Radio Audience Trends

In 2005 traditional radio was finally able to come back at satellite with the launch of its long awaited HD radio. The idea behind HD radio is almost identical to its television counterpart. With HD, broadcasters are able to offer radio content with a high-end sound quality — close if not identical to the sound of a compact disc. Broadcasters are also able to insert additional programming by splitting their signal into what become essentially separate stations. For example, WAMU, an NPR station licensed to American University in Washington, D.C., used its HD station, WAMU-2, to broadcast gavel-to-gavel coverage of the hearings on the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts. Even in the nation’s capital, the audience for the broadcast of such proceedings could be expected to be a limited one. But thanks to the new technology, the station was able to reach out to listeners eager to hear every question of the Senate hearings without having to disrupt its regular programming. For those without an HD receiver, WAMU made the audio stream available on its Web site. The next challenge for HD radio is the development of content that will entice listeners to pay for HD radio receivers.

HD radio is perceived as terrestrial radio’s greatest means for facing off against satellite radio. Basically, HD radio creates a new digital broadcast adjacent to a station’s longstanding analog signal. This creates a sound quality that is often explained as making FM radio sound like a CD and AM radio sound like FM. Like satellite radio before it, HD radio promises radio broadcasting free of static.

But beyond the quality of the sound, the technology offers more programming opportunities for terrestrial broadcasters. HD radio allows broadcasters to “split” their signals, creating additional content streams that can be broadcast simultaneously. In other words, a radio station can continue to play its usual format, news, for example, and at the same time, on a split-off signal, play an altogether separate program stream (a Senate debate, or maybe Marilyn Manson). So far, however, this subdividing of broadcast signals does not come without some degradation of sound quality. A station’s second or third program stream does not generally equal the audio quality of its main station.

HD still requires a dedicated receiver to pull down the split digital signals, but does not currently require subscription fees. It is simply an expansion of traditional commercial broadcast radio that will still depend on the revenues generated by advertising.13 That means HD radio will sound like satellite until it reaches the first commercial break.14