Posted by Barry on September 23, 2008 at 21:52:14:
It has been reported in the trades that Emmis stations in some major cities will broadcast programming of interest to people from India, on HD. This will air locally on Hot 97's HD3 signal, and is expected to begin next month.
The programming is being produced by Worldband Media. This company apparently exists specifically to provide ethnic content to HD radio, and of course online. Its website hints they may be offering HD radios at a discount.
It seems to make sense to use some of the HD channels for programming that would not otherwise be available on the radio, aimed at large ethnic groups. Time will tell whether this will lead to a significant amount of Indian people purchasing HD radios and setting up the necessary antennas to listen to this. No doubt Emmis and other broadcasters could use the revenue resulting from the lease of HD signals to outside programmers.