dumber than a box of hair said:
Otherwise: Right on target about the NAB. They have expended masses of energy aiming a pea-shooter at a pygmy...namely, satellite radio, whose new subscriber rates are levelling off, whose retention costs are astronomical (people who call to cancel are often offered free subscriptions for a few months, which says a lot about how their management views their product)...and which is ultimately no threat to terrestrial radio. NAB has and continues to ignore the threats to their former hegemony from other media, and in the end, from themselves. Cookie-cutter programming which anyone can have all to themselves on their iPods is the biggest threat to radio, but all the NAB is interested in is maintaining the status quo and getting the government to legislate away their so-called competitors.
I'm sure that Struble would love for the Satrad merger to go through, especially if the FCC enforces the interoperable digital radio mandate. Struble has taken a neutral stance on the merger, which indicates his feeble situation. However, if Martin takes Chairman Dingell's suggestion, Satrad receivers would be open for inclusion of "other technologies", as determined by marketplace forces. Struble may regret such a request, as this would open up competition with iPods and the Internet on Satrad receivers. There are approximately 100,000,000+ iPods, and sales continue to grow. The difference in cost of adding an iPod jack to Satrad receivers, versus the technical difficulties and cost of adding HD, would be considerable (Satrad hasn't even been able to create a practical interoperable receiver). Plus, iBiquity demands licensing and HD chipset fees. Apple had already made deals with Ford, Kia, Hyundai, GM, Mazda, etc for iPod integration - this move will ensure that 70% of US automobiles will have factory iPod integration right off the showroom floor. And, let's not forget that car manufacturers can veto in-dash entertainment systems. It was estimated that with iBiquity's licensing and HD chipset fees, that it would cost about $45/radio to install, totaling $450,000,000 to $600,000,000 for the Big Three. I'm guessing that Struble cares-less about the success of HD Radio, or what he tells his investors and Wall Street, as long as he gets his IPO fraudulent money and beats it the heck out of town. What is going to happen when everyone finally figures out that with the 5 to 10 second acquisition/reacquisition delays on the HD1 channels, and with the frequent dropouts/silence on the HD2/HD3 channels, that HD isn't really practical for real-world applications. I wonder, if there is a message board for Ford filled with complaints about HD (assuming that anyone ordered HD) - Ford probably would have deleted them as spam, anyway. As an investor in iBiquity, Ford is in a tough position (that goes for all investors in iBiquity). I feel sorry for the broadcasters that signed agreements with iBiquity, and now are trying to renegotiate - Struble has a total lock on his investors, requiring rounds of hardware/software upgrades for broadcasters, and requiring multiple HD receiver purchases for consumers to get the latest features. The Anti-Christ has commeth, and so has the biggest scam of the 21st century.
