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HD-R is dead - Satellite vs Radio vs WiFi

Anyone who believes "HD is dead" when it's just being launched, when the vast majority of Americans don't even know what it is (yes they're aware of the term 'HD Radio', but most believe they already get it on existing radios, or confuse it with satellite) is just silly. I'm not even going to click on a link like that!
 
vsa said:
The founder of INSIDE RADIO, Jerry Del Colliano states plainly why HD Radio has no present and no future. A much broader issue is at the core.

He gets down to the problem "radio" is reluctant to face head-on. The time is short. Very short. The time to make excuses is over.

Satellite Vs. Radio Vs. WiFi

http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/2007/02/satellite-vs-radio-vs-wifi.html
Click to expand...
Jerry has it nailed!
Ignore the truth, and continue trying to peddle defective HD radio, at your own peril. Here is a short quote:
Radio is a fading industry thanks to the misdirected major consolidators. They've lost the next generation as they migrated to their mobile devices and the Internet. So what does that say? Well, when they are not fighting Arbitron's People Meter or when they stubbornly try to sell HD radio as the next big thing, they make excuses.
Click to expand...
and:
It comes down to this.

Listeners of tomorrow are online today.

They have their cell phones on during all their waking hours -- on their person or nearby. Even the ubiquitous radio does not enjoy that kind of access to their audiences.
Click to expand...
HD broadcasters are deep in denial.
 
Mike Walker said:
Anyone who believes "HD is dead" when it's just being launched, when the vast majority of Americans don't even know what it is (yes they're aware of the term 'HD Radio', but most believe they already get it on existing radios, or confuse it with satellite) is just silly. I'm not even going to click on a link like that!
Click to expand...

"In-Stat: Digital Radio Set to Take Off"

"In 2006, 73 percent of respondents to an In-Stat U.S. consumer survey were aware of HD Radio on some level."

http://beradio.com/eyeoniboc/instat-digital-radio-set/

"Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check" (Alexaholic)

"While interest in satellite radio is diminishing, interest in HD shows no signs of a pulse."

http://www.hear2.com/2007/02/sirius_xm_and_h.html#comments

This just confirms, the lack of interest for HD Radio, on Google Trends:

http://www.google.com/trends?q="hd+radio",+xm,+sirius&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all

73% of US consumers are aware of HD Radio, at some level - now, if they had been interested in checking out HD Radio further, there would have been significant activity on hdradio.com, which there has been virtually none. In my AOL browser, when I search on "hd radio", the first site that comes up is hdradio.com - this site is the main focus of the HD Radio Alliance.
 
"Aware of HD on some level" is not the same thing as knowing what the heck it is! Most people who are "aware" think they already get it, or that it's somehow connected to satellite radio, according to Bridge Ratings (quoted in commentary section of the March 1 Radio World).

I am certainly "aware of arterial blockage on some level", but I'm no doctor. You want me doing your bypass surgery NOW, or would you prefer that I learn more first?

I "heard of" HDTV in 1979, but certainly would have failed any tests about what it was, because literally what it is has changed drastically over the years. Ditto HD Radio (or IBOC). I've been "aware of it on some level", and even heard prototypes, since the early 90s. That doesn't mean a freaking thing! Salespeople are "aware of it on some level". They're still just as likely to tell you that you should buy XM (or Sirius) in order to get "HD Radio". It doesn't help that XM is calling their surround technology "HD" and that it's stamped on lots of new receivers! Imagine the guy at Best Buy explaining to customers late this year, or early next the difference between the "HD Radio" label on their new Yamaha and "XM HD Surround" label. And so it goes!

I listened to a computer "expert" on WBT in Charlotte a few months ago gleefully explaining that Dual Core 32 bit processors are the "same thing as 64 bit". She was certainly "aware of the new processors on some level", but didn't KNOW anything!
 
You have totally missed my point - the "Discover It !" ads direct consumers to hdradio.com, to generate further interest in HD Radio:

"Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check"

"Finally, note the traffic for HDRadio.com which, although not a destination on the order of Sirius or XM, is the go-to site for further information about HD in many HD radio ads and promotions and is, thus, a good metric to gauge consumer interest."

http://www.hear2.com/2007/02/sirius_xm_and_h.html

Upon hearing ads for HD Radio, consumers would most-likely search for "HD Radio" on the Internet, and get:

http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search...1cfd&invocationType=keyword_rollover&ie=UTF-8

hdradio.com is the first site to come up - the hdradio.com site has generated little interest:

http://www.alexaholic.com/sirius.com+hdradio.com+ibiquity.com+xmradio.com

Special note: When going to the Amazon.com/hdradio link, and click on, "Find HD Radio stations near you", the link is no longer active:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/985601
 
No doubt the link is no longer active because every week, when new stations come on the air, it would be outdated.
 
