I got an HD radio for Christmas

I got an HD radio for Xmas... the Sony XDR-F1HD.  Here are some observations based on some substantial time spent using the radio and listening to HD radio:

1. Not used to a radio taking 5-7 seconds to "boot" when you turn it on.
2. HD2/HD3 channels take 5+ seconds to "Link" whenever you change channels. Doesn't really encourage channel surfing.
3. The radio runs very hot; I've heard those Ibiquity chips suck power and that's why you're not seeing a walkman HD radio yet. (And that's also why you'll probably never see HD radio in a cell phone.)
4. In Bernal Heights (where I live), I can only pick up 15 HD2 channels.
5. Public radio, such as KQED, KCSM, KALW all have no HD2
6. I'm not really impressed with any of the current HD2 formats here in San Francisco. There is a lot of hiphop, but don't you think most of the audience for that's going to just be downloading MP3 "mixtapes" to their iPods?
7. I'm not impressed with the HD2 audio quality; and when more stations add a HD3 that means the main channel will sound the same as the HD2/3 channels - 32kb streams. They sound good for 32kb but there are some strange artifacts that crop up from time to time.

Bottom line: the user experience for me is the worse issue, largely the time it takes to switch channels.  The whole tuning scheme is pretty wacky too, you can't just tune across the HD2 channels directly.

If you're only listening to the main channel programs, it's probably a good feature. And for stations like KQED which have terrible coverage (dropouts and multipath) in most of SF, I suspect it's a good solution in the car.  But for home use, what's the point. Cable and Satellite TV both have a broader choice of music channels that come with most programming packages.

Not to mention that if you're at home, you have far more choices from Internet Radio!

Ibiquity's new plan to save HD Radio...

Ibiquity briefly discussed their new plan to save HD Radio: government requirements to HD radio technology in all radios sold in the US. Guys, that isn't going to fly. You're not going to get the US Gov to legislate you a monopoly. "But they did it with FM, they forced radio makers to include FM on all their radios, and UHF on all their TVs!" Yes, but HD radio is not a frequency band. HD radio is a proprietary modulation scheme and iBiquity Digital is the sole developer and licenser of HD Radio technology in the U.S.

Of course Ibiquity wants the FCC to make their system mandatory, they'd then get a license fee on every radio sold in the US.

They must be big believers in that old saying, "If you can't innovate, legislate!"

Last question on the HD radio panel

I was on a panel about HD radio today, and the last question they asked was: "End it or Mend It?"

I'll spare you the details, but I was the only one that bordered on "End it", I said some days, I think we should end it, other days I think we can mend it.

But afterwards, a couple people came up to me and said, you should have just said, "kill it now!" There is a lot of frustration in the radio industry over this. HD radio isn't taking off. It's being marketed completely wrong. It doesn't solve a problem. It's taking too much of the limited resources that terrestrial stations have.

I guess I should have been meaner and just said, "End it now" after all.

Update: Video of the HD Radio panel here, courtesy of TV Worldwide.

Clear Channel and HD radio leverage iTunes for brand awareness

Clear Channel adds HD radio tagging for iTunes: "Clear Channel Radio, the largest radio broadcaster in the United States, is now tagging tracks played on its digital radio stations to help listeners buy music through iTunes. The company is leveraging HD radio technology to provide the new service."

What does that mean? In reality, it means if you have a compatible HD Radio with an iPod dock (which there is apparently only one model at the moment), if you are listening to HD radio (not analog FM, but only HD radio), and you hear a track you like, you press a button. Then the next time you dock your iPod, that list of "tagged" songs is transferred to your iPod in a special playlist. Then when you sync to your computer, you'll have a new playlist in iTunes that doesn't have the actual songs, but the names of songs you tagged. At that point, you can buy the songs on iTunes, and then add them to a new playlist, and then load them onto your iPod.

To use internet radio people, this sounds silly. After all, we have a list that shows everything we've played recently, and that list links to where you can buy the tracks or CDs.

