Costco blog/discussion forum

You probably have heard of HD television, but how about HD radio? Of course, there is satellite radio, but you have to pay a subscription fee for that. HD radio is free and probably already available in your area.

Costco warehouses are now selling the Dice Electronics HD Radio Receiver(Costco Item #233826, $99.99 in July 2008). This receiver is a tabletop radio. It features 10 preset stations, a clock, headphone output jack, an optional speaker output, and an audio input (you can use it as a speaker for your iPOD). The manual is available online.

Broadcasting digitally, AM stations sound like FM stations, and FM stations sound like CDs. HD also gives FM stations the option of broadcasting multiple simultaneous channels. So stations like KROQ-FM (106.7 FM) in Los Angeles, can have their regular (analog) broadcast (alternative music, for KROQ) on the main channel and 80's music on the 2nd channel.

Broadcasters also can send text information that will appear on your radio, for music stations this is typically the artist name and song title. For news stations this may be stock quotes or traffic reports.

Costco is offering a good price on this item. The Dice Electronics iTR-100 is selling for $99.99 in the warehouses, but if you buy it direct online from Dice it will cost $149.99. As with all new technologies, the price on this will probably drop significantly over the next year or two. Of course, with the Costco return policy you could always return it, if you are not satisfied.

Here's a complete list of other HD tabletop radios. It looks to me like the Sony XDRF1HD HD radio Tuner might be the best value out there. With that one, however, you need to hook it up to some speakers.