HD Radio Electronic Program Guide goes to field trial in Boston

A field trial of an HD Radio Electronic Program Guide (EPG) ecosystem for AM and FM radio is now underway in the Boston market. This field trial is being conducted as part of an NAB FASTROAD project to develop the business requirements, system architecture and specifications of an EPG-an interactive, on-screen guide to scheduled broadcast programming-suited to the HD Radio market for local broadcasters. Stations from the markets adjacent to Boston including Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence will also be involved, showing how an HD Radio EPG can serve listeners as they travel.

Numerous HD Radio broadcasters have agreed to participate in the trial, including stations owned by Greater Media, Clear Channel, CBS, Emerson College and the University of Massachusetts. Other stations are expected to join the trial as it progresses.

iBiquity CEO Bob Struble tells RBR: “The easiest way to think about EPG is the cable channel which shows all of the shows and scrolls and you can pick out which show you want to go to. We’re trying to do the same thing with radio with the HD Radio data pipe. We think this will be pretty important, especially with all of the HD2’s and HD3’s out there—people are going to want to know what’s on the radio in their particular market. It’s a reasonably complex thing to pull together, because you’ve got to collect programming data from all of the stations and then you’ve got to transmit it over the air. Then you’ve got to have radios which pick that up and display it correctly. This trial is the first time where all of this is pulled together and we’re actually showing live in Boston a trial of how all of that can be done.”

The results will be displayed at The NAB Radio Show in Philly.

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