What it is

In short, it’s an overall sound quality improvement. The claim is that AM sounds like FM, and FM sounds like great CD quality. Cool. So I bet your thinking, “Hey, Brent, how come they can suddenly make radio sound better? It hasn’t sounded better before. Oh, but wait, it has.” Remember satellite radio? Digital Radio? XFM? Sure, their still around. They actually use a digital signal to broadcast to specially built radio receivers. The sound quality was amazing. . . or so I heard. I could never talk myself into buying a radio unit for my car that had a monthly subscription tied to it. I don’t even get cable for the same reason.

What it isn’t

The great thing about HD radio, is that it doesn’t have a monthly fee. In fact, chances are that many of the stations you listen to in the car are broadcasting in HD radio. For free. Buy a receiver. Turn it on. Congratulations, your done. No more fees; great sounding radio.

Also, it isn’t a truly digital signal. Well, it kind of is, but not really. Basically, the station’s analog audio along with some additional digital information is wrapped into a standard AM or FM radio wave. That radio wave is then transmitted out into the world just like it always has been. The HD radio receives these signals in similar fashion as the radio you’ve had for the last fifty years. Any questions?

So, Why Does it Sound Better?

Note that I said it receives the signals in similar fashion. It is actually smarter about the whole thing. You see, as radio waves travel around, they bounce. They bounce off buildings, people, mountains and other large piles of dirt and rock. After bouncing around a bit, these signals get distorted. Don’t believe me? Find a buddy that still uses rabbit ears on his TV set and walk around the room. These distortions cause static and other undesirable audio nuances. That’s what makes radio sound like radio. HD radio can filter through the various signals that are reaching it and find the ones that have been distorted the least. Therefore, your sound gets better. That is why both AM and FM have sound improvement proportional to the type of signal they are. My personal theory is that the digital layer embedded in the signal helps it decipher this. It is easy to know when a digital signal is complete. I have not seen any reports that this is the case, but it makes sense to me.

How much does it cost?

Depending on what you want it to do and where you want it to be, anywhere from $100 - $6,000. Granted, those higher priced ones are generally intended for integration with a home theater system capable of 11 channels and 2 USB ports. You may be able to get some systems for under $100, but they are few and far between. And an 11 channel home theater system would be AWESOME!!

What Else is Cool About HD Radio?

Glad you asked! Remember that digital layer I mentioned a while ago? Well, it does serve a very good purpose. As the music is broadcast, information about the music is broadcast in that digital signal. Particularly, the title and artist. So, as your cruising along or hanging out at home and the chorus of a song catches your fancy, you can glance at your radio and find out what it is. Then you can look for the song on an album or buy it as a download at your favorite music download selling vendor.

There are now newer models coming out that have a tag it feature and work with your iPod. So, if you are brushing your teeth in the morning and you hear that great song you always hear, but have no idea what it is and you don’t want to make a mess of yourself by running through a wet bathroom in nothing but your bath robe for a pen and paper (risking the very real possibility of slipping on a small puddle that leaked out while you were showering falling on your face and skewering your throat with your toothbrush and bleeding to death as you try to call for help with shish kabobbed vocal chords) you may simply smack the “tag” button. The tag button, which I am sure over time will become larger than your standard snooze button and be in just as easy a location, will store the song information into the HD radio’s memory. The next time you plug your iPod into the radio, it will upload the information to the device. Then, when you next sync your iPod to your computer, the list of songs you may want to purchase will be available to you, making it easy to find and buy your favorites as you casually listen. It definitely beats bleeding to death.

Wow! So, can Brents in Boxers do That?

Well, we have tinkered with the idea of making the podcasts to your podcast-playing device display the title and artist information. In the end we thought that most people would be listening to the show while they were working and wouldn’t really be “watching.” Tell us if we’re wrong, but we didn’t feel that in a one hour show where we constantly tell you what you were listening to it would be worth the work. Oh, the iPod thing? Well, not in the same way. Not unless we broadcast on HD. We’ll work on that. Until then, just remember that it’s a podcast and you can listen to it again later, like when you’re sitting at your computer. Then, you can go to the web site where we will happily list the songs we played during that show and will link to where you can buy it. It’s close to the same thing. And remember, the bathroom can be a dangerous place. Be careful.