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HD Radio’s History of Innovation and Future of Growth

R

rbc

A hundred years later, reports of the demise of radio continue to be greatly exaggerated. Again.

In fact, it seems that the very idea of radio has been waved away as a second-hand thought only for it to show its deep value — time after time. Even today, as the media splinters and morphs into the many ways people engage with content, radio is here, valued and appreciated — and continuing to rank above all other channels in consumption.
[...]
Article on RADIOWORLD
 
The author of this article is part of Xperi so he has to push his product. The early days of FM didn’t have to compete with the digital platforms we have today. So in my honest opinion, I believe HD Radio will go nowhere, but eventually will fade away. Analog radio will still be with us for a long while, even with the all the other digital platforms that are available. HD Radio is dying a slow death.
 
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Kevin said:
HD Radio is dying a slow death.
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How so? 20+% of the vehicles on the road have HD-capable radios already in place, with new ones being sold daily. Sure, people aren't going out to their local electronics store and buying specific types of radios anymore. Only leftover Radio Nerds do that. And Nerd's are so few in number, that they aren't any indicator of the success or failure of a modulation type.
 
Kelly A said:
How so? 20+% of the vehicles on the road have HD-capable radios already in place, with new ones being sold daily. Sure, people aren't going out to their local electronics store and buying specific types of radios anymore. Only leftover Radio Nerds do that. And Nerd's are so few in number, that they aren't any indicator of the success or failure of a modulation type.
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20% since 2005, the numbers aren’t that great. As I said HD Radio is dying a slow death. Others platforms will indeed surpass or has surpassed HD Radio. How many people have cellphones with internet capability to get steaming services, that number has already surpassed HD Radio. HD Radio is a dead technology walking. At this point it’s only the radio nerds who are currently buying into this HD Radio nonsense, most people don’t even know HD Radio is in their new vehicles and are most likely streaming IHeart, Radio.com, Spotify, Pandora or listening to a podcasts. Meanwhile HD Radio is on life-support.
 
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Kevin said:
20% since 2005, the numbers aren’t that great. As I said HD Radio is dying a slow death. Others platforms will indeed surpass or has surpassed HD Radio. How many people have cellphones with internet capability to get steaming services, that number has already surpassed HD Radio. HD Radio is a dead technology walking. At this point it’s only the radio nerds who are currently buying into this HD Radio nonsense, most people don’t even know HD Radio is in their new vehicles and are most likely streaming IHeart, Radio.com, Spotify, Pandora or listening to a podcasts. Meanwhile HD Radio is on life-support.
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HD has been the salvation for many specialized services, such as ethnic broadcasts. It also allows many FM stations to add an additional FM service with a translator repeating an HD signal.

HD also provides, in equipped cars, more visual content and information about music and programming.

Not a home run, agreed. But a base hit, yes.
 
And besides, with HD radio, like all radio, you can change stations while driving. Can't do that legally on your phone in many (most?) states.
 
Kevin said:
20% since 2005, the numbers aren’t that great. As I said HD Radio is dying a slow death. Others platforms will indeed surpass or has surpassed HD Radio. How many people have cellphones with internet capability to get steaming services, that number has already surpassed HD Radio. HD Radio is a dead technology walking. At this point it’s only the radio nerds who are currently buying into this HD Radio nonsense, most people don’t even know HD Radio is in their new vehicles and are most likely streaming IHeart, Radio.com, Spotify, Pandora or listening to a podcasts. Meanwhile HD Radio is on life-support.
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HD Radio was never intended to be a replacement for cell phones. That's just a silly argument. Back in the 90's, the audio world was going 'digital' and group owners of terrestrial radio didn't want to be left behind. Comparing any form of radio with modern 'smartphones' isn't an honest comparison, because phones do so much more than a radio can, or will ever do. That's why so many people are dependent on their phone. It's a communication device, very powerful computing tool, game console, and video/audio platform.

If your opinion was more objective, your statement about being on life support would include all radio, not just HD. HD is merely a sidecar of a much larger traditional platform. Streaming isn't going to kill HD, because streaming is so much bigger to a younger audience than HD is. When your average consumer listens to radio, they don't actively seek out HD or not. They just know when they press 'this' button, they hear that particular programming.
 
Ralph Martin said:
Anything's possible. I sure love that we still have the choice to embrace HD or not.

