HD Radio...a listener's perspective

[Ai4i]

Look @ different models.
My JVC allows me to select a subchannel to preset as does my Radiosophy @ home.
As for AM presets, don't expect to find more than six of them on any car deck.

 

[Carmine5]

Now here's a company who puts its money where its mouth is. Antennas Direct, which has been selling about 100,000 TV antennas a month, recently went on the road to give away and help install antennas so viewers can once again experience the pleasures and cost saving of watching terrestrial television, this time in glorious digital. They not only believe in their product but in the future of OTA DTV.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/94646

Is there a lesson for the backers of HD Radio here? Of course. If these people truly believed in the future of HDR then they would be putting their money where there mouth is and getting free HD Radios out to the public as station promotional give-a-ways as well as aggressive TV and print campaigns. Instead we see money spent on tepid radio ad campaigns, over-charging broadcasters for license fees and selling little red radios to industry insiders.

This is a no-guts approach to selling HD Radio and is only one more reason why this technology will slowly fade into broadcasting history.

c5

 

[kenglish]

While they're (we're) at it, how about some sort of campaign to get antennas in homes, apartments/condos, and office buildings?

TV people seem to have stepped back and allowed Cable and satellite to take away our OTA viewers, but I don't see any chance of "FM Must-Carry" in the future, much less "HD Radio Must-Carry". A decent MATV system can be put together for a four-plex apartment building for a few hundred dollars. An MATV system for a larger facility can be done for a similar "per unit" cost.

Think of all those balconies that could be used for something besides antenna (and dish) farms.

 

[hubcity]

If these people truly believed in the future of HDR then they would be putting their money where there mouth is and getting free HD Radios out to the public as station promotional give-a-ways as well as aggressive TV and print campaigns.

In the old days of Windows computing, back when most people didn't have Internet access (nor did they even really understand that a modem was a pretty cool thing to have) there was a term for the majority of CD-ROM software compilations full of otherwise useless shareware. The called them "shovelware" because the producers didn't really care about the quality of the stuff they were selling, they just cared that there was a lot of it.

I feel the same way about most of what's being offered on HD2/HD3 stations - generally, they're a repurposing of stuff that's not generally well-thought-out. One HD2 in my area hasn't even bothered with decent automation software - lots of dead air between the end of a song and the start of an ID, because that's how the track file came out when they ripped it off the CD.

And I think it's true that most HD broadcasters saw no need to do anything really special on their HD2/HD3s, because they figured nobody'd be listening - and then look at the promotion of people actually getting HD radios as a bit of a potential embarrassment.

(Actually, modems are kind of a good analogue to HD radios. When they were first offered, they were a necessary and costly expense for the few people that needed them, and they didn't always exactly work at the speed mentioned on the box, but soon everybody HAD TO HAVE one...and what drove that? Content.)

In short, I don't think very many people are programming an HD2 with the level of excitement they'd put into the station if it were on FM. If the broadcasters can't be bothered to get excited, imagine how the public looks at it (if they can be bothered to look at all.)

By the way, I wouldn't confuse "excitement" with "effort" here. HD2's don't make money, and they won't until there's a big enough audience to drive direct contributions or ratings book appearances. But there won't be any of that until there are excited people programming them.

 

[Tom Wells]

Tried listening to all the remaining AM HDs in Chicago this morning when I went to the grocery store.
Not one decoded or made any indication that it was getting any HD on 670 780 or 1000.
And the analog sure sounds awful on the Kenwood, WLS sounded like a 250watt county seat daytimer from two counties over on a dreary winter day.

 

[TheRover]

Look @ different models.
My JVC allows me to select a subchannel to preset as does my Radiosophy @ home.
As for AM presets, don't expect to find more than six of them on any car deck.

I checked with Crutchfield and they said they did have any HD Car radios with 12 AM presets. There is a Sony Car Radio without HD that does have 12 AM presets.
That will probably be the next radio for the car, when the time comes. I have way more need and use for 12 AM presets, than I do for 18 FM presets !

You've got AMs that re daytime only and low power at night AMs, so, yes, for a very practical reason, I need at least 12 AM presets! ;D