Clear Channel's Pittman on Bloomberg

[pocket-radio]

Well now, "Pittman says the listener doesn't care about what device they are listening on, but they do care what they are listening to"
Dear Mr. Pittman It's like Christmas at Clear Channel and I couldn't have said that better, it's also why your HD radio experiment stalled.

Mr. Pittman let's set the recored straight. For the start of HD radio the spin masters didn't have great content to brag about, no big names, stars or content, so laking anything interesting they sold
CD quality, hundreds of new radio stations and free.

Dear Mr Pittman, CD quality is so 1975, we've been there and done that, like CD quality is everyplace today. My hearing aid is CD quality, what isn't CD quality? CD quality is expected it's not a new selling feature that people just can't get enough of today. Then the mental giants hung their sales shingle on more radio stations. Thanks to Clear Channel Mr Pittman, if I can't find what I want on the radio dial, then the alternatives are many and growing. You've done cooked up almost every format known to man and a few stoned programming geeks, so we don't need another country or oldies music station.
But that's all you can really offer is more of the same old formats that sound better on paper, with new exciting names.

Mr. Pittman, I'm sure the yes men your ego craves like candy will say anything you want, but the idea of a format is sadly old school man. The new format is customizable, as in I like my playlist better than yours Mr. Pittman.

And finally, free didn't move the needle or help break any sales records at Best Buy from desperate consumers wanting CD quality and one more radio station. Apple announced they sold 3 million iPads in less than three months since the device hit stores. Mr. Pittman, build and they will come, sure why not it's a nice dream, but let's not forget it's only if they really want it.

Mr Pittman let's think about a new pitch, a new angel for Hd radio, something that sizzles! Something that's sexy, we all want sex, right? Let me think for a second, ummm, ummm, ok, try this.

HD radio, it will make you rich and thin!

Seeing how consumers have ignored HD radio and you have nothing else in the pipeline, let's try my idea.. HD radio, it will make you rich and thin.. LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrucNf6N3O8&feature=player_embedded

I'm having fun, but watch the interview.. Mr. Pittman was asked where do you think FM radio will be in 10 years.. bla, bla, bla, didn't mention HD radio once!
But he really, really likes the internet.

 

[davideduardo]

Well now, "Pittman says the listener doesn't care about what device they are listening on, but they do care what they are listening to"
Dear Mr. Pittman It's like Christmas at Clear Channel and I couldn't have said that better, it's also why your HD radio experiment stalled.

You don't, it's apparent, know that Bob Pittman just started with Clear Channel literally weeks ago, and had nothing to do with whether CC installed HD or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Pittman

Pittman was the one person most responsible for the creation of MTV, and is a brilliant strategic thinker and businessman. And it's an indication that Clear Channel's owners understand the changes that are going on in entertainment options that they brought him in to develop future strategies.

You also, apparently, don't understand that Clear Channel neither invented nor developed HD.

 

[TheBigA]

What's interesting to me is I listened to the entire interview, and he didn't mention HD at all. He didn't mention AM either. He talked about FM, the internet, and mobile. He said "We have to be where our listeners are." That says it all.

 

[tomservo]

OK, and? HD is (or can be) a part of FM. When I listen to the local FM HD subchannels, it's just FM to me. A different form of transmission, but as long as my radio's on 96.1 or 96.1-2 it's still FM.

I bet he didn't mention RDS, or traffic information or SCAs, but they will all continue to be a part of radio for the future as well.

 

[KB1OKL]

What's interesting to me is I listened to the entire interview, and he didn't mention HD at all. He didn't mention AM either. He talked about FM, the internet, and mobile. He said "We have to be where our listeners are." That says it all.

Yes those things are hot!
And HD is not!

 

[mmnassour]

Interesting....

"Consumers develop brand loyalty to everything..."

Then why has CC spent the last ten years homogenizing radio to the point where much of it is indistinguishable from one city to another?

If indeed Pittman can turn this attitude around, then more power to him and to CC.

 

[TheBigA]

Then why has CC spent the last ten years homogenizing radio to the point where much of it is indistinguishable from one city to another?

