Chuck said:
I was in Dallas today, a city that is a "hotbed' of HD activity. There are a lot of HD stations on the air.
While in town, I visited the Fry's store on East Northwest Highway. They had three HD radios on display in the "table radio" area. I'm sure there were others in "car stereos" and probably a few more scattered around the store. Fry's is not the most organized store I've ever visited. The cheapest HD radio I saw was $199. They went up to $599 for the Polk Audio version. By contrast, across the aisle from the HD radios was a display of Internet Radios. There were ten of them from a variety of manufacturers. The cheapest was a clock radio (which also had AM-FM) for $79.95. Most were it the $150 range. The most expensive one I saw, a Sangean, was $249.00, if I recall correctly.
This was by no means an accurate survey. As a visitor who was shopping for something completely different, I may have missed something. But to the casual observer, it appears to me that Internet Radio is winning the battle for digital radio. Stores tend to stock items that sell well.
I know for a fact that Internet listenership to my own station is up about 50% in the last six months. What has caused that remains a mystery, but off hand, I'd guess that the public is accepting the idea of Internet Radio.
This compares with what I have found at my local Best Buy store, a total of
four HD Radio products.
As I see it, it's a perfect storm of factors that have worked against HD Radio, beginning with the name. There is so much confusion surrounding HD; HDTV, HDMI, XMHD, HD audio, etc. Rather than the halo effect that iBiquity was hoping for, there is confusion, not to mention the added confusion of digital radio being equated with satellite radio. But people have no problem understanding the concept of internet radio and how to get it.
Second you have CE manufacturers who are giving, at best, tepid support for HD Radio. Of the 18 models of receivers that Yamaha makes, only four have HD Radio. However nearly all of them offer either LAN or Bluetooth connectivity, making it a breeze to connect a PC, iPhone or iPod Touch or similar device to, what is essentially, an entertainment center. Again, this makes it easy to listen to internet radio. And, of course, nearly everyone has a PC or pocket PC-type device so there is nothing more to buy (like an HD tuner).
Then you have the technical problems associated with HD Radio, namely poor or inconsistent reception.
Finally you have the radio industry itself which has, as Jerry points out, for the most part abandoned those who still listen to radio particularly boomers and older. Fortunately for us boomers, we're just tech savvy enough to log onto internet radio and indulge in any format we want, including formats of the past that have been kicked to the curb by corporate commercial radio and rarely heard on public radio.
So I would say it is a combination of neglect, tech problems, bad timing and confusion that are dooming HD Radio to the bin of forgotten technology. RIP.
C5
