is a failure. and the worst part is is that it's not the fault of the technology, but the companies that are using that technology.
i live in louisville, kentucky. mid-sized city. we have i think 10 or 11 hd stations currently broadcasting. one of those is an am station. of the remaining stations, 4 have sidechannels, and those sidechannels don't really sound much different from the main station, with the exception of one which plays spanish music on its side channel. one station has said that hd is "coming soon" for at least 2 years now and hasn't started yet.
i thought the main advantage of going digital (it's not really "high def") was the ability to play different stuff on the digital sidechannels. wouldn't it be nice to have hard rock on the main station and indie labels or local bands on the sidechannel? or how about music on the main channel, but talk radio on the sidechannel? i have long said that in louisville, liberal progressive talk will work. why not give it a try by putting on liberal programming on a sidechannel?
no, the main corporations are pushing digital radio on us through constant promotion of the product and woefully underperforming in its delivery, fighting against satradio without the inclusion of hd chipsets in the recievers. one of the commercials that airs here is that an anchor reads a scandalous script. when they get to the jucy part, the anchor is interrupted with a phone operator stating "please pay 25 cents for the next three minutes". or there's that one where a man on the street goes into people's cars because they are playing a radio and tries to take $12.95 from them. the misleading message is the same. why pay for radio when you aren't forced to? these hd providers don't care about the content of broadcast, but the broadcast itself so they generate more money.
good example of that: one of the clear channel stations broadcasting in hd had as its sidechannel live concert cuts. it was great. i could have listened to that for hours. a few weeks later it gets replaced with classic metal. so what, you may say. i later find out after visiting a cc station website that that classic metal station broadcast locally is from a national satellite feed. the classic cuts was a local thing.
i like my hd radio. it replaced a basic boombox radio i had used for 10 years and has better reception. i use it to dx a lot. but i would never use it for its hd radio purposes. if i wanted to hear satellite radio, i'll go with my stilleto 100 instead of turning on the radio and tuning in. if another radio company came in and provided better and different programming, i can easily change my mind.
i live in louisville, kentucky. mid-sized city. we have i think 10 or 11 hd stations currently broadcasting. one of those is an am station. of the remaining stations, 4 have sidechannels, and those sidechannels don't really sound much different from the main station, with the exception of one which plays spanish music on its side channel. one station has said that hd is "coming soon" for at least 2 years now and hasn't started yet.
i thought the main advantage of going digital (it's not really "high def") was the ability to play different stuff on the digital sidechannels. wouldn't it be nice to have hard rock on the main station and indie labels or local bands on the sidechannel? or how about music on the main channel, but talk radio on the sidechannel? i have long said that in louisville, liberal progressive talk will work. why not give it a try by putting on liberal programming on a sidechannel?
no, the main corporations are pushing digital radio on us through constant promotion of the product and woefully underperforming in its delivery, fighting against satradio without the inclusion of hd chipsets in the recievers. one of the commercials that airs here is that an anchor reads a scandalous script. when they get to the jucy part, the anchor is interrupted with a phone operator stating "please pay 25 cents for the next three minutes". or there's that one where a man on the street goes into people's cars because they are playing a radio and tries to take $12.95 from them. the misleading message is the same. why pay for radio when you aren't forced to? these hd providers don't care about the content of broadcast, but the broadcast itself so they generate more money.
good example of that: one of the clear channel stations broadcasting in hd had as its sidechannel live concert cuts. it was great. i could have listened to that for hours. a few weeks later it gets replaced with classic metal. so what, you may say. i later find out after visiting a cc station website that that classic metal station broadcast locally is from a national satellite feed. the classic cuts was a local thing.
i like my hd radio. it replaced a basic boombox radio i had used for 10 years and has better reception. i use it to dx a lot. but i would never use it for its hd radio purposes. if i wanted to hear satellite radio, i'll go with my stilleto 100 instead of turning on the radio and tuning in. if another radio company came in and provided better and different programming, i can easily change my mind.
