good old tuners going obsolete

"The marketplace will fix the time of death for analog broadcasting, not the government."

Armstrod,
I hope you are right. I will hope that FM analog will live on for a while.

This HD issue has been beaten to death on the FM Tuner forum. I'm hoping that someone from that forum will jump over here to give their enlightened viewpoints. I also am a die-hard FM lover. I don't know what I'd do without my beloved NPR station not broadcasting in FM anymore. I also have a highly modified vintage Citation Eighteen that would be very sad if I had to turn it into a "door stop".

Uh, Bob? What is your point?

I'm still trying to figure out the philosophy of how one of two people with the same opinion is redundant; and furthermore, how is this related to the demise of FM radio? Am I living in the "Twilight Zone" ?

"That would make Unclejeff one of the two? He does seem to agree with Acoustat6?"

Thanks for the explanation, KT_88. That makes sense to me now. Can you answer one more simple question for me? Why is the sky blue?

I guess I'm one of a few old farts set in his way that just hates to see an older technology phased out. I do know that technology moves on, and hopefully for the better.

Qdrone,
I get your gist, but FM radio isn't exactly "free". Commercial radio stations give us the free music because of advertising. NPR( National Public Radio) is partially subsidized by the Gov't through our tax dollars( each year that subsidy becomes less) and the balance of money needed for "free" broadcasting is covered by listener donations; so "free" is a loose term.

Unclejeff,
I'm sorry to see that you have become bored with this thread, seeing that it is starting to look like a "sports talk show radio"( by the way is enjoyable), but I am still very interested in knowing what the outcome of analog FM radio will be. I look forward to anyone providing any information on this subject.

"U.S. Automakers Tuning Out HD Radio

America's big three automakers remain unimpressed with HD Radio and
are unlikely to add it as an OEM option anytime soon, according to a
April 26 Reuters news report. The article, entitled US Automakers not
jumping into HD Radio, says that GM and Chrysler are thus far
resisting adding the option at a time when all U.S. automakers are
under financial stress and some are losing market share to foreign
competition. Driving this point home was one GM source, quoted as
saying that his company "was not inclined to test the market at this
time."

Thus far Ibiquity has only been able to convince foreign-based
automakers such as BMW, Hyundai and Ford-owned Jaguar to publicly
commit to factory HD Radio options, though the HD Digital Radio
Alliance's Peter Ferrara says more groups will be joining them soon.

Heavy commitments to satellite radio, which is not moving as well as
some automakers had hoped, are part of the problem, according to
Ferrara. But the alliance and HD Radio technology developer Ibiquity
say they remain optimistic that Detroit's attitude will eventually
shift as demand for satellite receivers wanes and consumer demand for
HD Radio increases."

Also from today's issue of Radio Magazine:

"But by far the most troubling finding in Bridge's latest research
concerns consumers favoring the adoption of HD Radio. The percentage
among those who report "awareness" of the technology is actually lower
now than just a year ago. While reported awareness was up significantly-
-about 10 percent for ages 12+--a slightly larger percentage of this
group reported that they were not interested in purchasing a receiver.
Analysts for Bridge believe that this finding is directly attributable
to a perceived lack of a significant relative advantage for the
technology. Based on their findings, Bridge has revised their receiver
penetration estimates downward to about one million by the end of 2008."

More on the survey somewhere on this site - Im too lazy to look for it:

http://www.bridgeratings.com/

I don't know. What's digital radio got to do with digital T.V.?