Is Santa Bringing HD Radio to a Store Near You ?

[SUPERCASTER]

Let's see... hmmmm... just received Best Buy's very nice Christmas catalog: pages 10 - 11 iPods, pages 12 - 13 MP3 Players, pages 14 - 15 Satellite Radio (Sirius Stiletto: experience Sirius Internet Radio via WiFi hot-spots), pages 26 - 31 cell phones, and pages... oops, no HD radios !  Bad Santa ! 

Circuit City is getting into the act (as you know from your review/rant on their website) so Best Buy will be along shortly.

After putting in dozens of major metro area zip codes on the Circuit City website, the large majority of stores are not carrying the Boston Acoustics HD Radio. The only place I found where there were several stores carrying the BA was Los Angeles, CA. You can form your own opinion about the LA market.
Trend leader?
Represents the whole USA?
Wierd market?
Don't expect many HD sales from Circuit City this holiday season. Most stores don't carry the BA Receptor. If this is supposed to be a giant "roll out", sales surge, or indicator of the future of HD radio, the "Circuit City" response is an almost total failure.
Will Best Buy and other big box retailers follow Circuit City and not have most of their stores carry HD radios?
Probably.
But remember, the "big HD Radio rollout" is, and always will be "next year".

[hipporadio]

I just received the 2007 AudioAdvisor Company catalog.  FYI—they are an exceptional audio-centered operation in Grand Rapids that does a robust catalog and net business in high-end AUDIO (you can’t buy a TV from them).

http://www.audioadvisor.com

25-year owner, Wayne Schwurman chooses every product from his available lines based on performance and long-term value.  i.e.--no brand gets their complete line carried there--just what's hot and cutting-edge.

Let’s see what radio products Wayne plans to make available for Christmas giving...

*His headliner is a new Cambridge Audio home component wi-fi internet audio tuner/music server that will record streams and store up to 30,000 songs on its built-in 160 gig hard drive for $1400!

*There’s about a half-dozen radios including an A-E tabletop wi-fi internet audio tuner ($300), several premium AM-FM table radios (including the non-HD BA receptor and BA Micro tabletop music system) from $120-$500, the Magnum-Dynalab MD-90 FM analog tuner ($1100) and DT-5 digital display AM/FM tuner ($1000), plus MD’s $400 accessory external FM RF amp!

*If you favor XM at home, you can pick Polk's home component XM tuner ($300), or a Marantz AM/FM/XM component tuner for $400

Guess what I didn’t see in AudioAdvisor's '07 catalog?  You guessed it!  So I called and asked one of their “consultants” about HD-Radio.  He quickly replied, "You can special-order it on the net for $300, but nobody really wants them—besides, it doesn’t work... Can we sell you an XM home “reference” tuner?"

[700WLW]

Even with Tweeter's latest TV commercial, there is no mention of HD Radio - you know, your post may earn another 15 pro-IBOC threads from ElCheapo, so duck ! 

[dbdigital]

I just received the 2007 AudioAdvisor Company catalog.  FYI—they are an exceptional audio-centered operation in Grand Rapids that does a robust catalog and net business in high-end AUDIO (you can’t buy a TV from them).

http://www.audioadvisor.com

25-year owner, Wayne Schwurman chooses every product from his available lines based on performance and long-term value.  i.e.--no brand gets their complete line carried there--just what's hot and cutting-edge.

Let’s see what radio products Wayne plans to make available for Christmas giving...

*His headliner is a new Cambridge Audio home component wi-fi internet audio tuner/music server that will record streams and store up to 30,000 songs on its built-in 160 gig hard drive for $1400!

*There’s about a half-dozen radios including an A-E tabletop wi-fi internet audio tuner ($300), several premium AM-FM table radios (including the non-HD BA receptor and BA Micro tabletop music system) from $120-$500, the Magnum-Dynalab MD-90 FM analog tuner ($1100) and DT-5 digital display AM/FM tuner ($1000), plus MD’s $400 accessory external FM RF amp!

*If you favor XM at home, you can pick Polk's home component XM tuner ($300), or a Marantz AM/FM/XM component tuner for $400

Guess what I didn’t see in AudioAdvisor's '07 catalog?  You guessed it!  So I called and asked one of their “consultants” about HD-Radio.  He quickly replied, "You can special-order it on the net for $300, but nobody really wants them—besides, it doesn’t work... Can we sell you an XM home “reference” tuner?"

A thick catalog suppliment from Circuit City fell out of my Sunday paper. Looked through all the pages. 

No HD Radio.  XM, Sirius? Absolutely!

HD Radio has missed the 2006 Christmas season.

db

[SUPERCASTER]

I just received the 2007 AudioAdvisor Company catalog.  FYI—they are an exceptional audio-centered operation in Grand Rapids that does a robust catalog and net business in high-end AUDIO (you can’t buy a TV from them).

http://www.audioadvisor.com

25-year owner, Wayne Schwurman chooses every product from his available lines based on performance and long-term value.  i.e.--no brand gets their complete line carried there--just what's hot and cutting-edge.

Let’s see what radio products Wayne plans to make available for Christmas giving...

*His headliner is a new Cambridge Audio home component wi-fi internet audio tuner/music server that will record streams and store up to 30,000 songs on its built-in 160 gig hard drive for $1400!

*There’s about a half-dozen radios including an A-E tabletop wi-fi internet audio tuner ($300), several premium AM-FM table radios (including the non-HD BA receptor and BA Micro tabletop music system) from $120-$500, the Magnum-Dynalab MD-90 FM analog tuner ($1100) and DT-5 digital display AM/FM tuner ($1000), plus MD’s $400 accessory external FM RF amp!

