HD Radio's Big Month

I haven’t blogged much about one of my favorite topics lately, that being HD Radio.

As many readers know, through Flatiron, I am an investor in and board member of iBiquity Digital, the creator of the HD Radio technology that the broadcast radio industry is using to go digital.

However, I feel the need to point out what a big month November was for HD Radio.

In the middle of November, iBiquity announced that Intel has made a strategic investment in iBiquity and in that announcement, Intel said:

“This investment signals Intel Capital’s support for HD Radio,” said
Sriram Viswanathan, Managing Director for Intel Capital’s Mobility
investments. “We view HD Radio as an exciting new addition to the
digital media landscape and look forward to evaluating a host of
exciting opportunities to enable affordable, portable and low-power
digital media devices that include HD Radio.”

"Affordable, portable and low-power digital media devices that include HD Radio".  HD is not your mother’s transistor radio for sure.

Then, later that week, Clear Channel announced that it had already converted over 200 stations to digital broadcasting.  That’s in less than a year.  And that is just one station group, although the biggest station group.

Then at the end of November, Boston Acoustics announced that it is shipping a great new table top HD radio. I am getting one for my office so I can show off all the new free multicast channels that are going to be coming on air.

It’s been a long haul making HD a reality, but it sure feels real now.