A really cheesy HD Radio commercial

[nd2023]

"Hi, welcome to Best Buy"
"I have an HD radio receiver in my car, I love the HD2/3 channels, but how can I listen to them at home"
"Easy, the new Insignia HD Radio boombox, an iPod dock, CD player, and big boom box sound"
"Well how about iTunes tagging?"
"Yes, iTunes tagging with HD Radio"
"Is it expensive"
"Only $99"
"Wow, sold"
"You can also get an Insignia portable HD radio for less than $50 here at Best Buy"
Voiceover: "HD Radio. More radio, more value"

----------------

This is how it is supposed to sound like in the ideal world of the HD radio marketing department. This is how I am guessing it will sound like in the real world

"Hi, welcome to Best Buy"
"I have an HD radio receiver in my car, I love the HD2/3 channels whenever they don't drop out, but how can I listen to them at home"
"What's an HD Radio?"
"Uhh some sort of high definition radio. I like this dance station on 106.5 HD2"
"Let me check with my manager to see if we have the HD radios. In the meanwhile, here are our satellite radios you can listen to at home"
"OK"
"Oh, here are our Insignia HD radios. Sorry there's so much dust on them, they've been here since September"
"Well how about iTunes tagging?"
"I think so, let me clear the dust so I can read the box, ahhh yes iTunes tagging is there"
"Is it expensive?"
"Only $99"
"99 DOLLARS FOR A RADIO?!?! Who do you think I am, Bill Gates?"
"You can also get an Insignia portable HD radio for less than $50 here at Best Buy"
"You have got to be out of your mind. I'm just gonna have to listen to the HD2/3 streams online for free."
Voiceover: "HD Radio. Less radio (wipes out the adjacents), less value, more buzz"

----------------------

I think I'll go to Best Buy and act like the guy in the commercial who's overenthusiastic about spending $99 on an HD radio, and post my results. It's so funny to make fun of HD radio. There are so many things wrong with this commercial it's not even funny.
I'd love to record it and put it on Youtube, it would generate some buzz (pun intended)

 

[spunker88]

"Hi, welcome to Best Buy"
"I have an HD radio receiver in my car, I love the HD2/3 channels, but how can I listen to them at home"
"Do you have a computer and internet service?"
"Yes, Why?"
"Many stations stream their HD channels online"
"Well how about iTunes tagging?
"The online player will display the artist/song title, and since you are at your computer already, its easy enough to copy it right into iTunes."
"Is it expensive?"
"No, its free and requires no extra equipment."
"Wow, and to think I was going to buy something."

Seriously, who is going to buy an HD radio for there home when most people have internet access. And unless they live close enough to the transmitter, they are going to have to get an antenna, maybe even a rooftop one, to get a reliable signal.

Also, I seriously doubt most Best Buy employees would know they even sold HD radios. In my local Best Buy I couldn't find an HD Radio in the home audio area, unless it was out of sight. All of the advertisements in that area for home audio mentioned, iPod docking, internet radio, satellite radio, but no HD radio. There were some aftermarket car radios that had HD Radio but it wasn't really being advertised. The only reason I knew they had HD radio was because the item description mentioned it.

 

[tomservo]

Last time I was in Worst Buy they had a few HD radios around, even one still in the car stereo display section.

They're there if you know what to look for, I think. Or maybe it's just this area.

Also, I wouldn't mind having a dedicated home HD receiver, simply because the station I usually listen to (the aforementioned news/talk rebroadcast) does not stream most of its programming online. The national programs are blocked off and no one listens to the local crap anyway. So it's either off the air or not at all.

Anyway, my wifi network is shared amongst five devices and if more than two are streaming audio or video, you might as well shut it down, nothing else is do-able. So yeah, I can listen to the radio all *I* want but anyone else is going to have buffering issues. Or I can just turn on the HD radio and listen without choking the internet down for everyone else. (10 Mbps down, 768 k up but it rarely delivers and it's the ONLY HSI provider available. No cable, no satellite, no WiMax.)

 

[cd637299]

Funny OP!

I cannot top any of these....I don't even have iTunes.

But I will say, one radio station I know that has a decent HD2 format doesn't even mention it on the parent station's site!! That, even though a sister AM ID's as [xxxx & xxxx-HD3]....certainly the curiosity factor would be raised....you'd think.....

....nahhhhhhhh

cd

 

[nd2023]

spunker88, you're assuming the average Best Buy employee even knows what an HD radio is and that the HD2/3 subchannels stream online.

