David, HD receivers are not selling because the public has no interest.
Most
people already own 5 radios that work just fine. And judging by the lack
of
sales they see no reason to upgrade.

It could take 10 years for most radios to contain HD technology...but
that's OK.

HD isn't going anywhere.

Why does this feel like Am stereo all
over again. Another technology that listeners never asked for but could
have
been great.. but because of no interest and competing ideas simply died.

Why does this feel like FM all over again? (Lots of naysayers, but given
time it becomes the accepted standard.)

FM didn't take over the majority of listening until FM stations approached
the same penetration as existing AM's.

Which occurred when Auto manufactures started installing them in cars (as
standard equipment on many!).

So, it took a while from the technology rolled out to public acceptance.

IBOC does not have anywhere near the useful coverage area of existing
analog. This is one of it's largest problems.

It doesn't have to...it's not replacing analog.

The other big problems are that the upcoming and a lot of the current
target market don't give a damn about radio in general, commercial radio
in particular, and, for those that do, they are quite happy enough with
the signal and quality they already have.

I remember my father telling me I didn't need to spend $35 to get my first
new car equipped with FM Radio.

People didn't really care about that either.

FM offered a sharp increase in fidelity over AM. IBOC does not.

AM IBOC *IS* a great increase in fidelity.

Also offerrs stereo for AM.

It offers practically nothing on FM as far as increase in quality...

Quality won't be the selling point...but the additional stream choices will
be.

and the tradeoff on AM is that IBOC, when you can use it at all, does
decrease noise, but the sound is poor like a low bitrate mp3.

It's better than AM analog...so it's an improvement.