HD Radio Thoughts....

[jras20]

They got those Transmitters fixed to where they wont freeze and shut off right? I noticed last year KMLR shut off when it got below freezing, but they arnt in HD yet.

 

[jhardin1]

Like anything though, it works best outside. SR even requires that you have your antenna mounted outside. I have my antenna 20' up, It pulls in pretty decent most of the time. I like it so far those HD-2 channels fills in some of the gaps. Wish Cox would start spliting some channels now.

As long as you have to come up with contraptions to get a HD signal, HD is going nowhere with the exception of a few radio geeks. Kinda like CB'ers in the late 70's.

...and AM stereo, and quadrophonic, and betamax tapes, and digital compact casettes, and mini disks and the Phillips CDi, laserdiscs, 8 tracks...you get the point. XM may sound like crap, but has a whole lot more to offer than HD radio will ever have at the expense that is equavillant to buying a CD at Barns and Noble each month.
P.S. for the price of HD radios, I think the "radio geeks" would rather invest in a Playstation 3 or Wii. HD radio will be as useful as a quadraphonic reciever with a CD-4 modulator attached, as well as a GM AM stereo car stereo in an 1987 surburban.

With the wireless companies partnering with digital video companies to multicast digital video and audio to a phone near you soon, with cities setting up city-wide WiFi networks and 4G wireless networks - example Sprint's WiMAX - being tested, HD radio is going up against more and probably better choices. Consumers have a set expectation that all they have to do is buy a radio and turn it on and get a signal. Until HD radio can fullfill that expectation it will only be for the early adopters. Most people didn't even think about FM being in 'stereo' all they cared about is it had better sound than AM. I know I was shocked that I couldn't get a HD radio signal without a good ant. I had hopes of an HDRadio walkman type radio, or HDRadio as part of Ipod type device or maybe in a cell phone, but HDRadio can't even deliver a steady signal , how can it ever become portable ?

 

[TheRover]

Yeah, Austin needs to get moving on updating to HD, only Clear channel & Bobfm are the only ones that are multicasting right now here is expose to be the list of all of them: The only ones that are in HD is KKMJ, KHFI, KVET, KASE, KPEZ, KBPA, KFMK Nobody else is in HD yet.
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Austin, TX KDHT 93.3 93.3-1 CHR/Rhythmic 93.3-2 Urban - Old School Hip Hop
Austin, TX KLBJ 93.7 93.7-1 Classic Rock 93.7-2 Blues
Austin, TX KAMX 94.7 94.7-1 AC/Hot 94.7-2 Oldies - All 80's
Austin, TX KKMJ 95.5 95.5-1 AC 95.5-2 Oldies - 60's and 70's
Austin, TX KHFI 96.7 96.7-1 CHR/POP 96.7-2 CHR - All New
Austin, TX KVET 98.1 98.1-1 Country 98.1-2 Country - Rock'n Country
Austin, TX KASE 100.7 100.7-1 Country 100.7-2 Country - All New
Austin, TX KROX 101.5 101.5-1 Alternative Rock 101.5-2 Rock - Active
Austin, TX KPEZ 102.3 102.3-1 Christian AC 102.3-2 Religious - Christian CHR
Austin, TX KBPA 103.5 103.5-1 Adult Hits (Variety) 103.5-2 Jazz - Smooth Jazz
Austin, TX KXBT 104.3 104.3-1 CHR/Rhythmic 104.3-2 Urban - Urban AC
Austin, TX KFMK 105.9 105.9-1 Rhythmic Oldies 105.9-2 Spanish - Spanish Oldies
Austin, TX KGSR 107.1 107.1-1 Triple A 107.1-2 Rock - Deep Rock Tracks
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So come on people whats the hold up?
San antonio only has 3 extra HD stations

jras, the list you quoted above from the HD Radio website is neither up to date or reliable. The HD Radio list is confusing, mixing on-air HD staions with proposed HD stations . . . .


