The Rise and Fall of HD Radio in Sacramento

[stewie]

A few threads back, someone mentioned KSFM is not transmitting HD.  In fact, they're right, I tuned the SCA's of KSFM and they were quiet. However they're still ID'ing as KSFM HD-1.

• Is this a case of something breaking and the owner not wanting to spend the money to fix it?
• Is this what the future of HD Radio looks like?

Let's face it, finding a tabletop HD Radio is a challenge.

Thoughts?

[ChiefOperator]

Can't speak directly to KSFM, but I've always viewed HD radio as a solution looking for a problem.  Mobile app streaming is where things are headed. 

[Steven Roy]

Can't speak directly to KSFM, but I've always viewed HD radio as a solution looking for a problem.  Mobile app streaming is where things are headed. 

I agree. Everything internet delivered is the future. Broadband providers are constantly upgrading their networks to handle more bandwidth (wireless and terrestrial). Internet delivery is already happening for TV. HD-radio will not last.

[stewie]

Can't speak directly to KSFM, but I've always viewed HD radio as a solution looking for a problem.  Mobile app streaming is where things are headed. 

I agree. Everything internet delivered is the future. Broadband providers are constantly upgrading their networks to handle more bandwidth (wireless and terrestrial). Internet delivery is already happening for TV. HD-radio will not last.

Agree and agree.

Just curious what others thought.  It seems as though the writing is on the wall for HD Radio.

[calguy]

Honestly, the only way for HD radio to work is to have it in every radio receiver that's manufactured. Once it's available to everyone it "could" catch on.  Of course the companies operating these channels would have to do more with them than just pumping out automated variations of they're main channels. As long as HD is hard to get, with radios that are hard to purchase and cost more, it'll never work. They simply have to be part of the deal, AM-FM & HD in every receiver, it's the only way.

[Big D]

Personally, I don't like the audio quality of HD radio.  It sounds more like an internet stream, not CD quality.  I'll take a well processed analog FM any day over the best HD radio station...hands down! 

[Manny Michaels]

I think I missed the rise.

[nitnitr]

HD radio is for the streaming public. Until it becomes available on all auto and home stereo systems, as was said in a previous post, it will never garner much interest outside the Internet. Why not tune into the myriad of stations available on the Internet, regardless if they are a "spin-off" of another station, such as HD radio. There are so many good stations on the Internet, streaming the music and programming that listeners enjoy.

TV got it right for HD. What happened to the radio side? Just missed the mark. Radio came first; right? Why not first now?

[DonnieV]

I think I missed the rise.

That was my take.  "The nothing and complete irrelevance of HD radio" seems more apt. 

When you consider the inventory wasted, 30 seconds each hour on every station for the better part of a decade, you're getting into some serious money, not even factoring in the cost of equipment, electricity, and man-hours wasted making any attempt to program these invisible and meaningless sideshows.  The industry should have stopped trying to push this turd uphill years ago, but the geniuses were so intent on competing with a non-competitor in satellite radio, that they didn't notice that they were getting their dicks handed to them by the internet.

Good for KSFM.  Finally someone is clever enough to stop throwing money down a rathole, whether they're doing it intentionally or not.

[1069_KIFR]

I do not even hear commercials for HD Radios any longer.