[BC] Re: Interest in HD gear

[Xmitters@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/17/06 9:58:30 AM Central Standard Time, 
broadcast-request at radiolists.net writes:

<< Among the more frustrating threads that I've seen
          over the past couple of years are those that say
          this system is the last hope for terrestrial radio,
          and it must work now, or all is lost.
 
          That does seem rather "off to the extreme," just as
          saying digital radio is never going to work.
 
          Perhaps with the sort of viewpoint about the time
          horizon you are expressing, someone will come
          up with some good ideas for solving some
          of the technical issues, as well as the programming ones. >>
Barry:

          While I am not ready to give up yet, I'm concerned about 
terrestrial broadcasting in terms of our competitive edge and the loss of the coolness 
factor. Cellular telephone technology has me very concerned because of the TV 
commercials that show some of the possibilities cellular service has to offer 
"beyond the call"  Once people get used to satellite radio, will they be 
interested enough in our services to go out and spend $$ on a new radio? Maybe if 
satellite radio programming appears the same as terrestrial  to the average 
listener, eventually we will be on a level playing field with satellite.

Then again, given that HDTV/ Wide screens are selling well even when 
demonstrated with 4:3 aspect video, I'm tempted to believe that the public will buy 
anything. Just hang the word "digital" on it and it will sell. You know those 
digital pregnancy test kits and digital blenders are way better than the "old" 
system.

Some stations running HD are promoting it on the air, which is both good and 
bad. Good because it gets the word out there, bad because Joe Blow radio 
listener is going to think "Gee, digital and I don't have to do a thing" because 
this listener will think he's already getting digital. 

Maybe the best way for large scale deployment is for the receiver 
manufacturers to put the HD Radio decoders in receivers and make it transparent to the 
listener so the listener does not have to take any action; if HD is present, the 
receiver will use it. I'm not sure if deployment in cars will help other 
receiver sales because many people still think that the best radio sound is in a 
car, and may not translate the superior performance of HD as being possible in 
the home.

The time required to get HD Radio deployed in large enough numbers to attract 
the receiver manufacturers interested, has me very worried because our 
competing technologies are going to continue to upgrade their offerings as time goes 
by.

Jeff Glass