It's on: HD radio gets FCC blessing
By Evan Blass 
posted March 23rd 2007 3:13PM
posted March 23rd 2007 3:13PM
We have to wonder what the mood is over at NAB headquarters right now, in light of the fact that the FCC has finally given HD radio -- the promised savior of terrestrial broadcasting -- the green-light. On the one hand, radio stations will now be able to offer to multiple streams of higher-quality, digital programming to the commuting public -- good news, indeed -- but on the other hand, XM and Sirius now have another example to wave in front of regulators who will argue that their proposed merger stifles competition. The new sources of revenue, however, combined with a technology that is said to be superior to satellite delivery, probably outweigh any potential effects on the merger, meaning that Clear Channel and friends are likely partying it up as we speak. As you probably know, HD radio allows stations to efficiently divide their spectrum in as many as five (and possibly more) streams, a move which advocates hope will increase programming diversity but detractors fear will just bring more of the same crap. Regardless of whether the increased capacity brings about more non-Top 40 stations, though, this ruling is definitely a plus for consumers; because even if the new content is just as lame as the current stuff, at least we gadgetheads now have an excuse to go out and buy a whole slew of fresh gear.Update: Just to clear things up, yes, certain stations have been broadcasting in HD for some time now, but those were special cases requiring FCC permission. This new ruling allows all certified terrestrial broadcasters to begin the switch over to digital, meaning that we'll soon see a nationwide rollout.
Whoop De do. Get rid of commercials and then we will talk about me listening to terrestrial radio in my car. Until then. Sirius you rock!
FCC- Ah dudes, what competition? Where is this mythological list of stifled competition?
Clear Channel- Cool, more stations playing the same crap that I will never listen to, party it up!
Thanks god for internet radio, slacker.com and mp3s because a crappy encoded mp3 sounds better than satellite and HD radios are too expensive, not in cars, and will be cd quality crap. No thanks.
News flash! --- No one cares about HD radio!
I'm not sure what we're talking about here... I work at Clear Channel and we've been broadcasting in HD for months now. What's the news?
yep. just a way for them to decrease the available spectrum by eating up extra space on each side of existing chans for new digicrap.
buy your proprietary iBiquity radios today!
MORE BANDWIDTH FOR MORE COMMERCIALS!
“If you build it (new crap on top of old crap), they won’t come!”
Hey HD Radio backers and your NAB cronies, prove us wrong! Now stop whining about Satellite Radio mergers and build something that we will actually want to listen too...
People still listen to radio?
yes! Now i can hear obnoxious car commercials and morning zoo crews in crystal clear clarity! SIGN ME UP.
Terrestrial radio is garbage. Long live Sattelite radio.
The only good news for HD radio, is that it'll be commercial free for the first 6 months (okay, I don't know if that's good news or bad news)
News Flash! HD Radio has been broadcasting over the air for a year now (in Portland at least).
I've got HD radio in the Boston area. All the second band channels are commercial free. And they mostly play very different stuff than their main channel. And every major station has a second channel.
I have XM in a different car. The sound quality is noticeably worse. And only 4-5 channels appeal to me anyway.
I'm very satisfied with HD.
I'm confused. HD radio has been on the air for a while now. Is this old news or was it being broadcast without the FCC's consent? If that's the case, what is stopping me from broadcasting my own stuff on other frequencies?
