[OKDXA] From the 5/31/04 SFO Chronicle:

[Nelson Derks]

Makes me wonder what QSB will do to a DX AM station running a digital
subcarrier. Chances are the radio will drop the digital stream and switch to
analog, but that's just a guess. At the present cost of $400+ for a
receiver, it may be a while before I find out...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/31/BUGO76TLFU1.DTL

A year ago, classical music station KDFC-FM began broadcasting a digital
radio signal that gave listeners audio that sounded as sharp and crisp as a
CD. One year later, only five other Bay Area radio stations have gone
digital.

The problem is, the advent of digital radio has come off like the proverbial
tree that falls in the woods. There was barely anyone around to hear it.
That's because the special receivers equipped to tune in the digital HD
Radio technology weren't being sold in any Bay Area stores.

But, in recent weeks, the Good Guys electronics chain has begun selling a
$400 Kenwood HD Radio car stereo receiver. And this month, radio stations
KFOG- FM and the Bone, which began broadcasting in digital earlier this
year, are planning some system giveaways to help promote digital radio.

It's still a trickle, and the transformation to digital may take a decade or
two to fully play out. But radio executives and technology analysts believe
it is the dawn of a new era.

"It is the future of radio,'' said Dwight Walker, station manager for KFOG
and KSAN-FM, called the Bone.

At its basic level, digital radio upgrades the quality of standard radio's
sound -- AM sounds like FM and FM sounds like a CD. But since a digital
signal is used instead of the analog signal that's been prevalent since the
days of wireless pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, it's possible to transmit data
such as the title of a song, name of an artist or up-to-the- second traffic
updates.

"When we talk to our listeners, the most asked question is, 'What song was
that?' or 'Who was that artist?' " Walker said. "When they can get the
answer as they are listening in their cars, it will be like magic.''

XM Satellite and Sirius Satellite Radio, which have nearly 2 million
subscribers combined, are already sending out digital radio transmissions -- 
along with song titles and artists names -- bounced back to Earth from
satellites in space.

But HD Radio is a technology developed by IBiquity Digital Corp. of
Columbia, Md., to transform existing Earth-bound stations from analog to
digital.

U.S. television stations are also making the transition to all digital
signals, which allow among other features high-definition television, or
HDTV. That transition will eventually force TV stations to abandon their
existing analog channels.

However, HD Radio uses a station's existing frequency and allows
transmission of a simultaneous analog and a digital signal. The digital
signal can be split to beam two or more different programs, such as talk and
music.

So, unlike their TV counterparts, radio stations and their listeners won't
be forced to switch to another frequency to enjoy digital. That
compatibility is crucial because there are hundreds of millions of regular
radio receivers, from alarm clocks to boom boxes, sold each year, said
Michelle Abraham, senior analyst with In-State/MDR of Scottsdale, Ariz.

"It's not like we're going to have to all run out right now to replace all
the radios in our homes,'' Abraham said.

In October 2002, the Federal Communications Commission approved IBiquity's
HD Radio as the sole digital radio standard in the United States. A month
later, Detroit's WDMK-FM became the first to start live digital broadcasts.

KDFC began beaming a digital signal during the Memorial Day weekend in 2003,
with KOIT following shortly after, which allowed time for station engineers
to fine-tune the signal. But the first commercially available HD Radio
receiver, made by Kenwood, was not available until January 2004, in Iowa.

KDFC program manager Bill Leuth said he's heard from a few Bay Area
residents who purchased a digital receiver through the Internet. Leuth said
one Menlo Park resident said the old analog signal was filled with static,
but "now the signal comes in crystal clear on his digital.''

That's because digital radio solves the so-called multi-path problem that
has held back the Bay Area's FM radio stations more than in any other major
market in the country, Leuth said.

The region's hills, valleys and tall buildings bounce standard FM signals,
causing multiple signals that create static and dead zones. So while FM
stations dominate other markets, the Bay Area's top-rated stations are still
AM giants like KGO and KNBR because "you can get the signal everywhere,''
Leuth said.

But digital radio may change that dominance, since digital radio receivers
can sort through the deflected signals to find the strongest. At the Concord
Good Guys outlet on Friday, store manager Ryan McClane demonstrated a
Kenwood car HD Radio receiver that pulled in the Bone clearly, while a
standard FM radio could not find the signal.

Although HD Radio has had little promotion, a customer came in to buy one
last week, McClane said. The Kenwood receiver costs $400 but must be plugged
into an HD Radio-ready in-dash car radio that starts at about $200. Kenwood
has produced those in-dash radios for the subscription satellite radios.

Panasonic, meanwhile, recently introduced a $1,000 car stereo that includes
an HD Radio and receiver. Other manufacturers plan to roll out HD Radio car
stereos later this year.

The transition, however, will be slow. According to IBiquity, only 110
stations in the country are broadcasting in digital, and only 310 stations
have even licensed the HD Radio technology. That leaves the vast majority of
the 10,700 commercial stations in the country still beaming analog, Abraham
said.

The dearth of available digital stations will do little to convince average
consumers to shell out more money for an HD Radio, and the low number of
potential listeners won't provide an incentive for stations to spend the
average $80,000 for digital conversion.

"One follows the other. You need the stations to be out there in order to
get people to buy the radios,'' Abraham said.

Still, she noted IBiquity has the upper hand in getting stations to convert
because its investors include the biggest radio corporations, including
Clear Channel Communications, Bonneville International Corp., Susquehanna
Radio Corp., Viacom Inc. and ABC Inc.

Abraham projects sale of digital radios to reach 8.2 million in the United
States by 2007. The number includes 4 million terrestrial digital radios,
although there will be some that combine both terrestrial and satellite
digital radio.

But it may be 20 years before all radios become digital, she said.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Who's digital?
The following local radio stations are broadcasting in digital:

KDFC-FM 102.1

KFOG-FM 104.5

KOIT-FM 96.5

KSAN-FM 107.7

KZBR-FM 95.7

KEMR-FM 105.7

Source: IBiquity Digital Corp.






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