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Stations in HD

Not that I'm aware.

I want to put this out there, though, for your thoughts:

Do you think there's a good future for Sirius/XM with the economy tanking so drastically?

If the answer is no, do you think that the radio industry might yet make another push to get HD receivers as standard in new autos?

If your answer is yes, why would people pay 12.95/month if they can't pay their bills? I would think satellite subs would be among the very first things to go.
 
I seriously doubt HD radio is going to gain any further traction in this market. Plus, the upgrade is costly..Radio hates to pay out money, especially when the owe money...

As for Sirius/XM, I see no profit for them in the foreseeable future either. You're exactly right sjs, how can you afford a subscription fee (that you know eventually increase because it already has within the last year). Times are pressing for a lot of folk and I'd say a simple 30-40 buck internet bill is more important than a luxury satellite radio. Another problem for sat radio are car owners like myself who are mooching off of the free subscription after buying a new car...Once it's over, I doubt I'll become a regular customer, although the programming is excellent and the variety is beyond belief..Still love a good ol' Ipod or hell AM/FM radio on occasion.

As for HD radio receivers becoming standard in new automobiles...I don't know, wonder if the auto industry doesn't get this bailout, will it stifle HD radio development in cars..
 
HD radio was dead before it ever started. Car manufacturers don't want radios that customers are going to bring back because they don't work. With broadcasting companies on the ropes financially the last thing they want to do is spend a gazillion bucks to put on HD for the 12 listeners they might get. HD is a solution to a problem that never existed.

Satellite has very little time left. They're billions in debt with a finite pool of subscribers to draw on. The merger did nothing but reduce the variety, drop some jobs from the payroll and dump the stock price. I'll be surprised if XM/Sirius is still with us in a year.
 
They'll start selling ads and giving away "subscriptions" to stay alive. They promised not to...but didn't cable tv say that, too?
I don't think people stopped listening.
 
I remember sitting in a forum on HD technology many years ago. After the presentation, a few of us long-time engineers looked around at each other and said “It won’t work”. We were dismissed as old school.

Well, my HD receiver won’t get a solid mobile lock on WREC-AM from Millington, when their transmitter is at Watkins and the interstate. It drops to analog when I get near power lines, which is where you need it most. I ended up getting a marine HD unit and trying it on the boat…and found there is no coverage on any lake I went to in Arkansas or Tennessee. The coverage just isn’t there. WKQK’s HD-1 is more reliable from their Mississippi transmitter than WEGR’s from Brunswick…again, in North Shelby county. I have no idea why. Neither one is really reliable, and it’s quite annoying to have it drop in and out of digital. I end up locking the receiver in analog. So much for HD. A good AM stereo system without the bandwidth limitations sounded better than some of the HD channels I hear.

HD just isn’t delivering on the promise.

As far as programming, I haven’t found anything outstanding.

I will have to (sort of ) disagree with Radeo on the XM/ Sirius thing. I like the new channel lineup, and the sub price is so low it’s not on my radar. However, the audio quality especially on the decades channels has worsened considerably since XM took Sirius’ decade programming. But it’s got to cost a fortune to run that network, and if they DO start selling ads in the now commercial-free channels I’m gone.

The also have a lot of private channels and data services, so I have to wonder if that’s keeping them afloat.
 
HD is to radio in the 21st century.
What AM stero was to radio the last century.
Sirius/XM will be gone by 2010 because of their bad business model.

Consumers have multiple choices for their entertainment, personal choices that do not depend on some far-away programmer plugging songs into a computer.

Radio is old technology that cannot compete with the IPod, Cell Phone and internet.

Sad.
 
I don't think there's much of a shelf-life left for satellite either, but it's not because of the subscription cost of the luxury. Until people can't pay for their 6 dollar cup of coffee, I don't think there's any merit in the "they won't pay if they can't pay their bills" thought process. It'll be because of their bad business model, lack of compelling product and stagnant size of listenership.

I still think the future of radio is in streaming. Heck, on my phone, I can stream any radio station that has a stream and it sounds decent coming from 3G. Not sure how, but I think streaming is the only way that we can be more than niche going forward.
 
....streaming radio on a telephone????.....what's this world coming to? I see the day coming when 'telephone' will be nothing more than the answer to a trivia question about Alexander Graham Bell. Does Western Electric even make telephones anymore?
 
Western Electric became Lucent Technologies in 1995. Since then Lucent has been spun-off into several other companies, one being Avaya.

I still have an original Western Electric Trim-Line phone (Sunflower Yellow) hanging in my garage. It's the only one with a 'real' metal bell in it that's loud enough to be heard while working outside.
 
spin003 said:
Western Electric became Lucent Technologies in 1995. Since then Lucent has been spun-off into several other companies, one being Avaya.

I still have an original Western Electric Trim-Line phone (Sunflower Yellow) hanging in my garage. It's the only one with a 'real' metal bell in it that's loud enough to be heard while working outside.

But do you remember when Western Electric made AM transmitters? :eek:
 
But do you remember when Western Electric made AM transmitters? :eek:


[/quote]

I do. Doesn't come as a shock, I know. And when General Electric made tube consoles.
 
ooooooh, GE broadcast consoles. The original 'green' console.... didn't need any heat in a control room with one of those.
 
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