National Association of Broadcasters Radio Show– September 21, 2005 – There are now over 500 AM and FM stations across the country broadcasting with HD Radio technology. Stations serving every one of the top 50 U.S. markets are now providing listeners with digital HD Radio coverage, including: Detroit (21 stations on the air), Los Angeles (19), Chicago (19), Atlanta
(18), Miami (16), Boston (15), San Francisco (15), and New York City (14).

Responding to the rising demand for more music, news and information, radio broadcasters have also embraced HD Radio multicasting capabilities as a way to offer consumers new channels of unique programming on the same station frequency.
Several of the largest U.S. radio broadcasters have already launched multicast channels featuring brand extensions and diverse formats such as classical music, dance music, and local music. Many more stations are expected to include multicast channels in the coming months as this trend generates great interest and enthusiasm from both broadcasters and consumers.

"This has been a breakthrough year in the rollout of HD Radio technology. Broadcasters are converting stations at a pace of more than one per day as they
ramp up efforts to market and promote the technology to consumers," said Robert Struble, president and CEO of iBiquity Digital Corporation. "And the emergence of multicasting as the system's first killer application has been critically important.
There are now stations from Philadelphia to Seattle broadcasting additional streams of content to complement the programming on their main channels."

(via Obercom)