MEDIA REVIEW : And Baby, Who Needs the Static? : Electronics: For $9.95 a month, not this guy, who is happy--mostly--to get in on the next wave of home entertainment: digital cable radio.

Two weeks ago, I became a true digital guy. My compact disc player, looking sad and forlorn in the face of sudden antiquation, was supplemented by digital cable radio.

According to cable television executives, digital radio, delivered through cable TV lines, is the next great step in home entertainment. It is commercial-free, disc-jockey-babble-free radio, with the sound quality of a compact disc.

Cox Cable, which has more than 300,000 subscribers in San Diego, is one of the first cable systems in the country--and the only major system in San Diego County--to offer the clear-sounding service. Cox is part owner of the Pennsylvania-based Digital Cable Radio, which includes 19 channels of music, ranging from classical music to modern rock, and simulcasts of five cable TV channels for $9.95 a month.

For the time being, Cox is offering installation and the first month free.

The channels are programed at DCR’s headquarters and then beamed via satellite to cable systems.

All the major systems in the county are studying the digital radio concept and expect to offer it sometime within the next year or two.

Southwestern Cable, which services from Mission Valley to Del Mar, is testing a similar form of digital radio, delivered by a company called Digital Planet, with just 100 of its subscribers. Offering 20 channels, including four simulcasts of over-the-air radio stations, for $8, it has been receiving “rave reviews,” according to Southwestern spokesman David Brown.

Cox already has received about 2,400 hook-up orders since launching the service July 1, and for good reason. Being a true digital guy has its advantages. It’s kind of special to be able to hear the Chipmunks perform “Sugar” in digital stereo, thanks to the “For Kids Only” channel.

Yet, much like the early VCRs, which required engineering degrees to figure out how to work them, the digital service still has some quirks.

When my system was first hooked up, half the channels didn’t work. The installer said they would come on in a few days, offering no explanation of what magical event would take place to suddenly activate the channels. The helpful tips in the owner’s manual--”turn on your TV to ensure that the cable is reaching your home”--didn’t help.

After a few days, I called the Cox service department. The service representative said the installer was mistaken, that something was obviously wrong. She said Cox had received several similar calls.

Another afternoon was spent waiting for the installer. After expressing his befuddlement, he replaced connectors, burrowed under the house to replace cable, and still two channels went on and off intermittently. Jiggling the cable, the digital radio equivalent of banging on the side of the television set, seemed to help, and he suggested that this was as good as it was going to get.

“Ninety-five percent of the people who have it have had no problem,” said Cox Cable spokesman Art Reynolds. “But there have been some who have had a problem with a few channels.”

The actual digital receiver is a black box about the size of a small compact disc player, whose wires plug into the compact disc input on the stereo. The CD player is then wired through the digital cable receiver, which comes with a remote control. My house now features a pile of remote controls sitting on the dining room table, an altar to my household’s electronics.

The digital remote is useful, since it features a mute button, a channel scanning button, a sign-of-the-times parental control switch--which allows parents to block out certain channels--and several other cool features, such as volume controls, which are unavailable on my stereo, an electronic dinosaur with no remote control.

With no disc jockeys, DCR solves the problems of identifying songs by offering subscribers an 800 number to call. Punch in the channel number, and a recorded voice identifies the song currently playing as well as the previous two songs. It actually works, and it makes the concept of disc jockeys seem archaic.

Of course, there was a time when commercials and disc jockeys--the identity of a station--were part of the fun of listening to radio. But these days, disc jockeys are rarely more interesting than the automated voice on a phone answering system. Stations are watered down, politically correct, consultant-driven marketing outlets. Almost every station is run by sales executives, not programmers, and it shows.

At first listen, many of the stations on DCR stand out simply because they’re not playing the same regimented music formats as the over-the-air radio stations.

Yet, many of the flaws of digital radio are eerily reminiscent of the flaws of broadcast radio. Radio is not as appealing in the home as it is in the car because people who grow tired of the radio can simply put on an album or a CD. As with broadcast radio, one of every two or three songs on each DCR channel is sure to be one I don’t like. And the first impulse is to put on a CD.

The digital formats may offer more diversity and less regimentation than broadcast radio, but, in truth, it is simply a different form of regimentation, sans commercials and disc jockeys.

Although DCR officials say they have big plans to upgrade the number of selections, the menu of channels now offered by DCR is only slightly more diverse than the current radio dial. There are plenty of classic rock channels, and even a rather mundane modern rock selection. But--just like that old antique broadcast radio--there are frustrating moments when there is not a single song I want to hear. The modern rock channel is often bogged down with light and spacey tunes by unknown groups, such as Toy Matinee and Horseflies, for example.

A blues channel is conspicuously absent from the menu, which is too bad, but there are big-band and traditional jazz selections. There are also two classical channels.

And it’s in jazz and classical music that DCR really excels, simply because the sound is so much cleaner than broadcast radio.

Static of any kind ruins classical music. While rock often sounds cold and remote in the digital format (which is why so many rock audiophiles still hold on to the steam-powered cars of home entertainment, albums), classical music and jazz come across as crisp and unblemished, accenting the high notes and the clarity of individual instruments.

Although fans of gospel and Latin music will be pleased to have their own channels--and there are “Hit List” and “Urban Beat” channels for teeny-boppers--most of the other channels sound like background music, albeit incredibly clean-sounding background music, including channels dedicated to soft rock, love songs, new age jazz and “easy listening.”

Since there are no commercials or disc jockeys, these settings are probably ideal for store owners who now play radio stations or pay programming services for background music.

To the average person at home, the question becomes, is all this worth $9.95 a month? Besides looking great in the stereo cabinet, there are really only two main advantages to digital radio: the lack of talk and the digital sound.

With the start of the digital service, Cox has started offering its FM cable hook-up, previously a $3.95 monthly charge, free. The FM reception with the cable hook-up is excellent, so it really comes down to finances: balancing price against the upgraded sound quality and the ability to get a few more listening options.

I’ll probably stick with it. For $9.95 a month, the classical and jazz channels are worth it.

Digital radio is clearly a concept in its infancy, much like the $150 portable calculators of the late ‘70s or early VCRs. DCR dreams of one day offering 250 channels complete with a sports channel that will allow consumers to punch up broadcasts of any game in the country.

That may sound far-fetched, but no doubt digital radio will be a big part of the home entertainment future. It seems a natural link with cable television.

And, for once, I want to be in on the start of the next great thing.