A method of communicating an audio signal represented by a digital audio bit stream, comprising: encoding the digital audio bit stream into coarse codeword bits and fine codeword bits, wherein the coarse codeword bits represent high auditory perceptual importance of the audio signal and the fine codeword bits represent low auditory perceptual importance of the audio signal; selecting a symbol of a complex constellation associated with a non-uniform hierarchical digital modulation scheme based on the coarse codeword bits and the fine codeword bits; modulating the symbol into a radio frequency RF signal; transmitting the RF signal on a transmitting antenna; receiving the RF signal on a receiving antenna; sampling the received RF signal into a received digital signal; detecting a received symbol of a complex symbol stream in the received digital signal into bits designating a received quadrant and a received point; if both the bits designating the received quadrant and the bits designating the received point are detected: decoding the received symbol into received coarse codeword bits and received fine codeword bits, based on the received quadrant and the received point; and generating an output digital audio signal based on the received coarse codeword bits and the received fine codeword bits; if only the bits designating the received quadrant are detected: decoding the received symbol into the received coarse codeword bits based on the received quadrant; and generating the output digital audio signal based on the received coarse codeword bits; and if neither the bits designating the received quadrant nor the bits designating the received point are detected without error, generating an audio mute for the output digital audio signal. encoding the digital audio bit stream into coarse codeword bits and fine codeword bits, wherein the coarse codeword bits represent high auditory perceptual importance of the audio signal and the fine codeword bits represent low auditory perceptual importance of the audio signal; selecting a symbol of a complex constellation associated with a non-uniform hierarchical digital modulation scheme based on the coarse codeword bits and the fine codeword bits; modulating the symbol into a radio frequency RF signal; transmitting the RF signal on a transmitting antenna; receiving the RF signal on a receiving antenna; sampling the received RF signal into a received digital signal; detecting a received symbol of a complex symbol stream in the received digital signal into bits designating a received quadrant and a received point; if both the bits designating the received quadrant and the bits designating the received point are detected: decoding the received symbol into received coarse codeword bits and received fine codeword bits, based on the received quadrant and the received point; and generating an output digital audio signal based on the received coarse codeword bits and the received fine codeword bits; decoding the received symbol into received coarse codeword bits and received fine codeword bits, based on the received quadrant and the received point; and generating an output digital audio signal based on the received coarse codeword bits and the received fine codeword bits; if only the bits designating the received quadrant are detected: decoding the received symbol into the received coarse codeword bits based on the received quadrant; and generating the output digital audio signal based on the received coarse codeword bits; and decoding the received symbol into the received coarse codeword bits based on the received quadrant; and generating the output digital audio signal based on the received coarse codeword bits; and if neither the bits designating the received quadrant nor the bits designating the received point are detected without error, generating an audio mute for the output digital audio signal.