HD Multicasters: The New Subcarrier? (About Time!)
Written Sep. 13, 2008 by Sean Ross in HD Radio with 2 Comments
The news broke earlier this week that WorldBand Media was teaming with Emmis Communications to broadcast a South Asian-targeted format on the HD-3 multicast channels of Emmis' WQHT (Hot 97) New York, KPWR (Power 106) Los Angeles, and WLUP (the Loop) Chicago. The stations are expected to be up and running in mid-October. But it's one of the most significant HD Radio announcements and I wanted to make sure it came to everybody's attention in more than passing.
One of the many foibles in our industry's development of HD Radio to date is that something like this or Beasley's reggae channel in Miami hasn't happened sooner: a station targeted to an underserved audience that might actually buy an HD radio at the right price point. Dismiss it if you want as HD becoming a throwback to the FM subcarriers of a decade (or more) ago, but those broadcasters became specialists in providing niche programming and finding an audience to subscribe to it.
At a time when most HD broadcasters don't have the time, or, frankly, the incentive to give their HD multicast channels the attention or resources that might compel the purchase of an HD radio, the irony is that there are probably a lot of people who would like to program those channels. WorldBand Media's programming would probably make sense in a lot of markets.
Reader Comments
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Niche channels fail to attract many listeners - just ask Satellite Radio. HD Radio is such a joke, and now, HD radios are being pulled from store shelves and inventories. It's over, and now, NPR is not backing the proposed 10db power increase for FM-HD.
I'm glad you bring this up....
One potential application is in Radio Reading Services for the Blind, often restricted to a model of noncommercial stations having to actually *furnish the subcarrier radios themselves* to the listeners.
Think of how many more visually impaired people a radio reading service can reach if the radio is as easy to acquire as going to the corner electronics store, and as easily receivable as tuning to an HD-3, as opposed to the esoteric SCA method.
The other thing I'm waiting for, being here in Miami myself since you bring Power's HD-2 up is for someone to use that technology locally for our large Haitian/Creole population, but that's for another post.