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HD Radio

From Kathy N – Mr. Pop – Can you tell me anything about HD radio? I hear commercials for it – but I don’t know anybody with it? Is it a big deal?

Mr. Pop History – HD radio is kind of another radio band. There’s AM, FM and – HD. You need an HD-equipped radio to pull in these channels. The problem with HD radio – It doesn’t have enough signal output from the radio station – and has limited coverage. The other problem – for now – programming. Not much on HD that you can’t do on your I-pod.

FM stations get three HD channels – and one of those usually duplicates what’s on the station’s analog channel. The other two could be anything. AM – is another story. AM-HD is essentially the AM station in better audio – no extra channels.

As far as sound quality – it’s not much different than regular FM. So – you’re getting more channels. In other words, as far as FM stations – forget the better audio hype. 

The limited signal problem may get better – or it may not. HD signals are embedded in FM signals – so the signal has been squashed as to not interfere with regular FM programming – and that’s 1% of the station’s power. For example – KGGI-FM (99.1) Riverside California – transmits with 2000 watts. Their HD output is 1% of 2000 – 20 watts! My-my – that’s very limited coverage and very little signal penetration. The industry wants to boot-up to 10%, but that may create interference problems. I know at least one radio engineer who for now – has turned off the HD on 6 FM stations. He got no complaints.