The Kansas Audio Reader  has been using some units through Solutions Radio for about a year.  Peggy Sampson, the Kansas Audio Reader Outreach Coordinator explained, "We started talking about the Solutions Radio Equipment after the 2008 conference and then obtained a grant last November and purchased twenty of them."

 

While not ideal for some listeners, Audio Reader found that people who are most successful with the Solutions Radio are "people who are living with a computer literate person (spouse or children) and there is internet already in the house but for whatever reason the regular radio signal is not good.  Then they can use the internet radio and never touch a keyboard.  I have some listeners whose phone, cable and internet are "bundled" into one fee.  Since they are paying for access anyway, it is fairly easy to convince them to use this machine," said Sampson.  They have also set up these radios in therapy rooms and salons at nursing homes and retirement centers.
 
"When you get the radio explained and get them set up, they cannot believe how clear the signal is.  It covers areas of Kansas where our regular broadcast signal cannot, does not, never will go.  I have a social worker in Salina who recommended a client get this radio and my engineer went out and installed it.  Now, the client doesn't want any other services -- she just listens to the radio!
 
Digital SAP
 
There have been a number of stations around the country that made the decision years ago to broadcast via their SAP channel of their televisions rather than the side-channel of their radios.  When television stations were instructed to begin broadcasting digitally, it forced a certain amount of panic among those RRSs that were broadcasting on the SAP channels.  AINColorado depended on their SAP broadcasts and, rather than look at stopping their broadcasts, they decided to investigate what a digital SAP broadcast would look like and how it could happen.
 
David Dawson, Executive Director of AINColorado, said "AINColorado has been broadcasting on the digital transmitters of Rocky Mountain PBS since February, 2009.  There are four transmitters in the RMPBS system covering the state." Much of the initial broadcast time was devoted to stabilizing the encoding equipment, establishing a permanent associated audio channel location for AINColorado, and scanning the receivers prior to shipment to listeners.  
 
"By far the biggest single challenge has been the design and development of the digital receiver," said Dawson.  AINColorado lead the charge to develop this new technology.
 
The station is proud that, "A truly high quality, clean signal now exists for the blind listeners of AINColorado to utilize when they are using audio information programming.  The .5 digital associated audio channel is broadcast at 100%
transmitter power of the main audio and, thus, gives AINColorado the range of all RMPBS broadcasts.  The blind AINColorado listener now enjoys the same quality sound as sighted persons using the digital technology."
 
HD-Radio
 
IAAIS has been interested in HD Radio since it first burst on to the scene several years ago.  The primary advantage of HD Radio is that the radios would be available off the shelf, and RRSs would no longer be in the business of supplying receivers or equipment to their customers.  Conditional access HD (CA HD) radios have been proven in concept and demonstrated at the most recent conference by Dice Electronics and NPR Labs, but are not readily available.  There are no RRSs using HD Radios for their broadcasts at this time, although the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has added CA HD to its fundable digital conversion grants.  IAAIS and NPR have a pending request to the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) to establish a central hub. 

FMeXtra
 
FMeXtra is another type of digital radio.  This is a technology that has been showcased at IAAIS conferences by Norman Miller in Colorado.  FMeXtra broadcasts a digital signal in virtually the same subcarrier location as the analog signals.  The signal also has the advantage - as with other digital signals - of being split into multiple broadcasts from the same station.  

The Minnesota Radio Talking Book Network made the decision to purchase replacement analog radios in 2001, when a study revealed the poor quality of all analog radios.  At that time, there really were no other options for good digital, yet the FMeXtra models that were available were not appropriate for side-channel broadcasting.  It was obvious that the MN RTB was going to have to partner in the design of the future radio. 
 
The testing, which began in 2008, was thorough, putting the new radio through all the different possible mistreatments that might be expected in Minnesota, including leaving it out overnight in sub-0 temperatures.  Each test resulted in additional changes.  The first 100 radios were delivered in July of this year, and those will be delivered to customers within a small listening area, looking for additional information on their success. 
 
Since the station covers the entire state of Minnesota, it used to be that radios needed to be tuned before sending them out, however the FM eXtra radios have the capacity to look for the strongest available signal automatically.  If the radio is in an area that does not have a digital signal, the FMeXtra will fall back to a programmed signal, analog or digital.
 
MN RTB Network expects that the full release of the radio should be happening in early fall of this year.