So where do we stand today? After 12 years since HDradio was approved by the FCC for digital radio – but not mandated – who has been making an effort to actually use the technology?
The HDradio.com website lists 3,818 current HD based broadcast Channels. It is worth pointing out that just because a radio station licensed the technology does not mean they are actually using it today – especially true on AM radio.
Total: 3818
Tied to existing FCC licenses: 3770
– Some are Canadian, Mexican or using non-radio branding
– 70 more are not connected in the database (call sign changes?, LPFM? FX?)
– 214 are AM stations (out of 4,688 licenses)
– 1,835 FM stations use HD for their primary channel (out of 10,788)
– 3,486 total FM HD channels
– HD1 – 1,835
– 343 of the FM primary channels are themselves simulcasts (think NPR)
– HD2 – 1,264
– HD3 – 337
– HD4 – 50
Stations that appeared on the HD list but no longer do (some are owner or call sign changes)
– AM – 79
– FM – 92
Who uses HDRadio? (Counts are channels, not licenses)
+———————————–+——-+
| parentname | count |
+———————————–+——-+
| Independent | 1067 |
| iHeart Media | 863 |
| Public Colleges and Universities | 356 |
| CBS | 214 |
| Public TV and Radio Networks | 185 |
| Entercom | 158 |
| Cumulus | 118 |
| Community Colleges | 82 |
| Saga | 72 |
| Cox Radio | 64 |
| Radio One | 52 |
| Minnesota Public Radio | 45 |
| Beasley Broadcasting | 44 |
| Univision | 43 |
| Townsquare Media | 35 |
| Private Colleges and Universities | 34 |
| Emmis | 34 |
| Entravision | 18 |
| Journal Broadcasting | 17 |
| Bonneville | 17 |
| Hubbard Broadcasting | 14 |
| NE Public Radio (WAMC) | 13 |
| Alpha Media | 12 |
| Radio Training Network | 11 |
| EMF | 10 |
+———————————–+——-+
Clear Channel (now iHeart) and CBS were original part owners of Ibiquity
Cumulus pretty clearly has little interest. Using HDradio costs money!
Ignore that you could put both Nash and Nash Icon and AC music on a single station
I didn’t do a scientific survey but have seen it used by FM stations to simulcast a lower power, or directional AM station they have that may not provide uniform coverage of their metro area.
I have been trying to think of an example, but can’t think of one at the moment.
There are a ton of nuances to all of this stuff, and I’m pretty sure people haven’t even thought of them yet. For a time – maybe it is still true – CBS was using their HD4 Channel to retransmit WCBS all around the country in locations where New Yorkers tend to live – Florida, Arizona, etc. by doing that, how does Arbitron/Nielsen calculate ratings for WCBS? How does does advertising get billed? Are there taxing implications? Does their contract with the Yankees even permit it?
Since an HD channel is not a “translator”, it could have local ads, but that violates the Nielsen rules for aggregating a simulcast under a single top line number. A deli on the upper west side probably doesn’t deliver to Miami Beach.
And some entirely probable the Yankees are not on CBS any more… I don’t pay close attention
Since half of the regulars here are “from Jersey”, let’s have a look
The /HD just means their primary analog FM signal is also on HD. The URL is a hint at what is being carried. The URL pointing at HDradio is because HDRadio had no website on file.
That list looks incomplete. I’m too tired right now to look further
It surprises me that owners of AM/FM combos don’t routinely carry their AM signals on HD channels. Presumably, they are producing high-quality product — well, in terms of audio quality, anyway — so if you have access to a medium which can exploit that high fidelity, why not do it?
One possible answer, in certain situations, might be that your FM is more powerful than your AM, and you can’t spread your Limbaugh/Hannity/Levin etc. broadcasts into a market where someone else has the rights to those.
Here is a theory – the way Arbitron/Nielsen work is if you put the AM on FM/HD2, the PPM has to be encoded differently and the AM not so. Double encoding is a big no-no. Since the AM and FM products are often created in different places, that means the FM transmitter can’t take the AM broadcast signal off the air, but needs its own feed grabbed before the signal was fed through the AM PPP encoder.
” What Exit?!” lol (http://www.nj.com/super-bowl/index.ssf/2014/01/joe_piscopo_looks_back_on_the_origins_of_the_immortal_jersey_catchphrase_what_exit.html)
Thanks for that list, Art. It may or may not be complete, I don’t have any way to know that, but I do know it is not up to date.
One entry that I am familiar with, is WJLK and its ShoreAlternative format on its HD2. I found it a few years back, programmed it onto one of my internet radios, and it worked for only a few months before the stream went away. I want to say that was 2012. Back when it was active, WJLK’s website had a link to the ShoreAlternative and http://www.shorealternative.com/ was an active site. The site is no longer active and http://943thepoint.com/ no longer has a link to it.
That list is what HDRadio has on their web site – matched up with my data which goes back to the beginning of HDRadio. Some don’t line up – for instance C-Span is listed, but not using their WCSP call sign.
The HDradio list seems designed to make it hard to see the big picture. Keep in mind, they are not advertising streams. Their focus is to draw listeners to radio stations that bought their technology. Harris used to be the big guys in state of the art radio station transmitters. A lot of the units they sold probably were for early adopters of HDRadio. Harris was acquired a couple years ago -my impression was they were folding, rather than the buyer pursued them . Maybe their is a radio engineer lurking, My dad was a “ham”, so I grew up with radio engineers coming to the house a lot to help tune the impedance of the antenna. I remember going to at least one swap meet.
The really odd part is I did the same list on NC and 168 channels poured out. You’ll remember the other list that shows NJ has relatively few radio stations, given its population.
One of my college roommates came from Sparta NJ, so I lived for most of two years sharing a room with him. He was a chain smoker of camel cigarettes back in the day when the country was free. He lives in NC now about an hour away. I talked to him in the phone, but not in person
A question for the .net lawyers. WNSH is an interesting example – Cumulus is apparently leasing WNSH-FM/HD4 to a religious group. It is unlikely in this case, but from a rules enforcement perspective, who is responsible for that content? Under an LMA(lease), the rule is that the license holder is responsible for the infractions caused by the lease holder.
If I created programming and leased an HD channel but hold no FCC license, am I required to post an EEO report online? The station owner plays no role in my hiring decisions
CC, I actually had WJLK in mind with my post above. I bought a portable HD radio and it doesn’t pull in many HD stations but it would definitely pull in anything from the WJLK tower, a couple of miles away from me. The reception on news/talk WADB 1310 (WOBM-AM simulcast) is very good here but I’d definitely listen to semi-studio quality audio on an HD channel.
Oh, and coming from the north, it’s Exit 102!
If anyone bumped into the outage yesterday, it was residue from last weekend and being tired. If a computer ever asks “are you sure you want to delete the entire database”, the answer is no – even if you *think* you’re on the test machine.