From Tom Taylor's newsletter today:

What’s happening with Clear Channel and HD Radio? One T-R-I reader
says “check the website.”

Actually, what Fred Stiening of StreamingRadioGuide.com really says
is
– you can no longer tell from a CC station website what they’re
offering on their HD-2 or HD-3 signals. Is that good for HD? Here’s
his take – “Clear Channel was probably the most aggressive company
trying to raise consumer awareness of HD Radio to achieve critical
mass for the technology. But about two months ago, Clear Channel
restructured their entire HD lineup. Originally, each station's
website had the HD streams identified with that station and city
(although they were mostly just selected from a group of genres, all
playing the same preprogrammed music with computers). But at least
they made the pretense of localism. Now, if you visit the HD radio
station of a Clear Channel web site, it just lists a selection of
national simulcast streams, most of which have no correlation with
the
station's own audience - with no identification of which stream is
even carried on that specific radio station's real HD channel. For
example, here's the site for WMMS, Cleveland. As a result, for
StreamingRadioGuide.com, I've stopped classifying HD2/HD3 channels by
genre for Clear Channel's stations.” Stiening’s site is very handy,
by the way – topline, he shows that 43% of the 15,320 stations in his
universe are streaming, and he breaks down streaming by formats.
Check
it here.

(SOURCE: http://boards.radio-info.com/newslet...-12152008.html)

ANALYSIS: This is the beginning of the end for "HD" radio. If Clear
Channel isn't even bothering to put accurate info about their HD-2
and
-3 streams on their station websites, why would they spend millions
on
new transmitters they'd need for a tenfold increase in the power of
their FM IBOC side channels?

Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners, the two private
equity outfits that bought Clear Channel this year, have plenty of
other financial worries. Okaying a major capital expeniture for
something with a a proven lack of consumer appeal is low on their "to
do" list, if it appears at all.

"HD" radio has been on life support along. You might say it's the
Terry Schiavo of technologies. It has absolutely no chance of
surviving on its own.

But if Clear Channel executives are too blind to pull the plug on
this
hopeless case, it looks like the "invisible hand" of the market,
acting through Lee and Bain, will do it for them.

Hey - better concentrate on those third-world countries that don't
know any better! LMFAO!!!