Because brands aren't a function of geography. Consider that most of the brands you know are the same city to city. The McDonalds hamburger I eat in Seattle tastes exactly like the one I eat in Norfoilk. Yet I know the brand.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm having fun, but watch the interview.. Mr. Pittman was asked where do you think FM radio will be in 10 years.. bla, bla, bla, didn't mention HD radio once!

But if he didn't mention it, why did you extrapolate that he's an apologist for it? Why does everyone have to either love HD or hate it?

 

[Lee Rust]

It's encouraging that Clear Channel has put a mature programmer in a high position.

 

[hubcity]

Wikipedia on Robert W. Pittman:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Pittman

Very enlightening, but at the same time, not necessarily a good sign for "live and local". He tends to homogenize (check the section on Century 21) but he does so pretty successfully (as opposed to off-puttingly.)

 

[mmnassour]

Then why has CC spent the last ten years homogenizing radio to the point where much of it is indistinguishable from one city to another?

Because brands aren't a function of geography. Consider that most of the brands you know are the same city to city. The McDonalds hamburger I eat in Seattle tastes exactly like the one I eat in Norfoilk. Yet I know the brand.

Agreed, but when I travel from one market to another and turn on the radio, I'm not looking for Clear Channel's (fill in the blank) format. I'm just punching around, seeing what catches my interest. Now Limbaugh listeners will sweep the dial at mid-day in an effort to find Rush, and maybe some other shows have a lesser following. But if CC thinks it has established, in effect, national networks that people actively seek out....I find that a bit tough to swallow. And that's part of what I took away from the interview.

 

[TheBigA]

But if CC thinks it has established, in effect, national networks that people actively seek out....I find that a bit tough to swallow. And that's part of what I took away from the interview.

The national brands are the songs. That's what the people seek out with regards to music radio. Most people don't "actively seek out" radio stations. They seek out what's on them. If they're visiting a town, they're looking for a certain type of music, and will take whatever comes with it. The local people have their favorites as well. As long as you deliver what they expect, you're fine. Most of the entertainment options people have are national. TV, cable, satellite radio, and the internet are all, for the most part, national. Pittman himself went from being a local radio PD to creating a national TV network called MTV. So he knows the difference between local and national, and how to make it work.

Clear Channel doesn't market itself as the brand. TV stations call themselves ABC7 or CBS2. But radio stations are still The Wolf or Y100 or whatever local brand they came up with. I don't know any radio station that brands itself by its owners name.

 

[pocket-radio]

Well now, "Pittman says the listener doesn't care about what device they are listening on, but they do care what they are listening to"
Dear Mr. Pittman It's like Christmas at Clear Channel and I couldn't have said that better, it's also why your HD radio experiment stalled.

You don't, it's apparent, know that Bob Pittman just started with Clear Channel literally weeks ago, and had nothing to do with whether CC installed HD or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Pittman

Pittman was the one person most responsible for the creation of MTV, and is a brilliant strategic thinker and businessman. And it's an indication that Clear Channel's owners understand the changes that are going on in entertainment options that they brought him in to develop future strategies.

You also, apparently, don't understand that Clear Channel neither invented nor developed HD.

Let us pull the plug, so the air can escape from our big heads and gently return the god like mortals to mother earth once again. A brilliant thinker finds the cure for cancer, AIDS, ends world hunger. Making bucks, greed and getting rich from playing rock music on TV to spoiled rotten little stoned brats wasn't brilliant, it was a stroke of luck.

Mr. Pittman is the new guy at Clear Channel, but In my mind when you buy it, you own it! So HD radio is Pittman's pink elephant.

There's not enough oxygen left on earth for this conversation.

 

[TheBigA]

Mr. Pittman is the new guy at Clear Channel, but In my mind when you buy it, you own it! So HD radio is Pittman's pink elephant.

And our point is that he's treating it that way. You should too.

 

[davideduardo]

There's not enough oxygen left on earth for this conversation.

