Heard another idiotic HD commercial on WZLX yesterday

[Jimmy128]

Two years later.... HD radio is alive and well. ;D

 

[Deleted User]

albeit on life support and in a coma with no brain activity

Until the FCC mandates it for "type acceptance" or Ibiquity lets manufacturers have the technology without license fees, it is not ever going to be anything more than it is now.

 

[JIBGUY]

Greed on ALL ends..... hefty fees paid by manufacturers, even heftier fees paid by radio stations. Fees on all ends causes retardation of acceptance. A majority of stations say "no way to spending money on this turkey".

 

[Jimmy128]

Still, the programming is far superior to traditional radio. For example WZLX HD2 "Radio Mojo" is a great station far superior to WZLX. Just one example.
Also, I think the big corporations are going to hang on to this resource because they are competing with internet radio, satteliete radio, iPods, Youtube.
If anything is dying it's the AM radio band. WBZ, WEEI, and WXKS-AM are now all simulcast on HD2/3.

 

[Deleted User]

Luckily most of the HD's are available on a stream, so I don't need a tuner in my cars, I can stream off my Droid X.

I still prefer my XM radio, although I dropped 2 subscriptions and went to streaming for my listening, for 3 bucks a month I like it better than my other options including HD

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

I think the big corporations are going to hang on to this resource because they are competing with internet radio, satteliete radio, iPods, Youtube.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but quantity is no substitute for quality. The only reason radio is currently competing with the Internet, satellite radio, etc., etc., etc. is because they're firing all their creative people and expecting whoever remains to cover ten jobs, all in the name of profits...a great short-term fix that doesn't consider what listeners want or have a right to expect.

For all but a handful of big corporations, HD is a dead issue. Its problems are endemic to its design and to the marketplace it finds itself in, so they will not be remedied by time or by further attempts to fix its technical shortcomings. It causes ruinous interference on the AM band, which effectively rules out what might have been AM's last hope to avoid a slow death. On FM it will never be a serious contender in an age where technical advances in other media, particularly Internet radio, have already made it obsolete and irrelevant. Its subchannels are mostly programmed with formats that were, in an earlier age, either kicked off of main channels or never even tried because they would not turn a profit, and placing them on HD2s or HD3s isn't going to magically turn that around. Its audio quality improvement is similarly irrelevant when bit-rate-compressed MP3s listened to through ear buds are the listening medium of the moment.

The only thing that continues to amaze about HD is why large corporations, with their steady staring eye on the bottom line, continue to support a technology which has earned them nothing in nine years...no ROI, no measurable listenership, no advertiser support, but an enormous outlay in license fees and transmitting infrastructure. This thing should have been declared DOA five years ago.

 

[Manic_Monkey]

I think the big corporations are going to hang on to this resource because they are competing with internet radio, satteliete radio, iPods, Youtube.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but quantity is no substitute for quality.

Yeah its too bad there are actually some decent HD radio stations in Boston that don't seem to get the love that they deserve from their corporate overlords.

Seriously CBS? You only acknowledge ratings via your app? What is the point of buying an HD radio then?

 

[pqgeorge]

Greed on ALL ends..... hefty fees paid by manufacturers, even heftier fees paid by radio stations. Fees on all ends causes retardation of acceptance. A majority of stations say "no way to spending money on this turkey".

IBOC was a "dog" from the get go. The FMeXtra version of DAB would have been much more acceptable and easy to use for both broadcasters and end users. It would have not required another transmitter and would have used the SCA spectrum that ALL FM stations already have. The coverage would have been equal to that of FM Stereo. The FMeXtra version would also have multicasting capabilities just like IBOC claims to do. The nice thing about it was it was a good neighbor and did not slam the adjacent channels. But, it is what it is.

And....here we are.

 

[pqgeorge]

Two years later.... HD radio is alive and well. ;D

Could have fooled me................ ;D

 

[Jimmy128]

Two years later.... HD radio is alive and well. ;D

Could have fooled me................ ;D

Still here.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Still, the programming is far superior to traditional radio. For example WZLX HD2 "Radio Mojo" is a great station far superior to WZLX.

You like "Radio Mojo", and I like "Radio Mojo", but the masses would not give an all-blues (and blues-rock) station competitive ratings if it was on analog radio against mainstream hit formats. It's a specialty genre.

