I’m sure you’ve heard them. Commercials for “the stations between the stations.” If you’re not sure exactly what that means, believe me, you’re not alone!

HD Radio is a new technology that piggybacks a number of digital channels onto the traditional analog signal an AM or FM station produces. Extra channels mean more programming. Generally, the HD-1 channel is a digital version of the station’s analog programming, and right now most (if not all) stations are limited to that and an HD-2 channel. The HD-2 channels, so far commercial free by agreement among the stations that make up the HD Radio Alliance, are generally programmed with niche formats that may or may not be compatible with the station’s HD-1.

Many see HD Radio as terrestrial radio’s answer to multi-channel satellite radio represented today by XM and Sirius, companies that so far have been almost disastrously unprofitable. Others see HD Radio as an answer to the “inferior-sounding” AM and FM bands. Digital HD Radio is without a doubt, better and cleaner sounding than analog AM and FM audio. The problem is, very few (if any) listeners have been complaining about the sound quality of AM, let alone FM!

HD Radio is a losing proposition. It’s unnecessary. Unfortunately, it’s been incredibly costly to a broadcast industry that’s had a tough year revenue-wise. The launch of HD Radio has been fragmenting to an industry that’s under siege by online and to a lesser extent, satellite radio. Terrestrial radio’s answer to these problems has been to do exactly the wrong thing. All you need to do to see this, is look at the history of broadcasting and see why HD Radio is a dead-end branch.

The early days of radio broadcasting were pure AM (Amplitude Modulation). The first major shift in band-expansion was the adding of the FM (Frequency Modulation) band. FM is naturally quieter and cleaner than AM, and less likely to be disrupted by atmospheric conditions. On the other hand, stations on the FM band are limited to “line of sight” range, as the frequencies that make up the FM band don’t bounce off the atmosphere like AM signals do. Many big AM stations can be heard hundreds and even thousands of miles from their transmitter because of this. Their signals are reflected back to earth by the ionosphere, where FM signals pass right through that layer of Earth’s atmosphere and continue out into space.

So, FM stations began cropping up in local communities, playing music. Younger listeners adopted the new band first, since they found their own favorite music on FM. The cleaner sound of FM was a bit of a factor, but by far, the availability of programming that couldn’t be heard anywhere else (rock and roll, mostly) attracted new listeners to FM stations.

Forgetting about Satellite Radio’s influence for a moment, the people who brought you HD Radio went back to the same well for the promotion of the new medium. Music and content you can’t get anywhere else and cleaner sound. Unfortunately, the former is not true and the latter, not that important to listeners. It was a recipe for failure. No one was complaining about FM’s quality. It sounds fine. The reality of the situation, however, is that in areas of imperfect coverage, HD Radio is clearly inferior, since without enough signal to transmit all the necessary data, the station just drops out. When an FM station gets a little far afield, the signal drops in quality a little, but most of the time the quality drop isn’t discernible to the listener. But with HD Radio, he station disappears, then pops back on, disappears again, etc…Very frustrating and…well, unlistenable.

As for the programming now available anywhere else. Well, simply not true. There’s nothing on the air in any of the HD Radio Alliance approved formats that is so unusual it can’t be found elsewhere at much less cost than the price of an HD radio (still $100 at minimum). Online radio (almost always free), iPods, etc. mean that most any programming a person could want is easily found and consumed.

So, neither of the needs that FM radio served in its infancy (quality difference and programming variety) exists today. Yet the industry insisted on developing HD radio anyway, at huge cost in infrastructure expenses, and the lost productivity of programming and management who now find themselves with another station to program and maintain.

In short, so far HD Radio has been huge sink hole of cash and it doesn’t appear it will improve anytime soon.