Radio Goes Digital

• Internet radio. Emerging in the 1990s with the popularity of the Web, Internet radio stations come in two types: An existing station may “stream” a simulcast version of its on-air signal over the Web, or a station may be created exclusively for the Internet. Some of the most popular Internet radio stations are those that carry music formats unavailable on local radio, such as jazz, blues, and New Age music. This allows traditional stations to reach beyond their borders; however, recent rulings regarding royalty fees for streaming copyrighted songs have made this difficult at times. For now, small commercial Webcasters continue to operate under lower royalty rates than larger Webcasters like Pandora (see “Converging Media Case Study: Streaming Music”).
• Satellite radio. Another alternative radio technology added a third band—satellite radio—to AM and FM. Two services, XM and Sirius, completed their national introduction by 2002 and offered more than one hundred digital music, news, and talk channels to the continental United States via satellite, and automakers (investors in the satellite radio companies) began equipping most new cars with a satellite band, in addition to AM and FM, helping to ensure the adoption of satellite radio. In 2008, XM and Sirius, which struggled to make a profit as they built competing satellite systems and battled for listeners, merged and became Sirius XM Radio. The service ranges from $7.99 to $19.99 a month. In 2009, Liberty Media, the company that owns DirecTV, became the largest shareholder of Sirius XM.
• Podcasting. Developed in 2004, podcasting (the term marries “iPod” and “broadcasting”) refers to the practice of making audio programs available on the Internet so listeners can download and listen to them on their computers or transfer them to MP3 players, smartphones, or other portable devices with audio capabilities. This popular distribution method quickly went mainstream. Mass media companies created commercial podcasts to promote and extend existing content, such as news and reality TV. Meanwhile, independent producers kept pace with their own podcasts on niche topics like knitting, fly-fishing, and learning Russian.
• HD Radio. Approved by the FCC in 2002, HD radio is a digital technology that enables AM and FM radio broadcasters to multicast two to three additional compressed digital signals within their traditional analog frequency. For example, KNOW, a public radio station at 91.1 FM in Minneapolis–St. Paul, runs its National Public Radio news format on 91.1 HD1, BBC News on 91.1 HD2, and the BBC Mundo Spanish-language news service on 91.1 HD3. About two thousand radio stations now broadcast in digital HD.