Is HD Radio Really the Way to Go?

I will put on my old fart hat for a moment:

Is HD Radio the next big thing for in-car audio? Well, it’s not like the transition from AM to FM (that was a big leap), but it’s an interesting improvement. And it has a big advantage over satellite radio — it doesn’t cost anything. As long as you have an HD-equipped radio (3 million have been sold by Ibiquity, which is owned by big-league radio chains) you can listen to the digital signal for free, without a subscription, and at the same frequencies, too.

HD’s claim to fame is that it just sounds better — existing FM stations sound like satellite radio or CDs, and AM sounds like FM. But it’s unclear if there are a lot of audiophiles around, given the popularity of the high-fidelity-challenged iPod for listening to music. There is also, as with satellite, supposed to be more diverse programming on new HD2 and HD3 stations, but there doesn’t seem to be much of that yet in my listening area. (Check out your own airwaves here.) Stations available in some markets offer dance/electronic, bluegrass, comedy and “chill/coffee shop,” which sounds like an endless loop of mellow Starbucks CDs.

The problem here is not the technology. It is that statement of fact that bothers me, the one that goes "...existing FM stations sound like satellite radio..."

That's all well and good, but the programming content on that medium is no longer acceptable to me as a consumer. I cannot listen to radio as programmed in the lower 48 right now. I don't care how good or how nifty your technology is--if your programming content is trash, I won't listen to it and I suspect I'm not the only one.

Who, in their right mind, makes a decision to purchase a vehicle based on the radio in the car? If your decision between a Toyota and a Ford comes down to the fact that one has HD radio and the other doesn't, I would be shocked.