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HD Radio

KY and RadioBob made a good points! I work for a consumer research firm. “HD Radio” isn’t on “Joe the Plumber’s” radar... Cast aside the political stuff and bring it back to our biz... If “Joe” isn’t in Best Buy in the check-out lane with an HD-[in]capable radio, how in the heck are we to suppose that this “technology” is [so-called] “viable”... IT ISN’T, but the perps now want a destructive power increase to further degrade the band and somehow-serve as a magic bullet [and cover their backsides]... NO-NO-NO!

The technical facets of ANALOG FM and to a much-lesser degree—AM are OK, and have-been for the span of this industry. Programming is the problem! ...Might you consider starting with "A" before you invent a reason to visit "C"?
 
Just what sort of programming is it that needs to be on the air that isn't already? What tweaks need to be made? Those who have these answers really need to come forward and make their services available to radio.
 
Hippo is right. It's the programming. All across the board it has become stale. There is no more "magic" in radio. There is no more "wow".

Is anyone taking chances anymore with radio formats?

There are several great ideas out there for new or tweaked formats, but the people creating those are having trouble getting past the corporate gatekeepers - the "yes men" who continue along just enough to keep their jobs. They're all afraid to try anything new.
 
RDO said:
Hippo is right. It's the programming. All across the board it has become stale. There is no more "magic" in radio. There is no more "wow".

Is anyone taking chances anymore with radio formats?

There are several great ideas out there for new or tweaked formats, but the people creating those are having trouble getting past the corporate gatekeepers - the "yes men" who continue along just enough to keep their jobs. They're all afraid to try anything new.
Click to expand...

Here is a perfect example. A year ago our local Clearchannel radio station WHAS took off our local nighttime talk show and replaced it with Michael Savage-- on delay! Any evening there is probably at least a dozen other radio stations where I can hear the same thing--IF I wanted to listen to this stuff! Local legend Milton Metz started that show when there were very few talk shows in the late 1950s. It was our only way to get local opinions on local and national topics. The last host Joe Elliott still subs at the station, and a majority of the callers will begin their call with him stating, "we miss your nighttime show..." This is a programmming problem in a profit taking world. It's cheaper for the station to play a stale tape of a national host than to have local original programming. Are these stations so broke that they can't pay a man to host a local show? I can't believe a talk-show host makes THAT much money! Seems like each November there are personnel cutbacks at the Clearchannel stations so that Scrooge Lowery Mays can have a greener Christmas for him and his family!
 
Radio Info Board posting Headlines: HD Radio's DOA. HD Radio's a scam by the big corporate broadcast companies. HD Radio will lag and fail.

OMG - did everyone hear?! They've discovered the world's NOT flat afterall!

Consumer awareness of HD Radio currently stands at 77%, according to a survey of radio listeners from Critical Mass Media. In a separate study of current or likely auto buyers by J.D. Powers, a full 31% said they want HD Radio in their next vehicle
Already, a number of automakers – including Mercedes, Ford, Volvo, BMW, MINI USA, Jaguar, and Hyundai – have disclosed plans to include HD Radio receivers in current or future models. Aftermarket products are available from top manufacturers including Dual, Jensen, JVC, Kenwood, Peripheral and Sony
At retail, receivers are available at Best Buy, Circuit City, RadioShack, The Sharper Image, Crutchfield.com, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and thousands of regional and local retail locations.
U.S. HD radio sales totaled about 300,000 units in 2007, with about 1 million units expected to be sold this year, iBiquity says.
The rollout of a feature enabling consumers to "tag" a song they like for purchase at Apple's iTunes store provides a level of interactivity that traditional analog radio can't match.

Programming options are happening at a deliberate pace. Entercom is offering a comedy channel here in Indy. Yes, there's also a blues channel. Cumulus is airing The Song on an HD channel. There are others programing their side channels [CC for sure], but I don't want to misquote. There's not a ton of new programming, yet, but what has started is unique, and interesting, even compelling to the niche audiences they intent to serve.

Who knows? These additional channels might even offer MORE employment opportunities in the future.

Of course, if you don't see any upside, any opportunity in this, you likely won't survive in those jobs either. Your perception might be your reality - but the body of evidence suggests the reality and opportunity in HD Radio's success could be very real.
 
mouseman said:
Radio Info Board posting Headlines: HD Radio's DOA. HD Radio's a scam by the big corporate broadcast companies. HD Radio will lag and fail.

OMG - did everyone hear?! They've discovered the world's NOT flat afterall!

Consumer awareness of HD Radio currently stands at 77%, according to a survey of radio listeners from Critical Mass Media. In a separate study of current or likely auto buyers by J.D. Powers, a full 31% said they want HD Radio in their next vehicle
Already, a number of automakers – including Mercedes, Ford, Volvo, BMW, MINI USA, Jaguar, and Hyundai – have disclosed plans to include HD Radio receivers in current or future models. Aftermarket products are available from top manufacturers including Dual, Jensen, JVC, Kenwood, Peripheral and Sony
At retail, receivers are available at Best Buy, Circuit City, RadioShack, The Sharper Image, Crutchfield.com, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and thousands of regional and local retail locations.
U.S. HD radio sales totaled about 300,000 units in 2007, with about 1 million units expected to be sold this year, iBiquity says.
The rollout of a feature enabling consumers to "tag" a song they like for purchase at Apple's iTunes store provides a level of interactivity that traditional analog radio can't match.

