Comparison of radio systems

Many of the world's radio stations broadcast in a variety of analog and digital formats. This page will list and compare them in chart form.

System	Type	Modulation	Data rate	Sidebands?	Ch. Bandwidth (KHz)	Radio spectrum	Sound Codec	Digital subchannels	SFN	Metadata/RDS/RBDS
AM radio	Analog radio	Amplitude Modulation	N/A	?	18–20 kHz	148.5-283.5 kHz (Longwave) 510–1610 kHz (Europe) 510–1710 kHz (USA and Canada)	N/A	N/A	No	None
Motorola C-QUAM	Analog radio (AM stereo)	QAM	N/A	?	18–20 kHz	510–1610 kHz (Europe 510–1710 kHz (USA and Canada)	N/A	N/A	No	None
DAB	Digital radio	OFDM (DQPSK)	around 1000 kbit/s (4 channels up to 256 kbit/s)	?	1500 kHz	VHF-High/174-240 MHz, L-band/1452-1492 MHz	MPEG-Layer 2	Yes, typically 4-6 "stations" per channel	Yes	Yes
DAB⁺	Digital radio	OFDM (DQPSK)	up to 256 kbit/s	?	1500 kHz	VHF-High/174-240 MHz, L-band/1452-1492 MHz	HE-AAC	No	Yes	Yes
Digital Radio Mondiale	Digital radio	COFDM (QAM)	up to 72 kbit/s	?	4.5–5 kHz (hybrid mode), 9–10 kHz, 18-20 kHz	510-1610 kHz (Europe), 510–1710 kHz (USA and Canada), SW, LW	MPEG-4 HE-AAC/CELP/HVXC	Yes, via IBOC	No?	Yes
FM radio	Analog radio	Frequency Modulation	N/A	?	200 kHz	87.5-108 MHz, 76-90 MHz (Japan), 65.8-74 MHz (USSR)	N/A	N/A	None	Yes (depending on station)
HD Radio	Hybrid/Digital radio	COFDM-HDC (SBR)	up to 60 kbit/s on AM, up to 300 kbit/s on FM	?	20–30 kHz on AM band ±5 kHz (on adjacent channel), up to 400 kHz on FM band (2 full FM channels)	510–1710 kHz, 87.5-108 MHz	HDC	up to 7 (3 full-power, 4 low-power) subchannels (FM)	No?	Yes

Table