The Insignia HD radio is pretty sensitive, but it's only reliable while moving within 15 miles (of a class B), spotty within 15-35 miles, and the HD drops out completely after 35 miles. The analog's good to 60 miles. Assuming the boombox performs the same, but is used indoors with no external antenna, HD reception will work anywhere within 10 miles, you'll have to fiddle with the antenna within 20 miles, hold the antenna in one position up to 30 miles, and analog only beyond that.

The Sony XDRF1HD and an outdoor antenna gives me reliable HD reception 60 miles away and I get some stations up to 250 miles away in analog daily in the summer. But the average person won't spend $300 on a radio and outdoor antenna just for HD reception.

I think I'll go to a Best Buy tomorrow located 40 miles from both NYC and Philly, where HD reception is nonexistant and re-enact the script in the ad as closely as possible.

 

[Manic_Monkey]

Why didn't Insignia add a mp3 player to the Insignia portable HD radio? It would of made alot of sense compared to a 50 dollar radio. : (

 

[Manic_Monkey]

Why didn't Insignia add a mp3 player to the Insignia portable HD radio? It would of at least given people more of a reason to pick it up and then by chance be exposed to HD radio. A

 

[nocomradio]

Heck, I think it'd be more like this:

Hi, I'm looking for a radio.

What's a radio? We have ipods, and Mac's. Is that what you want?

No, I want a radio.

Hmmmm, I'll have to ask my manager (the other 17 year old) if we have those.

*15 minutes pass*

Sorry, we don't seem to have any radios.

We do have this ipod or Mac over here. You wanna buy one of those?

Nevermind, I will go home and order what I want online where I don't have to have any interaction with untrained children.

 

[Savage]

Let me "tag" the commercial!

"HD Radio. It's Dead. And getting deader!! Nowhere to be seen at Best Buy and The Shack!"

 

[nd2023]

So I went to Best Buy and tried to re-enact the commercial. I said the first line word for word. The salesman was confused, and looked at all of the iHome boomboxes. We walked right past the Insignia HD boombox and the portable HD radio. Then he asked another employee where the HD boomboxes are. As I expected, he took me to the Sirius XM receivers. I said that I heard commercials say that HD radio had no monthly fee. They asked yet another employee about HD radio. He said that these (the satellite radios) are the HD radios I was looking for.

Wow, I am surprised by the lack of training of the Best Buy staff. It's 2011, the first HD station in my market went on the air in 2003. How are they expected to sell HD radios if their sales staff doesn't even know they exist? I remember a few years ago I went to a Radio Shack and asked about HD radios. The salesman showed me the Sirius radios. There was a sign on the counter that said that if the salesman doesn't ask if I want batteries with my purchase that I get 4 free AA batteries. I bought a candy bar and of course the salesman didn't ask if I wanted batteries with it, so I pointed out that sign. His manager was nearby, so he had to give me the free batteries.

 

[tomservo]

Wow, I am surprised by the lack of training of the Best Buy staff.

That was your first mistake.

BB employees are notoriously stupid about their product and only seem to know what they want to know, in my experience. A few years ago I was perusing the flat screen TVs and one of them tried to sell me on the cheapo Emersons, saying it was capable of "receiving off the air and satellite broadcasts in 1080p."

Well, first of all, the display card said 720p was its max resolution. Then there's no OTA in 1080p. I said "O RLY?" and tried to school him, to no avail.

Of course, these are also the people who'll tell you satellite radio is "CD quality" if it gets a sale. I'm surprised the vacuum cleaners don't double as butlers & maids and the laptop PCs as sous chefs to the great restaurants of the world.

 

[cd637299]

So I went to Best Buy and tried to re-enact the commercial. I said the first line word for word. The salesman was confused, and looked at all of the iHome boomboxes. We walked right past the Insignia HD boombox and the portable HD radio. Then he asked another employee where the HD boomboxes are. As I expected, he took me to the Sirius XM receivers. I said that I heard commercials say that HD radio had no monthly fee. They asked yet another employee about HD radio. He said that these (the satellite radios) are the HD radios I was looking for.

Wow, I am surprised by the lack of training of the Best Buy staff. It's 2011, the first HD station in my market went on the air in 2003. How are they expected to sell HD radios if their sales staff doesn't even know they exist? I remember a few years ago I went to a Radio Shack and asked about HD radios. The salesman showed me the Sirius radios. There was a sign on the counter that said that if the salesman doesn't ask if I want batteries with my purchase that I get 4 free AA batteries. I bought a candy bar and of course the salesman didn't ask if I wanted batteries with it, so I pointed out that sign. His manager was nearby, so he had to give me the free batteries.

And there you go: HD = D.O.A.

I wish i were a fly on the wall there during that exchange.....

HH Gregg is opening here this weekend. Any good experiences with their employees?