Let's get a few things out of the way: 1) HD Radio is barely ever CD quality audio; 2) because each station only has so much bandwidth for their HD streams, chopping up their allotted stream capacity into multicast channels will lose quality fast; 3) as another poster said, HD Radio has been up and running for over a year in an "interim" capacity; 4) this whole FCC thing is a little misrepresented. Here's the upshot of the FCC decision (in part):
- Essentially standardizes iBiquity's IBOC system as the HD Radio technology to use (which means no competing technology is being considered anymore, including potentially better ones)
- Agrees to not require FM stations to pony up for HD broadcasting equipment (it's optional)
- Applies standard analog programming rules to HD content (Howard Stern still won't be able to "express" himself fully)
- Requires that all HD-broadcasting stations have to "simulcast" a digital channel that sounds as good as their analog one (which, as I mentioned, depends on how many multicast channels are running; any more than two extra channels and the main channel starts to sound like AM)
I used to work in engineering for a top-five radio station in Seattle, so this is what I recall. Maybe things have changed some in the past 10 months since I left, but I doubt it. While I'm not a proponent of subscription satellite service either, HD Radio smacks a bit of snake oil if you ask me.
Oh Great now I get to hear more of those stupid "HD Radio" commercials.........
Uhm, what is the big deal? HD Radio has been broadcasting on over 1000 stations already. Granted this gives more stations to do the same provided they can afford to upgrade their equipment. Only very few car companies and few stereo tuners support HD Radio. Just like there is nothing on the radio today, nothing changes with HD Radio -- there is still nothing -- there are still 20min+ of commercials for every hour of broadcast and they still cannot get the traffic correct.
I mean, given all the available DAP available who the hell listens to the radio? If you see the trend in Autoblog more companies are adding hard drives or USB ports so that you can listen to more MP3s etc.
There is an entire generation that is growing up that will never really watch TV or listen to radio. While Radio is not dead today, its future is bleak because they have not been playing the programming people have wanted for a very LONG time -- Clear Channel being the worst offender who on many of its stations plays rebroadcasts of old shows when their main people are on vacation.
At least satelite lets you play what you want where you want, there is Zero benefit to HD Radio except to advertisers who will now get clearer commercials.
For those who interested, there is more info here: http://www.hdradio.com/
But really, it comes down to the same crappy content just more clear
I just took a quick look at crutchfield.com to see what it would cost to jump on this HD goodness. It costs a small fortune. My Sirius Sportster cost me $50 and the cheapest HD radio is $200. Considering it is like most have pointed out, crap free radio programming wrapped in better quality sound, I'll pass. May the FCC, Broadcast Association, and HD Radio burn in Hell together.
While I tend to agree with some of the posters, there are quite a few misconceptions out there about HD radio.
Over the past few years or so (since 2002) the FCC has allowed HD broadcasting with special authority to existing broadcasters. Multicasting with additional channels was developed in 2004 and required additional "experimental" authority from the FCC. This ruling finally makes it official and does away with any of the experimental status or special temporary authority (STA) requirements related to HD.
Many of the multicast channels that are available are commercial free. Yes, the main channel is simulcast in digital but the other channels offer additional content.
Public broadcasters have been on the cutting edge of HD technology since the beginning. Many of them offer not only a commercial free main channel but second and third channels with completely unique content. (OK, you have the occasional underwriting announcements but nobody screaming at you to buy new cars or "come on down" to some local business)
The quality of the main channel is reduced somewhat by the addition of these "multicast" channels but the main channel cannot be reduced below a certain bitrate. It is a limitation of the software.
For what it's worth, HD broadcasters have 96 kbps worth of data bandwidth to play with. Additional modes of operation open up slightly more bandwidth as well. The codec is essentially AAC+ though iBiquity's implementation of it is called HDC.
Many broadcasters do a 48k/48k split of the main and secondary channels. 48k is the minimum allowed by the software for the main channel.
While it does not have quite the variety of options that satellite radio offers, it does have one thing that satellite does not and never will have...LOCAL CONTENT. You will not ever hear local voices on satellite radio. Yes, I know that in many cases even local radio stations are "importing" voices from other locations. However, in the case of public radio and local commercial radio stations that actually care about serving the public they provide a great deal of service that you will never get from satellite.
Don't get me wrong...I subscribe to satellite radio but I find myself listening to it less and less lately.
