High Def Radio Gets A Boost From Automakers.

[Mark Giardina]

http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news...ition-radio-gets-a-boost-from-automakers?lite

Considering the opinions of some people regarding HD radio I thought this article would be of interest.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Yeah, Sirius/XM is shaking in their boots. The number of stations still broadcasting in HD continues to drop. If it worked anywhere nearly as well in reality as it does in theory, maybe it would matter. The point is moot because it doesn't work as advertised, and it does interfere with existing stations.

 

[rdcuffpa1]

Yeah, Sirius/XM is shaking in their boots. The number of stations still broadcasting in HD continues to drop. If it worked anywhere nearly as well in reality as it does in theory, maybe it would matter. The point is moot because it doesn't work as advertised, and it does interfere with existing stations.

Besides, in a couple years we'll either have our iPhones directly plugged into our car stereos (with or without Bluetooth), or we'll have streaming-capable car stereos.

I believe we'll look at both Sirius/XM and HD as interesting relics in 10 years, probably less...

Richard in that other Allentown

 

[chas108]

I see they didn't mention GM is finally dipping their toe in the HD waters. Ford's embraced HD for several years now.

When GM and Toyota make it standard it'll turn the corner. I haven't decided yet if the extra stations are a moot point. You need some compelling programming - and time for that programming to find an audience. The extra cash just isn't there they way it was 45 years ago when compelling programming began to launch FM.

My station installed a new solid-state transmitter w/a ten-fold boost in HD power and it sounds great.

I just think it's still early in the HD game.

 

[Savage]

I'm assuming you're in the Western NY-Rochester-Buffalo market, where the terrain is essentially flat. This represents a best-case scenario for HD coverage, which is still problematic at 10% - it's less than the analog and FAR less than the analog where the terrain is rugged, as in Philly or Pittsburgh or SanFran. Then there are the interference, maintenance and cost issues.

I know you think the digital sounds great, and I'm sure it does. But you and I are radio professionals. Civilians can't tell the difference between the analog and digital signals.

The best evidence strongly suggests that while more cars have HD, owners are driving around with the digital disabled where possible to resolve reception problems. New car owners are annoyed by mode-hopping and muting and just want to hear their favorite programming - they don't give a rip whether its in digital or analog. All things considered I will respectfully dissent from your sentiment about HD "turning the corner" now or ever.

 

[SirRoxalot]

What I suspect is on the horizon is a push to take radio in the same digital direction as TV. Spectrum is a hot commodity. The FCC - and others - would love to reduce the spectrum footprint of broadcast radio by taking it to digital instead of analog. The public - and their millions of "inefficient antique" receivers be damned. They'll want you to buy a "converter", or a new radio to recieve the "new and improved" digital radio. The big boys will, in effect, get more stations, and the little guys will either come up with the money to convert, or die. "Unused" bandwidth will be sold off to the highest bidder. Digital streaming, in fact, could carry coding that would allow the end user to control content, allowing the FCC to abdicate any responsibility for policing obscenity.

It will all be sold as a way to "save" radio.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

A friend of a friend last year bought a new car, HD equipped. Having a digital dashboard, it's also equipped with a USB port. Anybody want to venture a guess as to how much attention the HD radio gets? About an inch above squat. I asked the owner, who travels extensively, how he liked HD. He said he tried the HD early on, but it was a pain to tune, the digital signal was inconsistent and the programming, in his words, "was the same ol' stuff." Where's those "hundreds of new stations" the commercials spoke of years ago. Whats that? Oh, "hundreds of NEWS stations." Well, ain't none of that, either. So, having about 500+ songs on his guypod, what does this fellow listen to? Let's just say the USB port gets a workout. When he does listen to OTA radio, he thinks the RF delivered signal does just fine when he wants news and sports on AM or FM. Every so often he listens to music on FM. Except for lamenting "the lack of variety" (sorry, I didn't conduct a focus group with the man) he thinks it's just fine. Just one guy, but he has his reasons.

 

[Nick Gerard]

JPB presents a solid real-world scenario of how Mr. Average Listener of Radio and Music is likely to interact with the media available to him.

I once believed there was hope for HD radio, but that was just before online radio took hold. Today, anything HD radio could program could also be done online, and to an audience better-equipped to hear it.

That said, there is an HD-2 radio station I listen to everyday. It is WBFO HD2 which I listen to at my desk when I'm working. The format is called JazzWorks (syndicated from somewhere), plays a nice blend of mainstream jazz and is hosted. The combination of music and air personalities is great! I hear it on my computer, some distance away from the WBFO coverage area.

So, am I listening to an HD-2 station or an online stream?

As the consultant honchos often say, content is everything and the platform doesn't matter.