What is the real reason for this "breakthrough technology"? Twofold: 1. It brings up the awareness of HD radio to people who are googling for "ipod". 2. It is an attempt to show the music industry that radio does indeed promote records and that's why terrestrial radio should continue to get an exemption from sound recording royalties.

Note to radio manufactures: a feature in a radio that would be really useful? TiVo-like features. The ability to record the end of a show after you've turned off your car; or a timed recording of a show so you always get the full program you want to listen to. Or a button that you press that saves the last 5 minutes of what you've just heard.

Or how about this lower tech solution: press a button and it stores the name of the song you're playing. You could then recall a list of the songs you liked, right there on the display of the radio. No need to dock, sync, undock, sync again, etc.

But by the time you've gone through all the steps it takes to use the "iTunes Tagging" from HD radio, it would probably be faster to just to write down the song name!

Top (terrestrial) Radio Execs start sounding desperate

Emmis Broadcasting CEO Jeff Smulyan, quoted in Radio Ink, confirms that he just doesn't get it:

'We're not hiding from new technology, we're driving it. One of the hottest-selling features for the iPod is an FM tuner.'

Or maybe it isn't? Here's the top 10 selling iPod accessories from the Apple Store as of 3-April-08, and I don't see the FM tuner anywhere on it. But the more important thing he's missing is that the FM radio is an iPod remote as well. In fact, it's the only remote control for the iPod that Apple sells now (aside from the one that requires a dock).

'...But one of the biggest reasons for MP3 sales over iPods is that tuners are built in.' The iPod is nearly the only digital audio player available that doesn't come with an FM tuner, but Smulyan said said he believes Apple will soon commit to radio tuners in its market-dominating device.

And I believe Google will give me billions of dollars. That doesn't mean it's going to happen, but it's a nice fantasy world to live in.

Terrestrial radio has to keep repeating this, hoping someone will believe that people do listen to commercial terrestrial radio to discover new music. I think they're just saying that to try and stop the tide of the approaching music royalties being pushed by MusicFirst and the RIAA.

Terrestrial radio across the country adds in total less than 30 tracks a week. That's across all commercial formats, all across America. A typical FM station might add a few tracks each week. Look in the music trades- most stations list less than 5 adds a week. I can discover more music than that just by browsing the recommendations on the iTunes store.

'Our goal, in the next five years, is to have a radio tuner in every portable phone, in every PDA sold in the United States,' Smulyan said. 'We want to reach 400 million more devices in the next five years.' "

I guess I should be thankful that he's not saying put a HD radio receiver in every iPod. (Among other things, that would be a huge battery killer as well).

Tell my why would Apple want to add an AM/FM tuner in to all their iPhones and iPods? It's a $49 accessory with a cost of goods of well under $5, so why would they want to give up that margin, especially if Smulyan is correct and it is actually one of the biggest selling accessories for the iPod? They probably make more margin on it than they do on the Shuffle itself.

People are caring less and less about AM/FM radio all the time. Look at the demographics: they're not getting any new customers. And they're losing a lot of their old customers.

Oh, and Radio Execs: it's not all about the technology. It's about providing the content that people want. And terrestrial hasn't been doing that for a long, long time.

The biggest stumbling block to the death of terrestrial radio altogether is current copyright law. The fact that we have to jump through hoops to distribute Podcasts, the facts that there are so many limitations to the Section 114 music licensing, the fact that we have to pay such high royalties: these are what is keeping digital radio from completely obliterating terrestrial radio.

I'll leave you with one last comparison: Shortwave Radio. This used to be huge 40-60 years ago. There were stations all around the world broadcasting over Shortwave to reach global audiences. People would buy special radios just to pickup the BBC in the US. But now no one listens to shortwave, and many shortwave stations are shutting down their shortwave transmitters, going online instead, because no one listens to shortwave over the air anymore.