Mike Walker said:
No doubt the link is no longer active because every week, when new stations come on the air, it would be outdated.
Click to expand...

Wrong, the link has been inactive for quite some time. Also, I work in computers and know darn-well, that a link can be maintained to a mirrored-database, while a new one is updated ! :D

"Rethinking AM's Future"

"Only 175 or so AM stations have even licensed AM-HD. For a number of reasons, quite a few have tried it and taken it off the air, or so the anecdotal evidence suggests. Ibiquity no longer reports in its public summaries whether a station is on the air."

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html

What happened here ? :D
 
What happened? There are more than 1,100 stations now...too many to keep up with the exact status of each.

Forget HD, take 1,100 stations of any type (am, fm, whatever), and some of them will be off at any time. Equipment breaks. Sadly the newer the technology, the more likely it is at any given moment to be broken (there's an amusing column about that in the March issue of Smart Computing...about how the first generation of ANYTHING never works right...dating all the way back to Lewis and Clark. Pick it up, and read which of their "new technologies" didn't work!
 
Mike Walker said:
What happened? There are more than 1,100 stations now...too many to keep up with the exact status of each.

Forget HD, take 1,100 stations of any type (am, fm, whatever), and some of them will be off at any time. Equipment breaks. Sadly the newer the technology, the more likely it is at any given moment to be broken (there's an amusing column about that in the March issue of Smart Computing...about how the first generation of ANYTHING never works right...dating all the way back to Lewis and Clark. Pick it up, and read which of their "new technologies" didn't work!
Click to expand...

Maintaining a database, with just 1000+ entries is nothing - it is done very easily, with automated SQL scripts ! :D
 
Wrong 700. Maintaining a database with "only 1000+ entries" is simple ONLY IF ONE OWNS ALL THE STATIONS FOR WHICH THERE ARE ENTRIES. Ibiquity owns NO stations. So it would be nearly impossible for them to verify each week how many were on air. They would literally have to call every one every time the list was updated.

One can only "simply update" lists if one has control over the things being logged in the database!
 
Mike Walker said:
Wrong 700. Maintaining a database with "only 1000+ entries" is simple ONLY IF ONE OWNS ALL THE STATIONS FOR WHICH THERE ARE ENTRIES. Ibiquity owns NO stations. So it would be nearly impossible for them to verify each week how many were on air. They would literally have to call every one every time the list was updated.

One can only "simply update" lists if one has control over the things being logged in the database!
Click to expand...

Maintaining an HD Radio database would be the responsibility of the HD Radio Alliance, not iBiquity. The Alliance would have access to all the HD stations, but the truth is that HD Radio sales on Amazon have been so anemic and/or so many stations have tried HD, then turned it off, that the link was probably just disabled for simplicity sake. See, just like on AM, many stations have tried HD, then turned it off:

"Rethinking AM's Future"

"Only 175 or so AM stations have even licensed AM-HD. For a number of reasons, quite a few have tried it and taken it off the air, or so the anecdotal evidence suggests. Ibiquity no longer reports in its public summaries whether a station is on the air."

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html
 
They maintain a database, of which stations are licensed to run HD. But for the reasons I've outlined, it would be impossible for them to know exactly which ones are active (inactive would perhaps be a better way of putting it, as most are "active) at any given point in time.

You talk about the "Alliance" as if it's this huge, monolithic thing. In fact, it's just a group of people who have something in common...the desire to promote this new technology. Other than that, they have no relationship with one another, and no knowledge of what is going on in each other's station. Many members of the "Alliance" are actually competitors with OTHER "Alliance" members, so obviously they can't have inside knowledge of what's going on in their feacilities. Never worked in radio, huh? (I'm guessing). At many stations I've worked at, it was a FIRING OFFENSE to let ANYBODY know what gear was in the air-chain.
 
The HD Radio Alliance management would have access to all the stations running HD - this Big HD Radio Rollout is supposed to be a group effort. Truth is, that no one is using the link at Amazon/hdradio, so there is no reason to maintain it.
 
The idea that the "alliance" would "have access" to every HD station illustrates 700's vast knowledge of how radio works. In the real world, Infinity doesn't know on any given day which of their stations is having technical issues. Nor should they, really. Those are LOCAL issues, which will likely be solved faster than any database can be updated. Somebody (else) who actually works in radio want to set 700 straight about how things really work? Far from the vast conspiracy he imagines, I wish stations and groups WERE that organized! Like the old Will Rogers line "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat!" That line could just as easily be about radio.
 
