Television may be getting all the attention right now as congress is mandating a forced change to television stations, but there is a new radio change that changes how radio signals are broadcast called HD Radio. For many years, radio stations have to send their signals via analog technology. What HD Radio does is allow. The new technology allows radio station not only to broadcast their traditional services, but also offer a wide variety of text-based services without having to change their operating frequency.

HD Radio is itself a brand name for a way of sending radio signals through the air digitally. While traditional radio stations crack The technology called IBOC offers improvements over both FM and AM signals. Whether or not the user will have to upgrade his or her current listening equipment to support HD radio will depend on what he or she currently has available. The FAQ found here can help individual users decide whether or not they need to upgrade.

The advantages, found from the website listed above include increased sound quality, a new revenue stream for radio stations and another way for advertisers to reach potential customers, and a way for traditional radio stations to use HD technology to compete with the popular satellite radio services such as XM or Sirius.

Radio stations will still broadcast the signals they traditionally transmitted so the older receivers can pick it up, but a new signal will come over the same frequency that users with appropriately equipped receivers can pick up on.

One such company, Polk Audio has found one use for the new technology that will let users tag the songs they here an HD radio and download them from Apple’s popular iTunes service later. (Whether or not it will be downloaded to an iPod will depend on what the user in question owns.) For most music lovers or AM fans who listen to talk radio, the advantage will be improved sound quality. AM station quality will improve to the sound quality enjoyed by FM listeners today and FM stations will be able to offer cd quality to their listeners. Not only that HD radio unlike its satellite competitors will not require people to subscribe to the service. And at least, even the people most reluctant to upgrade to new technologies will eventually pick up a receiver capable of picking up these signals.