HD Radio Brings Old Medium Into the Future

Blake Hannon - Knight Ridder/Tribune

The days of radio being the dominant entertainment medium are pretty much ancient history. Families aren't exactly gathering around the radio anymore, especially when they've got HDTVs, MP3 players, DVD and Blu-Ray movies, satellite radio and iPhones to turn to.

With this trend, radio needed to do something to catch up.

"The basic belief ... is that AM and FM radio can't be the only analog medium in a world that's mostly digital," says Bob Struble, president and CEO of iBiquity Digital Corp.

So, iBiquity Digital Corp., developed and eventually licensed the technology for HD radio, which is supposed to bring an age-old medium into the 21st century. But the fact is, many people don't know what HD radio is or what it actually does for a consumer's listening experience.

With that in mind, here's a bit of information about what HD radio is, what it does, what you can buy and why we haven't heard more about it.

What's the Deal with HD?

Fun fact: the "HD" in HD Radio doesn't stand for "high definition" like it does in televisions. When HD radio products became available for purchase in 2004, the HD stood for "hybrid digital" due to the new technology allowing bundled signals to be sent out from radio stations containing analog and digital content. The HD radio receiver sorts through and finds the best possible signals to broadcast, eliminating most of the static that has bugged radio listeners for years.

With HD radio, you get additional features like song and artist displays, and it instantly upgrades your sound. FM stations come through in CD-quality, while the lacking dynamics of AM stations are upgraded to FM levels.

"The difference is really night and day on AM," Mr. Struble says.

And Mr. Struble says that is the future of radio.

"People just realized that digital is better than analog," he says. "HD radio is just that -- it's the digital upgrade to AM and FM."

What's Cool About it?

Aside from the increased sound quality, HD radio has a few other features worth paying attention to.

Because the HD radio receivers are picking up both analog and digital content, radio stations broadcasting in HD have the option to program additional radio formats on HD channels like sports, talk, comedy and other genres of music. For example, according to www.hdradio.com, 98.9 The Rock in Kansas City plays mainstream rock, but its separate HD station plays 24 hours of classic live rock, while 99.7 Kiss FM has an HD channel for blues called The Delta.

"It's more content and more choice. It's better interactivity and we're going to bring that stuff to AM and FM," Mr. Struble says.

That interactivity comes in a pretty cool feature called iTunes Tagging. If you purchase an HD radio receiver that also is iPod compatible, you can hit a "tag" button if you hear a song that you like. It will then save the song to your iPod so that you can purchase and own it permanently the next time you sync up your iPod on iTunes.

Mr. Struble says a feature like this makes getting songs that catch your ear a lot easier.

"My experience is that I'm fumbling for a pen and worrying about driving into a tree," he says. "It's a way to pair music discovery you would hear on the radio with music purchasing you would do in iTunes."

What can you buy?

Mr. Struble says that there are more than 100 different HD radio products out there, like table top and clock radios and car receivers that can be purchased at stores like Radio Shack, Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon.com. And once you purchase a receiver, the additional content on HD radio won't cost you another cent. HD radio also has been combined with iPod docks.

Wait a minute -- isn't the iPod technically competition to HD radio listenership? Mr. Struble doesn't think so.

"I don't believe that there is one source of content or one source of entertainment that people are going to go to," he says. "We don't view it as an either or."

Other products making headlines for HD radio include the new Microsoft Zune HD media player, which contains an HD radio receiver, and Best Buy's house brand, Insignia's, new portable HD radio priced at $49.99.

Why isn't HD Radio More Popular?

It depends on the market. Of the 2000 stations broadcasting HD signals nationwide, it's mostly larger cities that have stations with the technology to do so, while cities like St. Joseph don't have the listenership or interest to warrant the costs to upgrade just yet, according to Eagle Radio general manager Gary Exline.

"The cost to set it up is so expensive compared to the demand that we've seen at this point," he says. "It's something we're keeping our eye on."

Mike Coleman, manager of Mobile FX, has been carrying HD radio receivers for two years and has seen a gradual increase in interest. He's heard for himself the clarity that HD radio adds to stations that may have been out of reach with a regular AM/FM receiver. But Mr. Exline says that a reason why HD radio hasn't caught on is that most people are content with what they already have.

"The medium itself is strong and it may be another reason why HD hasn't gone so strong because radio is surviving without it," he says.

Even though HD radio may not have the awareness or popularity of other mediums yet, Mr. Struble is confident that the technology's future holds promise.

"We believe that in five years, you're not going to ask for an HD radio. You're going to ask for a radio," he says.

For more information on HD Radio, go to www.hdradio.com.

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Copyright 2009 by Knight Ridder/Tribune