"HD Radio: The 'HD' must stand for 'Half Dead'"

[davideduardo]

You keep repeating the obvious, but never answer the real question about where the radio broadcasters obligation to the public for the use of their airwaves is factored into the equation.

I already said that the terms of a license require service to the local community. There is no expressed FCC requirement to serve the fringe coverage areas.

According to your view, inner city urban coverage,

I did not say that. I said that stations served the local community, which is often considered to be the OMB defined metro of which the city of license forms part. Very few serve, other than indirectly, areas beyond the metro coverage area.

and pursuit of profits is pretty much all we can expect from broadcasters,

Again: without income, a station can not serve anyone.

with only an occasional nod to public service, as a tiny afterthought.

I'd like to hear your definition of "public service." I have a suspicion that you do not find "relaxing music that makes my workday go better" would not be service to you. What is?

Perhaps at license renewal we need to reassign the whole commercial broadcast spectrum to new, more public spirited, less greed driven broadcasters, and eliminate the HD radio jamming at the same time.

Perhaps you will explain how stations will exist if they don't make at least enough money to justify the investment?

 

[davideduardo]

From supercaster:

All that matters is adding to ever larger conglomerate shareholder dividends,

From Eduardo:

Not that many broadcast companies pay dividends.

Are you saying radio broadcasting is mostly unprofitable, or that a few large Wall street corporate conglomerates that attempt to pay dividends, control too many of the stations?

If you look at the total stock markets (ASE, NYSE, NASDAQ) you will find that companies that do not pay dividends predominante. Does Google pay a dividend? Investors buy the shares because they expect capital appreciation and, maybe, future dividends.

Since the 50's, half of all US radio stations have not been profitable... but the stations owned by the larger groups tend to be profitable. But thse companies put the money back in the company (called "reinvestment") in the form of new acquisitions or businesses or the pay-off of loans taken to expand the business in the past.

I have no idea what a "Wall Street Conglomerate" is and even less of a clue as to why such an entity would inhibit the payment of dividends if there is a profit that can be distributed to shareholders that could not better be used to build the business.

 

[dbdigital]

So, in the end, as the AM band gets further trashed with noise two things happen: the listener either converts to HD or abandons AM forever (I suspect more of the latter then the former).

Yes, it's a real dilemma.

db

That's about it. As I see it, a few major stations will be left standing on AM. They will prosper. The rest will be relegated to Broadcasting History. Conveniently enough the survivors will be stations that are owned by the proponents of this technology.

This is precisely the conclusion I've come to.

What actually got me started posting on this board was doing research on the viability of an AM station as a business. Sometime back I had the chance to buy an AM CP for a fairly good price. Up until then I hadn't thought about a radio station as a business opportunity.

But the more research I did the more I realized that, with few exceptions, nearly all AM stations seem 'distressed' in some way or another. In fact the entire band seems to be so. Increased noise from electrical devices and increased choices for listening to content are making AM seem less and less desirable and relevant.

And while HD-AM is being touted as the savior of AM and gives every appearance that it could save it, it becomes clear that the only ones who will really profit by HD are those who have the big dogs in this race. The major market, high power, heritage stations, the ones who invested in IBOC from the beginning are the ones who will gain. The mom and pop, the low power, the rim-shots and single operators...basically the station I would be building...are the ones who would, at the very least gain nothing from HD or, at worst, be squeezed out and forced to go dark.

I passed on the CP and don't regret doing it.

db

 

[Chuck]

I passed on the CP and don't regret doing it.

db

Even though I'm guilty of having a love affair with radio, I think you made a very rational business decision.