Better Way to Advertise HD Radios

[Radioman100]

All very true, Radioman - certainly it would be in the manner of common sense to use your HD side-channels as "flankers" to chip away at your competition's audience, thus hoping to elevate your own market rank. But the problem is: that argument cuts both ways.

While you're hoping to use HD2 and 3 as a competitive weapon, the guys across the street are doing the same thing - against you. So any "flanking" potential turns out to be a wash, with the best possible scenario the status quo, and the worst - net damage inflicted on your station(s). As new weapons are fired randomly in a crowded room, it's impossible to predict the outcome. GMs hate unknowns almost as much as they hate surprises.

And the net result, after all is said and done, is further fragmentation of a static, non-growth existing audience. There are only so many pairs or ears and there's only so much total TSL. The more you spread that rated audience among various channels, the more difficult it is for the agency grebes to buy radio.

It's very true that it could turn out that way, but in practical application, it's not happening yet. I don't see any point in duplicating a format that already exists on an analog station in a market on HD2. I believe a station like KPLX-HD2 has the potential to bring people turned off by what CHR has become back to radio. Rap is very polarizing and most CHRs play a lot of it. This one doesn't.

It also plays music during morning drive, as most HD2 channels do. Believe it or not, not everyone likes Kidd Kraddick. Some people want to get their day started with music. Clearly not everyone, or even most people, or we would have more music intensive morning shows on analog FM, but there is a segment of the population that appreciates music in AM drive.

I totally disagree with the premise that HD2 and 3 will only fragment existing audiences. Like it or not, radio usage is declining. Many people claim HD Radio is a "distraction" and is only pulling attention away from radio's "real" problems which usually involve a lackluster product on traditional analog radio. I absolutely agree with that premise, and think radio should doing everything we can to fix the analog product, but I also believe part of the problem with radio is a lack of variety. People have had a little taste of what's out there, and there's no putting that genie back in the bottle. People no longer have to put up with heavy doses of rap to get their pop fix. The same old formats of CHR, country, classic rock, rock and urban just won't cut it anymore. To prevent erosion and bring as many people as possible back to radio we have to offer more.

Putting better talent or more live talent on an average CHR won't do much for someone that loves pop but hates rap. HD2 offers a solution.

 

[RichWood]

"Additional channels appear to just be more competition to their station's primary signals. Why would they want to compete with themselves? If you are in a town of 20,000, the law of diminishing returns becomes fairly obvious."

This is a constant argument from those against IBOC for which I do have the answer. Yes, it is possible that by adding more programing on a second channel, a few listeners might be lost to that second channel. However, considering that both channels are owned by the same company whatever monies are derived from that second channel end up in the same bank account. At the network level they may have 20 or more different programs being transmitted simultaniously and yet it is still very profitable. As a group owner it isn't how much a single radio station earns, it's how much money is earned at the end of each quarter & what percentage of the total market you have listening to your product that matters. If you loose 5,000 listeners to the new channel, you still have those listeners and by providing an alternative you gain more listeners who would otherwise go to other media for their entertainment. In other words you don't loose in the end.

It sounds like you've never visited with a Sales Manager. If this were true why would Clear Channel and other large consolidated companies change a format in a market? Even in clusters stations have to pull their own weight. San Diego is a good example. Progressive talk isn't working to their satisfaction. It's goes away.

Stations complained very loudly (they still are) at Docket 80-90 that added many more stations. Now we're expecting as many as 7,000 new "stations" to bring in more money. Rich Russo of JL Media (one of the largest media buyers in the industry) says there's no additional budget. What it'll do is drive down inventory prices by glutting the market with avails.

It's actually a moot point since receivers aren't selling and the marketing "blitz" is using distressed radio inventory instead of a mix of media (TV and print, too) and satellite radio-type of in-store kiosks. They also have to get retailers to plug in the radios and install the same outdoor antennas customers are going to have to do in most markets.

