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HD Radio - To be or Not to be?
With Bestbuy launching the sale of the first inexpensive(?) portable HD radio and more stations going HD, will the format now reach critical mass? More cars and home theater receivers are including it and with the zune HD going to have it, things are looking on the up and up.
HD Radio will take off when it is a free add on. Now that it has crested the $50 price point it is almost to the throw in stage. It is a nice feature due to all the free content out there, but not many people are going to go out of their way to spend extra money for higher quality AM/FM radio content.
Personally, the only time I listen to the radio is to hear baseball games. I'd rather listen to that content on HD radio, but I'm not going to spend any extra money for that. I haven't listened to music on the radio in probably 10 years and HD radio isn't going to change that. It is the same crappy programming no matter the bandwidth/bitrate.
Personally, the only time I listen to the radio is to hear baseball games. I'd rather listen to that content on HD radio, but I'm not going to spend any extra money for that. I haven't listened to music on the radio in probably 10 years and HD radio isn't going to change that. It is the same crappy programming no matter the bandwidth/bitrate.
Well, maybe not a FREE add-on, but nominally priced at least. I mean, you can buy a car and get one with an AM/FM radio, and with many you still have to pay extra to get one with satellite radio. The problem is that while many offer HD Radio as well, it's only offered on a select few models, and then only on the higher END of the model. For example: you can get the Ford Fusion SE with Sirius for about $22,375 (MSRP in my area, according to Ford.com) To get a Fusion with HD Radio in a manufacturer's radio, you need a Fusion SEL ($25,805) plus the Navigation system (an additional $2,000, plus $26/mo for navigation subscription). There is no way to get an HD Radio in a Focus or a Fiesta, meaning if you want HD Radio in a (new) Ford, without replacing the radio, you need to spend nearly $30,000 (don't ask me how the $2,000 radio turns into a $4,000 price, but that's what Ford's website says...) when I could go out and buy a shelf unit for $100, or a portable device for $50.
The prices are all out of whack.
The prices are all out of whack.
Hopefully it becomes more mainstream. Around here (Denver), there are quite a few HD stations and I have only talked to about 3 people who had heard of this amazing service. I think they need to ramp up their marketing a bit to be able to be able to be mentioned in or around the same sentence as satellite radio (of which I define as "critical mass").
Having had a conversation with someone from the HD Radio organization (the particular part that runs the HD Radio website) it seems that they don't have plans to target the mass market just yet, which leads me to believe they want to keep this a premium item at this time, and position it more as a competitor to satellite radio than a successor to FM.
IMHO, it's not the smartest way to go about it. The current position is that HD Radio's signals are of higher quality than FM and satellite radio, and while that is true in potential when compared to FM (and hands down true against Sirius or XM, especially on news/talk stations), the subchannels aren't always better, and cut into the primary channel's bandwidth.
IMHO, it's not the smartest way to go about it. The current position is that HD Radio's signals are of higher quality than FM and satellite radio, and while that is true in potential when compared to FM (and hands down true against Sirius or XM, especially on news/talk stations), the subchannels aren't always better, and cut into the primary channel's bandwidth.
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