Hd radio changes

I heart radio flipped both 94.9 hd2 and hd3 to new formats. To capitalize on the recent trends to bring soft ac back to the radio I heart added the breeze to HD2 replacing the old WCCV feed that was dropped in the summer. And wgst lost its fm signal as I heart added Variety hITS "THE LAKE" TO HD 3

Rick Rose 2.0 said:

I heart radio flipped both 94.9 hd2 and hd3 to new formats. To capitalize on the recent trends to bring soft ac back to the radio I heart added the breeze to HD2 replacing the old WCCV feed that was dropped in the summer. And wgst lost its fm signal as I heart added Variety hITS "THE LAKE" TO HD 3

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Interesting that radio is finally paying some attention to their HD channels.

A couple of years back, a station I worked with had an interesting experience. The main channel was in HD and due to a technical issue the HD1 channel had no audio. Analog was working fine but no audio on the HD signal.
Not long after the HD audio was lost the receptionist started getting calls from people saying they could only hear the station for a few seconds. If memory serves she received over 20 calls in one hour!

If you have a HD receiver you know you must tune to the frequency and receive analog audio for a few seconds until the receiver captures and buffers the HD signal. So people with HD receivers didn't know they had HD receivers! Seems to be a common problem - people have these HD radios in their cars but have no idea they have one or how to use it.

wavo said:

Interesting that radio is finally paying some attention to their HD channels.

A couple of years back, a station I worked with had an interesting experience. The main channel was in HD and due to a technical issue the HD1 channel had no audio. Analog was working fine but no audio on the HD signal.
Not long after the HD audio was lost the receptionist started getting calls from people saying they could only hear the station for a few seconds. If memory serves she received over 20 calls in one hour!

If you have a HD receiver you know you must tune to the frequency and receive analog audio for a few seconds until the receiver captures and buffers the HD signal. So people with HD receivers didn't know they had HD receivers! Seems to be a common problem - people have these HD radios in their cars but have no idea they have one or how to use it.

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They definitely make it more difficult to find than they should... My vehicle, a 2016 Kia Sorento, doesn't even have HD.

I'll never understand why iHeart here chooes religious programming on Power961 (HD2) and Spanish (HD3) when many other iHeart Top 40s have Evolution, Spin Cycle and other dance/EDM on their subchanels. (smh)

Now if we can only get the cloud to get a better sound on the HD stations for 99.7. 99X sounds awful. I can't even listen to it. Too compressed maybe? Meanwhile, Entercom sounds real good on the HD side. COX isn't much better on 97.1. TOSOTR sounds like my speakers have pillows sitting on top of them. Glad to see we have Soft Hits and Variety Hits in town and would support a translator signal for one or both of those HD signals. Personally, I think Variety Hits has a better chance than Soft Hits.

96.7 THE BEAT definitely needs an HD channel. Nobody knows the station even exists especially anyone north of the Airport

THE BEAT is on 96.1 hd3

They should promote it but most stations never promote their HD channels

ShawtyBlack_ATL said:

They should promote it but most stations never promote their HD channels

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Hell Shawty...most stations don't even advertise their ANALOG channel!

Imagine that. A business which sells advertising doesn't believe in using advertising...

I curious...how many posters/lurkers on this board have at least one HD capable radio? I assume we're somewhat more interested in the business of radio than the average Joe/Jane.

wavo said:

I curious...how many posters/lurkers on this board have at least one HD capable radio? I assume we're somewhat more interested in the business of radio than the average Joe/Jane.

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I have an insignia portable at home and use it for the oldies HD2 of WDRC-FM, which has an outlier's-delight playlist of big hits and obscurities, basically anything that hit the top 40 on either the pop or R&B chart from the mid-'50s through 1969. Song selection seems purely random --- some hours are full of popular oldies, then the next hour most songs will be songs hardly anyone remembers. (Procol Harum's "Homburg," anyone? How about Marianne Faithfull's "Come and Stay With Me"?) It will never make a penny for the station and it's been in place since Buckley owned the station, which was sold four years ago.

Until recently, I also used this to listen to the iHeart classic country feed on WWYZ's HD2, but that stream was dumped for The Breeze a couple of weeks ago; no HD3 was created, the format was simply eliminated. I only listen to The Breeze occasionally. None of the stuff on the other HDs really interests me, except for WTIC-FM's HD relay of out-of-market (Boston) sports talker WEEI. We get all the Boston ads, but my listening to this HD relay from 120 miles away makes me worthless to those advertisers and to Entercom, so I have no idea why it's even carried here.

wavo said:

I curious...how many posters/lurkers on this board have at least one HD capable radio? I assume we're somewhat more interested in the business of radio than the average Joe/Jane.

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I have the Insignia pocket HD radio - NS-HD01A - discontinued in 2014 and the Insignia portable NS-HDRAD2 currently still in commission at Best Buy. No car radio with HD.