New York City Country Radio For The Holidays

The Future of New York Radio: Howard Stern Sirius Style

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Author is not associated with Sirius or Howard Stern in any way and this article is meant to be an analysis of the move to Sirius Satellite Radio by Howard Stern and events surrounding it.

Howard Stern’s move to Sirius Satellite Radio will really make a huge difference for New York Radio. With listeners making the move to Satellite Radio and away from New York City, what will happen to the radio stations broadcasting in New York City? Does radio continue on a good course or does it need a wake up call? – Is this it’s wakeup call?

The Daily News, has said that New York City radio “faces its last great wakeup call” and is being forced to deal with changing technologies, and the ever changing consumer tastes. The biggest threat, obviously to New York Radio is the changing of radio formats, from terrestrial to Satellite Radio. The Hollywood Reporter has outlined several new changes that Sirius Satellite Radio has made to its radio channel line up in order to take away market share from New York Radio and this is a huge threat to the terrestrial format.

Howard Stern isn’t the only one whom is making the move to Satellite Radio, there are several shock jocks that are in some areas, the flag ship of Clear Channel and several other networks. Stern will now have two stations via Sirius Satellite Radio and there are more in the works. Sirius also has plans for upto five family and kids channels as well as three difference Christian channels. Sirius is covering all its listeners wants and desires, New York radio has failed to do that, and Sirius is answering the call of its subscribers for better content!

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HD Radio Stations - They’re Here (And More Are on the Way)

If, like many Americans, you’re holding off on buying an HD Radio because you’re not sure there are any stations broadcasting in HD Radio technology, you could stop holding off.

There are already more than 1,000 stations across the U.S. broadcasting in HD Radio technology and more are adding the technology every day.

This is not limited to just major markets, either. For example, here in Colorado, there are stations broadcasting in HD Radio technology in Colorado Springs. And Ft. Collins. Albuquerque has seven stations broadcasting HD radio signals, and both Memphis and Nashville, TN have HD technology licensed stations.

Naturally, the major markets such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, San Francisco, Seattle, and St. Louis all have numerous stations broadcasting HD Radio. Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Miami do too. In fact, it’s almost impossible to find a city with a population of more than 200,000 that does not have at least a couple of HD radio stations.

How about HD AM stations?

While many of these stations are HD FM, there are also a number of HD AM stations. For example, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver/Boulder, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, and Minneapolis-St. Paul have HD AM stations, as do Albany-Schenectady-Troy, San Diego and San Antonio.

What’s the advantage of HD AM stations. It’s that HD enables AM stations to sound as clear and static-free as conventional FM stations. So, if you’re a talk radio fan, you would be able to hear your favorite programs with the same clarity and fidelity as if they were broadcasting in FM.

The future also looks very bright for HD Radio. The big broadcast corporations such as Infinity and Clear Channel have pledged their support of HD Radio. Plus, HD radio is being pushed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which has announced an agreement that will accelerate the conversion of over 800 PBS AM and FM stations to iBiquity’s digital HD Radio broadcasting.

Just as important, iBiquity recently announced that is has signed agreements with four, new China-based manufacturers to produce low-cost HD radios.

Tim Somers
MusicHoncho.com