[BC] HD Radio Article

[Mark Humphrey]

There's an article on HD Radio in today's Philadelphia Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/13951844.htm
(registration may be required)

According to this story, "an estimated 100,000 HD radios are in use
nationwide" but the writer goes on to say this is "a mere blip compared with
upwards of 500 million conventional radios."

He also mentions that "some stations also have put their conventional and
HD2 stations on the Internet. Audio quality is not as good, though.", which
raises the question "why not?"

There's no technical reason why Internet streaming audio can't beat the
pants off HD -- in fact, it already does (with sufficient bandwidth and a
good codec)

I'm not familar with the terms of iBiquity's contract, but if someone on the
list can respond, I would like to know if they require broadcasters to keep
the audio quality of simulcast Internet feeds inferior to their system.  If
our objective to offer this wonderful new content and compete against other
media, why would anyone sign an agreement like that?

Mark