As the digital radio rollout continues — regardless of the flavor, whether it’s HD Radio, FM Extra, Cam-D, DRM or anything else, the one obstacle continues to be the availability of receivers. There were more HD Radio receivers shown at CES2008 than ever before, but it’s still hard to find them on the shelves at the local electronics box house.

Digital Radio Express was touting its shipments of FM Extra receivers for several months, but that attention has also died down.

What’s the answer? A year ago in my Viewpoint column (Dec 2006) I noted that the real success of a digital radio format will be seen when the consumer does not have to make a conscious choice in buying a digital radio of any flavor. (Read that article:
http://radiomagonline.com/viewpoint/radio_hd_radio_succeed/)

Granted, we’re not there yet.

What’s your view? What steps should be taken to help digital radio take off?