(Disclaimer: I work in the broadcast industry as an engineer for our statewide Public Radio network as well as the local Clear Channel stations)
--Shane
I don't care either way. I listen to podcasts 99% of the time.
And I find it funny that I hate talk radio, but love podcasts. I can listen to what I want, when I want.
Awesome! I can't wait to hear all of those extra loud commercials blarring at me in HD sound!
Terrestrial radio corps still don't get it. It isn't the quality of the signal, it is the quality of the programming. Sheeeeesh.
so now super high quality 5.1 audio is streaming over the air for free, yet internet radio is getting the smackdown over crappy at best 128kbs mp3 streams in 2 channels. can somebody explain this to me?
so now super high quality 5.1 audio is streaming over the air for free, yet internet radio is getting the smackdown over crappy at best 128kbs mp3 streams in 2 channels. can somebody explain this to me?
vaporware & FUD. they just want to keep people from going to sirius or XM. the quality is worse than satellite and you need new HW. oh yea, it's also totally censored - why would i want this?
This article, which focuses on the benefits of HD Radio (e.g., "this ruling is definitely a plus for consumers") but none of the costs (e.g., doubling the amount of spectrum allocated to each incumbent radio licensee) could have been cribbed from an NAB press release. Just the phrase "HD Radio" is incredibly misleading, as broadcasters doubled the amount of spectrum they were allocated but are under no legal mandate to broadcast in HD. Indeed, this FCC Report & Order can be viewed as the HD killer, as it allows radio broadcasters to multicast many lower def. channels instead of unicasting one or more HD channels. Most important, the incredibly valuable spectrum given to the incumbent broadcasters in this rulemaking should have been opened up to new radio competition at the least. Even better, it should have been used to facilitate new broadband services, including unlicensed service, for which this spectrum was heavenly made. For a detailed discussion of these issues, see http://quixote.blogs.com/telecompolicy/fcc_docket_99325_the_radio_broadcasters_digital_transition/index.html. In particular, take a look at http://quixote.blogs.com/telecompolicy/2006/03/the_fccs_immine.html. The latter document was widely distributed among the commissioners on the FCC's 8th Floor and was partly responsible for the FCC's long delay in releasing this Report & Order. The final Report & Order, exhibiting the marks of the brilliant lobbying campaign waged by the NAB throughout the digital radio transition, provides the commissioners with political cover for this huge, anti-competitive giveaway of the public's assets.
“Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check”
“While interest in satellite radio is diminishing, interest in HD shows no signs of a pulse.”
http://www.hear2.com/2007/02/sirius_xm_and_h.html
"Is Pay-for-Play HD Content on Horizon?"
http://rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.4028.html
"HD Radio Effort Undermined by Weak Tuners in Expensive Radios"
http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/7002/hd-radio2.html
“HD Radio on the Offense”
“But after an investigation of HD Radio units, the stations playing HD, and the company that owns the technology; and some interviews with the wonks in DC, it looks like HD Radio is a high-level corporate scam, a huge carny shill.”
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-03-07/music/hd-radio-on-the-offense
"The FCC Tunes Into HD Radio--And May Turn Off Distant AM"
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2007/03/the_fcc_greenlights_hd_radio_n.html
“RW Opinion: Rethinking AM’s future”
“Making AM-HD work well as a long-term investment is seen as an expensive and risky challenge for most stations and their owners. There is the significant downside of potential new interference to some of their own AM analog listeners as well as listeners of adjacent-channel stations.”
http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html
The FCC has just given away our free airwaves to a few corporate thugs, including iBiquity Digital Corporation. This whole setup is just to the advantage of the HD Radio Alliance, as they own most of the 1,200 stations broadcasting in HD - the small mom-and-pop stations have lost coverage and will probably disappear. This FCC sole-source, non-competitive contract award to iBiquity is totally outrageous. The FCC has left it up to the marketplace, to determine the fate of HD Radio. HD Radio/IBOC is a farce !