What is HD Radio?

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All radio should be broadcast via this method, if only the FCC would get off their ass and make all radio like this instead of letting a company get the monopoly on everything. Only stations who buy new equipment from the company iBiquity will be able to broadcast HD Radio streams. Also only listeners who upgrade their car or home stereo will be able to listen. So what do you get?

  • “CD-quality” sound
  • AM stations with better sound quality
  • Traffic, stock and song info

It is like listening to the radio on the internet in your car. Imagine you are wardriving and have an internet connection and are able to dial-in to your favorite online radio station to listen. Except that none of the good online radio stations (radio paradise) are going to be using HD Radio. Which means there is still going to be a plethora of advertising like normal radio.

If they got rid of the advertising than HD Radio might be more attractive. XM or Sirius is worth it if you don’t like to listen to local stations with ads every 15 minutes.

Howstuffworks has an article on how HD radio works or you can read more about it on the HD Radio website, on and of course the wiki article.

  • 700WLW

    HD Radio is a fraud and a farse – HD Radio/IBOC causes adjacent-channel interference and has only 60% the coverage of analog. HD radio sales a anemic, and the general public is not buying into this joke. HD radios need dipole and loop antennas mounted outside, to even have a chance to pick up the same old terrestrial radio junk on the HD channels.

  • http://llbbl.com Logan Lindquist

    I agree HD radio in its current iteration is crap, however the technology behind it is innovative.

    My idea is this:

    Eliminate terrestrial radio altogether to free up bandwidth

    Instead of broadcasting from a central spot, piggyback on cellphone towers everywhere

    Setup wifi network for radio in every city using the previously alloted bandwdith taken up by terrestrial radio.

    Get manufactures to make devices to connect to this wifi network, integrate into car stereos.

    Tightly control the ability to broadcast on the network, giving this ability to radio stations.

    –

    Now THAT to me would be HD radio!

  • http://www.opieandanthony.com Computechnica

    XM has more content than HD Radio could ever hope to have. With portable recievers that can record 50 hrs of content you can listen with out being outside. I do it every day. XM 202 The Virus O&A