Hmmm a candy bar w/ batteries....now THERE's an energy bar! (Don't try digesting at home, or anywhere.)

cd

 

[nocomradio]

Nick, I still can't believe (even as a ruse) you went to Best Buy and expected anything even resembling service/knowledge of any sort.

I am sure there probably is somewhere, someplace, somehow, one obscure employee hidden in a back room at a Best Buy, in say Dubuque, who actually cares about their job enough to actually learn some aspect of it. The rest of the continent however has Best Buy locations populated by mindless drones simply there to collect a paycheck and say whatever is necessary to do just that and not much else. What incentive is there, really? Its a minimum-wage, big box store that trains their subjects to simply sell whatever they can, whenever they can and not offer up much more than the carbon-dioxide they expel while babbling on about how great that defective, third-run piece of electronic leftover is. There are three of those eyesores located within a 30 mile radius of my home and they are all exactly alike in the poor service they consistently deliver without fail. Just like Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, and any of the other cookie-cutter outlets, they try to be everything to everyone, and in the process forget to just try to do one thing and do it well.

 

[nd2023]

I wish I could have recorded it, but they don't allow videotaping inside the store. Plus it would change the employee's response if they realized they're being videotaped.

I just can't believe how dumb the employee was when we walked right by the Insignia HD boombox. The boombox was at waist level and the HD feature wasn't obvious on the unit. At that point I purposely didn't mention the Insignia boombox, because the average person wouldn't know the exact brand. Then he asked another employee who was equally as clueless about HD radio and thought I was asking about satellite radio. I specifically mentioned, as in the script, that "I have an HD radio receiver in my car and I love listening to the HD2/HD3 channels and I was wondering how I can listen to them at home". The third employee thought I was clueless and was convinced that I meant satellite radio. I even said "HD radio has no monthly fee" and they said that you need to subscribe to Sirius XM to get your HD radio service.

You would think Best Buy would have a training session every few months for all their employees to learn about new products Best Buy is selling.

A competent employee would know that they have HD radios in stock and point me right to them. A genius employee would know that HD2/HD3 stations stream online and I don't need to buy anything to listen to them at home.

The HD alliance is wasting their money advertising that their HD radios are available at Best Buy when the average person who was interested in that ad will most likely walk out with a satellite radio.

 

[cd637299]

OT, but related to Best Buy:

I did meet a cashier at a BB that I felt was very wise, back in what had to be late '08, when I bought 2 Insignia converter boxes, digital-to-analog, which BTW were *the* best ones for DXing....

I presented him the two boxes, plus my two $40-off gubmint-issue cards....Still they were $59.99 each, so basically they cost me $20 apiece.....

He said to me, "Really, these *should* be free!"

True, that, but I'm still very happy with them, and they aren't easy to get anymore in stores!

So, maybe not all clerks there are clueless....

Back to the thread at hand.

cd

 

[tomservo]

Although I've come out and said that BB employees are useless, which is true, it should be noted that if the HD Alliance is promoting BB and HD radio together, that BB should be schooling its employees on the promotion, if for nothing else in case a customer comes in asking about the commercial!

Again though, this is not so much a failure of the HD people as it is BB. But that is hardly surprising, since they're basically taught to lie cheat and steal to get a sale. (Figuratively speaking)

 

[nocomradio]

Again though, this is not so much a failure of the HD people as it is BB.

Correction: It's a failure of Best Buy management. The employees wouldn't make the effort to school themselves on their own.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

Why would BB management have an interest in schooling its employees on a $50 radio only radio geeks are interested in buying?

 

[davideduardo]

The HD alliance is wasting their money advertising that their HD radios are available at Best Buy when the average person who was interested in that ad will most likely walk out with a satellite radio.

The Alliance is basically a number of the larger radio groups that have agreed to dedicate a certain amount of (generally unsold) commercial time to promoting HD radio.

The campaigns will include the name of a retailer if the retailer will carry HD radios.

However, the campaigns, from the initial "stations between the stations" ones, have been confusing and have failed to explain in simple terms what HD is. In an effort to win a Mercury or something similar, they have never had an effective "what's in it for me" message for consumers.

An old ad business adage says, "it's not creative unless it sells." Those pseudo creative spots obviously did not sell.

Of course, another ad industry saying is, "The best way to get a bad product off the market is to advertise it."

 

[tomservo]

Why would BB management have an interest in schooling its employees on a $50 radio only radio geeks are interested in buying?

Because they're being partnered with these stupid HD radio ads. Just like I'd expect them to school their braindead zombies on satellite radios that only long haul truckers use if Sirius XM partnered with them.