The Sangean HDR-14 is around $85 on Amazon. Under $100 seems cheap to me for a portable HD radio like that. When I bought mine from Amazon around a year ago it was $75.
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Buffalo Cumulus sells AM to Buddy Shula
- Thread starter exdjted
- Start date
If the average consumer happens to be looking for a radio, they probably wouldn't want to spend much more than half of that, which means they're probably not going to be looking for an HD radio.
Of course, the average consumer doesn't really know what an HD radio is, so how could they look for it? Even AM Stereo was more heavily promoted and got more attention, and as we all know, that's not saying much.
But, yeah, for a radio-savvy consumer who wants an HD set for their home stereo, $85 isn't too bad.
c
Look how long it took before FM became popular 30-35 years? Put good content on HD and promote it. It's not going to be easy since there are smartphones and computers to deliver content but you can use those platforms too. I'm many miles away from WECK and yet I enjoy the stream, it's nice to hear a touch of home. So it really doesn't matter how the listener gets it, content is key.
I love radio. I used to take my transistor radio with my Big Wheel as a kid. I had my share of boomboxes, portable radios, etc.i got an HD radio when the technology first came out and liked it. I just looked up that radio. Now, it’s like why I would I want another device with all those buttons? An antenna where I may or may not get my station? It looks like something from the 90’s. I can’t see many folks of any age clamoring for a device like this today. It’s just a different time. Sad, but true.
When electronics manufacturers work against you, you can't win. That was the problem with FM for those 30 years. RCA was opposed to FM because Sarnoff didn't want to pay a royalty to Armstrong. That was also an issue with HD. The electronics manufacturers (who were mainly in China) refused to pay for HD. China steals US technology. I would attend the CES convention, and there was no presence of HD radio. The consumer electronics industry was against it. Credit iBiquity for taking the time to lobby CEA for several years, and that began to change things. They started to get HD in cars.
But the thing about HD is it's still limited by the same thing that limits AM & FM, which is it's still top-down programming in a time when listeners want to make their own playlists and program their own stations. When you have that option available on a device you already own, good content and promotion still can't win.
iBiquity, the company more concerned with creating executive wealth than an open standard for digital radio? Whatever happened to Bob Streubel anyway?
I agree. I knew this was not going to work when they launched this thing before anyone could buy an HD radio. So we're promoting it on radio stations that literally nobody could hear. Absolute waste. I remember going into a Radio Shak and seeing this big display for Sirius, and nothing for HD.
What's Bob doing? He runs an investment company. Maybe Buddy should get him to be a partner
Bob Struble | Blu Ventures
Operating Partner, Cyber Fund 2021 & 2026 Investment Committee
www.bluventureinvestors.com
Thanks to Leonard Kahn, the AM Stereo "introduction" was so screwed up that it ended up almost 5 years too late and with no standard for radio makers to follow.
The "last minute" when AM had a chance of maintaining a position with anything other that talk programming was around 1978-79 when AM listening was still around half of all listening. By the time the industry was released from "The Wrath of Kahn" about 75% of music listening was on FM and so many AM music station either "gone talk" or moved to older adult music formats that there was no chance of saving AM as a music medium.
Sounds like the kind of CEO I wouldn't mind seeing caught cheating at a Coldplay show.I agree. I knew this was not going to work when they launched this thing before anyone could buy an HD radio. So we're promoting it on radio stations that literally nobody could hear. Absolute waste. I remember going into a Radio Shak and seeing this big display for Sirius, and nothing for HD.
What's Bob doing? He runs an investment company. Maybe Buddy should get him to be a partner
Bob Struble | Blu Ventures
Operating Partner, Cyber Fund 2021 & 2026 Investment Committee
iBiquity was a venture capital company, with a combination of conventional speculative investors and a large infusion of capital by the principal group broadcasters. There was only one "top executive" and their headquarters, down the road from Arbitron back then, were modest and definitely not luxurious. Most of the engineering was done in the field, with cooperation from most transmitter manufacturers and a couple of "pilot" stations.
