Digital-Only Signals Could Help Bring AMs ‘Back From The Brink Of Extinction

[davideduardo]

That's where the manufacturers have a role in making HD Radio succeed. Every radio sold for the US market should be HD capable. By churning out analog-only radios, they are just compounding the problem.

You are missing the point: the average vehicle (where 50% of radio listening takes place) is nearly 11 years old. It would take another decade for just 50% of the non-HD car radios to be replaced with ones that are digital. In the meantime, a successful AM station that goes digital loses about 90% of their in-car listening potential.

And home and work radios are not being replaced or purchased. Old radios last "forever" and more and more people are moving to smart devices and like Alexa and their smartphone for audio. AM stations will simply lose everything there.

The FCC has approved HD Radio for use. All they can do now is refine the regulations to better support the private sector. Now it's up to Xperi, broadcasters, manufacturers, and retailers to do their part in making HD Radio succeed. Unlike other countries with governments that largely control broadcast, the US private sector will write the story of HD Radio's success or failure.

For AM, it is already a failure. Cross it off. There are less than 100 stations on AM... out of nearly 5,000... running HD. The majority that had HD at the beginning have equipment that long ago reached end of life and no AM will spend for new gear today.

And, again, most AMs do not cover their market today. As stated before, in the top 100 markets, there are less than 175 total stations that cover 80% of the metro survey area day and night. The rest are hopelessly inferior and not competitive today.

 

[TheBigA]

For AM, it is already a failure. Cross it off. There are less than 100 stations on AM... out of nearly 5,000... running HD.

That's the problem. A lot of people in radio can remember the excitement that existed 20 years ago when it was a new technology, and the heartbreak when it didn't take off as expected. There was a lot of time and money invested in this concept, and it seemed like the only people interested in it succeeding were the radio companies. So now 20 years later, those people feel a bit burned. Unless Xperi does something different, the radio folks are all pretty much done.

 

[CTListener]

That's the problem. A lot of people in radio can remember the excitement that existed 20 years ago when it was a new technology, and the heartbreak when it didn't take off as expected. There was a lot of time and money invested in this concept, and it seemed like the only people interested in it succeeding were the radio companies. So now 20 years later, those people feel a bit burned. Unless Xperi does something different, the radio folks are all pretty much done.

Everyone behind HD overestimated the potential impact Sirius and XM would have on AM and FM listening, and the level of dissatisfaction the radio audience had with the variety of formats (and number of songs in certain formats' playlists) available to them already. As it turned out, most people not only didn't want to pay for radio, they also were generally happy with what their local stations were offering -- commercials, repetition and all. Twenty years later, satellite has carved out a nice niche, but its total subscriber base, spread across the continental United States, is less than one-tenth of the nation's population. And not all subscribers listen to it exclusively.

 

[davideduardo]

That's the problem. A lot of people in radio can remember the excitement that existed 20 years ago when it was a new technology, and the heartbreak when it didn't take off as expected. There was a lot of time and money invested in this concept, and it seemed like the only people interested in it succeeding were the radio companies. So now 20 years later, those people feel a bit burned. Unless Xperi does something different, the radio folks are all pretty much done.

I don't recall excitement in my particular area of the radio world. We had, as mentioned before, a full management presentation at the very beginning by Strube and discovered that the entire focus was on car radios.

That meant that it would take a decade just to get to half of all vehicles if 100% of new cars had the capability. And at that time, only 1/3 of radio listening was in the car. There was no real plan to market home radios, and the chip ate too much power for portables.

When the horrible "stations between the stations" campaign rolled out and the group engaged in some rather collusion-like format assignments, we lost interest.

A few convention booth visits to hear AM HD convinced me that this was an add-on concept done only to help get the FM system through the FCC: to say it sucked is an understatement.

Our expectations were low, and the roll-out further soured us on the system. It did turn into a profit center of sorts in some markets with niche foreign language programming, such as Farsi and Armenian.

 

[davideduardo]

Everyone behind HD overestimated the potential impact Sirius and XM would have on AM and FM listening, and the level of dissatisfaction the radio audience had with the variety of formats (and number of songs in certain formats' playlists) available to them already. As it turned out, most people not only didn't want to pay for radio, they also were generally happy with what their local stations were offering -- commercials, repetition and all. Twenty years later, satellite has carved out a nice niche, but its total subscriber base, spread across the continental United States, is less than one-tenth of the nation's population. And not all subscribers listen to it exclusively.

The motivation behind HD was that radio was afraid of "digital" in their analog world. The idea of being able to say "digital" was huge.

