HD 2

[rbrucecarter5]

2 or 3 years from now everyone will have HD.some new cars come with HD.soon 90% OF all aftermarket radios will be HD.I just cant wait for the 4X increase in power I hope its very soon like in a week or 2..

Thanks!  I needed a good laugh!

[BRNout]

2 or 3 years from now everyone will have HD.some new cars come with HD.soon 90% OF all aftermarket radios will be HD.I just cant wait for the 4X increase in power I hope its very soon like in a week or 2..

Just reading that makes me laugh too.  Of course, you are being sarcastic - right? 

[Savage]

"Some new cars come with HD."  Right!  Volvo "comes with" (can be ordered with) HD - .00001% market share.  Land Rover "comes with" (can be ordered as part of a $5000 nav/com package) HD - .0000000001% market share.  BMW "comes with" (can be ordered as part of a $4000 nav/com package) HD.  Decent market share for a niche luxury marque.

Can Willys, Studebaker, Crosley, Kaiser-Frazer be far behind??  "Coming soon - HD in your Graham Sharknose!!"  (Tube-type, of course.)

Seriously (or that Sirius-ly?)  Was perusing the stock of vehicles at a Mercedes-Benz store a few weeks back.  HD was featured on some vehicles, all in the $65K+ range - and as part of a nav/com/entertainment electronics suite ranging from $3800 to $8000.

I wonder how many new MB drivers brought their $80,000 vehicles back, complaining about radio performance.  That's what happened to Jaguar last year.  For a while they were retrofitting cars with analog-only radios, but since Ford sold the marque to Tata of India they've gone back to installing HD as an option.  Guess New Delhi hasn't read the trades.

[Savage]

BTW..."aftermarket radios will be HD?"  Yep, you bet: that's what I wanna do: Drop $35K on a nifty new vehicle, then run a tangle of wires up to a freakin' Visteon Jump stuck on my nice new dashboard with foam tape, like I let my 16 year old kid "upgrade" the stereo system with his buds.  Oh - and the steering wheel interface doesn't work any more and the factory 80,000 mile warranty's void.

A car dealer in our region did a promotion with a station that broadcasts in HD: with every new car sold, get a FREE HD Radio converter!  After 90 days, the dealer asked the station to come get the converters - nobody wanted them, even when they were FREE!!

(Guess THAT persuasively establishes a price point for what people are willing to pay for HD Radio.)

[tommygraser]

Maybe on HD 2 and 3 you don't have anything good.Where I live HD 2 and even 3 has lots of good stuff.

[K6JHU]

I spend most of my time in the car listening to one standard FM, one all news AM (in HD but that doesn't count), two HD-2, and one HD-3. So there is programming on HD that is better than FM. And, of course, no commercials.

[rbrucecarter5]

Maybe on HD 2 and 3 you don't have anything good.Where I live HD 2 and even 3 has lots of good stuff.

There is some good stuff on HD-2 in Dallas, not sure about Houston yet.  Range isn't the problem.  I can get reliable lock 70 miles out and it stays locked.  So a power increase doesn't seem necessary.

I don't listen to HD a lot, because I have satellite with many more choices.  I am itching to get hold of an iPhone so I can stream into the car with thousands of choices. 

[Chuck]

I am itching to get hold of an iPhone so I can stream into the car with thousands of choices. 

I constantly monitor how many people are listening to our radio station on the Internet. Last week was the first time that I noticed that Apple's iTunes was the predominant choice of on line listeners.  Usually it's about 45% Windows based 30-35% iTunes, and the rest from players like Real, Winamp, VLC, etc.  For the first time ever, last week, iTunes was the predominant player.  I have no idea how many of them were using iphones, but I get an email or two a week from people who say they are listening in their car using an iphone.  Usually, they are at least a thousand miles away.  Sometimes it is a lot more.  This week, the numbers seem to have reversed more toward normal, but I suspect that I have seen a part of the future. 

Mobile devices are going t be an important part of radio's future, just like they were when I was a kid and had a 6 transistor AM radio hanging from the handlebars of my bicycle.  The delivery method is different, but the net listening experience is more or less the same.

[rbrucecarter5]

Mobile devices are going t be an important part of radio's future, just like they were when I was a kid and had a 6 transistor AM radio hanging from the handlebars of my bicycle.  The delivery method is different, but the net listening experience is more or less the same.

When I was a kid - the only game in town for programming not available locally was DX.  So that is what I did.  Now there are other, more reliable ways of breaking the monopoly of local radio.  One thing that has NOT changed - the arrogance of local radio stations who think that if you don't want their programming, there is something wrong with YOU.  Houston is a good example - the oldies station flipped.  Any suggestion that oldies can still be a financially successful format on the Houston board is met with scorn if not open hostility.  Another example is CCM.  Any suggestion that the local CCM station that wimped out to praise and worship music brings howls of protest - how dare you attack such a wonderful station.  The monopoly of those BAD ATTITUDES is going to be broken by widespread streaming in cars.  Then lets see how commercial all the formats are.  I think the resulting ratings of stations across the country will surprise a lot of the locals who thought they were getting it right.  Oh - they always give a parting shot about localism.  To me, its the music.  It always was, always is.  Don't force feed me the music you want to play, I know what I like and what I don't. 

[K6JHU]

"Don't force feed me the music you want to play, I know what I like and what I don't." Then you will love "Jack" - Playing what we want." 

Getting back on topic, I thought that HD would be similar to DX - more variety from different sources. But with a few exceptions it is still more of the same - yet another flavor of Rock.