AM/FM: You're next. What you should focus on is creating incredible programming that you can stream and podcast, and stop worrying about your expensive transmitters.

HD Radio isn't going to save you. Cookie-cutter HD2 channels aren't going to help you. Forcing manufacturers to include AM/FM radios in mobile devices isn't going to help you. You've lost the battle. Move on.

Groove Salad, HD Radio, and is there anybody out there?

You know that we do a special version of Groove Salad for NPR, right? The catch is that it's for NPR member stations to use on their HD2 channels, which require a special HD radio, which hardly anyone actually owns.

Still, we've got a few NPR affiliates that carry us, and KPBS in San Diego was one of the first. Alas, apparently they switched formats and no one noticed:

KPBS-FM changed formats last week on its subchannel and nobody seemed to notice or call the station to complain, a surprising development considering how rabid KPBS listeners are about griping when the station does anything. (North County Times)

They go on to say:

KPBS plans to begin offering a second subchannel, known as HD-3, within the next few weeks. In a bit of a switcheroo, it will offer a format called "Groove Salad" that was previously on its first subchannel, known as HD-2.

Despite its godawful name, Groove Salad apparently has an audience, at least on the Internet. It features a lot of "chill" music that helps people relax and, if they're HD Radio executives, forget their woes for the moment. (Listen yourself at somafm.com.)

Meanwhile, a 24-hour classical music feed from Minneapolis that provides programming to KPBS at night replaced Groove Salad on the station's HD-2 subchannel.

Whew. We're coming back. And by the time we're back, there might be more than 50 people in San Diego with HD radio receivers!

Which reminds me: If you want Groove Salad in your car, and are willing to spend $200-300 on a HD radio receiver, call your local NPR station and ask them if they have plans to carry Groove Salad on their HD2 channel.

Defending Issa (and other politicians)

Will Wheaton comments on the Issa/HD radio issues I wrote about recently:

I would like to know why complete idiots like Issa, who clearly have such problems understanding technology, are given the responsibility of crafting legislation that affects technology, and those of us who use it.

I met with Jason Scism, Issa's Counsel on issues of copyright and new media, and I must say that Scism is extremely bright and totally up to speed with these technologies and the state of these copyright issues. I'm drafting a letter to Scism now about the HD radio "issue", as he asked me to stay in touch with him on the things we discussed.

What I've learned from the time I've spent in DC is that you have to be smart to get there. But being smart does not mean being "clueful" about all the issues. Congressmen have to deal with so many different issues that frankly it's amazing they don't come off far worse than they do.

I've also learned that in these hearings, you need to listen to not the exact words that are said, but try to figure out what's behind those words. While Issa used HD radio as his example, he would have been better served by talking about digital audio delivery mechanisms in general. Because he does have a point; as more devices come onto the market, the technology may improve to the point that recording from the radio will be as good as buying the CD/digital download.

But the counter-point is that there are already barriers to making copies from radio that would be as good as a CD. And if you want a bad copy, you've been able to do that since the days of tape recorders. Stream-ripping in most cases is a trojan horse.

But why do they keep bringing this up?

Because XM and Sirius sell devices like the Stiletto, SKYFi and Inno which all feature the ability to record and access individual songs.

When XM uses the tagline, "Hear it. Click it. Save it.", then they are obviously touting their devices as a music-purchasing replacement.

Now people think that these type of devices will come out for HD Radio. And they might (although with the current lack of adoption of HD radio, it's hard to imagine that).

So there are legitimate fears, but in the case of terrestrial radio are these fears warranted?

Most terrestrial broadcasters "production values" are such that they put ads or promo announcements over the beginnings and ends of songs. They also tightly segue songs, unlike Satellite radio. And in the specific of HD radio, the "metadata" or PAD as broadcasters call it is not sent frequently enough to reliably separate songs. Having a copy of the song with the first 5 seconds cut off, or talking over the last 10 seconds of it is not the same as having the real song.