This came at the time that TV was going digital, and the world of computers made "digital" a very positive term. But, as it turned out, digital lost its appeal since everything was suddenly "digital" from the thermostat to our watches and cellular phones.

The additional HD channels was an afterthought, but it cut the quality of the digital version of the analog channel. In many cases, the analog sounded better than the limited HD1 channel when stations gave too much bandwidth to the other channels.

The fear was not satellite... in my case, we added limited HD but also did 5 channels on XM in the early years. So for some of us, no matter where the preferences ended up, we were covered. As it turned out, neither effort produced tangible results.

 

[TheBigA]

I don't recall excitement in my particular area of the radio world. We had, as mentioned before, a full management presentation at the very beginning by Strube and discovered that the entire focus was on car radios.

Car radios? If that's where the focus was, they missed it by a mile. The only HD radios for a long time were table models. It took years for car deals to emerge.

 

[Kelly A]

Everyone behind HD overestimated the potential impact Sirius and XM would have on AM and FM listening, and the level of dissatisfaction the radio audience had with the variety of formats (and number of songs in certain formats' playlists) available to them already. As it turned out, most people not only didn't want to pay for radio, they also were generally happy with what their local stations were offering -- commercials, repetition and all. Twenty years later, satellite has carved out a nice niche, but its total subscriber base, spread across the continental United States, is less than one-tenth of the nation's population. And not all subscribers listen to it exclusively.

Sirius and XM separately but combined in numbers, never cracked even 2% of radio listeners. Terrestrial radio groups were concerned when Sirius and XM launched and were promoting it heavily. That lasted about six months before it was determined satellite was, as David mentioned, primarily an in-vehicle media.

 

[davideduardo]

Car radios? If that's where the focus was, they missed it by a mile. The only HD radios for a long time were table models. It took years for car deals to emerge.

The whole push by the HD folks was for cars. At the NAB at one show they even had a car on the show floor.

I don't recall much talk about home radios at all the initial conversations. The point is that ibiquity said that we had to get stations on the air for the car manufacturers to start equipping vehicles.

 

[davideduardo]

Sirius and XM separately but combined in numbers, never cracked even 2% of radio listeners. Terrestrial radio groups were concerned when Sirius and XM launched and were promoting it heavily. That lasted about six months before it was determined satellite was, as David mentioned, primarily an in-vehicle media.

I've seen markets where in-car is in the higher single digit category in diary markets (satellite is not encoded for PPM). When you add in in-home and at work, that brings it down to about a 2 share in big markets around 2009. Now, with PPM we can not measure. But the diary markets show as much as a 5 share prior to the pandemic.

 

[davideduardo]

Sirius and XM separately but combined in numbers, never cracked even 2% of radio listeners. Terrestrial radio groups were concerned when Sirius and XM launched and were promoting it heavily. That lasted about six months before it was determined satellite was, as David mentioned, primarily an in-vehicle media.

I was one of the idiots who bought an arm-band XM radio to use when jogging or hiking. Totally useless, unless you stood still and raised your arms to the sky (risking being labeled as a cult follower or being committed for 72 hour observation).

 

[TheBigA]

I don't recall much talk about home radios at all the initial conversations. The point is that ibiquity said that we had to get stations on the air for the car manufacturers to start equipping vehicles.

But they had no deals with any car manufacturers or any after-market manufacturers for many years. The only deal they had was with Best Buy for a table radio.

The car companies felt loyalty to either XM or Sirius, each of which were paying for dash space. They expected the same from iBiquity, and they certainly weren't going to PAY iBiquity for the chip. That was a total non-starter. Car buyers expected it to come standard.

 

[davideduardo]

But they had no deals with any car manufacturers or any after-market manufacturers for many years. The only deal they had was with Best Buy for a table radio.

But the whole HD Committee focus was on making enough noise so car manufacturers would feel it necessary to add HD. That was the real reason for the stupid "stations between the stations" campaign: to raise consumer awareness so they would want HD in new cars. Of course, it never really worked.

The car companies felt loyalty to either XM or Sirius, each of which were paying for dash space. They expected the same from iBiquity, and they certainly weren't going to PAY iBiquity for the chip. That was a total non-starter. Car buyers expected it to come standard.

Satellite made money from subscribers; terrestrial has no subscribers. Ibiquity sold chips and licenses. So they had to create consumer demand.

If radio stations had offered "more stations with fewer commercials" and promised no more than 4 minutes of commercials an hour and no monthly fees, it might have worked. And that could have changed the way radio sells time in a manner that would be more competitive than today's 15 to 16 minute an hour spot loads.

