Tuning in to HD radio

Paul Shulins turned up the radio in his Toyota sport utility vehicle and the raspy voice of Neil Young never sounded so clear.

"This is digital," said Shulins, director of technical operations for five Boston radio stations owned by Greater Media Inc. All of them, including classic-hits station WROR and WBOS, which plays adult album alternative music, are among the first in the nation to use a technology called HD radio.

The HD stands for "high definition," and like high-definition television, HD radio technology takes on new depth and clarity. The background hiss that radio listeners take for granted disappears. HD radio uses a digital signal that piggybacks on standard analog frequencies and can be played only on costly computerized radios. The system works with both FM and AM stations, and it could let stations broadcast multiple streams of news and entertainment over a single frequency.

It's the biggest upgrade to radio since FM stereo arrived in the early 1960s. It's also a crucial weapon for broadcasters facing new competition from satellite and Internet broadcast services.

"The local radio guys have to do something to get themselves in a stronger position," said Clark Smidt, a broadcasting consultant and former owner of New Hampshire radio station WNNH. "Digital radio, for example, is something that could be absolutely huge."

But land-based broadcasters who rely on radio towers aren't just going digital. They're cutting back on commercial breaks and featuring shorter ads to keep listeners from tuning away. They're even launching their own audio ad campaign: "Radio: You Heard It Here First." With spots featuring such popular singers as Avril Lavigne, Ashanti, and Ludacris, broadcasters aim to persuade listeners that traditional radio stations are still at the cutting edge of entertainment.

It's an aggressive response to rivals who still haven't made much of a dent. Fewer than 5 million Americans subscribe to the two satellite radio services, XM and Sirius. About 19 million people listen to audio streams on the Internet every week, according to the Arbitron rating service. By contrast, Arbitron calculates that about 227 million Americans listen to radio each week.

"A couple of earth-based radio stations have more listeners than all of satellite radio combined," Smidt said. As for Internet broadcasting, people can listen only at home or on the job, not in their cars, the favorite venue for radio listening.

Still, broadcasters think they know what's coming. Satellite service costs less than $13 a month, the cost of the radio hardware can cost less than $150, and car companies are installing satellite radios as a factory option. Janet "Jake" Karger, regional vice president for land-based radio giant Clear Channel Communications, says broadcasters are preparing for a future in which satellite receivers are as common as CD players.

"As millions of cars ship with satellite radio hardware installed," Karger said, "it's on us to still do a really good job."

Vendors of satellite radio say that many of their channels play no commercials, and efforts to sell advertising on Internet radio are in their infancy. But traditional broadcasters air ads in blocks that can last several minutes and cause listeners to change the station.

"It was not uncommon to hear somebody say that they were playing 50 minutes of music, and what that meant was that they were playing 50 minutes of music followed by 10 minutes of commercials," said Jeff Littlejohn, Clear Channel executive vice president. "And during those 10 minutes, people tuned out."

Now the company has launched a campaign called "Less is More." Hip-hop broadcaster WJMN-FM, a Boston-area Clear Channel station, will play fewer commercials during each break and offer more 30-second commercials instead of ads lasting a full minute.

Another of the company's stations, WSNI-FM in Philadelphia, aims to play no more than two minutes of commercials at a time. A station promo says, "You're never more than two minutes away from music," Littlejohn said.

But how does that music sound? Satellite broadcasters promise audio quality approaching that of a compact disc. But earthbound broadcasters say HD radio leaves satellite systems in the shade. Both technologies turn sound into a stream of digits, rather than the analog waves used by traditional radio transmitters. But, according to Shulins, HD radio broadcasts at a higher data rate than satellites, allowing for higher fidelity.

Chance Patterson, a spokesman for XM Satellite Radio, was unconcerned about the rise of HD radio. He said few consumers own the receivers needed to decode the HD signals. A host of major consumer electronics firms plan to offer HD radios by year's end.

But for now, the radios are only available for cars, and only from a few manufacturers, such as JVC and Kenwood. The radios cost anywhere from $800 to $1,600 and are sold mainly by high-end car audio dealers or over the Internet.

In addition, few radio stations broadcast in HD. In Boston, the converts include the Greater Media stations, as well as public radio station WUMB-FM and AM news station WBZ. But many other popular music stations haven't made the switch yet.

Patterson's not even concerned about whether HD sounds better. "Sound quality is not why people are buying XM Satellite Radio," Patterson said. "The main reason is choice." XM offers 120 channels, with programming that earthbound broadcasters would be hard-pressed to match. For instance, shortly after the death of talk-show host Johnny Carson, XM devoted 24 hours of broadcasting on one channel to replays of Carson interviews and comedy skits. Terrestrial stations probably couldn't do that.

The high cost of HD radio may be a trivial issue. Satellite radios cost hundreds of dollars at first, but now cost much less; HD radios will probably follow the same cost curve. As for programming diversity, HD radio allows broadcasters to slice their digital broadcast streams into several channels.

Bob Struble, chief executive of Ibiquity Digital Corp., the developer of HD radio, said that a radio station could run four separate digital streams alongside its traditional radio format. Each stream could be devoted to a different kind of news or music programming.

"It certainly is a way for the AM and FM guys to bring back more diversity of format," Struble said.

One of the HD channels could be used for digital data, such as traffic and weather reports beamed to the car's navigation system.

But none of the few stations now broadcasting in HD use their new digital stream for multichannel broadcasting. Shulins said Greater Media doesn't have the equipment for it, and existing HD radios can't receive such channels. It is expected to be years before this application of HD radio develops an audience, so broadcasters are focusing on near-term tactics to help them hang onto the audience they have.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.