Hd Radio

Introduction

Radio first became a recognized mass media in the 1920’s; however it had been evolving for a number of years (Campbell, 2005, Pg.113). Radio still continues to evolve in many ways to keep up with the ever changing technology. As it evolved from Morse code to commercial owned networks, shows were broadcast as a source of entertainment. As it evolved more, it became a commercial source to play “free” recorded music that listeners could tune into, anytime they wanted. Currently, satellite radio is gaining more and more listeners because it offers many formats that are scarce on terrestrial radio, like oldies, modern rock, gospel, cutting edge dance and classic hip-hop (Hinckley, 2006). The most recent technology development in radio however is HD radio.

Industry Trend

The radio industry, like broadcast television before it, is switching to digital technology. Most people have heard of HDTV, which stands for High Definition Television. Now they have used the same technology to produce HD radio. HD radio is similar to satellite radio with a couple of major differences. Unlike satellite, the signal is provided for free. With this digital technology, AM stations sound like FM, and FM stations approach CD’s in sound quality (Taub, 2006). In addition to the sound, HD radio allows stations to broadcast more than one signal, offering more listening choices. But more importantly to businesses, it offers more chances to sell advertising to compete with the multiple channels of satellite radio (Cuprisin, 2005).

More than 13 percent of all U.S. spending on media advertising goes to radio stations. Today, gross advertising receipts for radio are close to $20 billion (more than three quarters of the revenues from local ad sales) up from $12.4 billion in 1996 (Campbell, 2005, Pg. 134). Recently, eight big radio chains announced the formation of the HD Digital Radio Alliance and promised to provide $200 million worth of commercial time to push the new technology (Cuprisin,