HD Radio Has Arrived

Most people think of radio as an older technology. However, it is being transformed into the latest and the greatest with new twists that are making it difficult for most consumers to stay current. The latest addition is HD radio, which allows broadcasters the ability to squeeze up to eight separate stations into the frequency that was previously assigned to one station. The result is more variety and more customized content.

Radio, as it was originally developed, came from radio waves, but it has become much more than that. Radio is really becoming an audio portal for analog and digital content. The consumer just wants good audio options and it doesn’t really matter if it comes from an AM, FM or HD signal...a satellite...Internet radio...or music and podcasts ported from an iPod through the radio.

It is difficult for the car manufacturers to keep up with the changes. As the CNET story (first link) mentions, BMW will offer HD radios in its fall 2006 car lineup, but unfortunately, the car industry has been lagging behind the audio industry for years. Satellite radios are now optional on most vehicles, but iPod integration of one sort or another is just starting to become commonplace. It will take awhile for HD radio to be widely available as an option on most cars.

Radio: what seemed old is new again. This brings me back to a point I made last week. Radio is not going away. The origin of the name may someday seem lost to antiquity, but it is changing into something more powerful every day. Those changes may shake the foundations of the industry who nurtured it until now, but it will present the consumer with powerful new listening choices that were once confined by bandwidth, technology and geography.