The Wires (Mar 6, 2007)

USA Today: Wal-Mart Stores and the HD Digital Radio Alliance have announced that HD digital radio receivers are launching today in 1,989 Wal-Mart stores in 85 markets. The move will be The Sharper Imageheavily promoted in a major advertising campaign that starts today on Alliance-member radio stations. In response to anticipated high consumer demand for in-vehicle HD radios, Wal-Mart stores will initially stock the JVC HD-W10 Mobile HD Radio receiver, which provides consumers with a premium HD Radio experience in their cars. The units will retail for less than $190 (read more - David Lieberman-USA Today). Also: According to a joint statement released by the HD Digital Radio Alliance -- an initiative of leading broadcasters to promote the roll out of HD Digital Radio -- and the retailer, stores will initially stock JVC HD-W10 Mobile HD Radio receivers. The units, which sell for under $190, will allow consumers to listen to HD radio in their cars.

Union-Tribune: Set-top revolution. The much-maligned cable box finally gets upgraded. By Brad Stone, NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE. Adam Gillitt doesn't hate what's on his TV as much as he dislikes what's attached to it. Gillitt, a graphic designer from Alameda, is exasperated by his high-definition cable box, made by technology giant Motorola and leased to him by his local cable provider, Comcast. Read the rest of the article at the link.

Four Radio Companies To Settle Payola Charges With FCC. CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Entercom and Citadel expected to agree to a major settlement with the government over payola allegations. As part of the agreement, 8,400 half-hours of airtime will be given to independent and local artists. Sen. Feingold also weighs in on the matter.

"SHOTGUN TOM" KELLY has signed another three-year deal with CBS Oldies KRTH (K-EARTH 101)/LOS ANGELES, allowing him to be heard on K-EARTH 101 until 2011.

Kurt Hanson Mar 5: Must read more about the CRB decision seriously affecting the existance of internet radio, a lifestyle I've been living with since 1997 and Luis Kaloyan lost so many brain cells that he drove me and my friends out of San Diego and onto the world of internet radio.

Baka Boyz Coming to SD (Mar 5, 2007)

Cross-Border Program Permit Granted (Mar 5, 2007)

Read the PDF file here

The Wires (Mar 5, 2007)

Cooke: Is HD Radio Dead on Arrival? Excerpts: "No matter how much we push HD-R, the marketplace isn't pulling it. Run — do not walk — to the bookstore, or hit Amazon, and get a copy of “The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness,” by Newsweek tech columnist Steven Levy (Simon & Schuster). I read my copy on the plane to Vegas for CES; and it framed everything I saw and heard there. Walk down any city street, through any mall or Amtrak car or down the aisle in an airplane, and you feel like you're in an iPod commercial. No matter how few commercials an FM plays, iPod and those thousand-song phones on display at CES play fewer. And all the songs those phones and iPod play are listeners' favorites. That's progress, and radio shouldn't take it personally. Downloads have obsoleted CDs. Applause for the clever HD Radio promos I hear in my travels. HD Radio Alliance spots tell of “Hidden Radio Stations” these new receivers can hear. That's cool. And “More Variety, Better Sound Quality, No Subscription Fees” are the kind of benefit statements more stations' promo copy should articulate. But we still haven't made the sale for HD." Read the rest of the article at the link above.

‘High-Definition Expanded Radio,’ Based on SCAs, Will Deploy in Mexico and Haiti A Nevada-based company says it is working on a 50-channel radio broadcast technology using FM SCAs that it will deploy starting in nine major Mexican cities. It says it has achieved 15-channel delivery and expects to expand it to 50 MPEG 3-quality digital channels soon. Compress Technologies Inc. says prototype units of its FM-SCA technology have transmitted digital channels adjacent to analog FM signals. It expects to have products ready for market in about a year. According to the company, its systems “without loss of integrity shrink the size of digital packets to about 2% to 5% of their original size.” Read the rest at the link above.

Target and Fry's In Violation (Mar 4, 2007)

The problem: I went to Target and Fry's Electronics looking for a 17 inch digital TV set, SDTV or HDTV, but all I saw were monitors and TV sets with just the old style NTSC tuning. This is a violation of the FCC mandate. I wrote Target a complaint about their non-compliance to the new rule just today.

The local stores better hurry up and get their butts in gear, stocking up on SDTV and HDTV sets and returning the analog-only TV sets back to their manufacturers since they can no longer be sold in the USA. There's no excuse for this oversight.

Discussion: HD Radio (Mar 5, 2007)

From Garrett:

"Everyone? I'm gonna save you some money! There were some good comments by Chris in his article this week (http://www.sdradio.net), but I want to add something that yawl (that's an actual word down here) might not consider, being in a top 20 market and all. HD Radio is in its wee early stages. Think FM radio in the 1940's. Here in markets # 183-191, HD Radio is not even on the radar screen, and certainly not on your radio dial. Out here, your lucky to get a station even identifying itself on an RDS display, and forget about artist information. Sure, you may get digital service in LA, San Diego, Chicago, San Antonio, etc . . . But if, for any reason, you have to move to Lincoln Nebraska, Amarillo Texas, or El Centro CA, (reconsider), and forget about HD radio, it's not there and won't be for at least another decade. The broadcast owners in these places are not even worrying about HD Radio. My advice? Save your money and get a regular radio or an .mp3 player (or a satellite radio, if you so desire). (Imho, Opinions expressed not necessarily those of sane radio professionals, mileage may vary, use as directed)"

From Bob:

"Yes HD radio is a joke: most stations can't do one channel right, so how could they do two? I listen to the best radio from around the worl now on my Treo 700P phone which sits in a cradle in the car and feeds audio through the car stereo system. This lets me drive around listening to streaming internet radio and now that I've got EVDO data service I can listen to high quality streams pretty much wherever I go in San Diego County (driving from Oceanside to Escondido, every regular FM station fades in and out, but the internet radio is rock steady). One of my big treats in the last week was to find the live stream from KKFI, a Kansas City station that has incredible blues, jazz and rockabilly programming. The Pocket Tunes Player on the Treo even has dozens of pre-sets I can choose from and I can choose from thousands of internet-only stations through Shoutcast. It beats the heck out of satellite, where everything really is programmed according to one corporate philosophy or good old FM loaded with ads and lackluster programming."