Bluegrasscountry.org now on HD Radio
Jen Hitt, production director for bluegrasscountry.org, stopped by to visit with us yesterday at The Bluegrass Blog booth at IBMA.The cyberstation, which provides a 24/7 bluegrass radio stream online, grew from Washington, DC’s venerable WAMU radio station, where bluegrass music was once a staple feature of their broadcast format.
When the station moved to the more common NPR news/talk format several years ago, the howls of protest from the relatively small but (thankfully) vocal contingent of bluegrass lovers led to the station management creating this internet vehicle, and bluegrasscountry.org became a pioneer in cybercasting bluegrass music.
Jen stopped by to let us know that their feed is now available in the DC area on HD Radio – great news for folks who still miss getting their bluegrass fix in the car or at work since the demise of WAMU’s bluegrass programming. If you’ve even visited the Northern VA/DC area, you can empathize with the amount of time commuters spend behind the wheel each week.
An HD Radio receiver is required to pick up the signal, and they are available in both automobile and table top models. Jen tells us that the fidelity of the signal is far higher than what they can stream online, and is based on the AAC (mpeg4) audio codec. They will also have expanded metadata which displays on the HD Radio receiver’s screen.
WAMU and bluegrasscountry.org have been out on the edge of new broadcast technology for some time, and they hope their listeners in DC will embrace this new move as well.
The streaming audio online can be accessed by anyone, anywhere with an internet connection, but the HD Radio broadcast can only be picked up in the DC metro market. The various details can be found on the bluegrasscountry web site.
Email This Post
| Print | Top | 0 Comments
Good morning from Nashville.
Brance and I just had a chance to be a part of radio history. Katy Daley, whose morning bluegrass show is broadcast each morning on both BluegrassCountry.org and WAMU HD-2, is here at IBMA doing the show live from Music City. She invited us down to speak with her on air,...
WAMU's Bluegrass Country and Bluegrass Unlimited magazine have joined forces to bring a new monthly radio program to the air, starting this weekend.
Bluegrass Unlimited Top 30 Countdown will be broadcast on the last Saturday of each month from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (eastern), hosted by Lee Michael...
Foothills Radio Group, in Lenoir, NC, has announced the creation of a new all-bluegrass radio station. The station is WKGX and can be found at 1080 on the AM dial. Previously an all sports format, the station will now be known as The Bluegrass Station.
WKGX will begin broadcasting on Monday June 11,...
The Infamous Stringdusters will make a stop this Tuesday (5/19) at the studios of WAMU's Bluegrass Country in Washington, DC.
The guys will be playing some live music and chatting with Bluegrass Country's Production Director Jen Hitt starting at 12:30 p.m. (EDT).
WAMU's broadcast signal can be...
We have posted a number of times in the past few months about the new royalty rates for Internet radio established by the US Copyright Royalty Board. These new rates represent a dramatic increase in the royalties owed to both songwriters and performers for Internet music broadcasts, with artists welcoming...
Leave a comment
Comments are open and unmoderated for our registered users, only your first comment will require approval before publication. Comments do not necessarily reflect the views of The Bluegrass Blog. Obscene, abusive, silly, or annoying remarks may be deleted, but the fact that particular comments remain on the site in no way constitutes an endorsement of their content by The Bluegrass Blog.
You must