Digital Coming to AM/FM Radio Too
Last time I talked about Digital broadcast TV a bit and now it’s radio’s turn. Specifically, I’m talking about broadcast FM and AM. They’re branding this as “HD Radio”, and the idea is that in the same carrier frequencies that they currently use, the AM and FM broadcasters can send as many as 3 streams of programming. The claim is CD quality for FM digital and FM quality for AM digital stations. Yes AM can now be in stereo. Part of the catch is that quality and number of streams is a tradeoff, the more concurrent programming streams, the lower the quality for each.
The HD Radio push is not without criticism. It has been officially adopted as the approach to digital AM/FM in the United States and Brazil only, other parts of the world have moved towards DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting). So, incompatibilities between U.S. equipment and the rest of the world are bound to be annoying at the least for years to come.
Now with any digital wireless link, for computers or receiving audio encoded as data, or video you will not have the same kinds of failure that poor reception areas currently have with analog. With analog radio and tv, when you’re in a poor reception area you can pick up bits and pieces of the signal, you might have static, ghosting or other artifacts. With Digital you either pick up enough signal to piece together the stream or not. Any that have seen the “noise” of a breaking up digital satellite or digital cable feed know what this looks like… absolutely unwatchable.
Ultimately Digital AM/FM radio is going to be a good thing as there will be more (free over the air) choices in each market. The initial cost of receivers is the only thing that might put some people off. Many car manufacturers are offering HD Radio as an installable option. I think it will be good for communities too. I see potential for cheaper advertising rates and better ad targeting for businesses, local news and information feeds in addition to the more “mass market” programming that is currently the dominant theme in local radio.
