The Infinite Dial

When considering the problems that broadcasters have had making listeners buy an HD Radio, consider that ethnic broadcasters once regularly found an audience that was willing to obtain a special receiver to listen to FM subcarrier programming. While the subcarrier market has declined with the Internet, it did create an audience that understood "stations between the stations" and broadcasters who knew how to market to them.

So it makes sense that Beasley WPOW (Power 96) Miami has switched its HD-2 multicast channel from dance to Reggae as "Pirate Radio 96-2." (Beasley is already doing a Reggae format in Ft. Myers.) Even though, as the name suggests, there are plenty of pirate broadcasters in South Florida, it's one of those markets (New York is the other) that has long needed a full-time station targeted to the Caribbean community. While this station starts off with all the challenges of HD Radio except one, it does begin its life with a viable franchise.

One of HD-2's challenges seems just to be staying on the air. At DCRTV.com, Dave Hughes gave Clear Channel's eRockster (now heard on WWDC's multicast channel) a plug only to note the next day (July 12) that it was off the air, as was WTOP's HD-3 traffic/weather channel. That's an experience I've had with many of New York's HD-2 channels as well, by the way. "What's even more pathetic about the "here-one-day-and-gone-the-next" status of local HD Radio channels is that I'm probably the only one who's noticing the absences," Hughes writes.