Sunday, March 29, 2009

Quietly Becoming Ubiquitous

Internet radio already readily available to anyone with a computer and internet connection, more and more on mobile devices, and the battle for the dashboard is just beginning to include internet audio.

In the mix of all this is a growing selection of tabletop internet enabled wifi/ethernet radios. I'm not sure how big the market is for these clock/radios but the number of models seems to be growing. Just released, is a unit from Acoustic Research. Engadget just did a post detailing the radio that you can read here.


It's one of the most "normal" looking internet radios I have seen. You know what I mean...some of the earlier models kinda looked like a science project with fancy knobs. This one blends right in.

No HD Radio here. Why would they. Why are we? I predict it will happen on its own, but now is the time to abandon HD Radio. So much time and MONEY...lots of money has been wasted on what might best be called a transitional product that now after all this time might be politely called stillborn.

I welcome someone to challenge my belief. If someone can provide me with a HD Radio unit sales figure I will happily publish it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everything about HD Radio is a secret and a lie:

"HD Radio spinners claim a breakthrough year: Pulling a fast one"

"According to a press release from the Alliance 330,000 HD receivers were sold last year. This is a 725 per cent increase from the 40,000 sets purchased a year earlier and therefore 2007 was a 'breakthrough year' for the technology. In 2008 they will sell a million of the things."

http://tinyurl.com/4zgkaw

For those HD radios sold, you can bet that at least half have been returned for being "deaf" and for bland programming. iBiquity's numbers for converted HD stations, and multicast channels is also false, as we know that in Wash., D.C., and elsewhere, HD is being turned off:

"They’re turning off HD in Washington, DC"

"Well, this time it’s not an anomaly or a digital exciter glitch—at least not that we can see. For weeks now the Washington, DC market has been turning off its HD Radio signals en masse. There is no longer any station in the market on AM broadcasting in HD. ESPN Deportes Radio/Red Zebra’s 730 WXTR-AM long ago shut off the signal. But now that list includes 630 WMAL (Citadel); 570 WTNT (Clear Channel); Red Zebra’s 980 ESPN Radio; and 1500 WFED-AM (Bonneville). The FM list now includes 106.7 WJFK-FM (CBS Radio); 102.3 WWMJ-FM (Radio One); 104.1 WPRS-FM (Radio One) and 107.7 WWWT-FM (Bonneville)."

http://www.rbr.com/radio/12018.html

I just wonder, who continues to feed this monster, besides Clear Channel?

Randall Bloomquist said...

You are absolutely correct about HR Radio. It is (was)radio's version of the Laserdisk -- just oddity on the road to the Wi-Fi cloud. In addition to the tech shortcomings, HDs programming has been unremarkable. Who was going to spend $150 or $200 to hear tweaked versions of existing formats.