As we watch The Great 2008 American Meltdown, courtesy of Democrats
and Republicans, it will be interesting seeing how our elected fools
will destroy radio broadcasting. You can bring your horse to the water
but can you make it drink?

If HD grabs hold, I guarantee audience shares that broadcasters depend
on to sell ads will continue to shrink and facture further, as
listeners are scattered everyplace. Radio will look just like cable
shares. Broadcasters are struggling now to provide compelling content
on their main channels and selling ads to just remain profitable isn’t
easy. Adding another 60 or 90 signals to a market won’t help anyone.
Think of it this way, the city regulators of your community gave their
approval to speculators to build 90 new malls. How many malls can
anyone shop at and how can all those stores survive selling goods in a
market with government-forced over-competition and not enough
customers?

The Am band as we know it become the playground for religious
broadcasters and radical nuts. Plus added digital noise to the Am band
will just screw things up more!

The "Radio All Digital Channel Receiver Act" (HR 7157) would jump out
past the FCC and require that any receiver that's designed for both
Sirius XM satellite radio and terrestrial reception also be equipped
with one of iBiquity's HD Radio chips. Neither Congress nor the FCC
has gone that far yet - unlike earlier laws that required VHF
television sets to also be equipped with UHF tuners. Massachusetts
Democrat Markey says "Millions of Americans rely on local broadcast
radio for news, public safety bulletins, sports, weather, traffic and
other information" - and that, plus the recently-allowed merger of the
only two satellite operators "has underscored the importance of
ensuring consumer access to a diversity of sources for digital radio
content." The move would help HD Radio system developer iBiquty and
the HD Radio Alliance - but it's unclear what its legislative future
is. The NAB, which hasn't always been on the same side of some fights
as Markey, applauds this idea.