Exploding Radio (continued)

It's been a while since I've posted on one of my favorite topics, HD Radio.

The New York Times' Glenn Fleishman did a nice piece this morning called Revolution on the Radio.

Glenn writes:

Plug a set of headphones into a radio tuned to an FM jazz station. Hear the hiss at the bottom of the range and the fuzz at the top. Remember why you like compact discs.

But don't be impatient: wait eight seconds. An "HD" light appears on the tuner. And now the bottom drops out. The hiss turns to silence. The stereo channels separate, opening a cramped room into a performance hall. And the high fuzz is now crisp high notes from a trumpet or Ella Fitzgerald.

This is all true, but I honestly don't believe the superior audio quality in both the FM and AM bands is going to make HD Radio popular.

I think its going to be the explosion of new formats and programming that will result from broadcasters ability to multicast two, three, or even four signals on a single FM channel.

I think other data services like "buy now", something that XM and Napster are rolling out for satellite radio now, will also prove to be big hits with consumers.

But if you are interested in the future of broadcast radio, go read the article.

Comments

[Glenn Fleishman]

Thanks for the nice link. I don't entirely agree with you about the audio quality not being an issue, but you hedged it by saying "make HD Radio popular."

The folks in the industry have some very detailed things to say about mostly kids listening to digital music on headsets. They can tell the difference, and they get irritated with AM especially. But the improved audio quality is more about parity than popularity. It may increase listenship or prevent erosion rather than make the format take off.

The FM multicasting and the loop-back for buying or other interactive services is pretty huge. Another item I didn't have room to mention in the article is that there a) could be digital FM-only stations introduced at some point in empty spots on the dial in some markets--they would have about 300K to play with instead of 96K and b) the encoding will improve and it's possible that some stations will have 150K instead of 96K. All things together, you could see at least five FM sub-channels, but possibly 8 or even 10 depending on how fast compression improves.

I didn't have room to note that at least two of the three tabletop receivers (the ones from Boston Acoustics and Radiosophy) can be firmware upgraded later...

[fred]

excellent points Glenn and an excellent article too