Why HD Radio is Doomed to Failure

[rbrucecarter5]

http://technologizer.com/2012/02/06/whatever-happened-to-radios/

Stores stock items that sell.  If something doesn't sell, it won't be stocked.  People aren't buying radios - let alone HD radios.  Unless HD radio can make inroads into devices that still include AM and FM reception - HD radio, if not radio itself, is doomed.  There is no compelling reason for anybody to buy a radio these days.  The market is saturated with old ones, new devices that include radios use the cheapest possible implementation of radio, throwing away the AM band, most of the IF filters, or using IC's with internal IF like those from Silabs.  License fees drive up the cost of including a radio, so HD isn't included.

A crucial move by the HD folks would have been to not charge license fees for receiving equipment and IC's.  That window of opportunity, though, was years ago.  It is too late, now. 

[hubcity]

Radio, I think, needs to reimagine itself along its only significant benefit: immediacy. In fact, given the rise of talk radio, I think it has already begun to do so.

Eventually, Radio will consist of a vestigial transmitter that still transmits because it's important to its brand that it does so, but will first and foremost be a supplier of short-shelf-life content along whatever transport method is available.  This will be a smaller audience, and its budgetary expectations will need to shrink to follow suit. They even may, one day, decide it's in their best interest to drop the transmitter, but that's a lonnnnng way off.

[iyiyi]

HD radio is related to analog radio as much as an iPhone is to an analog "bag phone".

Receiver manufacturing techniques and quality difference between AM and FM radios is now moot. 

Silicon Labs Si476x spec sheet shows that modern HD receiver design utilizes the same circuitry for FM and MW. The only difference is in separate front end mixers for MW and FM, and DSP algorithms to optimize reception for each band.  Both MW and "FM" HD utilize the same QAM, again optimized for the respective bands.

I normally am a P1 of an analog Alternative station.  When they are off the air I have about three or four other stations; all HD 2s!  The other weekend I was "stuck" with a car that had no HD.  That was (to me) like an FM afficionado taking a trip in a car with only an AM radio.  I had this beautiful radio stupidly sitting in the dashboard, its' only real use to me was the CD player.

New bottles for new wine.  HD radio is spiffing itself for a new generation to discover and properly exploit it's use. 

Maybe we can bring back Guy Lombardo for New Year's Eve.


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[Savage]

Well, Guy Lombardo should sound just fine on that HD-3 channel with its AM quality, iy!  7 kHz, mono in most applications - now THAT's progress in the digital age! 

"HD Radio is spiffing itself for discovery for a new generation to discover?"  Which generation is that?  The generation that wants to string antennas (or, as my parents referred to them, "aerials") to get dependable reception?  Maybe the generation who wants to pay ludicrous prices for lackluster low-benefit consumer audio products? 

Where's your "new generation" been for the last ten years?  Or is it they just haven't they been born yet?? 

[spunker88]

The article makes a good point. It is getting pretty hard to find just a radio, not an ipod dock with a radio in brick and mortar stores. Luckily online stores like Amazon carry a good selection of radios. You can get the Sony ICF-S10MK2 for $10, which is a little AM/FM battery powered unit with a speaker similar to the Radioshack one in the article. These little radios are nice and easy to operate and batteries last a long time.

Analog FM still is the best way to broadcast high quality audio to a large area. Internet radio will have a hard time challenging FM since cell carriers charge an arm and a leg for metered data, and the quality of mobile quality online streams is poor. Its tolerable with earbuds or small speakers, but hook it up to a decent sound system or car radio and it sounds terrible for music. HD radio's audio quality is only slightly better sometimes just as bad as mobile streaming, and HD radio drops out a lot more.

[local oscillator]

There are indeed several legitimate questions being asked about the future of our industry, but HD Radio's place in that future shouldn't be one of them.  HD Radio doesn't work, period.  Enough said.  Now, let's dismiss this unfortunate distraction as soon as possible and get on with the serious business at hand. 

[Zach]

Of course, whether HD works better or worse than streaming depends on whose network you're on and in what part of the country you're in.  As I'm fond of saying, streaming isn't going to be the savior people think it will, with metered internet and a slowed build out of faster networks capping the potential for coast-to-coast listening.  The carrier I'm with no has no 3G east of Pensacola along I-10 unless you're on the beach, so analog and HD radio were my only options on a recent trip back from the Fort Walton Beach area. 

The HDs (except pubcaster WUWF, whose stick is in Navarre) all came back in around Milton, FL, and they're more or less solid from there west on I-10 to well past Mobile, a good 85 air miles across, with a good radio.  WUWF should have done even better and it usually the most reliable HD in NW FL but I was having dropouts while looking at the tower so I dunno if they were having issues or not.

If HD is doomed to failure it's because it's too little, too late.  It isn't a big enough improvement to really draw new listeners and the digital buffering and dropouts are a problem for 99% of listeners.  The formats that *are* on the air aren't compelling enough to attract new listeners to buy into it.  And the destructive nature of AM HD is causing problems nationwide.

[KB1OKL]

HD radio was doomed from the time it was first broadcast, most engineers knew it didn't work and so did consumers and most electronic reviewers. It may seem like too little too late now but it never stood a chance, the reason it is moribund and has been is because consumers couldn't care less that it exists and most reasonable radio people are waiting for it to pass like a three day old Taco.

[Barry]

The use of HD2 and HD3 subchannels to provide signals to translators, effectively providing additional FM stations, is helping to keep HD radio viable. Some of these translators are starting to garner decent ratings in various markets.

[Ken Tucky]

"You can get the Sony ICF-S10MK2 for $10, which is a little AM/FM battery powered unit..."





Outstanding little radio that you can still find at K-Mart (if you can still find a K-Mart!)