"Professor of Music Industry at USC Former TV and Radio Broadcaster Founder of Inside Radio "

I love this stuff from guys who are no longer in the industry. All I read are words. No solutions from this guy. It's 2007 and the audience for over the air radio dwarfs any of it's competitors. What is he talking about when it comes to broadcaster embracing the internet? Was this article written 10 years ago? All the major broadcasters are on the internet. The reason it took Infinity so long was because Mr Karmazon didn't know how to make a profit on it. Now that he's gone, there are many of the more important stations available on line. These arguments are concerned with delivery systems. Wi-Fi isnt available for the car (unless you mean that idiot who recently killed himself playing with his computer while he was driving in his car), HD is. Don't argue the future , let's talk about what's available for free now. By the way, I own a cell phone and wouldn't use it as a radio. The audio is lousy, relatively speaking and it isn't free. What is so hard to understand about that?
 
Mike Walker said:
The idea that the "alliance" would "have access" to every HD station illustrates 700's vast knowledge of how radio works. In the real world, Infinity doesn't know on any given day which of their stations is having technical issues. Nor should they, really. Those are LOCAL issues, which will likely be solved faster than any database can be updated. Somebody (else) who actually works in radio want to set 700 straight about how things really work? Far from the vast conspiracy he imagines, I wish stations and groups WERE that organized! Like the old Will Rogers line "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat!" That line could just as easily be about radio.
Click to expand...

You know Mike, you are correct - why, should I assume that a $500,000,000 HD Radio ad campaign would be so incompetently organized, that even the HD Radio Alliance upper-management wouldn't have access to all the radio stations running HD, and spend the time/money to maintain a simple database that could be updated periodically over the Internet ! :D

"Satellite Vs. Radio Vs. WiFi"

"Can't get into the Internet radio business and develop new separate stations. No! Radio executives would apparently rather develop stations-on-the-cheap for their HD sub channels where no one is listening than get into the Internet radio business where everyone is listening. Go ask Kurt Hanson, publisher of RAIN how he is doing it. And he's doing it well with AccuRadio."

http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/2007/02/satellite-vs-radio-vs-wifi.html

There's the link, that you refused to click on - Internet ? WiFi ? What's that ? :D
 
R.F. Burns wrote: "I love this stuff from guys who are no longer in the industry. All I read are words. No solutions from this guy. It's 2007 and the audience for over the air radio dwarfs any of it's competitors. What is he talking about when it comes to broadcaster embracing the internet? Was this article written 10 years ago? All the major broadcasters are on the internet. The reason it took Infinity so long was because Mr Karmazon didn't know how to make a profit on it. Now that he's gone, there are many of the more important stations available on line. These arguments are concerned with delivery systems. Wi-Fi isnt available for the car (unless you mean that idiot who recently killed himself playing with his computer while he was driving in his car), HD is. Don't argue the future , let's talk about what's available for free now. By the way, I own a cell phone and wouldn't use it as a radio. The audio is lousy, relatively speaking and it isn't free. What is so hard to understand about that?"

Mr. Burns, what have I been thinking? Obviously I wasn't thinking at all. Thank you for waking me up! Radio is not facing any challenges after all. Thinking about the future is stupid. All that ever matters is RIGHT NOW!!! DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!!! HD radio is our passport to a bountiful and profitable future, but I shouldn't even be thinking about it's future because thinking about the future is stupid. I guess the latest "Digital Media Growth Projections - Updated 02/19/2007" from Bridge Ratings are pure garbage as well. Their conclusion is:

"According to this updated data, the entire spectrum of digital audio alternatives, and especially Internet radio and its wireless distribution continue to represent the biggest challenge to traditional radio. Based on what we know now, we do not see HD radio significantly boosting listening to terrestrial radio."

http://www.bridgeratings.com/press_021907-digitalprojectionsupd.htm

How silly of them to think about the future. Don't worry, be happy and be sure to buy some iBiquity stock when the IPO finally arrives! Oh, I'm sorry for still thinking about the future. Old habits die hard.

My real mistake here has been to ignore the advice of this verse, Matthew 7:6

"....do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet".
 
700WLW said:
Maintaining an HD Radio database would be the responsibility of the HD Radio Alliance, not iBiquity. The Alliance would have access to all the HD stations,
Click to expand...

Actually, all the Alliance is is a group of highe executives of the major radio companies who plan the overall implemtation of the industry advertising for HD. They have no database and no direct access to all the stations, although the executives of EACH company can issue directives to each of that company's stations.

iBiquity has the only database, as it is the company that licenses the technology and knows who has it and who does not.

See, just like on AM, many stations have tried HD, then turned it off:
Click to expand...

Most of the stations that have not continued operation in HD are pretty inferior facilities that found that the bandwith of thier antenna and other technical issues impeded the HD part. Some other stations have decided to suspend while installing whole new transmitters and antenna tuning gear, like KTNQ in Los Angeles.

"Only 175 or so AM stations have even licensed AM-HD.
Click to expand...

And that is about the sum total of the full signal, viable AM count in the top 100 markets.
 
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