HD Radios at "Best Buy" for $39

[Skynet74]

   Internet radio doesn't have to be LIVE. This lifts any kind of bandwidth limit. Podcasts for instance. Youtube videos can get millions of views in a short amount of time. The only limit is compelling content. We are living in the days of DVR boxes, Netflix, MP3 players etc. Just in case you haven't noticed.... not that many people care if you are LIVE or not. As a matter of fact what is the diffference between a Voice tracked radio show and somebody uploading a show that they recorded in their house? The only difference is the method of delivery. BTW..... how important do you honestly think it is to broadcast a LIVE show when your entire radio program consists of playing songs that were recorded years ago? Think about it.

  A local radio station is limited to a tiny little circle on a map. (Go get a US map and draw a circle around the listening area of a Providence radio station) Now go take a step back and look at that little tiny smudge you just outlined. How can anyone look at that pinhole and think the internet is not more powerful than that pea sized circle? The internet clearly provides the average person a far greater audience potential than any radio station does. You can't argue with Math. If you try, you are just in denial.

     Anyone who is serious about building an audience has more free tools at their disposal than they'll even need. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, youtube, google, Live365, Blogger this Blogger that... and I could go on and on and on. Once again look at that little dot on the map and compare it to the entire world. Then use common sense. Things are changing. I'm not making a dire prediction for the end of radio. Obviously radio still has it's advantages. It's still nice to be able to turn that little knob and know that somebody is going to be there. However it's becoming more common for people to want to take that voice with them and listen to it when they are good and ready.

[Don Juannn]

God, in 2010 I can't believe we're still having this discussion.

HD is an abysmal failure. The public has rejected it. Meanwhile, Apple has sold millions upon millions of iPods and iPads.

No they haven't, they public has never been asked.  And when they are asked if they would like more free channels/stations....they overwhelmingly vote yes.

If you are going to compare any new technology to the iPod & iPad...then everything will flunk that test.  The iPod is the biggest sucess story in technology in recent memory....and you are going to compare anything to that?

The public doesn't care about radio in general  ....be it XM, HB, SW, AM FM, etc. 

[Skynet74]

The public doesn't care about radio in general  ....be it XM, HB, SW, AM FM, etc. 

  Oh I still think they care. They just happen to care a whole lot less than before.

[Don Juannn]

The public doesn't care about radio in general  ....be it XM, HB, SW, AM FM, etc. 

  Oh I still think they care. They just happen to care a whole lot less than before.

Well, there ya go.

[fullabaloney]

They care about hearing what they want to hear and don't care if it's coming out of a radio, computer, phone, or coffee maker. The more people get accustomed to hearing what they want when they want, the more impatient they will become. Radio can't give audiences what they want when they want so it's answer is to program to people not inclined to seek entertainment elsewhere or to hire compelling enough people so that audiences will sit through what they could care less about because they like the station enough and not just the music. Naturally radio isn't about to hire people of that caliber outside of mornings and today's PDs wouldn't know how to program them anyway.

[VelvetR]

They care about hearing what they want to hear and don't care if it's coming out of a radio, computer, phone, or coffee maker.

I vividly recall one instance where a woman was very much concerned about what radio station was coming out of her........refrigerator.

One of those old ones with the copper coils inside a white enamel can on top.  The straps holding the coils had rotted away and the coils were vibrating - it was in the strong field of a religious station and she could hear it, kinda tinny, all over her kitchen.  Naturally she was a fundamentalist of a different religion and she considered it "The Work Of The DEVIL!!!".

Fixed it with several plastic tie-wraps while my "assistant" did a sort of voodoo dance, spraying "holy water" from a squirt gun.

Hey, for her it worked.  For the refrigerator, too.

[Skynet74]

I vividly recall one instance where a woman was very much concerned about what radio station was coming out of her........refrigerator.

One of those old ones with the copper coils inside a white enamel can on top.  The straps holding the coils had rotted away and the coils were vibrating - it was in the strong field of a religious station and she could hear it, kinda tinny, all over her kitchen.  Naturally she was a fundamentalist of a different religion and she considered it "The Work Of The DEVIL!!!".

Fixed it with several plastic tie-wraps while my "assistant" did a sort of voodoo dance, spraying "holy water" from a squirt gun.

Hey, for her it worked.  For the refrigerator, too.

 In a similar story.. I was living in New York. Howard Stern had just been syndicated into Washington DC on WJFK. A woman who was very anti-Howard Stern called to complain that she kept hearing the show through her toaster and she couldn't stop it. She was so close to the WJFK tower that the station was playing over the coils on the toaster. 

[landtuna]

The public doesn't care about radio in general  ....be it XM, HB, SW, AM FM, etc. 

  Oh I still think they care. They just happen to care a whole lot less than before.

I think both of you are missing the point.  The people who always "cared" about radio still care about it but there is now a generation of people who never "cared" about radio because they received their entertainment in other ways.

If radio is going to last beyond the next several generations it needs to find a way to interest the emerging generations who have never listened or cared about radio. 

[Numo]

the fact that you have to almost be on top of the tower to even get an HD signal.

The myth, actually on that one. You need to take what is written on this forum's HD board with a grain of salt. You can weed through the hyperbole and rhetoric to see what the actual flaws may be. But look elsewhere too. See other point of views.

Not entirely myth.  I live about 3 miles from the KYSR tower in Los Angeles, but the HD signal cuts in and out regularly when I'm driving around my neighborhood. 

If you live 3 miles from the tower...and you can't get a steady lock on it's HD channel...then you have a problem that is not the fault of HD radio.

Whose fault is it then?  HD Radio is a failed technology, and one of the big reasons is its reception issues.  I'm not the only one who's experiencing them -- and I'm not just talking about hyperbole on the boards here either, people like Sean Ross have documented it as well.  Plus, who knows what HD signals will be up and running on an average day, since the HD signals on many stations here unpredictably seem to vanish or go silent for days on end. 

I have a Zune HD and can get WPRO, WHJY,in HD fine in Coventry.  I havent tried any of the other HD stations in Providence.

[jeffryan]

God, in 2010 I can't believe we're still having this discussion.

HD is an abysmal failure. The public has rejected it. Meanwhile, Apple has sold millions upon millions of iPods and iPads.

No they haven't, they public has never been asked.

Uh, are you aware of the MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars that the HD Radio Alliance has spent on radio advertising in the last five years? Advertising that has gotten them nowhere because they refuse to concede that the product is crap. The public has had HD radio crammed down their throats ad nauseam. Nobody cares, but they still continue to spend millions on advertising.

If you are going to compare any new technology to the iPod & iPad...then everything will flunk that test.  The iPod is the biggest sucess story in technology in recent memory....and you are going to compare anything to that?

Well isn't that the point? While other new technology fights Apple for market share, HD radio doesn't even show up on the radar.