You've got some of the "I like it, so everyone else should like it" syndrome that I often see in these discussions.

I was hopeful about HD radio subchannels a few years ago and encouraged about the specialty programming, but the marketing of the mode has been so poor on both the broadcasting and manufacturing/retail ends that there are already signs that it's in a decline that it that probably can't crawl back from.

Both Radio Shack and Best Buy have been selling all HD radio receivers and tuners at deep close-out discounts for the past few months, in some cases more than 50% off the original prices. Then, the models disappear from the shelves. (The only one that seems to be staying at its original price is the Insignia personal portable). Even the specialty store You-Do-It Electronics in Needham has fewer HD radio models for sale than they did a few years ago.

I still enjoy listening to "Radio Mojo", "WBCN Free Form Rock", "Nothin' But The '70s" and others on my HD radios, and my mom loves listening to classical on WGBH HD2 on the HD radio I got her because she can't get WCRB from Andover well where she lives, but I have a feeling that, unfortunately, HD radio is going the way of AM Stereo (and I still have radios for that too).

 

[Jimmy128]

I understand fully what you're saying. I realize that "Radio Mojo" is a niche format. And I don't expect everybody to like it. Still, it's nice to here some good music without annoying commercials and DJ's and a station with an enormous play list and not repetitious. For now anyway it seems that CBS and the other biggies can afford to do this. Some people don't want to hear mindless chatter and the same few songs over and over. I just don't understand the hostility towards it.

 

[JIBGUY]

IBOC was a "dog" from the get go.

Hey, that's an insult to Mans' Best Friend.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Yeah its too bad there are actually some decent HD radio stations in Boston that don't seem to get the love that they deserve from their corporate overlords.

What kind of "love" are they supposed to get with no measurable audience and no advertisers? A full-blown format with air personalities, production and promotions? Whose gonna pay for that?

Seriously CBS? You only acknowledge ratings via your app? What is the point of buying an HD radio then?

Since HD secondary channels get no measurable ratings, what exactly do they have to acknowlege?

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Still here.

I hope you enjoy your delusions. With the number of HD stations steadily dwindling on both bands, receivers all but unavailable and gross indifference from the listening public, HD is terminal and on life support. Once the major groups get it through their thick heads that this turkey won't fly and no amount of money thrown at it will make it fly, turn it over...it's done.

 

[Jimmy128]

I'm enjoying my delusions just fine and may you enjoy yours. A lot of people listen to radio at home or at work on the internet and if, for example, I'm listening to a station in Seattle or Pittsburgh or wherever, it dosen't matter whether the station is HD or HD2/3. It's like TV. At one time all we had were channels 2,4,5,7,25,38,44,56,68. But now we have hundreds of channels. Same with radio. It's a whole new ball game.

 

[CTListener]

Still here.

I hope you enjoy your delusions. With the number of HD stations steadily dwindling on both bands, receivers all but unavailable and gross indifference from the listening public, HD is terminal and on life support. Once the major groups get it through their thick heads that this turkey won't fly and no amount of money thrown at it will make it fly, turn it over...it's done.

Old tech can be supported for a surprisingly long time. Remember WebTV? It was introduced in 1996 and two or three years later was sold to Microsoft, which rebranded it MSN TV. There have been no new set-top boxes made for the service since 2003, yet Microsoft continues to support MSN TV for the 100,000 to 200,000 diehards still using it. Of course, those diehards are paying Microsoft $22 a month to send email and crawl around a tiny patch of the Internet at 56 kbps, as opposed to the 100,000 to 200,000 people who may be listening to HD and paying nothing for it.

 

[JIBGUY]

Hey, what happened to that guy "Don Juannn" who says we're all "HD Haterzzz" ?

 

[DavidZ]

What ever happened to RapKing? ;D

 

[Manic_Monkey]

Yeah its too bad there are actually some decent HD radio stations in Boston that don't seem to get the love that they deserve from their corporate overlords.

What kind of "love" are they supposed to get with no measurable audience and no advertisers? A full-blown format with air personalities, production and promotions? Whose gonna pay for that?

Exactly. If HD radio is the future of terrestrial radio but companies aren't even interested in making good HD stations then what is the point of the consumer buying one?