White Sox To Start HD Radio Station

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 8, 2010 8:00PM

Last week the White Sox renewed their broadcast deal with WSCR-AM. One of the options in the new deal is that the White Sox plan to launch an HD radio station on 104.3.3 FM.

HD radio, like HDTV, expands the number of channels available along a spot on the dial, allowing both AM and FM stations to broadcast digitally. The White Sox would be the first team in Major League Baseball, and second professional sports franchise, to broadcast their games in HD radio. This makes Crain's Ed Sherman, an admitted technophile, pleased as punch. "I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff," Sherman wrote, "although it is a lot of money to spend on talk about why the Sox can't beat Minnesota."

And it is a lot of money to upgrade to HD radio. The cost to install an HD radio in your car is around $350. That is a lot to invest in hardware in order to hear Ed Farmer give Darrin Jackson the business 162 games a year in crystal digital clarity. From a business perspective, it's a good investment for the White Sox. They don't have to buy any hardware or build a studio, since they'll be using the Score's. All they have to do is pay for the talent and production. But, if it proves successful, it could become a model for other MLB and professional sports franchises to model.

It might even be worth listening to the dead air Hawk Harrelson falls into whenever the Sox are being routed.