NAB PushingSFN HD Radio in the USA

Imagine if you will several stations all compressed on a single FM frequency. This is what I think they're up to.

Maybe what would happen is each group of cities would be on a separate frequency with all the radio stations compressed on one frequency. This could clear up the dial if they still allowed analog FM Transmissions. As we've seen in other countries however they try and phase that into a reality and phase-out analog Transmissions.

Now is the time to try to hold our place in the analog space. In other words we should still be able to operate micro broadcasting stations at A1 to 2 mile radius but in analog. This way the old radios would still be able to receive something and people would not have to rush out and buy HD or digital radios.

I've thought for a long time, since digital radio was proposed I guess, that digital should have its own frequency range. I think the results bear this out, it's not so great piggybacked on the FM band, and on AM, voices sound like they're in an echo chamber, like someone drained a cement pool, and they're broadcasting from it. I'd rather hear a some static and the analog sound.

Why not have a digital band with 100 potential signals, after all, it's done with FM in cities, most stations on one tower, the tallest or most centrally located in an area, or on the Empire State in NYC.

Back when digital was being tested, radio news said it would be a big change listeners would have to make if it was a new band. That was a few decades ago, but now that so many radios are DSP, it seems it's something that would be much easier to add today, program the chip, and if it was an open standard encoder/decoder, the costs would be low.

Boomer