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Can HD radio help me pick up chicks?

rbrucecarter5 said:
We had to trade my daughter's car last night for something new. I had explained HD radio to her, and demonstrated the formats available in Houston. When I asked if she wanted HD radio in her car, she laughed at me and said she wanted satellite - many more stations she likes. Why was I not surprised she opted for satellite over HD radio?
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But will she keep satellite once the free trial ends? Seems like an awful lot of people who enjoy their free sat radio stop enjoying it when they see what it costs per month.

I mean, I don't blame her for picking satellite over HD. I can't think of ANY HD markets with anything close to diverse programming like satellite has (if you consider 20 rock channels "diverse") and satellite will work everywhere but in tunnels and under trees.
 
Zach said:
But will she keep satellite once the free trial ends? Seems like an awful lot of people who enjoy their free sat radio stop enjoying it when they see what it costs per month.

I mean, I don't blame her for picking satellite over HD. I can't think of ANY HD markets with anything close to diverse programming like satellite has (if you consider 20 rock channels "diverse") and satellite will work everywhere but in tunnels and under trees.
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She already does - the choices and lack of commercials are compelling even to a 17 year old.
 
To return to the topic of this thread, in my opinion the ads from the HD radio alliance are SO LAME and this one is no exception. Would HD radio help me pick up chicks? How cliché is that? I don't think ANY radio, and especially not an HD radio (which doesn't even work half the time) would help me pick up chicks. It's hard to believe an ad agency would actually write such bad copy. Maybe that would have worked back in the 1950s. Not now.
 
Generally, I find that in order to Pick Up Chicks, any kind of radio is no help. I usually have to use both hands. ;D (fire "RIMSHOT" on rattling grey Fidelipac)
 
audioguy said:
To return to the topic of this thread, in my opinion the ads from the HD radio alliance are SO LAME and this one is no exception.
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The HD Alliance spots have been absurdly awful. Those that were not simply confusing have been unimpressive in creating interest and understanding. Starting with the "Stations between the stations" spot... a particularly strong "what does that mean?" example, none of the promos has created understanding, let alone interest.

Following the initial meeting and conference calls of the HD Alliance, one major US radio group that was an "investor" in iBiquity dropped out of the Alliance... so, as the "person to blame" I have a rather biased opinion on the Alliance and its creative.
 
Zach said:
But will she keep satellite once the free trial ends? Seems like an awful lot of people who enjoy their free sat radio stop enjoying it when they see what it costs per month.
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Per the most recent investor guidance from Sirius/XM they keep 45% of the trial subscribers. And, despite a huge price increase, they are growing in their subscriber base.

But, with 22 million subscribers, they are eclipsed by Pandora and even iHeart Radio which are growing much faster.
 
KB1OKL said:
It is pretty obvious that not a lot of money has been spent on IBOC advertising since it's inception. To be fair though I wouldn't want the job of trying to make a sows ear appear to be a silk purse.
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Actually, the amount of radio time used by the HD Alliance stations in the years since the launch of that promotional entity is approaching $100 million.

Several million more per year have been spent on retailer tie-ins and point of purchase.

The fact that the ads did not work is another matter.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Actually, the amount of radio time used by the HD Alliance stations in the years since the launch of that promotional entity is approaching $100 million.

Several million more per year have been spent on retailer tie-ins and point of purchase.

The fact that the ads did not work is another matter.
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Actually, it's more than double that amount has been "spent" on ad "inventory" and other promotional opportunities. Then again, since these numbers are arbitrary, it's anyone's guess as to just what the real value of the promotions have been. But it's definitely north of $200 million.
 
diymedia said:
Actually, it's more than double that amount has been "spent" on ad "inventory" and other promotional opportunities. Then again, since these numbers are arbitrary, it's anyone's guess as to just what the real value of the promotions have been. But it's definitely north of $200 million.
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I stand corrected... but agree with you that the valuation by the Alliance may be well in excess of the true value of ROS time.

It didn't work, did it?!
 
No, it didn't work, because you can't bootstrap a fatally defective concept into success with brute-force marketing. Sorry, but radio could have spent a billion dollars on HD advertising, or twelve. The ads wouldn't have worked any better. HD Radio simply offers glitchy, unreliable performance, negligible benefit and incrementally tiny additional programming choice - for an unacceptably high price. "The fastest way to kill a bad product is to advertise it heavily."

Ford spend staggering amounts launching the Edsel, including prime-time hours of network TV, full-color supplements in popular slick magazines of the day like Life and Saturday Evening Post, you name it - ubiquitous in terms of 1957 media; they projected 200,000 first-year sales and sold 65,000. Truth be told it actually wasn't a bad showing for launching a relatively expensive new car in a deep recession; Ford's expectations were way out of line. And the Edsel wasn't even a bad car. It was just a misdirected concept aimed at a vanished target market. If an identical automotive scenario happened today, it would be hailed as a success.
 
When the technology is offered at little or no cost. Small markets might embrace it.
 
There's a lot of things iBiquity needs to do to speed the embrace of the technology, but all of them cost $$$ (either in upgrades or lost revenues) which they are too blinded to push.

They need to drop the license fees. They needed to wait and push for higher powers right out. They need to drop official support for AM HD. They need to work the bugs out in both the radios and encoders.

If they'd just had some patience early on, the system could have turned out quite different. Not only would they likely have been allowed a little higher power right out of the gate, but a better PAC might've been worked in, making sound quality and robustness better.
 
Years after the higher IBUZ power was approved, most FM HD stations are still using the lower power. They don't want to replace their expensive transmitters that work perfectly well just to broadcast IBUZ at -14 dBc.

A chief engineer of a major market cluster told me that he will not increase the HD power unless the transmitter fails beyond repair and needs to be replaced.
 
Nick said:
A chief engineer of a major market cluster told me that he will not increase the HD power unless the transmitter fails beyond repair and needs to be replaced.
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Prediction: when that finally happens, it will simply be a reason to get rid of it.
 
It takes content that I like on an HD2 for me to replace my car radio with an HD radio. Not a gimmick like a false promise that I can impress a lady by letting her play with my HD radio. Even if a girl tells me that she will do anything I want with me, on the condition that I put an HD radio in my car, I won't "downgrade" my car radio. I promised a long time ago that if New York City gets a true dance station (not Pride Radio that's currently on WKTU-HD2, but more like Club Phusion, B96-HD2 Chicago, KDWB-HD2 Minneapolis, Area 95.5-HD2 DC) on HD2, I will put an HD radio in my car. Besides, an HD2 dance station will last longer than the average length of my relationships.
 
KB1OKL said:
Or, golddigger: This moron wasted his money on an HD radio, what a loser!
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Nevermind HD radio, find me a woman who would find radio itself at all cool. They pretty much don't exist. You pull out your little Sony DX machine and you'll also be pegged a loser. Trust me, I know from experience. Radio is just not cool to the opposite sex anymore. In fact I'd say that outside us radio nerds it's not cool to anyone under 40 anymore.
 
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