The biggest early adopters of HD have been noncommercial stations. Usually they are NPR/PRI types. These stations have more content available to them than it is possible to cram into a 24 hour day. To them, multicasting is the "killer app." Maybe so. It is not hard to understand that additional channels a have quite an appeal, especially when ratings and spot sales are not a make it or break it part of your business plan. At least, their main interest is in improving content, not just applying a digital Band-Aide to a service that has other issues and problems.
I can tell you that several stations who post regularly on the 'Pubtech Digest" are finding that there are problems with HD on FM. That's mostly because the noncommercial stations are short spaced when compared with their commercial brethren. They have interfered with each other, but they are working to resolve those problems. There have also been a variety of hardware and software related issues, which seem to be improving with experience. I do get the impression that many of these stations are having some growing pains when it comes to programming their new channels. They are finding that it is a lot of work, and generally speaking, the station’s staff was not increased to handle the additional work load. You live and learn.
