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Ponderbear's right. This HD radio thing could go the way of Dolby FM and quadraphonic broadcasts. Very easily in fact. Not a lot of (tech savvy) people here are embracing HD radio. They tend to go the satellite radio route and pay instead. I have a pretty good collection of cassette, LP, and CD so I only rely on radio in the car, and even then I listen to tape and CD more than FM. AM is good for news, but the programming on both bands is pretty mediocre, as others have noted.
As far as sound quality and fidelity: I happen to think FM, AM, and digital radio can sound fantastic. The key thing with FM is the compression threshold IMO. Since AM is vastly used for talk radio and news, the fidelity is less of an issue but the old tube sets can have a wonderful sound to them on the AM band.
HDRadio would be okay if they did the 'right thing' and allotted a generous amount of bandwidth to each station, instead of attempting to cram 3 or more stations on one sub-carrier....But I have mixed feelings on that since it would either require a phase-out of analog FM or the use of a totally different band/means.
Bottom line is that I do NOT feel that the writing is on the wall as far as traditional, analog radio. TV has got 60 or so days, as we all know, but hey what are the stats on cable/satellite subscribers nowadays? Fact is, most households pay for TV, and the FCC can get away with the transition to digital broadcasting. ($$$)
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