HDRadio is the brand name and trademark for Ibiquity’s digital over the air radio that won FCC approval as the official (patented and proprietary) delivery method for AM and FM digital radio in 2002. It permits CD quality AM and 4 channels of FM on a single frequency.
After 13 years and hundreds of millions of dollars in promotion, 2/3 of new cars still do not come with HD capable radios, few consumers know what it is, even fewer want it, and the handful of original programming channels (like WDRV Deep Tracks in Chicago) have given up. Harris Radio, which made the HD capable radio transmitters went out of business.
Digital radio would be a good thing, but this was the wrong approach. Digital phones (ISDN) was a great idea in the 1990s, but it died for many of the same reasons.
Ibiquity is partly owned by iheart media (formerly Clear Channel) who quickly adopted the technology in 2004 but gave up quickly trying to create interesting content – why program something nobody can hear? and why would consumers want something to pay for a new radio with no content?
So Ibiquity is being sold to a company whose business is milking dollars from patents. It’s a reasonable guess this is the end of any further development of the technology. SiriusXM won the digital radio war. Howard Stern gave away free radios to build critical mass for Sirius. Game Over.
I bought a Panasonic HDRadio that has XM capability for my car in 2005. Seldom do I use the AM or FM. When I do use AM or FM, it is in “auto” mode to automatically get the HD signal when it is available. In the suburbs, even the HD stations are received without HD. Closer to the transmitters, the HD stitches in and out – it sounds like switching between AM and FM during a simulcast and the switching is very annoying and distracting.
I’ll bet there are not many other SRG users with first hand HDRadio experience. Outside of SRG, I don’t know anyone that even knows what it is.
The $172 million “purchase price” is very misleading. Close to $140 million of that is assuming debt run up by the company. The financial projection is for $40 to $50 million a year on royalties. Once iHeart is not an equity partner, I would expect them to turn off their HD 2/3 channels and the revenue stream will dry up. NPR stations pretty widely use HDRadio, allowing them to have news/talk on one and classical on HD2, effectively killing their Classical stations and need for duplicate networks.
With the disclaimer that I download the HD radio list every night, but do not delete HD channels that go away
Shockingly, my nightly download hasn’t worked, probably for years 😉 The page that lists all the stations with HD no longer exists. They offer 10 stations at a time, a great way to avoid people noticing HDRadio has no emperor’s clothes
Well I guess I am a tiny minority on this one. I have HD radio in my car and enjoy it. The AM quality is very close to FM Stereo. There are multiple FM stations in my area that have 2-3 different streams.
Of course, I was one of those weirdos that had an AM Stereo (C-Quam) radio in my car back in the 1980’s.
So how does a Rush Limbaugh sound in stereo?
Back in the 1980s, my car came with an AM stereo receiver – the only AM stations that came in stereo were WWJ (All News) and WJR (news/talk)
What is your favorite over the air HD2/3/4 stream?
I concur with the AM and FM quality you mention when the HD switches in and stays in. With my car radio, that is about 30 miles or so from the transmitter. Unfortunately, I live 40-50 miles from the transmitter and the HD does not switch in until I get closer, maybe 40 miles or so depending on the station.
You have one up on me with the good HD reception, floyle, but I bet you never heard the Joan Hamburg show in HD as I have. Any SRG points for that, Art? 😉 lol
Left and right nostril?
If the prices were cheaper, I would have sprang for an HD radio. I loved the alternative to having yet another monthly bill with SiriusXM.
It’s the chicken and the egg. Noone produces content because noones buying the radios and noone buys the radios because there’s no content.
I can see AM going away next. So what’s left? Using our phones to get conservative talk shows over the internet to listen in our cars? Listening live is hell on your data plan. Listening to a podcast kills the live call-in show. It stinks on ice 🙁
The FCC’s plan to Save AM was put out for comment officially, but didn’t give owners the free FM translator licenses they were hoping for. Fiberglass antennas might help in the sense that stations can tear down their towers and sell the land without shutting down. Main problem is that can’t be used for directional arrays
One solution would be to end to simulcasts between XM satellites and Sirius satellites and use one set set to of the birds to transmit existing AM and FM stations that migrate there after paying an annual license fee that would be compatible to existing their annual costs for transmitter land and electricity for the high power broadcasts.
Last time I looked, there were 5 satellites broadcasting the same content on two sets of frequencies. How could the green energy efficiency focused administration have supported this? oh yes, I forgot about cronyism. 😉
How would you put 16,000 stations on one satellite? Who would pay the music licensing fees since SiriusXM isn’t covered by radio’s exemption?
Unless someone puts money behind it, any transition to digital radio would take ten years to phase in as that’s about the lifespan of a car radio. FM radio only got past the chicken and egg problem when the FCC mandated that all car radios had to be FM capable, helped along by improvements in technology. Stereo was also a big advantage to the consumer.
A lot of the time, SiriusXM radios are picking up the signals of a local ground based booster rather than directly from the satellite – a compromise might be to set aside a portion of the channels and feed the local stations in the area into the ground based boosters. Right now, the relationship between Radio and SiriusXM is too toxic for that kind of cooperation
It was free XM last week and this week so far. I check it out every now and again.
I’m glad I didn’t buy it, I just get the weather and road updates from NCDOT & VDOT. After four days , its like, ” Gump , How do you listen to that shiite?”
On a positive note:
The Mothman festival is coming up in Point Pleasant West Virginia september 18-20 .
Its a blast ! Not quite burning man, but it has that down home feel : )
have a good one
Parrott