Public Radio Guru: HD Radio is DOA & Podcasting Dug Its Grave
Jul 31st, 2006 | By James Lewin | Category: Audio Podcasting, General 
Public radio producer Stephen HIll, host of the popular electronic/space music show Hearts of Space, thinks that High Definition Radio, a standard for near CD-quality radio, is dead on arrival, and that podcasting and other Internet audio options dug its grave.”HD reminds me of DCC (Digital Compact Cassette),” notes Hill, “another attempt by a mature industry to administer life support to a sunset format. That didn’t work either, and today almost no one even remembers it.”
“Of the major usage trends that are driving the growth of Internet radio — new “long tail” niche and alternative content, on-demand delivery, user-created content, podcasting (subcriptions and portability), and time-shifting — only time-shifting is even doable with HD, and then only in a relatively crippled way due to memory and interface constraints,” notes Hill. “Even this undermines the one incontestable advantage of conventional radio: ease of use.”
“System thought leaders and power players are finally united in the realization that digital delivery will happen most powerfully online and will do a far better job of supporting the underlying public service mission of the industry. They are now actively working on a comprehensive plan to do it by aggregating both infrastructure and content to support emerging composite business models,” says Hill. “These will include memberships, underwriting, grants, and paid services with a sophisticated revenue-sharing model that involves all the participants and gives a powerful new role to the stations, who would otherwise face slow, painful dis-intermediation.”
