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HD Radio Special Report #2

21 February, 2007 03:18:00

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Still haven’t made the switch to HD?

By Jeffrey Smith CEA, CBNT -

HD Radio hit a major milestone on September 18th of this year when WIYY-FM in Baltimore became the 1,000th station in the country to sign on HD Radio and IBiquity Digital hopes to see 1,200 stations by the end of 2006. Now that stations are adopting HD Radio technology and spending significant amounts of money on the infrastructure to support it what can it do?

One of the highlights of HD Radio is the ability to put multiple different audio streams on one frequency. This technology, know as multicasting, is being talked about by radio people all over the country. It gives a HD Radio broadcaster the ability to broadcast their tradition analog signal plus a HD version of the same program. It also allows for the addition of a HD2 and HD3 channel. These channels allow broadcasters to offer different and until now unthinkable types of alternative programming to compliment their main channel. Some broadcasters are offering variations of their main programming, like classic country or deep rock cuts. Others are offering simulcast of other company owned stations or totally different programming all together.

Several things that should be understood by any broadcaster considering the move to HD Radio are costs, licensing and FCC regulations.

Click the pdf download link below to read the full report.