Jun

5

ESPN to Enter the World of HD Radio

June 5, 2008 | by Keith | Categories Sports Radio | Comments Off

According to this article by Maury Brown at his Biz of Baseball site, ESPN is about to expand its radio programing options via the technology of HD Radio.

If you are unsure how the HD Radio technology works, you can find out more here.

On the surface the ESPN product looks promising…with the ability of radio stations to cherry pick from a bevy of ESPN content that can be customized to their local sports market. With more and more radio stations becoming HD compatible, ESPN may be an option for those looking to program multiple channels of content from one frequency.

I do question whether HD Radio will become a viable medium going forward. More programming options and better audio quality aside, HD Radio will still be held hostage to it’s lack of portability.

If I live in, say, Kansas City, and one of their stations decides to broadcast ESPN Radio on one of its digital channels, it is still limited by the physical footprint of its broadcast signal. Once you get away from the signal, you lose that customized programming. This is an issue with HD Radio in general. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to get that local programming anywhere we travel, similar to satellite radio?

I have not experienced HD Radio but I can see how it can potentially compete with satellite radio on a local level. I would love to hear from those of you who have HD Radio and feel it is worth (or not worth) taking a listen.


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