I own two receivers. The tabletop Accurian is connected to an attic antenna. Without the antenna none of the radios I've tried and returned received more than one digital signal from a Class B station whose tower I can see. Analog signals were fine.

 

[Radioman100]

Stations complained very loudly (they still are) at Docket 80-90 that added many more stations. Now we're expecting as many as 7,000 new "stations" to bring in more money. Rich Russo of JL Media (one of the largest media buyers in the industry) says there's no additional budget. What it'll do is drive down inventory prices by glutting the market with avails.

That's exactly what I'd expect a media buyer to say. These are the same people that demand "added value" to secure a buy. They're not your friends.

Here's a thought, go sell some HD2 ads local direct to people who can't afford a schedule with enough frequency to help them on the analog signals.

It's actually a moot point since receivers aren't selling and the marketing "blitz" is using distressed radio inventory instead of a mix of media (TV and print, too) and satellite radio-type of in-store kiosks. They also have to get retailers to plug in the radios and install the same outdoor antennas customers are going to have to do in most markets.

Yes, the marketing and merchandising for HD are horrible. No argument there.

I own two receivers. The tabletop Accurian is connected to an attic antenna. Without the antenna none of the radios I've tried and returned received more than one digital signal from a Class B station whose tower I can see. Analog signals were fine.

Huh? None of the radios you tried and returned receieved more than one digital signal from a station whose tower you can see? Did it ever occur to you that they may not be broadcasting more than one digital signal, or are you making this stuff up? If HD1 works, then HD2 will also work - period - end of story. Sounds fishy to me!

 

[Chuck]

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Here's a thought, go sell some HD2 ads local direct to people who can't afford a schedule with enough frequency to help them on the analog signals.

Sounds like a plan, but if the ads fail to bring good results for the advertiser, they won't be back. They will also tell their friends. Small businesses are like that. Be careful what you wish for if it is hard to deliver on the promise.

Although a lot of niche format stations do have very loyal audiences, it is difficult to motivate many of those listeners to actually do anything (like patronize your sponsors). It shouldn't be. You'd think they’d appreciate having a station that was programmed just for them, and would want to do whatever it takes to ensure its success. The problem is, with rare exception, they don't. It takes a very special connection with an audience to produce good results on a small scale. Some stations are geniuses at it, but given the way most HD promotions have been handled thus far, I'd hazard a guess that most of these new HD-2 stations don't have that kind of loyalty.

How many people do you think are listening to the HD-2 stations in the DFW area? I don't mean that as a smart-a$$ remark. I'm really curious. I'd be surprised if it is over a few hundred at any given time.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

go sell some HD2 ads local direct to people who can't afford a schedule with enough frequency to help them on the analog signals.

We in the radio business have a name for that: pissing in the wind. An advertising sale requires one thing about all else: a quantifiable audience for the advertiser's commercial. Sales staffs will not take time out of their busy broadcast days to sell ads on a medium with no measurable audience, when the main channels (analog and HD1) is where they make their money...and the same goes for the advertiser. Unless that advertiser is selling electronic gear to early adopters of new tech, no advertiser will waste his/her money on HD2s.

 

[Radioman100]

We in the radio business have a name for that: pissing in the wind. An advertising sale requires one thing about all else: a quantifiable audience for the advertiser's commercial. Sales staffs will not take time out of their busy broadcast days to sell ads on a medium with no measurable audience, when the main channels (analog and HD1) is where they make their money...and the same goes for the advertiser. Unless that advertiser is selling electronic gear to early adopters of new tech, no advertiser will waste his/her money on HD2s.

Maybe not now, but in the not too distant future. HD2 will become a viable medium when it makes its way into new cars.

As for salespeople not wasting their time, you can either force them with quotas attached to consequences as some groups do now with their web radio sales, or you can hire someone whose only product is HD2 and web radio.

Salespeople will always go where the easy money is. Here in Texas, you can't have the same people selling a hip-hop station and a country station. The country station will stay sold out and the hip-hop will languish. Certain formats are just easier to sell. That doesn't mean it can't be done.

