If you read this blog regularly, you are aware that HDradio has a new owner. I am beginning to view this as a positive development. In many ways, HDradio was designed to fail – and so far the FCC has not done what it did for the introduction of FM radio around 1960. The FCC used its authority over approving electronic devices to require ALL radios sold in the United States to include FM. That’s why suddenly AM\/FM radios started appearing in automobiles – it was not because of consumer demand and not because the carmakers thought it was a good idea. Coercing Radio manufacturers to incorporate FM was what it took to make it happen. You would have to work pretty hard to find anyone who thinks FM radio was a mistake \u2013 other than owners of a few legacy AM radio stations.<\/p>\n
NBC radio \u2013 a.k.a. RCA \u2013 was in the business of selling radios. They opposed the introduction of FM Radio because Edwin Armstrong had invented a far superior product that RCA did not own, at least initially. Retooling factories costs a lot of money. Practical FM radio required using transisters, which were created by AT&T, not RCA.<\/p>\n
The problem with mandating HDradio in all radios is that it is proprietary technology and requires licensing fees to use. This is the opposite approach of SiriusXM which pays the automobile companies to put their radios in virtually every car made in the last 10 years. “Over the air” radio saw no financial reason to push HDradio \u2013 radio is “free” after all. Taking your one license and splitting it into four streams made no business sense – there are few potential listeners, and you just increased your programming expenses by 300% if you wanted comparable quality programming. Fracturing your country music station and airing four different types of country music creates zero increase in the ad revenue. Most sane listeners only listen to one radio station at a time. <\/p>\n
Here is a compromise to make everyone angry \u2013 have the FCC mandate that all future radios must include both HD radio and SiriusXM, but with serious limits on the HD radio patent royalties, or maybe even pay them from radio station license fees paid to the FCC. Moving AM stations to ubiquitous HD radios could be the correct answer to “save AM radio” for a relatively modest amount of money. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you read this blog regularly, you are aware that HDradio has a new owner. I am beginning to view this as a positive development. In many ways, HDradio was designed to fail – and so far the FCC has … Continue reading