In the news: CPB/NPR bilked Congress for HD Radio
 

"The Wonderful World of HD Radio"

"The NAB, iBiquity, and virtually every congressman and Attorney
General who steps in to this circus that we call a merger has been
asking for the inclusion of HD chips into Satellite Radios. Of course,
they never once mention who should pay for the design, the
installation, the manufacturing, etc, etc, etc, but they claim they do
it for the “benefit of the consumer.” Let us take a look at that
claim.

As of 2008, less than 500,000 HD radios had been sold in the US.
According to Bridge Ratings survey in August of 2007, less than 1
percent of respondents said that they planned on buying an HD radio in
the next 2 months. There obviously is not a high consumer demand for
the HD radio. Must be something else.

A quick google of HD Radio brings up a long list of places selling HD
Radios at Retail. The average price is around $125, with some units
running less than $100. The problem? According to John Gorman’s Blog,
there are virtually no radios in Brick and Mortar stores for people to
look at and play with. With such a new technology, you would figure
that the HD radio alliance would be subsidizing those radios, to make
them cheaper and more affordable.
Perhaps the HD advantage is it’s sound quality and ease of use? Nope,
and Nope. Again Gorman cites multiple complaints about a large bulky
antenna (which you have to move manually until you pick up the
signal), signal’s fading in and out, and additional static on
surrounding channels.

So what on earth can the HD Radio alliance and all of these top
political figures mean when they say that HD radio is in the public
interest?

Perhaps it is because it is the American Public that has been paying a
large portion of the development costs for HD radio? Yup, that is you
and I. An FCC filing from North Carolina’s Public Radio Stations cites
“Just a few weeks ago, the House Appropriations Committee approved an
additional $40 million to assist public readio stations’ transition to
HD radio technology. Clearly the Congress supports our transition to
terrestrial digital broadcasting.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is “A private, nonprofit
corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal
government’s investment in public broadcasting. It has already awarded
well over 200 million dollars for the advancement of HD radio, and
those awards are continuing to this date. A quick search for
“Satellite Radio” “Sirius” “XM” or “SDARS” brings up only a single
result: The award of “nearly” $2 million dollars in SDARS. Yes,
clearly Congress supports PUBLIC radio. Why then, does HD radio need
Sirius and XM?"

http://tinyurl.com/57ksx6