FCC Settles Rules for HD Radio

Saw this article just now - the FCC has settled the rules for HD Radio broadcasting. Not sure how relevant this information is to consumers, but I'm sure the techies will get some inspiration from it.

Video from Manufacturer

Here's one I found on YouTube - a guy explains a little bit about HD Radio and hawks the wares his company makes (mostly automobile receivers).

Radio Shack Receiver

This may be old news, but I just noticed that Radio Shack sells a receiver for 160 bucks. Yes, they'll probably ask for your phone number when you buy it (what's with that?) but at least there's probably one near you where you can try out the radio.

I'm going to try an experiment and go to Best Buy this weekend and see if the salespeople can even explain HD Radio coherently. They probably can, but what's the chance of their having a working model for me to play around with? I'll report back - hopefully pleasantly surprised.

HD Radio Stations

The site that kind of serves as the hub of HD Radio promotion has a good channel finder - so you can search your local market to see if there are any HD stations in your area before even deciding whether it is worth buying a receiver.

I keep blogging, hoping that someone out there who actually likes HD Radio will comment and tell us what they like or dislike about HD Radio - would love to hear from the readers out there what you're finding with the technology firsthand.

Radiosophy Radio Cheap

The New York Times today is reporting that the Radiosophy radio (we've already mentioned it here once) goes for 60 bucks after rebate. That's a really decent price. Again, there are a lot of skeptics who delight in trolling this blog and making negative comments about HD Radio and that's fine - we're worried it will turn out to be some kind of proprietary nightmare like Betamax too, but the idea itself is a good one and some markets have decent programming available, especially if you're an NPR fan like I am. So anyway, it's a good time to get the radio if you want one.

HD Radio Has Only 450,000 Listeners

A new estimate is that HD Radio gets only about 450,000 listeners, compared to over 50 million people listening to internet radio each week. Time will tell if more people begin to adopt HD Radio. Part of it will be compelling programming, maybe driven by more independent content. Imagine your local talk station broadcasting its regular stream, and then two additional HD channels - one hard left, one hard right. Might be a way to reach a variety of listeners. Or perhaps even allow low-power broadcasts on HD so you could even have a neighborhood station. Only problem is, as I understand it, Ibiquity has to license the encoding of streams into HD...

New Radios from Sony

Sony announced some handsome self-contained HD Radios today. These are 200 bucks and under, so that's good.

HD Radio Demo

Saw this on YouTube - there are a few HD radio demos on that site:

HD Radio Interference?

Doc Searls is saying that HD radio signal might be interfering with neighboring FM stations. I wonder if this is going to get some regulatory attention? I guess the hope is that FM doesn't become as bad sounding as AM in the pursuit of HD technology. Of course, if all the broadcast television goes to high definition, then it makes sense for all the radio to do this too. And actually, a high power AM station like KMOX in St. Louis or WWL in New Orleans could really put out some far-reaching digital content. Hmmm....

What I'd love to know is what the world sounded like before all this wi-fi, radio signals, television signals, etc. in the air. Would it have been the same or much different? Is my office noisy from the wi-fi signal?

Aristotle said that humans can't hear the earth grinding on its axis because we heard it from day one in the womb and thus silence is defined as including that sound. Okay, I'm getting way too philosophical on a HD Radio fan blog.

Radio Ads for HD Radio

I listened to Fox News Radio today while taking a shower and during the 10 minutes, there were at least three or four ads for HD radios - Best Buy had a commercial about an automobile in-dash HD receiver deck, for instance. Then, there was a more general ad for HD Radio receivers. So I think the skepticism about HD Radio's future might be based upon less information than you might think. If all the big companies are pushing HD Radio, then more likely than not, consumers will want to try it out and if the company who owns the licensing rights to the digital format can insure that customers have a good trial experience in big box stores like Best Buy and Circuit City, then perhaps they can move some units. That was always the problem with Apple computers at Circuit City - inevitably they would be mistreated and neglecting by the sales people unless you encountered the rare mac fan who sold computers at Circuit City. Anyway, I still have hope for the format; nothing is more compelling than listening to the radio - you can do it while you do other things, whereas television tends to dominate your attention.

119 Buck Receiver

Not sure how I missed Gizmodo's HD radio stuff, but they linked to this 119 dollar receiver back in April. Not a bad price, really, but it looks like it would sound pretty horrible. That's okay, when you get a nice little multiband sony AM/FM radio for 20 bucks at Target, but this is 100 bucks here...

Some HD Links

A reader linked to this story in a Bay Area newspaper. Looks pretty bleak - as though the HD radio format is a bit of a monopoly at present - and that the extra HD channels in most markets contain only homogenized crap.

Ibiquity - the company who licenses the HD format - is offering a 40 dollar rebate on receivers purchased until 7/3. Their site, HD-Radio.com has additional radio models advertised. There's one from Cambridge Soundworks, one from Sharper Image, and one from Fisher Price. Just kidding about the Fisher Price one.

We're dying to know more about the future of HD Radio - will it last? Will it mature? Will the signal coverage be as complete as normal, analog terrestrial radio?

Where Are the Radios?

You'd think with this bold new technology, and the fact that every radio station in St. Louis (where the editor of this blog lives) saying "Broadcast in HD", that there would be some reasonably priced receivers out there.

Amazon.com lists only a few radios available. The first is the component system that NPR mentions - the Sangean HDT-1 HD Radio Component Tuner. This one costs 170 which is, oddly, the cheapest way to get into HD Radio. Most of the standalone radios are too expensive for many people.

First is the Sangean HDR-1 Table Top HD Radio Receiver. Again, there's that company - Sangean. Whoever heard of them? That radio is about 230 bucks. The Boston Acoustics standalone radio - Boston Acoustics Receptor HD Clock Radio (Platinum) is a bit cooler, plus it comes with a generally trusted name. Both of those have nice remotes, but the sound you're going to get from those will be limited because of the nature of a standalone radio. The Boston Acoustics model has detachable speakers which can usually just be annoying and cut down on the ease of portability of such units.

Finally, there's the Radiosophy MultiStream HD digital radio which looks a lot like those docking systems for an ipod. The cool thing here is that you can detach the radio from the speaker system, take it with you and use headphones. The reviews so far are mixed from Amazon shoppers, and there's no way this blog will order one at that price to test.

So far, we haven't found an HD Radio Tuner card for a PC, but we're still looking.

NPR's 'Stunning' HD Radio Collection

So, you're all interested in getting into HD Radio, you click on "HD Radio" on NPR's website, and here's what you get. One stinking receiver, that costs 200 bucks, and is a stereo component, not a stand-alone radio.

This blog exists because HD Radio is cool, broadcast for free, and relatively obscure. We'll highlight the best receivers, cheapest receivers, and tips for getting good results from your HD radio listening.