 

[Radioman100]

How many people do you think are listening to the HD-2 stations in the DFW area? I don't mean that as a smart-a$$ remark. I'm really curious. I'd be surprised if it is over a few hundred at any given time.

Hard to say. Even if you believe the numbers Bridge Ratings puts out (and I don't - it's higher) you're looking at 400,000 radios sold. Divide that by the top 20 metros where most HD activity is and you have 20,000 radios per metro. How many are tuned in to which HD2s at any given time is anyone's guess.

 

[KB1OKL]

Hard to say. Even if you believe the numbers Bridge Ratings puts out (and I don't - it's higher) you're looking at 400,000 radios sold. Divide that by the top 20 metros where most HD activity is and you have 20,000 radios per metro. How many are tuned in to which HD2s at any given time is anyone's guess.

Well it's actually not many are tuned in but how many are actually receiving the station must be figured into the equation.

 

[Chuck]

How many people do you think are listening to the HD-2 stations in the DFW area? I don't mean that as a smart-a$$ remark. I'm really curious. I'd be surprised if it is over a few hundred at any given time.

Hard to say. Even if you believe the numbers Bridge Ratings puts out (and I don't - it's higher) you're looking at 400,000 radios sold. Divide that by the top 20 metros where most HD activity is and you have 20,000 radios per metro. How many are tuned in to which HD2s at any given time is anyone's guess.

Let's think out loud.:

I believe Ibiquity says there are 14 HD-2 outlets in DFW. Divide your 20,000 by 14 and you get 1428.6 people per station. That is making a big assumption that all of the HD radios are tuned to a secondary channel. I doubt they are. Out of the 45 or so HD stations in DFW,eight of those stations are AM, so let’s drop them from the total of 37 HD’s on FM. It seems that roughly 38% of those are HD-2's.

If you divide that 20000 by 38% and you get a theoretical 7600 secondary channel listeners. Divide that by 14 and you get 543 potential people per station.

Whether you take the 1428 number or the 543 number, the listener-ship is miniscule. My methodology may be very flawed, but the bottom line is it’s going to be a very hard sale. Even my LPFM gets WAY more listeners than that (according to Arbitron). I can tell you how hard it is getting underwriting sponsors for it.

Because the spots simply aren’t worth much, it looks to me like it might actually cost more to sell spots on a HD-2 channel than was actually grossed by them. If it is to succeeded, that will have to change.

 

[RichWood]

Huh? None of the radios you tried and returned receieved more than one digital signal from a station whose tower you can see? Did it ever occur to you that they may not be broadcasting more than one digital signal, or are you making this stuff up? If HD1 works, then HD2 will also work - period - end of story. Sounds fishy to me!

That's not what I said. I said that without an attic antenna the radios I tried received only one station's digital signal. They received both HD-1 and HD-2 from that one station.

Only one store in the market found it worthwhile to install a rooftop antenna. That store (Tweeter) is now closed. The remaining stores either don't even plug the receivers in. Without a rooftop antenna in a steel-framed building there's no need to. A Radio Shack manager actually got irritated with me when asked why their own Accurian was gathering dust on a high shelf with the power supply still in the stock room. "We don't need it. We have satellite radio and TV." One salesperson told me he'd sell the products that spiffed him (SIRIUS and XM). Very few salespeople expressed any interest and fewer could accurately explain the system.

Circuit City has the JVC (no antenna) and no tabletop receivers. Best Buy has the JVC (no antenna) and way in the back of the store with the TV furniture is a Sony tabletop with no rooftop antenna. It wasn't important enough to display it with other tabletop radios.

All these stores are within visual distance of that one station's mountaintop tower. The car receivers without antennas received nothing. The Sony with the rat tail antenna got a sporadic digital lock on that one station.

How do you sell radios you can't demonstrate? This system appears to be extremely sensitive to terrain. This is mountainous New England.

