tested said:
I'll throw a bucket of cold water on this whole discussion: I'm not sure HD radio will last. I hope it will, but the sales effort on the radio manufacturer side has been awful.
I've been into several Radio Shacks to look at the Boston Acoustics set and I've never been able to actually hear an HD station. Somehow the set is just not quite fixed up right to get the signal - let alone and HD2 or HD3 program. The sales people are always clueless about why it doesn't work. One even told me that he thought the difference between FM and HD FM was minimal. Meanwhile, Sirius satellite radio is always sitting right next to the HD display and all of those sets work great.
I keep reading that more sets will be available soon and that the price will drop. I'll believe it when I see it. I just hope that when they come out with these new radios that the sales people are better trained at using them and selling them. Until that happens, HD radio will have poor sales and few listeners.
My HD buying experience was amusing or horrifying - depending on how you look at it. I bought my Receptor HD at Radio Shack and they had Sirius plugged into its external input to demo it.
They were using the rat tail antenna inside a concrete and metal building and you could barely receive the analog broadcasts - much less HD.
Interestingly, the unit was set up about half-way back in the store and the satellite stuff worked fine. Apparently they have some sort of outside antenna for that.
If the HD Radio Alliance was serious about getting the public perception right, they would offer to install outdoor antennas at all HD retailers. iBiquity could pony up a few bucks and contract some engineering assistants to do it in each market.
