HD Radio = Poor Man's Satellite Radio?

[scanman1]

And "your radio, your way" means never discovering ANY new music by accident again...never being surprised by what you hear, or what you like that never thought of...

"MyFM comes to a Sprint phone near you"

"In other words, as a consumer, which do you prefer: 'One size fits all" or "my size fits me'? There is an answer to this question, of course, and regular readers of this blog know what it is."

Reader comments:

"Here it comes, Mark...the wave of the future. And not only is this a challenge to radio's TSL, but in a study we'll be releasing in June, Mobile Pandora also is preferred by a significant portion of 18-34 year old Pandora users over their MP3 players. Why? Pandora provides 'surprise' and 'new music discovery.'"

Dave Van dyke
Bridge Ratings

http://www.hear2.com/2007/05/myfm_comes_to_a.html#comments

WRONG ! From Dave Van dyke, himself ! As far as, HD Radio - it's over ! HD radios are not selling, there are serious issues with in-dash HD Radio (Doppler Effect and parallel analog/digital audio processing), HD chipsets that will never make it into iPod-type devices and cell phones (power constraints, expense, poor reception, and with WiMax coming) ! It's over - this straw, just broke the camel's back !

Pandora is great and all, but, you've gotta pay extra to receive it on a mobile phone (on top of the monthly fees for the calls). HD radio provides all of it's awesome sounding digital entertainment for free (just like its analog counterpart) 8)

 

[scanman1]

Uh...the example wasn't about a tornado hitting a broadcasting tower. It was about it hitting YOU, and you having no clue your death was approaching, because you were listening to...whatever...rather than the local radio station that was telling you to TAKE COVER.

Odds of a tornado hitting a radio tower=pretty good in some parts of the country.

Odds of it hitting EVERY radio tower too soon to save lives=virtually non-existant.

Even if the station broadcasting the weather reports loses it's tower, it would have sent out the warning BEFORE THE TOWER WENT DOWN! If there's no warning until the storm IS ON TOP OF YOU, what good would a weather forecast be anyhow?

Uh...the problem was a software glitch that temporarily shut down XM radio. A software glitch or a natural disaster, the end result is the same, namely, the disruption of a broadcast which is what we're talking about here.

You people crack me up with your gloating over any misfortune experienced by satellite radio when terrestrial radio is equally vulnerable. In fact, with the advent of HD-R another layer of vulnerability has been added since HD-R equipment can also be affected by software glitches.

Make no mistake, I'm no fan of XM or Sirius. These two companies have played fast and loose with FCC rules and have gotten away with it. But terrestrial broadcasting can fail and has done so, especially in times of an emergency.

db

XM wasn't down completely, the West satellite still functioned just fine. All I had to do to get flawless reception was slightly re-aim my antenna to the southwest.

I agree though, all forms of broadcast are susceptable to breakdowns at one point or another, and that's why it's nice to have all the choices we have. 8)

 

[Rocco]

Someone was mentioning that XM was off-the-air, and I just want to mention that over the weekend I had XM installed in my pickup truck, and the signal is coming in great!

 

[MotoMuzak]

CQ CQ Mike Walker, reality check:

"And 'your radio, your way' means never discovering ANY new music by accident again...never being surprised by what you hear, or what you like that never thought of."

Huh. Didn't ever come to think of that.

So I suppose, then, that statement invalidates borrowing recordings from friends, downloading music from whomever (legality will remain ambiguous here, it's merely a suggestion), buying a new CD at the store then arranging it into a file in your Apple I-Pod, or--my God how much bigger a sin can we have--buying records/CDs used from someone.....and listeining to all the songs, forgotten, obscure, whatever--between all the hits??

So playing a record all the way through (horror of horrors) is actually a practise nobody in the world engages in, that people only buy recordings for one or two songs on the whole medium in the vain hope that they might discover a few obscure songs they might like?

(The Bangles' "Following" and Lighthouse Family's song "High" are two that stick out in my mind that definately fall into this category. And both have seemingly been long rebuffed by the general USA populous as either being dull or generally forgettable. And you know where I discovered both? Surprise---LP record [former] and CD [latter]!!)

