On Dec 4, 7:49 pm, peejay wrote:
If nobody is buying radios anymore, how can Bose afford all that
advertising? And who is buying all those Polk, BA, Cambridge, Tivoli,
Sangean, etc etc radios?

Go down to your local Fry's (or equivalent). Hi-fi table-top radios
are already abundant and rapidly proliferating. With an iPod dock,
and an alarm and maybe a CD, they make the perfect bedroom system - I
just bought the Tivoli iYiYi for my bedroom. I already have a
Cambridge HD radio with CD player next door in my office. Have a BA
receptor radio in the kitchen. Hmm, that's three radios, just for
me. Heck, I'll probably get one for my next car, and if iPod
intorduces one I'll get that too.

Samsung is (already or just about to be) sampling low-power SOC HD.
From the press release:

...features a System-in-Package (SIP) module and a CMOS, mixed-signal single-chip tuner. Target HD Radio applications include: mobile phones, portable media players, portable navigation devices, table radios and home audio-video components.

Will definitely drive costs down. Wonder if FCC might indeed start
requiring IBOC in radios - maybe phase it in like they did with ATSC
tuners in large then smaller TVs.

With the terrific programming I get free, I can't even imagine paying
for radio.

disclaimer: I worked for the engineering company that produced the
"proof of concept" receiver for Ibiquity. Yep, I helped design North
America's first ever terrestrial digital radio receiver. It was about
seven RU high. I thought digital radio was a neat idea then and I
stitll do.

"Will definitely drive costs down. Wonder if FCC might indeed start
requiring IBOC in radios - maybe phase it in like they did with ATSC
tuners in large then smaller TVs."

Boring - have been through this befo

"Digital Audio Broadcasting Systems and Their Impact on the
Terrestrial Radio Broadcast Service "

15. We will not establish a deadline for radio stations to convert to
digital broadcasting. Stations may decide if, and when, they will
provide digital service to the public. Several reasons support this
decision. First, unlike television licensees, radio stations are under
no statutory mandate to convert to a digital format. Second, a hard
deadline is unnecessary given that DAB uses an in-band technology that
does not require the allocation of additional spectrum. Thus, the
spectrum reclamation needs that exist for DTV do not exist here.
Moreover, there is no evidence in the record that marketplace forces
cannot propel the DAB conversion forward, and effective markets tend
to provide better solutions than regulatory schemes.

16. iBiquity argues that in the early stages of the transition, the
Commission should favor and protect existing analog signals. It states
that this could be accomplished by limiting the power level and
bandwidth occupancy of the digital carriers in the hybrid mode. At
some point in the future, when the Commission determines there is
sufficient market penetration of digital receivers, iBiquity asserts
that the public interest will be best served by reversing this
presumption to favor digital operations. At that time, broadcasters
will no longer need to protect analog operations by limiting the
digital signal and stations should have the option to implement all-
digital broadcasts. We decline to adopt iBiquity's presumption policy
because it is too early in the DAB conversion process for us to
consider such a mechanism. We find that such a policy, if adopted now,
may have unknown and unintended consequences for a new technology that
has yet to be accepted by the public or widely adopted by the
broadcast industry.

http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPA...-15/i15922.htm