Free ‘hybrid digital’ radio discovers stations between stations
Craig Crossman June 14, 2008
I guess I’m dating myself when I say that as a kid my television had a channel dial that went only from 2 to 13. Then we got TVs with a UHF dial that held the exciting promise of more channels, only to discover there was nothing good on that dial. Today’s TVs are going digital and can get hundreds of channels with cable and satellite programming, and now there’s a revolution happening in the radio world as well. Satellite radio from XM and Sirius offers hundreds of stations, but the radios are costly and you must pay a regular subscription fee to listen.
The stations you can get through the new “hybrid digital” or HD radio, however, are free. The technology is able to piggy-back a better digital signal onto the same old AM and FM analog signal. This hybrid signal has the ability to carry not only better sound but a lot more programming. And it’s all free.
Let’s say you’re listening to 106.9 on the FM band. With an HD radio, you can also get 106.9-2 and even 106.9-3 if that station decides to offer it. More and more radio stations are doing just that, because the equipment to make all of this happen uses a station’s existing broadcasting tower and infrastructure. According to Radiosophy (www.radio sophy.com), the makers of a little tabletop HD radio, there are more than 1,700 stations doing this right now. In fact, 90 percent of the U.S. population can tune in an HD station, and the service will only improve.
Radiosophy’s HD100 radio can tune in ordinary AM and FM stations, but when it detects an HD AM or HD FM signal, a little blue indicator signals it’s locked in. HD AM has the clear static-free audio quality of an FM station, and HD FM has CD-quality audio. The device has an LCD display that describes the programming you’re hearing along with the station information. If it’s music, you’ll see the artist’s name and song title, playing time and more. Talk stations will show relevant data such as who is being interviewed.
The HD100 has features including an alarm clock, preset buttons, a headphone jack, a port to link to your stereo system and an input for your MP3 player so you can play it through the radio’s speakers. Ibiquity (www.ibiquity.com) is the company that created the HD radio technology. I looked up Asheville on their Web site and discovered a number of stations operating already: WOXL-HD, FM 96.5; WQNQ-HD, FM 104.3; WQNS-HD, FM 104.9; WTMT-HD, FM 105.9; WMIT-HD, FM 106.9 and 106.9-2.
I want to make one thing perfectly clear: Unlike satellite radio, which lets you tune in all of the programming offered regardless of location, the HD radio signal still comes from local radio stations, so you won’t be able to get more radio stations. You will, however, be able to listen to more offerings that are coming from the same radio stations in your area that are multicasting their HD broadcasts.
The HD100 table radio is available in a glossy black for $99.95 and can be purchased directly from the Radiosophy Web site. The HD radio broadcasts are free. Thank goodness something out there still is.
This is the opinion of Craig Crossman, who lives in Asheville and Palm Beach, Fla. He writes a syndicated column and hosts the national radio talk show “Computer America,” which can be heard locally via streaming audio at http://www.computeramerica.com, 10 p.m.-midnight Monday-Friday. E-mail him at ccrossman@computeramerica.com.
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