Wednesday, January 30, 2008 11:22 PM CST
Don't touch that dial: Digital radio lags behind TV thanks to upgrade costs, lack of customers
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
Television may be fully immersed in the digital age, but radio is still wading in the shallow end of the pool.
Digital radio — now synonymous with the HD Radio brand name — apparently has yet to catch on with listeners in this area. Local broadcasting officials said this unpopularity, combined with upgrade costs exceeding $100,000, makes the conversion to digital radio an impractical option, at least for the immediate future.
“It’s something we will do, but it will take some time,” said Chris Bullock, regional manager for The Cromwell Group of Illinois, which operates a dozen radio stations in Mattoon, Effingham, Decatur and Vandalia.
Like digital television, HD Radio allows for multiple “side bands” on a single channel. A digital radio station can transmit multiple formats of music, with accompanying meta-data — from song information to weather alerts — added for good measure.
HD Radio also promises better quality: Digital FM radio sounds like a CD, while digital AM radio is akin to analog FM, according to www.hdradio.com.
But while the Federal Communications Commission has required that all TV stations move to digital, there’s no such mandate for radio. So even though all new televisions are equipped to handle digital signals, area radio station officials are doubtful that most consumers have purchased HD Radio receivers or converters.
And with a price tag of $100,000 to $150,000 for installing equipment to transmit with iBiquity — currently the preferred format for HD Radio — stations in smaller markets are reluctant to make the leap.
“There are not a heck of a lot of stations moving to it,” said Denis Roche, general manager for WEIU in Charleston.
The TV side of WEIU at Eastern Illinois University has turned fully to digital broadcasting, but only the audio boards in the radio studio are digital. The radio signal is converted back to analog before it is transmitted to listeners.
Converting the WEIU radio station entirely to digital “is just cost-prohibitive at this point, but it’s something we’re looking at in the future,” said Roche.
The same is true for Lake Land College’s radio station, WLKL, said Greg Powers, radio TV instructor and station manager.
“We probably are not looking that way for quite a while,” he said. “It takes a pretty big chunk of change to convert digitally, (and) studies have shown there aren’t that many people out there who have a digital receiver.”
As for educating would-be radio professionals, WLKL’s existing equipment should be adequate, Powers added. “If you can run a board for an analog station, more than likely you can run a board for a digital station,” he said.
If or when WLKL goes digital, it would have the ability to broadcast multiple formats, said Powers. By adding another studio, the alternative rock station could play country music on a side band, for example.
At present, though, “I just don’t see the demand,” Powers said.
Bullock said WYDS in Decatur will be the first Cromwell station in Illinois to go digital. The move is expected to occur within three months or sooner.
“Then the question is, ‘Can anyone hear us?’” said Bullock. “I don’t know how many HD Radios there are on the market, (so) the zillion dollar question is, ‘Will it take off?’ It’s just so hard to say.”
Bullock said Cromwell’s two stations in Mattoon (WMCI and WWGO) are slated for digital conversion in the future.
“It’s definitely an exciting opportunity,” Bullock said.
In Shelbyville, which is served by three Miller Media Group radio stations, digital radio has already arrived — but not for the average listener, according to Randy Miller, president.
Taylorville-based Miller Media has installed Digital Radio Express, the cheaper alternative to iBiquity. However, if there is a limited number of listeners with iBiquity-compatible radios, there are few if any DRE radios in the local market, Miller said.
So Miller Media uses DRE mainly for “internal” purposes, such as sending a backup signal from one transmitter site, and resending the National Weather Service broadcast from a remote location to a studio in Taylorville.
Otherwise, Miller Media has no immediate plans to convert to iBiquity.
“Number one, it’s the cost, and number two, there’s a lack of iBiquity radios out there,” Miller said.
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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