 

[TheBigA]

If radio stations had offered "more stations with fewer commercials" and promised no more than 4 minutes of commercials an hour and no monthly fees, it might have worked. And that could have changed the way radio sells time in a manner that would be more competitive than today's 15 to 16 minute an hour spot loads.

Some companies offered stations with NO commercials. They had to since the HD stations had no audience. But they didn't advertise them as such.

 

[rbc]

For AM, it is already a failure. Cross it off. There are less than 100 stations on AM... out of nearly 5,000... running HD. The majority that had HD at the beginning have equipment that long ago reached end of life and no AM will spend for new gear today.

That's dark. How come HD gear for medium wave is being made at all? Is it a fools errand that the manufacturers are making this stuff? How come broadcasters are running AM digital pilots and petitioning the FCC?

 

[louis_p]

Some companies offered stations with NO commercials. They had to since the HD stations had no audience. But they didn't advertise them as such.

All of the HD sub-channels in my area were commercial free. I also recall Clear Channel, CBS, and Cox stations promoting HD radio regularly around 2005-2006. The problem with the marketing is that it didn’t give consumers any details on where or how to purchase a HD radio unit. I remember walking through Best Buy at that time. XM and Sirius units were prominently displayed while HD units were nowhere to be found and the sales associates had no clue about it.

From my own experience with HD Radio, the biggest problem I had was poor reception. I lived in an area that had excellent analog reception. But, the HD reception was hit and miss, even with a dipole antenna. I remember reading somewhere that the HD signal is 1/100th of the analog signal. I couldn’t imagine such a horrible experience in the car with the constant switching between analog and digital.

 

[TheBigA]

The problem with the marketing is that it didn’t give consumers any details on where or how to purchase a HD radio unit.

Because at the time, there really weren't any. The Best Buy deal came in 2009 after the radio promotion ended.

The HD Radio Alliance started marketing the concept before iBiquity had widespread receiver distribution.

 

[louis_p]

Because at the time, there really weren't any. The Best Buy deal came in 2009 after the radio promotion ended.

The HD Radio Alliance started marketing the concept before iBiquity had widespread receiver distribution.

There were a few radios available at the time. I had a Boston Acoustics Recepter HD purchased from eBay. If I recall correctly, Sangean and Sony also had tabletop models on the market at the time but that was about it.

At the time, there was a classical station in my market that turned on HD (with no sub-channels). For the intermittent times I could receive the HD signal on the Recepter, it sounded like there was a symphony performing in my living room. Too bad the reception was so finicky. I eventually gave up on HD Radio. Once I got a smartphone that would conveniently stream any station from anywhere in the world, I never missed it.

 

[semoochie]

All of the HD sub-channels in my area were commercial free. I also recall Clear Channel, CBS, and Cox stations promoting HD radio regularly around 2005-2006. The problem with the marketing is that it didn’t give consumers any details on where or how to purchase a HD radio unit. I remember walking through Best Buy at that time. XM and Sirius units were prominently displayed while HD units were nowhere to be found and the sales associates had no clue about it.

From my own experience with HD Radio, the biggest problem I had was poor reception. I lived in an area that had excellent analog reception. But, the HD reception was hit and miss, even with a dipole antenna. I remember reading somewhere that the HD signal is 1/100th of the analog signal. I couldn’t imagine such a horrible experience in the car with the constant switching between analog and digital.

The FCC later authorized 4% of analog but you can often get a waiver for 10%!

 

[davideduardo]

Because at the time, there really weren't any. The Best Buy deal came in 2009 after the radio promotion ended.

The HD Radio Alliance started marketing the concept before iBiquity had widespread receiver distribution.

That was the real conundrum: how to get radios manufactured if there were no stations broadcasting in HD. So the station groups that provided part of the seed capital (and were also part of the HD Radio Alliance) had to start operating in HD to convince manufacturers to support it and dealers to stock HD radios.

The Alliance later changed many of the promo announcements to be for retail outlets that had HD radios. Best Buy was the biggest beneficiary. But the radios did not sell, and the focus on automobile radios was increased in intensity.

 

[Kelly A]

The Alliance later changed many of the promo announcements to be for retail outlets that had HD radios. Best Buy was the biggest beneficiary. But the radios did not sell, and the focus on automobile radios was increased in intensity.

Right after the promotion started, I stopped by my local Best Buy and asked at least three folks in the store where I could find HD radios. They sent me to the aftermarket car stereo area, where the sales person there offered me radios that had Sirius or XM capability. I said, no I was interested in HD radio. He had heard nothing about it.

After walking down the isle of the demo car radios, there was one aftermarket HD radio from Kenwood. Over in the clock and portable radio area there was one portable radio that could receive HD from their store brand Insignia.