First Traffic On HD Radio Launches From Clear Channel

By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 7/9/2007 6:56:00 AM

San Antonio, Texas — Clear Channel Radio announced it is now broadcasting real-time traffic over HD Radio in 48 of the largest U.S. markets, becoming the first commercial data service to offer traffic on HD Radio.

Clear Channel expects its suppliers to begin offering devices to receive HD Radio traffic by the end of the year.

HD Radio is expected to provide data speeds up to 20 times faster than current real-time traffic services that operate over RDS. In addition, HD Radio’s greater bandwidth is expected to enable enhanced services including weather forecast updates and point of interest (POI) updates

“HD Radio is the future for broadcast data delivery, allowing us to not only deliver traffic data, but provide additional services a well,” said Jeff Littlejohn, Clear Channel Radio distribution development executive VP. 

Clear Channel also announced it is expanding its traffic service over the current RDS-TMC network TMC (Radio Data System Traffic Message Channel) to 19 new markets, for a total of 68 cities, with more markets planned for launch this year. The 19 new markets include: Albany, Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Birmingham, Ala.; Columbia, S.C.; Fort Myers and Sarasota, Fla.; Louisville, Ky.; Omaha, Neb.; Portsmouth/Manchester, N.H.; Richmond, Va.; Springfield and Worcester, Mass.; Toledo, Ohio; Tucson, Ariz.; and Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal in Canada.

Clear Channel provides traffic information to Garmin, TomTom, Mio-Mitac, Delphi, Kenwood, Clarion, Navigon, Cobra Electronics and Siemens VDO. It also supplies traffic to BMW North America.