Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) will start making HD Radio technology available at all 832 of its U.S. stores, according to the retailer and the HD Digital Radio Alliance. HD Radio is the terrestrial radio industry's response to the satellite radio industry, although it's been late to come into the game and so far, is an unproven product even though it was released some time ago.

My bet is that most satellite radio customers (a majority) fled to the pay-for-service model of satellite radio to escape the boring playlists and incessant advertising that terrestrial radio stations broadcast. I'm sure commercial-free content played a role in the growth of satellite radio as did the sheer amount of individual programming. Now that HD Radio has found friends in two of the largest retailers in the country (Wal-Mart and Best Buy), is it destined to give satellite radio a run for its money?

That is doubtful unless the HD Radio industry moves beyond simply transferring the same tired content from the analog airwaves and packaging it into a slicker "HD Radio" format that sounds better. All that will happen is that staid and boring content will, well, sound absolutely superb. It'll still be staid and boring content, though. Now that HD Radio has a few high-profile retail friends, the programming choices and content (perhaps even pay content) needs to be looked at or HD Radio will fade into the sunset rather quickly.