No sign of it dying in our community. We absolutely love HD Radio at our station. I think we'll keep it :)

Ralph
KVCB-LP/HD
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As well you should Ralph. I don't get this; HD radio is a failure-mindset. Why some people care that stations want to spend the money and make the effort to maintain their HD broadcasts is beyond me. Does it somehow adversely affect their ability to listen to the radio? Answer: no.

I helped out a classical music station on the West Coast a couple years ago, and their listeners were thrilled with HD, mostly because they had additional sub-formats of classical that they couldn't hear anywhere else. The HD1 was the same as the main channel, while they had children's programming on HD-2 and Opera on HD-3.
 
DavidEduardo said:
HD has been the salvation for many specialized services, such as ethnic broadcasts. It also allows many FM stations to add an additional FM service with a translator repeating an HD signal.

HD also provides, in equipped cars, more visual content and information about music and programming.

Not a home run, agreed. But a base hit, yes.
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More like getting on base via an error...
 
DavidEduardo said:
HD also provides, in equipped cars, more visual content and information about music and programming.
Click to expand...
This is why, in most non-rural markets with good cell coverage, FM stations will adopt or continue to run at least an HD1, and why some AMs with financial backing will go HD MA3; In order to maintain visual parity with other dashboard entertainment options, HD is a must for terrestrial radio. As the percentage of cars on the road with visual component entertainment systems continues to rise, this will become more apparent to non-HD station operators.
 
While some of you radio geeks are enjoying your glass of HD Radio kool-aid, I guess we will see just exactly where HD Radio will be in the next 10 years along with 5G and streaming. Meanwhile we can all guess where things are heading. Personally my money is on streaming and not on HD Radio.
 
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Kevin said:
While some of you radio geeks are enjoying your glass of HD Radio kool-aid, I guess we will see just exactly where HD Radio will be in the next 10 years along with 5G and streaming. Meanwhile we can all guess where things are heading. Personally my money is on streaming and not on HD Radio.
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And, when 5G gets going, we'll be there as well. We already have a busy streaming service on TuneIn Radio. We even Have VCSTV where we stream up to five channels of live pay-per-view video events in 1080p.

And... We have HD Radio with four channels.

Oh, and we have an analog FM as well. Mustn't forget our favorite analog service :)

We even have a 67kHz SCA channel and we send morse code messages using frequency shift keying .

None of this is mutually exclusive. Have fun. Innovate.

I'm looking forward to 5G.
 
Kevin said:
Meanwhile we can all guess where things are heading. Personally my money is on streaming and not on HD Radio.
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It doesn't have to be a one-or-the-other thing. What I can tell you is that the future of free streaming isn't very good. Every three years, the music industry gets an increase to their royalties, and that expense has begun to overtake the ad revenue. So as we move forward, free streaming will start to disappear. Music royalties for HD Radio are the same as broadcast radio. So it will remain free.
 
TheBigA said:
It doesn't have to be a one-or-the-other thing. What I can tell you is that the future of free streaming isn't very good. Every three years, the music industry gets an increase to their royalties, and that expense has begun to overtake the ad revenue. So as we move forward, free streaming will start to disappear. Music royalties for HD Radio are the same as broadcast radio. So it will remain free.
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Free is not a sure thing for HD 2’s and 3’s, what if the big broadcasters want to start charging for HD 2’s and 3’s. There is a conditional access for HD Radio and they can charge as long as they have one free over-the-air channel. Over-the-air television will have the same deal with the new generation of television ATSC 3.0, let’s face it money may not really be the object to most people when it comes to entertainment. Conditional access could make money for IHeart and all the other big broadcasters for radio and can make big bucks for the big 4 television networks as well.
 
TheBigA said:
Not gonna happen. Why would anyone add a charge for something you say is dead?
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What if radio has to one day pay for music royalties, what better way but to move all the music to a conditional access channel. And a side note, I said HD Radio is dying a slow death it’s not dead yet.
 
Kevin said:
Over-the-air television will have the same deal with the new generation of television ATSC 3.0, let’s face it money may not really be the object to most people when it comes to entertainment. C
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Okay now you're just flailing around trying to make a point that doesn't exist. Assuming ATSC 3.0 gets traction, it won't be subscription. The principals are betting on geotargeted and interactive spots, not a subscription model. And no; the entertainment industry is all about money. That's why its an industry.
 
TheBigA said:
Radio DOES pay for music royalties. Just not as much as digital services pay.
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Bingo, so royalties are not a big thing streaming or for regular radio and if streaming has to pay more in three years, so what the money will always be there especially when more people are streaming and paying for their service. Again money truly is no object to most for entertainment.
 
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