Nice try at obfuscating the fact that you did not know who Pittman was, how recently he joined Clear and how successful a businessperson he is. Yours was a classic "ready, fire, aim" posting. We've all been guilty of not knowing the facts... and this is about fact, not opinion... and while it is embarassing at times to admit not knowing, it'a part of life.

Unfortunately, much of your post seems to point to the fact that you don't believe in free enterprise, popular taste and the marketplace's ability to eventually eliminate things people don't want.

Anyway, the internet does not run on oxygen... if anything, it runs on electrons.

 

[Savage]

Maybe Clear Channel never directly "invented" HD Radio but it was certainly instrumental in its development. Jeff Littlejohn supervised the initial tests of HD adjacent-channel interference using a Class D suburban Washington AM on 1490 and 50kw WFED (or whatever the callsign was then) on 1500. The published study proved that the adjacent-channel COFDM noise was disastrous. Littlejohn cautioned that widespread adoption of HD at night would produce highly "deleterious" effects on local AM service from skywave interference. See www.wysl1040.com (Why You Don't Need HD-AM, and click on Littlejohn's study linked there.)

The only reason why Littlejohn's dire predictions haven't come true is, so few AM stations are using HD at night - at present only about 80 signals, and almost half of those are graveyarders. Yet specific instances of bad adjacent-channel interference are well-known, even as they are being ignored by HD flacks and the FCC.

Even knowing what he knew from his key role in CC's development and support of HD, Littlejohn
supported this interference-spewing debacle. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about why.

 

[Play Freebird]

Maybe Clear Channel never directly "invented" HD Radio but it was certainly instrumental in its development. Jeff Littlejohn supervised the initial tests of HD adjacent-channel interference using a Class D suburban Washington AM on 1490 and 50kw WFED (or whatever the callsign was then) on 1500. The published study proved that the adjacent-channel COFDM noise was disastrous. Littlejohn cautioned that widespread adoption of HD at night would produce highly "deleterious" effects on local AM service from skywave interference. See www.wysl1040.com (Why You Don't Need HD-AM, and click on Littlejohn's study linked there.)

Even knowing what he knew from his key role in CC's development and support of HD, Littlejohn
supported this interference-spewing debacle. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about why.

For the record, Bill Suffa (SVP for Capital Management at Clear Channel prior to this period) didn't expect IBOC would offer a substantial return on investment. Although this interview was published back in August 2002, turns out that he called it pretty close:

http://tvtechnology.com/article/2184

A year or so after Bill's comments were published, he departed CC and his responsibilities were assigned to Steve Davis, then the company ramped up its support for IBOC. Wasn't this also around the time Randy Michaels was demoted and Hogan took over? I'm not close enough to the inner workings of Clear Channel to understand all of the politics here, but perhaps one of you would be willing to share more details.

 

[TheBigA]

Maybe Clear Channel never directly "invented" HD Radio but it was certainly instrumental in its development.

Doesn't matter. Not the topic of this thread. Just because someone works at a company doesn't make him responsible for the sins committed before his arrival. The original poster was attempting to put words in his mouth.

 

[Savage]

Yeahhh.....okay, BigA, let's (a) dial back on the weekend caffeine and (b) read the posts, please.

Actually: if you check the thread you'll note I never said anything about Bob Pittman being responsible for HD at CC. And it might interest you to learn that I agree with you. Obviously Pittman couldn't have had anything to do with a technology which launched more than a decade ago.

I was merely refuting a demonstrably false allegation here to the effect that Clear Channel didn't "invent or develop" HD. The opposite is the truth. The company played a key role in development of HD Radio. I have already cited an early AM-HD interference study from Jeff Littlejohn, who AFAIK was either on or is on iBiquity's Board of Directors. There are scores of other connections but the point is made,

CCU is also an investor in iBiquity and was instrumental in the onanistic revision of the "NRSC mask" to give legal-engineering cover to HD interferors. So let's have a reality check here about the company's role. Maybe there isn't a completed corporate link or actual control but Clear Channel is and has always been a key player in HD. The record is clear.

 

[TheBigA]

Maybe there isn't a completed corporate link or actual control but Clear Channel is and has always been a key player in HD. The record is clear.

And as I said, it doesn't matter.