By: RANDY DOTINGA - For the North County Times
While you weren't looking ---- or listening ---- 10 new radio stations have added themselves to the San Diego radio dial.
One plays an eclectic mix of music like you'd find in a hip coffeehouse. Another offers 24-7 broadcasts of a top-rated morning show. Others play electronica, country and Spanish-language music, all commercial-free and with little or no interruptions from announcers.
For some listeners, this may sound like nirvana. And it can all be yours if you have at least $100 burning in your pocket and decent radio reception in your home, office or car.
Yes, HD Radio is finally ready for its wide shot. (No close-ups, please, it's still putting on its makeup.) About 12 local stations have adopted the technology, with 10 creating sister stations by broadcasting through secondary channels.
And since HD Radio is in its infancy and not widely known, the secondary channels are both saving money and hoping to attract listeners by not hiring disc jockeys or playing commercials.
"You have to have the content first to excite people to buy these radios" and compete with satellite radio, which makes people pay to listen to commercials, said Charlie Quinn, operations manager at stations KyXy and Sophie@103.7, which both offer secondary HD channels.
Despite its name, HD Radio is not "high definition" radio, but the idea is similar to those hifalutin TV sets. HD-equipped stations broadcast digitally, allowing them to sound clearer and air one or more secondary channels (HD-2, HD-3 and so on).
Read more at the NC Times. com:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/10/11/entertainment/radio/12_16_1710_10_07.txt