The cellphone companies will make sure that never happens.
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HD Radio on the Way Out?
- Thread starter Santa fe
- Start date
DRM is an Open Standard: Introduction - Digital Radio Mondiale
I'm guessing there are a lot of people like me. I listen to radio only when in the car and even then not always. I can honestly say I would not miss radio at all if it disappeared tomorrow. I have all my favorite music recorded and playable in home and in my vehicles. Don't need radio at all.
And I'm saying this as an old navy radioman who loved radio as a kid as well as in the military. Commercial radio just isn't important to me any longer.
Which is exactly why it doesn't target you any longer. Radio stations program to people who listen.
I think China has opted for DRM. New Zeeland is using DRM on shortwave as well as Radio Marti out of the Greenville Relay Station (If they are still operating.) I guess my real point is that the market place does not always make the best decision when it comes to technical standards. The FCC chose the RCA standard for color television over the competing CBS system and I think we were better off for it.
DRM for Radio Marti was a short lived experiment some years back. It is not currently being used for those now very limited transmissions.
On shortwave the BBC World Service, Radio Romania International, Radio New Zealand, China National Radio and a few minor broadcasters are using DRM.
The RCA color system was the better choice as the CBS system was a clunky, low resolution alternative that really didn’t have any future, although a version of it was used on the Apollo moon landing missions following Apollo 11.
That being said, the RCA NTSC color system was still a kludge. The European PAL standard was far superior.
I totally understand that BUT I am the demo with MONEY. Advertisers like audiences with money (even though it may be tougher to sell to us).
The newer generation (my granddaughters peers) don't even recognize there is a radio option. It's all phone video streaming. She couldn't name three radio stations if her life depended upon it.
They reach you in other ways, mainly TV.
Which is why the companies that own radio stations are diversifying their platforms to other things such as podcasts and streaming.
...for the time. Improvements in electronics (solid-state color demod by the mid '60s; dynamic phase correction by the mid '70s; comb filtering by the late '80s) made the quality differences between NTSC and PAL negligible, except for resolution (525 vs. 625 lines).
Radio stopped targeting me long before there was a competing technology to replace it. But I still get your point, radio's "job" is to maximize profits and my tastes will likely never do that.
You are obviously over 55. Radio can not specifically target your age range with good results. In your market, there is an "oldies" station that attempts to serve your age group, but it bills vastly less than its lower rated sister stations. My point is that radio can't serve you because advertisers don't generally want to reach you.
If you look at the national data, those over 65 are, in a large percentage, dependent on Social Security or some other retirement plan. That is not the "well of opportunity" of the sellers of goods and services you think.
Most retired people are most concerned with their living quarters, basic transportation, food and... the big one... health care. In another thread, ad agency veteran Roddy Freeman mentioned that the issue with targeting older persons is small family size; empty nesters spend less on everything and are quite well established in their consumption of branded services and products.
50 years ago, most people could not name more than three stations, either. They could name the ones they liked, but had no interest in or knowledge of all the rest.
True and Iheart has not promoted HD Radio for some time given the obvious its about protecting their apps. Tunein, Audacy had to deal with similar situations about HD radio and SiriusXM yes its great if we were still in the 2000's but not so much today given where we are in this decade with dashboard apps in the car.
I always said HD was just a translator feeder and not much else. Streaming has always had far more going for it technically. That's why I always saw streaming, not HD, as radio's future.Keep in mind that HD radio is a trademarked, copyrighted technology, owned and marketed by xperi. Broadcast radio companies have nothing to do with it. They have to pay xperi if they want to use it. Car manufacturers also have to pay xperi if they want to include it. So the only company that benefits or loses from this is xperi. On the other hand, the other companies you mention are huge technology companies with marketing budgets and are a lot more invested in getting placement on car dashboards. This is why broadcasters are more interested in streaming than anything else.
Homepage Xperi - Xperi
At home, on the go, every moment of the day. Xperi invents, develops and delivers the technologies that create extraordinary experiences.xperi.com
At one time, broadcast radio companies were invested in HD radio. That was over 20 years ago. Not anymore.
It's also going to be time very soon for the PROs to get it through their heads they have to adjust streaming rates because it won't be long at this rate before the terrestrial signal is secondary to the stream. So the rate differences between over the air broadcasters and streaming-only webcasters will be obsolete in a few years. (Surely the PROs have prepared for this. 🙄)
The car makers have finally spoken the same thing to the radio industry and the public what I was told years ago from my dealer. Terrestrial radio is not in the future of the car industry. Including FM.
And it is horrifying to watch. But the writing was on the wall 20 years ago. The public wants high-tech, not a quaint old radio dial. The market has spoken
xperi hasn't exactly helped themselves with it's royalty scam. And since there are very few home/portables with HD and cars bailing out of HD, they're going to have to either give that up and start making (gasp!) relevant things or go under. That HD cow has done been milked to dust.
If the auto makers don't want HD, xperi is in big trouble. Because the radio stations don't want it if they can't semi-profitably run analog translators with it with terrestrial analog FM radio itself vanishing altogether from new/late model cars.
But fair warning: The new radio replacement they're coming up with is much worse.
You ever go into Walgreens for a green tea and you can't find it because every cooler door has a video ad for something else running on it across the entire door? Imagine the distraction when a big, loud, visual ad suddenly pops up on your entertainment center screen. Especially for a product/service you will never want or need. That will get very old, very fast. So I hope the car industry is planning an opt-out because I really don't see the public reacting well to that.
And seriously, people are REALLY tired of the 360° advertising bombardment of life as it is now. Seeing it in their cars isn't going to sit as well as the ad agencies, tech companies and car makers think. Because people see their cars as their personal spaces. And the ads (especially if there is no direct way of shutting them off) will become invasive. Audio advertising is more subtle by comparison. You can change the station, turn down/off the volume, play MP3s/CDs, whatever to tune them out. What's the escape hatch here? Especially when you and your date are having a moment? Or if you have important guests you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of with your car uncontrollably flashing ads for AM/PM hot dogs.
The ad agencies aren't going to invest in a system that doesn't put their messages in front of the driver at all times. Or trigger the video screens in the back seat to show toy or fast food commercials. So I expect the worst from it first before legislation straightens it out.
And what's to keep auto manufacturers from having in house ad agencies, radio channels and content makers of their own? They got their buyers complete financials, personal data, address, etc.
I have a Samsung TV that defaults to its own streaming network menu options when you turn it on. I have to thumb for the HDMI connection my cable is on. That's very possible in this environment too.
And it's going to be a problem for everybody if the on-board advertising system works better than anything else in the car.
I never understood that advertising argument. Why ignore the people with the money. Instead go after the broke college kids.
Radio rates are negotiated with PROs every three years, and the rates are based on audience figures. So they can already see the trends.
Because they're more likely to spend without asking questions or doing research.
How effective is advertising in your buying process?
It's always about the person at the top, the company just being the means to an end. Specifically, Bob Struble made millions. Then he sold out the company and made even more. Ibiqity no longer exists and Struble now runs a venture capital firm, because of course he does.
Not much, sure the commercials might be entertaining but I'm not buying anything.