is doing much to let people know about it. Not even iBiquity, who has the most to gain immediately.
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iBiquity, now part of DTS, has not spent much effort to promote HD to the public. Its activities have been to get manufacturers to license the chips and stations to implement HD broadcasting. They don't promote to listeners as they have no direct gain from it.

There was considerable promotion of HD for the first few years by the radio industry sub-group called the HD Alliance. They were the ones who created the awful "stations between the stations" campaign and gave ad credits to dealers such as Best Buy that stocked HD aftermarket and home radios.

The formats on HD that appeal to groups that have no main channel choice for that format are generally also formats that have little or no sales potential, thus the lack of promotion.
 
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