So I guess every time I have ever walked into a store, restaurant etc. and heard playing on someone's Muzak/DMX/AEI/whatever they opt to play, a song I never heard before by an artist I had likely never heard of before but nonetheless as chances would have it LIKED, that it must have just been my imagination working too hard then??

So when my un-named co-worker/best friend brings her little audio-player-gizmo to work and plugs it into the line-in on the radio there, and another un-named co-worker comments to her how much s/he likes the song, s/he has never heard it, where can s/he buy the record etc. that it actually never even happened?

Wow. Intriguing.

--------------------------------------------------------
"Never giggling at a stupid stunt your "friend" on the air pulled."

That's a moot point, aside from one longtime friend/colleague (he works as a volunteer for Oregon Public Broadcasting's radio reading service, and happens to be a pretty well-known poet/playwright, has published a couple of books of his poems and plays but for sake of common decency I won't mention his name here) can't say I have any friends on air. Not because I prefer programming my own stuff but because I don't really know anybody on-air..............

--------------------------------------------------------

And perhaps most ridiculous:

"And perhaps most important, NEVER HEARING ABOUT THE FREAKING FUNNEL CLOUD THAT'S GOING TO SWALLOW YOU WHOLE JUST OVER THE COUNTY LINE!
..........................
But nevermind all that. Continue to enjoy "your radio, your way"...for the remaining 17 minutes and 29 seconds of your life. Make that fourteen minutes, 22 seconds. Six minutes fifteen seconds. Three minutes, two seconds. One minute, sixteen seconds. Ten seconds. OH SHI# (WHOOSH!)"

Absolutely laughable. Have you ever just happened to stop and think (albeit unlikely given your testimony presented herein) about one certain reality, THAT DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL RADIO TRANSMITTERS CAN BE AFFECTED/DESTROYED IN THE SAME WAYS BY THAT FREAKING FUNNEL CLOUD OR OTHER INCLEMENT WEATHER CONDITIONS AS ANALOGUE TRANSMITTERS CAN?

So your little IBAC transmitter is just as likely to "have a cow" as the standard analogues are come that nice big-old funnel cloud.

 

[PocketRadio]

Someone was mentioning that XM was off-the-air, and I just want to mention that over the weekend I had XM installed in my pickup truck, and the signal is coming in great!

And, I just wanted to mention that we bought a new 2007 Ford Fusion today, and it came with a $200 Sirius Satellite Radio option (not, the $500 in-dash HD Radio option that is only available with a few other manufacturers) and a free 6 month trial - I was laughing all the way home, with all the UNCENSORED programming. Good luck, HD Radio !

 

[davideduardo]

And, I just wanted to mention that we bought a new 2007 Ford Fusion today, and it came with a $200 Sirius Satellite Radio option (not, the $500 in-dash HD Radio option that is only available with a few other manufacturers) and a free 6 month trial - I was laughing all the way home, with all the UNCENSORED programming. Good luck, HD Radio !

I got HD free in my new car, and I will not have to pay another cent now, or in 6 months.

The only people who care about "uncensored" programming are those who want to hear the F-word in the punch line of every joke.

 

[PocketRadio]

And, I just wanted to mention that we bought a new 2007 Ford Fusion today, and it came with a $200 Sirius Satellite Radio option (not, the $500 in-dash HD Radio option that is only available with a few other manufacturers) and a free 6 month trial - I was laughing all the way home, with all the UNCENSORED programming. Good luck, HD Radio !

I got HD free in my new car, and I will not have to pay another cent now, or in 6 months.

The only people who care about "uncensored" programming are those who want to hear the F-word in the punch line of every joke.

Yea, no wonder consumers are rushing to buy expensive HD radios, to get more of the same bland, repetitve programming, as on the main analog channels. Remember, 30 to 50 percent of new cars will have Satellite Radio, as standard/optional equipment, within two years - the Big 3 have rejected HD Radio.