Digital Radio I$ Here

49AM

Future of radio becoming a lot less fuzzy
New digital technology offers more channels, superior audio quality
By MARC FISHER
Washington Post


JVC
STATE OF THE ART: The JVC KD-SHX9000 is one of a new breed of radios able to receive "high-definition" digital signals.

WASHINGTON - We're driving along the interstate, and the signal on ordinary FM radio starts "picket-fencing" ?- radio-geek lingo for the fuzzy flashes of static that pop up as you pass a big truck or stop at a red light.

Jan Andrews punches the button on the car radio that switches the service from analog to digital and suddenly all static is gone.

Over on AM, an even more dramatic transformation occurs, and on a sports talk show we hear more of the commentator's voice than anyone ever had reason to want to hear -- deeper, more resonant, without the light fuzz that's normally a constant presence on AM.

Andrews, an engineer at National Public Radio, and Mike Starling, NPR's vice president of engineering, are taking me for a spin to listen to the next aural revolution, digital radio.

Marketed as HD Radio by iBiquity Digital, which developed and owns digital radio technology, the new sound has already been licensed by at least eight Houston stations, and four have already begun digital broadcasts. "Stations are launching so fast I can't keep track of it," says Vicki Stearn, spokesman for Maryland-based iBiquity.

By fall, the hype for digital radio will be omnipresent. Radio stations will run promotions giving away receivers; buying the units will set you back $250 to $1,700.

HOUSTON AIRWAVES
At least four Houston stations have already begun digital broadcasts.
• KIOL 97.5 FM (rock)

• KKRW 93.7 FM (classic rock)

• KLDE 107.5 FM (oldies)

• KPVU 91.3 FM (NPR/jazz/gospel)


By next year, when the industry expects to sell 2 million digital radios, prices may fall below $200.

The sales pitch will focus only partly on digital's superior audio quality, which makes AM radio sound like FM does now, and turns FM signals into CD-quality sound.

The big draw will be multicasting, the additional programming that digital technology creates: Every station now on the FM dial, whether commercial or public, will be able to add a second channel, and possibly a third. Starting perhaps as soon as this October, you could tune to KUHF (88.7 FM) during drive time and hear NPR news programming; if you scanned forward on a digital tuner, you'd still be at 88.7, but would hear the station's second channel, which would offer classical music.

So far, no Houston station is multicasting, but KUHF plans to begin in October. John Proffitt, CEO of the station, says that KUHF's "B station" will "mirror" the programming of its regular ("Channel A") station. When there's classical music on Channel A, Channel B will broadcast news and talk, and vice versa.

For now, programming on KUHF's regular station won't change, says Proffitt. If all goes well, he says, Channel A might eventually broadcast only news and talk, and Channel B only classical music.

"We're very excited," says Proffitt, "We're finally able to give Houston a full-time classical music channel."

By summer's end, NPR plans to offer its affiliates five program streams to choose from for their second channels: classical, jazz, folk, progressive rock and electronica. Public stations that have dropped music programming in recent years to focus on more lucrative news and talk shows might choose to offer listeners some of the music formats that have been vanishing from the free airwaves over the past decade.

Earth-based digital radio is coming a little late to save the day; the satellite radio providers, XM and Sirius, have won nearly 5 million subscribers in large part by offering dozens of digital audio channels of music you can't hear on terrestrial radio. But traditional broadcasters believe digital will put them back in contention for listeners' ears, especially since terrestrial digital radio, unlike satellite, has no monthly fee.

"Terrestrial radio with its local programming will be strengthened by multicasting, but we'll all be sharing time amongst a lot of new devices" as technologies evolve, said NPR's Starling.

Only a few stations have announced what they'll do with their second channels. A Chicago country station is using the outlet to broadcast tunes from new country artists. A San Francisco public station, which now broadcasts primarily news and talk shows, will add Cantonese- and Mandarin-language programs. A public station in Pittsburgh that splits its time between jazz and news will, like KUHF, counterprogram against itself, offering its music on one channel whenever the other is devoted to news.

Second channels will likely be jukeboxes at first, playing music without deejays or commercials. But iBiquity's Stearn expects more ambitious local programming to evolve as the number of digital radios grows. Others aren't as optimistic. Satellite radio executives, for example, say free digital radio will appeal to listeners who are reluctant to shell out $13 a month for radio, but likely won't threaten satellite's success because radio companies won't want to spend money on the staff needed to create local new programs.

They might be referring to Clear Channel, the San Antonio-based company that dominates the U.S. market and has been widely criticized for its centralized programming. In Houston, Clear Channel's KKRW is already digitally broadcasting its hits from the 80s. Other Clear Channel stations will follow suit this fall, says engineer Bob Stroupe.

As with FM radio in the 1970s, digital radio will grow mainly in relation to its ability to attract listeners to new content; the cleaner sound alone didn't do the trick for FM, and it won't for HD Radio. But eventually, stations will broadcast only digitally -- Stearn says that point probably won't be reached for 15 years -- and every radio you now own will become a useless relic that you'll try to unload on eBay.

Chronicle writer Lisa Gray contributed to the story.