Nick Seneca

 

[Savage]

I don't know about that, Rox. While there is a little dorking around with AM in all-digital mode going on, I don't see the push for digital radio you do. Sure, the Commission is a Box Of Greed when it comes to selling spectrum, but AM and FM combined don't represent enough bandwidth for the effort to be worthwhile. The AM band is too low in frequency to be of use for any digital application; the propagation sucks for that purpose. And there's been all this political and fiscal capital blown on HD, key to which is the analog backwards compatibility (such as it is, which isn't much.)

If all of FM were to convert to all-digital, where would the financial benefit be to the Commission? No spectrum to grab and sell there. AM won't work in digital and the whole band is a tiny fragment of spectrum anyway, so no dough there.

Digital radio has been a resounding failure in Europe and Canada. I think it's a non-starter.

 

[NXEA]

Digital radio has been a resounding failure in Europe and Canada. I think it's a non-starter.

Yes: In Canada DAB failed, but you are totally wrong about Europe. In just the UK alone (just for the quarter Apr/May/Jun 2012):

DAB reached 28.8% of the UK population
DAB garnered a 20.1% share of listening
People listened to 208 million hours of DAB programming (an increase of 5 million hours compared to the previous three months)

and in August 2012 41.7% of the UK population owned a DAB radio.

These figures are for DAB radio listening and do not include online listening or listening on smartphones.

Mainland Europe has already upgraded to DAB II.

As far as your comment on AM and digital radio: check out DRM (Digital Radio Mondaile) http://www.drm.org/ There are loads of AM stations using it and the BBC is testing it on 1296AM on a station in Britain.

 

[TheBigA]

The FCC - and others - would love to reduce the spectrum footprint of broadcast radio by taking it to digital instead of analog.

I'd love to see a quote from someone on that. What the FCC has said over and over, with the support of Congress, is that there will be no digital mandate for radio as there was with TV. None. Period. And as Savage has said, the AM & FM spectrum isn't worth the cost of the change, plus it opens up a huge hornet's nest about who gets what in the new spectrum. Couple that with the fact that the public will never buy new radios, as proven with HD radio.

 

[Savage]

It's taken DAB more than a decade to achieve the audience levels in Europe you claim, and England keeps pushing back the deadline for all-digital because nobody's buying the radios. DRM would require new spectrum to replace analog AM, and we all know that's not going to happen. In the US, "digital radio" is going to mean: IBOC. For worse, or....worser.

And if you bet all-digital HD on AM is the band's future, don't bet a lot on it. WFED in Washington with $100 mil + annual revenues, WFAN/NYC with something like $45 mil, which would all be gone instantly if the stations converted to all-digital IBOC? NOT gonna happen.

Maybe Radio World, perpetually in the tank for HD Radio, found some HD fanboy in Texas with five stations who's all moist over the wonderfulness of HD. I say: BFD. HD is still the joke in the consumer electronics industry it's always been.

 

[Bob1370]

The public has spopken...HD is a niche medium, not the future of audio broadcasting. Further, it clearly only fits within the wider footprint of an FM signal, not in the AM band. The best thing to do about AM is go back to the rules of the '80s, let AM stations transmit a truly high fidelity analog signal, and allow stations to raise their power to improve their signals within their intended primary coverage area.

 

[TheBigA]

The best thing to do about AM is go back to the rules of the '80s, let AM stations transmit a truly high fidelity analog signal, and allow stations to raise their power to improve their signals within their intended primary coverage area.

OK...now all you have to do is convince the FCC. Good luck.

 

[chas108]

The public has spopken...HD is a niche medium, not the future of audio broadcasting. Further, it clearly only fits within the wider footprint of an FM signal, not in the AM band. The best thing to do about AM is go back to the rules of the '80s, let AM stations transmit a truly high fidelity analog signal, and allow stations to raise their power to improve their signals within their intended primary coverage area.

Guess I'm alone in my principles. If you've seen the movie That Thing You Do, you know the scene. LOL

Bob, can AM even be redeemed? In 2012...with so much RF in the atmosphere that didn't exist 60 years ago...even if you went back to 1980's standards...even if you took a bunch of AM signals off the air to allow the one left to broadcast a 15k signal without side-channel interference...I just don't see it.

The thing about HD is that it's relatively transparent to the analog signal as long as the two are properly synched. So the consumer doesn't have to take a separate step to listen to it if they have a radio with HD capability. (HD-2s, 3s notwithstanding) I really believe the key will be the auto manufacturers simply including it as they increasingly do. The listener turns on their fave station and it just happens to be in HD. They didn't ask for it with their new car, but the option package they chose includes an entertainment that does most everything else they want it to...and by coincidence it comes with HD Radio.