I’ve somehow avoided owning a car with an HD Radio all these years. (These days I’m mainly listening to my iPhone connected to the radio of my 2006 Hyduani Tucson via cassette adapter. It works great by the way.)
I never understood how someone would actually tune to an HD-2. I would ask fellow Radio Executives how it worked and nobody knew. Finally I have found this video.
Um…seriously? Go two menus down and hope your eye notices the scroll and whatever whatever? Have you met my wife? You think she’s going to find these things?
I wish everyone well. I’m not here to make the nice folks at the Canadian station mad or to dissuade anyone from doing cool programming, but I continue to see HD as a non-starter.
As for the argument that new formats will be innovated – not in the current financial environment. Any programmer who spends five minutes on the HD-3 opens him or herself to criticism from the GM the first time the ratings on the main station go down. Why are you messing around with that Polka format when we’re down two tenths! So that leaves us with AM simulcasts and at best Timmy the Intern loading he polka records that none of the adults care about.
So much easier to get in your 2016 and connect your phone via bluetooth. Or your 2006 car and use that last generation cassette deck.