 

[Radioman100]

Because the spots simply aren’t worth much, it looks to me like it might actually cost more to sell spots on a HD-2 channel than was actually grossed by them. If it is to succeeded, that will have to change.

Absolutely. No argument there. That will change with time however.

 

[Radioman100]

Circuit City has the JVC (no antenna) and no tabletop receivers. Best Buy has the JVC (no antenna) and way in the back of the store with the TV furniture is a Sony tabletop with no rooftop antenna. It wasn't important enough to display it with other tabletop radios.

Weird, weird stuff Rich. The Best Buys and Circuit Citys here hook up all of their car stereos to their master antenna system, even the HD ones. Must be some sort of conspiracy! Don't know why they'd keep the Sony HD radio with the TVs there either.

All these stores are within visual distance of that one station's mountaintop tower. The car receivers without antennas received nothing. The Sony with the rat tail antenna got a sporadic digital lock on that one station.

Ok. Just so I understand, the antenna was in your attic for these radios you bought then returned. Now we're talking about Best Buy?

How do you sell radios you can't demonstrate? This system appears to be extremely sensitive to terrain. This is mountainous New England.

Well, terrain really shouldn't play a part in it if you can SEE the tower. Must be that HD Radio is just a defective, destructive system that requires 400' dipole antennas to operate. It's really the darnedest thing. I can pick up lots of HD stations here on my Radiosophy's whip. All the locals in fact and a few rimshots. Can't even see the towers.

 

[RichWood]

Weird, weird stuff Rich. The Best Buys and Circuit Citys here hook up all of their car stereos to their master antenna system, even the HD ones. Must be some sort of conspiracy! Don't know why they'd keep the Sony HD radio with the TVs there either.

I agree. It's weird that a retailer wouldn't offer the best signal they could. I'm simply telling you where I found the Sony. It doesn't make sense, either

Ok. Just so I understand, the antenna was in your attic for these radios you bought then returned. Now we're talking about Best Buy?

Yes. I still have an Accurian. If I disconnect the attic antenna it only locks on the single station whose tower I can see. The Best Buys in my market are focusing on HDTV and satellite radio. There appears to be no master radio antenna.

Well, terrain really shouldn't play a part in it if you can SEE the tower. Must be that HD Radio is just a defective, destructive system that requires 400' dipole antennas to operate. It's really the darnedest thing. I can pick up lots of HD stations here on my Radiosophy's whip. All the locals in fact and a few rimshots. Can't even see the towers.

I can only speak from my experience in New England. Other folks tell me Rochester is ideal, as is Houston and other flat terrain. Friends in Los Angeles tell me their digital radio reception is terrible. They're engineers.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

As for salespeople not wasting their time, you can either force them with quotas attached to consequences as some groups do now with their web radio sales, or you can hire someone whose only product is HD2 and web radio.

No sales manager I've ever known will waste his or her time forcing quotas for the sale of a medium with no measurable audience. Web-site hits are easily measured. In my company, EVERYONE sells web spots...both banners for the sites and commercials for the streaming. It's part of their monthly budgets. HD2s are off the radar entirely, even though we have three of them (soon to be four) which have been on the air for at least a year.

 

[Radioman100]

No sales manager I've ever known will waste his or her time forcing quotas for the sale of a medium with no measurable audience. Web-site hits are easily measured. In my company, EVERYONE sells web spots...both banners for the sites and commercials for the streaming. It's part of their monthly budgets. HD2s are off the radar entirely, even though we have three of them (soon to be four) which have been on the air for at least a year.

You're missing the point. Given the choice, your salespeople probably wouldn't touch the web stuff. It's low dough compared to what they can make selling airtime on the analog signals. They're given a quota they have to meet if they want to continue having the ability to sell the analog signals.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Given the choice, your salespeople probably wouldn't touch the web stuff. It's low dough compared to what they can make selling airtime on the analog signals.

Not according to the rates I've seen. One of our stations gets six figures worth of hits on their stream alone...every single day. That adds up quickly.