> Terrestrial radio has been declared dead several times over
> the years and it still is here. AM was declared dead when
> FM became the dominate band, what it did was open up the
> AM band for Talk, Sports, News and many foreign language
> radio stations when the music moved to FM. So AM radio
> definitly plays an important role in radio to this day. In
> a fair amount of cities the number one station is a
> News-Talk AM station.
>
> Will terrestrial radio meet its' maker this time around? I
> doubt it seriously, but there will have to be some major
> adjustments made to AM and FM to stay in the game. The most
> likely is that stations will have to end the cookie cutter
> formats and become heavily involved with the community to
> stay viable. With Internet Radio and stations where with a
> few keystrokes you create your own station that plays the
> music you like without having to actually choose the songs,
> it makes terrestrial radio a distant second choice when at
> home or office.
>
> Radio stations are still selling at record prices, but while
> I had a dream of owning a station for years, today if I had
> the money to buy a station or group of stations I would give
> the idea very serious thought and likely would not invest in
> terrestrial radio today. Those that are 25 and younger do
> not even consider radio as the primary source for music or
> news today. Just as radio abandoned people when they
> reached the age of 65 as not an important listener, the
> younger generation was listening to MP3's and Internet Radio
> and have little use for terrestrial radio. AM radio is in
> it's 80's and FM is in it's 40's for practical purposes,
> although FM has been available for more years than that. AM
> radio is past the age it decided people of that age where
> not worthy of programming and FM is fast approaching the
> golden years of its' life. Bottom line AM radio is past
> its' time and FM is fast reaching the age it considers not
> important. Now the tables are turned, ain't pay back a
> bitch.
>
> HD Radio will not be the savior of terrestrial radio, it is
> too little too late. I have not read one article where the
> vast majority of the average listeners are even aware of or
> understands HD-R and the few that do know about HD-R the
> attitude is so what. This does not bode well for HD-R in
> the long term. It is generating buzz on radio boards but
> very little elsewhere. The general public does not care
> about HD radio any more than they did about quad sound (if
> you are old enough to remember that from FM) and is not
> going to spend even $20 more for a HD radio in the house,
> car or at work.
>
> The National Radio Systems Committee could not come up with
> a standard for how the other channels of HD radio would be
> labeled. HD1, HD2, HD3, and so on or use actual
> frequencies, even if the station was not on that frequency,
> such as starting at 108.1 and going up and labeling the
> stations that way. HD2 of The Arrow might become 109.7
> Kxxx. Apparently today to get the HD2 or HD3 channel you
> have to go to the HD1 main channel and tune from there. You
> can not go directly to the HD2 channel without first
> listening to the HD1 channel. I have not even seen an HD
> radio so have no experience with them and can't vouch for
> the validity of the above statement.
>
> If terrestrial radio is in good shape, why is nearly every
> station streaming audio today to be sure and be part of
> Internet Radio?
>
> Mike O
>
The Kenwood KTC-HR100TR tuner will tune directly into the HD2 channel if you seek towards the frequency from a higher frequency. Also, it will allow you to set the HD2 as a preset, bypassing the HD1.