Struble:
Bob is a partner at Blu Venture Investors and serves on the Cyber Fund Investment Committee. From 2017 to 2020, Bob was the CEO of Directed, the largest North American designer and marketer of consumer-branded vehicle security and remote start systems and a pioneer in the connected car space. At Directed, Bob led a strategic pivot into high growth markets before successfully selling the business in 2020. From 1996 to 2015, Bob served as the co-founder and CEO of iBiquity Digital, which developed and commercialized HD Radio Technology. At iBiquity, Bob secured an FCC standard for HD Radio Technology, licensed it to over 700 companies, raised $300M in capital and successfully sold the business to DTS, Inc. in 2015. (Bob Struble | Blu Venture Investors(
Of course he does. I think that's what's called failing up.
He sold iBiquity very successfully in 2015, and he had a long prior career in investment banking. Remember, iBiquity was formed to take existing technology that was (simplified version) abandoned by AT&T in its breakup, and finished a development that the FCC could approve.
Yes, we know. Your definition of success is entirely about how much money the executives make regardless of their failures or the long term damage they inflict on the radio industry in the process.
No, it's not about "the executives" here as there was really only one. It was about the investors, which included a bunch of the larger group owners.
The "radio industry" wanted HD. They invested heavily in it. NAB backed it. They implemented and promoted it, but it did not pan out as listeners were already moving on to newer technology.
Perhaps we should move the last page and a half to a new "HD Radio" thread. Or even a "Failed Radio Technology" thread.
Maybe. But I'd like Buddy to give us a checklist of the reasons why HD is or is not of interest to him. As a deeply embedded local operator, he seems to know a lot more about the market, radio users and advertisers than the big groups... or "us outsiders".
So I' like Buddy to give us some thoughts about how he sees HD in Buffalo.
A total non-starter. As I said, most people who have HD radios in their cars don’t even know it. Beyond that, they could care less even if they do have it. HD radio was a ploy to tell stockholders that radio was on the verge of this incredible breakthrough. The radio industry in 2006 or so promoted HD radio to where it was actually the top spender of any radio category.
With all of those years promoting HD radio, the public was not the least bit interested in caring about this technology, let alone spending money on an HD radio. Zero interest from anyone. Why? Because HD radio was just better sounding radio and people had already starting getting sick of radio in every way, shape and form
The shiny new toy now is “digital”. However, the thunder is fading. However, Wall Street likes to hear there is another revenue opportunity on the horizon. Do you realize how many companies out there say they are “digital specialists “? A billion. The last people I would buy a digital campaign is a radio or tv company….i would go to a company that specializes in digital.
So, back to HD, never was, never will be, because no one gives a shi#
Haha, well there's your answer, David.
To illustrate the point, Buddy could have pointed to "The Bridge" on WBFO-HD2 -- an excellent Triple-A station, in fact one of the few in the nation that is using an HD subchannel to run original local programming not just for the purpose of feeding a translator. The result? Not even a 0.1 in the latest book. But sure, tell us again how big a payday Struble got for selling his worthless technology because apparently that's what really matters.
I was HBC's representative to the committee was formed from the investors in HD to promote the "new channels".
They came up with that "stations between the stations" thing that I thought was confusing and promised no benefit. After a number of months, we decided to drop out of the HD Alliance and go our own way.
When Strube himself told me that iBiquity had done nothing to try to develop an efficient DAC chip for portable HD enabled radios, I knew that HD would not be successful.
I tune in OTA radio for three reasons:
1. It's convenient and reliable in the car.
2. My every move isn't tracked ad nauseum by some digit head, targeting me for even more unwanted advertising.
3. I'm looking for content that's timely and relevant to me where I am at the moment.
1. It's convenient and reliable in the car.
2. My every move isn't tracked ad nauseum by some digit head, targeting me for even more unwanted advertising.
3. I'm looking for content that's timely and relevant to me where I am at the moment.