[BC] HD Radio Article

[Davis, Steve - SVP]

> Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2006 11:40:09 -0500
> From: "Mark Humphrey" <mark3xy at gmail.com>
> Subject: [BC] HD Radio Article
> To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
> Message-ID:
> 	<74b029b80602260840s2eb4de6wac311a1612bb52d1 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> 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

Mark,

No, iBiquity sets no constraints on the quality of stations' Internet
feeds.  However Internet feed quality can be variable and depending on
traffic etc. you might experience drops or buffering latency.  Perhaps
the author of the article experienced this.  

You are quite correct: we want to offer our content in as many ways as
possible.  At Clear Channel we consider ourselves to be in the content
creation and distribution business, not just the broadcast radio
business.  We have an entire Online division dedicated to that,
including free, raw (recorded live) video performances for current and
up-and-coming artists at http://www.strippedmusic.com/


Thanks,

Steve Davis