The ibiquity website has a more up to date list, although, no list is always completely up to date. http://www.ibiquity.com/hd_radio/hdradio_find_a_station/TX/StnMarket#stationlist

Austin, TX 100.7 KASE-HD1 FM Country Clear Channel Radio
Austin, TX 100.7-2 KASE-HD2 FM Country - All New Clear Channel Radio

Austin, TX 103.5 KBPA-HD1 FM Clsc Hits Emmis
Austin, TX 103.5-2 KBPA-HD2 FM Smooth Jazz Emmis

Austin, TX 105.9 KFMK-HD1 FM Rhymc/Oldes Clear Channel Radio
Austin, TX 105.9-2 KFMK-HD2 FM Spanish Oldies Clear Channel Radio

Austin, TX 96.7 KHFI-HD1 FM Top 40 Clear Channel Radio
Austin, TX 96.7-2 KHFI-HD2 FM CHR - All New Clear Channel Radio

Austin, TX 107.7 KINV-HD1 FM Span/Oldes Univision Radio
Austin, TX 107.7-2 KINV-HD2 FM Tejano Univision Radio

Austin, TX 95.5 KKMJ-HD1 FM Christmas CBS Radio

Austin, TX 102.3 KPEZ-HD1 FM Christmas Clear Channel Radio
Austin, TX 102.3-2 KPEZ-HD2 FM Christian CHR Clear Channel Radio

Austin, TX 90.5 KUT-HD1 FM Variety University of Texas
Austin, TX 90.5-2 KUT-HD2 FM BBC News University of Texas
Austin, TX 90.5-3 KUT-HD3 FM KUT-FM University of Texas *

Austin, TX 1300 KVET-HD AM Sprts/Talk Clear Channel Radio

Austin, TX 98.1 KVET-HD1 FM Country Clear Channel Radio
Austin, TX 98.1-2 KVET-HD2 FM Rock'n Country Clear Channel Radio

 

[daypart]

Heard a Radio Shack commercial hawking HD radios on KQXT this morning. The portable radio being touted was on sale for $174. I'm an adventurous, tech-savvy consumer with an above-average amount of disposable income and I won't pay that much for access to another handful of radio stations.

That price point is way too high to expect any serious growth in HD radio yet.

 

[sdh483]

I went to a radioshack to test out their HD radio. Surprisingly, the salesmen knew about it and had an antenna set up properly. So here's what I heard: KJ97 and the HD2 format of Texas Country that sounds better than the OUtlaw, Mix 96.1 which I didn't care about...their HD2 format sounded like crap though, awful processing. 99.5 KISS sounded pretty good in HD with little delay from analog to digital. KONO sounded great. Couldn't get Soft Rock for some reason, but I've been having problems with their reception anyways so I was upset I didn't get to hear the smooth jazz on hd2. Magic sounded like crap in HD...the highs were real disorted and there was a very long delay. On the AM side, I was only able to pick up KTSA in HD which is a nigh and day difference from analong AM. I though The Beat, Jack, Power were in HD...did they turn off 106.7's HD when they flipped formats?

Because of the limited stations and HD2 formats, I would not recommend buying an HD radio if you live in an area of San Antonio where you can't pick up Austin or Houston HD stations. Unlike the new bridges that will connect 281 and loop 410, HD radio in San ANtonio is usless. But I might buy an HD radio....when I go to Houston. I just still can't figure out why a smaller city (Austin) has such better stations period and more HD2 formats than SA

 

[jras20]

The only HD-2 stations in Austin right now are the Clear channel & BobFM all the rest are in anlog. Power is still in HD and sounds good in HD. KBBT still needs work on though, the HD signal is a lot more quiet than the analog signal is. I would love to see all the stations launch HD-2's and soon to be HD-3's. I think HD is a great idea. I still really like the analog also. Houston only has 5 more HD-2 channels so far. Just like Austin... Kvets Rockin country is a really good channel.