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Hybrid Digital Radio (HD radio) is something that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Public Radio and public radio stations across the country have been exploring and developing since 2001. It differs from analog radio broadcasting in a number of ways. We have a small digital (HD) transmitter that produces a signal that is a fraction of our analog transmitter’s signal strength and the signal gets out to around a 40 mile radius from our Devil’s Millhopper tower site. You need to have an HD radio receiver to pick up this signal and they range in cost from $50--$300. The most important improvement is the fact that we are now broadcasting two additional program services with FM quality sound to our listening area. Our HD 1 service is news/talk (schedule), our HD 2 service is 24 hours a day, seven days a week classical music (schedule) and our HD 3 service is 24 hours a day of old time radio programs such as Gunsmoke, X-1, Suspense, Escape, Fibber McGee and Molly and many others (schedule). So whenever you tune in 89.1 you can choose from three different program services depending on what you would most like to hear at that moment. With the considerable assistance of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting WUFT-FM was converted to HD and began digital broadcasts at noon on Jan. 6, 2006. We added the second channel broadcasts on March 24, 2006. Our third channel signed on on June 2, 2006 and we converted WJUF to HD broadcast on April 16, 2008. Where once we provided just one station this conversion to HD makes WUFT/WJUF-FM into three stations and all you need to be able to hear those stations is an HD radio. The range of prices for HD radios runs from $50 for a portable to $300 or more for a table top radio or car radio. Check out local electronic stores such as Radio Shack, Best Buy, or hh gregg. The npr shop also has a selection for purchase. Prices have seen some small drops and Ibiquity, the company that has developed this technology occasionally runs rebate programs to further reduce the cost of these radios. |
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