*If you favor XM at home, you can pick Polk's home component XM tuner ($300), or a Marantz AM/FM/XM component tuner for $400

Guess what I didn’t see in AudioAdvisor's '07 catalog?  You guessed it!  So I called and asked one of their “consultants” about HD-Radio.  He quickly replied, "You can special-order it on the net for $300, but nobody really wants them—besides, it doesn’t work... Can we sell you an XM home “reference” tuner?"

A thick catalog suppliment from Circuit City fell out of my Sunday paper. Looked through all the pages. 

No HD Radio.  XM, Sirius? Absolutely!

HD Radio has missed the 2006 Christmas season.

db

Remember, the "big HD Radio roll out" is ALWAYS coming NEXT year.

[700WLW]

"HD Radio boosts distribution, holiday ads push"

"Ferrara said the industry is optimistic and has seen solid return for its $200 million marketing investment in HD digital radio. Ferrara, who in August said some 100,000 units had been sold, declined to update the total number of radio sold during the course of the 10-month push." 

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-11-06T111909Z_01_N05193278_RTRUKOC_0_US-HDRADIO.xml

More lies ! I wonder, how many have been returned ! 

[hipporadio]

"Ferrara said the industry is optimistic and has seen solid return for its $200 million marketing investment in HD digital radio. Ferrara, who in August said some 100,000 units had been sold, declined to update the total number of radios sold during the course of the 10-month push."

More lies! I wonder, how many have been returned?

I know of ONLY TWO HD-Radio purchases by a non-broadcast consumer during the past year... (1) An accessory "HD tuner module" that cost $250 designed to plug into a $200 mobile AM/FM/XM/CD/iPod-control head-end from Alpine.  While the head-end perfomed well--the costly 'HD tuner" upgrade did not and was returned.  (2) A $300 BA HD Receptor that performed very poorly (compared to its $150 mono twin)... Before its return by that dissatisfied customer, it served as the inspiration for my review of that product at Amazon which (curiously) remains there as of today!

It's good to make a sale... But zero-for-two in customer satisfaction is a sad sign.

[dbdigital]

I just received the 2007 AudioAdvisor Company catalog.  FYI—they are an exceptional audio-centered operation in Grand Rapids that does a robust catalog and net business in high-end AUDIO (you can’t buy a TV from them).

http://www.audioadvisor.com

25-year owner, Wayne Schwurman chooses every product from his available lines based on performance and long-term value.  i.e.--no brand gets their complete line carried there--just what's hot and cutting-edge.

Let’s see what radio products Wayne plans to make available for Christmas giving...

*His headliner is a new Cambridge Audio home component wi-fi internet audio tuner/music server that will record streams and store up to 30,000 songs on its built-in 160 gig hard drive for $1400!

*There’s about a half-dozen radios including an A-E tabletop wi-fi internet audio tuner ($300), several premium AM-FM table radios (including the non-HD BA receptor and BA Micro tabletop music system) from $120-$500, the Magnum-Dynalab MD-90 FM analog tuner ($1100) and DT-5 digital display AM/FM tuner ($1000), plus MD’s $400 accessory external FM RF amp!

*If you favor XM at home, you can pick Polk's home component XM tuner ($300), or a Marantz AM/FM/XM component tuner for $400

Guess what I didn’t see in AudioAdvisor's '07 catalog?  You guessed it!  So I called and asked one of their “consultants” about HD-Radio.  He quickly replied, "You can special-order it on the net for $300, but nobody really wants them—besides, it doesn’t work... Can we sell you an XM home “reference” tuner?"

A thick catalog suppliment from Circuit City fell out of my Sunday paper. Looked through all the pages. 

No HD Radio.  XM, Sirius? Absolutely!

HD Radio has missed the 2006 Christmas season.

db

Remember, the "big HD Radio roll out" is ALWAYS coming NEXT year.

And the next, and the next.  And a certain poster who shall remain nameless insists that the HD Radio roll out is "right on track".  Ah...yeah, OK.  More incredible spin.

db

[ElCheapo]

And the next, and the next.  And a certain poster who shall remain nameless insists that the HD Radio roll out is "right on track".  Ah...yeah, OK.  More incredible spin.

db

The revelation that the rollout is on-track comes from last week's Radio World.  The information they printed came from the HD Radio session at the recent NAB Radio Show in Dallas.

The people there said 2009-2010 would be the years for HD Radio's push into the mainstream.

Given the releases of new radios right now and the pace at which they're coming, I think that looks fairly accurate.

Since this is evolutionary rather than revolutionary technology, it's not all that surprising. 

[700WLW]

And the next, and the next.  And a certain poster who shall remain nameless insists that the HD Radio roll out is "right on track".  Ah...yeah, OK.  More incredible spin.

db

The revelation that the rollout is on-track comes from last week's Radio World.  The information they printed came from the HD Radio session at the recent NAB Radio Show in Dallas.

The people there said 2009-2010 would be the years for HD Radio's push into the mainstream.

Given the releases of new radios right now and the pace at which they're coming, I think that looks fairly accurate.

Since this is evolutionary rather than revolutionary technology, it's not all that surprising. 

Of couse, folks at the NAB are going to putting a spin on all this !  Doesn't matter, that HD radios are being "pushed" (this is exactly what Mark Ramsey pointed out - that HD Radio has to be "pushed" on consumers, because there is no consumer interest), because HD radios are not selling.  "Evolutionary" technology is not highly-destructive !