Clark has been trying to cut down his cell phone usage. In the last month alone he's managed to go from 5000 to 232 minutes, and he hopes to do even better next month. This initiative came about after almost getting hit on his scooter by a driver who was chatting on her cell. Cell phone distraction has become a real problem today. He notices that most people go into a "zone" and just don't pay enough attention to the road when driving and talking. Wireless bluetooth headsets don't really help, either, since it's not the phone but the conversation itself that's causing the distraction.

And there are other ways to lose focus. Clark says he now pulls over if he has to dial a number that's not on his speed dial. Young people, in particular, blast music so loud that they can't hear what's going on around them. The bottom line? You have to be extra aware on the road these days. Keep your eye out for "cell phone drivers" who might run a stop sign or change lanes without signalling because they're too distracted on the phone. If you find yourself so focused on a conversation that you've forgotten what you're doing, or can't recall how you got from Point A to Point B, you know it's time to pull over.

Several months ago, Clark first spoke about the Sirius/XM merger. Many people in rural areas love satellite radio, but Clark doesn't get it. Why would you pay money for something when there's a cheaper option?

The alternative is called HD Radio, and it's a free service that's only being used by about 1 million people. Think of HD Radio as a digital TV signal for your radio -- that's the quality of the broadcast.

Every station can get up to 3 channels of HD and then deliver multiple kinds of content. So a rock station, for example, may be able to expand its format to include classic rock and alternative rock with the extra channels.

All of this is free -- you just need the receiver that can be up to $150 installed. The sound you'll get is phenomenal -- equivalent to a CD.

So who cares about the satellite merger? You have better and cheaper choices out there. In the future, more car radios will allow you to listen to Internet radio. This development really promises to threaten terrestrial radio in a way satellite never did.

Many people listen to music using Internet radio. Pandora is probably one of the easiest to use and it's customizable, which allows you to build your own radio station online. Right now there's a big fuss about the XM/Sirius satellite radio merger. But Clark says, "Who cares?" After all, you have to pay about $12/month for satellite radio! He understands why long-distance truck drivers and other motorists in rural areas would want satellite radio. But when Clark flies on an airline that offers satellite radio, he can't find anything that he likes! There's just trashy content like Howard Stern. Clark thinks the shock jock was more interesting when he had FCC limitations and you had to use your imagination with what he said. Now there are no limits and the content is just not as compelling.

Clark just loves that we have so much choice; that's why he's not upset about the possible monopoly merger in the satellite radio world. We have MP3 music players, Internet radio and HD Radio, to name a few of the choices. If you're not familiar with HD Radio, it allows you to get multiple channels of music on a given frequency for free in your local market. Meanwhile, Apple is looking at selling iPods that will cost more and come with unlimited music. This business model was first explored by Nokia. The bottom line is that the major record labels failed to set up their Berlin Wall around music. They created a marketplace where people simply steal what they want. As far as the Apple deal goes, all the big labels will likely be on board with their entire catalogs for the life of the iPod device. You'll also be able to download a certain number of songs and use them as you wish.

HD radio is suffering from an image problem -- a lack of image, to be exact. This technology is beloved by Clark, yet few people know about it or seem to care. The idea behind HD radio is simple: Radio has traditionally been broadcast as an analog signal, but today there are digital signals that make the HD experience available. However, the radio receiver you needed to pick up the HD signals previously cost thousands of dollars. But today you can get a receiver for your car for around $100. HD radio does two things for listeners: it dramatically improves the sound quality of a broadcast and it gives you more stations.

Clark recently had an HD radio installed in his wife's van. When you tune to a particular frequency, the radio first delivers the analog signal while it takes a few seconds to seek the digital one. Watch out when it kicks over to HD. Clark compares the difference in sound quality to listening to a standard car stereo versus listening to live music in a concert hall. The cool thing about the whole HD radio trend is that each station has been given three digital signals for every regular one they had. So a music station, for example, now has the opportunity to play two additional formats that weren't previously available -- in addition to its regular music format. So how much does this wonderful technology cost? Absolutely nothing, unlike satellite radio which offers a ton of channels if you pay the subscription fee. Now Clark wants to put an HD radio in his own Scion xB. He'll probably have the only Scion in the nation with HD radio. While satellite radio has spent a ton of money striking deals with the automakers, HD radio has nobody out there to advocate for it and get it built into cars. So it's a great technology that is going no place. We'll see if it catches on or goes the way of Betamax.

High-definition radio is taking over the radio world, but most people are not even aware of it. HD radio converts radio signals into the rich, deep sound you’d receive on a CD. It also allows stations to "split" their signal and offer more than one channel on their station, which increases choices for the listener. Just a year ago, almost no stations offered HD broadcasts, and HD radios themselves were hard to find. But now 1,300 HD stations exist, and that number will continue to grow. Some stations are griping about the expense involved in converting the signal. But this is short-sighted because listenership will increase when there are more choices and better quality. HD radio is being installed standard in BMWs, Jaguars, and Hyundais now, and soon, it should be a standard feature on all cars. So why spend $150 a year on satellite radio, when you could spend around $130 one time for an HD radio? The signal is just as clear.