Programming options are happening at a deliberate pace. Entercom is offering a comedy channel here in Indy. Yes, there's also a blues channel. Cumulus is airing The Song on an HD channel. There are others programing their side channels [CC for sure], but I don't want to misquote. There's not a ton of new programming, yet, but what has started is unique, and interesting, even compelling to the niche audiences they intent to serve.

Who knows? These additional channels might even offer MORE employment opportunities in the future.

Of course, if you don't see any upside, any opportunity in this, you likely won't survive in those jobs either. Your perception might be your reality - but the body of evidence suggests the reality and opportunity in HD Radio's success could be very real.
Click to expand...

We can fill pages on this message board on what formats haven't been explored but the point is moot. Nobody has explained the source of revenue. Media sales are tight as it is with AM/FM/TV/Cable/Print/Outdoor/et al. The plan is to triple the FM offerings and I don't believe the market will support HD-2 or HD-3 programming since there are so many choices and the sum of the whole can only equal 100. Inventory would have to be given away or a rate close to free.
 
mouseman said:
Who knows? These additional channels might even offer MORE employment opportunities in the future.
Click to expand...

I would think it's going to happen, but what would REALLY change that is if the FCC made localism changes. If they set rules on how many hours each station had to have a live operator (past 5PM and on weekends espcially) then you would see more positions, I think. But there's always a way around the rules.

HD radio should beat current FM with regards to modulation and compression espcially. (I'm not an expert here - I'm speculating, since I haven't heard it with my own ears.) The implementation costs a dollar or two, of course, and the problems with integration into an analog channel, well, read about that elsewhere. I kinda think maybe the complainers are the ones (owners) just waiting for the cost to come down, and then the floodgates open.

I'm Juan Bodley, and I wrote this message. (I'll be glad when THAT'S done.)
 
You think the cost to implement HD is a couple dollars? Or do I misunderstand? Because an HD-capable transmitter will cost the owner tens of thousands. Plus upgrading to a digital studio isn't cheap. Trying to avoid D-A / A-D conversions as much as possible.
 
The programming aspect of this discussion is valid, but I think there is a psychological aspect also. Why does it seem that listeners, given the choice of listening to a commercial-free hot AC format on someone's HD2 channel or on Sirius, will choose the satellite service they have to pay for? Is it just the "cool" factor? You have to buy hardware to listen to satellite OR HD radio, so other than that "cool" factor, why choose satellite option that offers no local personality, weather or news/info, and marginal audio quality on many of their channels due to the satcasters trying to squeeze so many program streams into their alloted spectrum space? Certainly there are more format choices on satellite, but I also wonder how many channels people really listen to. I'd bet as with terrestrial radio, most people who have a satellite receiver in their home or car still only listen regularly to 2 or 3 favorite stations, regardless of the 60+ that are available.
 
Do people really want to hear "cd quality" radio? Doesn't that mean radio that's not processed? That means people driving in noisy traffic will have to constantly adjust the volume when listening to anything with a lot of dynamic range.
 
I can buy an XM receiver and a year's programming for less money than I'd pay to buy an HD radio (although I haven't checked HD radio prices recently ... they could have come down)
 
You can purchase a XM receiver, and first year subscription for about the same as an HD Radio...maybe, maybe not. There's a broad range of HD retail pricing. Regardless, after the first year's subscription, you're still paying for for satellite, for as long as you keep it. An HD Radio receiver is a one time expense.

Anne Tenna's thoughts are right to the point. Even the HD channels can be localized; satellite channels aren't. Compelling, unique programming, with any degree of localization, will acquire an audience, and advertisers. Look at WFDM. Look at WRDZ. Look at WEDZ. Each of these stations are driving revenue with unique programming, in fact much of which is not locally originated. But the station operators make every effort to localize programming as much as possible around the primary content syndicators. By the way, none of these stations report their revenue, but I strongly suspect that while revenues are down at the largest companies, the non-reporting stations are billing another $5-10mil in advertising, because their content and efforts with their community of listeners is compelling. HD side channels will perform the same way, if done right.
 
mouseman said:
HD side channels will perform the same way, if done right.
Click to expand...

That's the whole point. If done right. I don't hear that yet. All there is is a box in the back engineering room playing programming from some distant source. None or very little local content - and definitely no local people.

It's too bad that the economy of radio won't allow for creative use of the HD channels. If HD took off in the 80's or 90's, we would hear all kinds of fun, unique and experimental formats.

There are so few people running the HD1 channels, that you don't have anyone left to run the HD2 or HD3 channels.

Right idea - wrong time.
 
RDO said:
Hippo is right. It's the programming. All across the board it has become stale. There is no more "magic" in radio. There is no more "wow".

Here is a perfect example... A year ago our local Clearchannel radio station WHAS took off our local nighttime talk show and replaced it with Michael Savage... Are these stations so broke that they can't pay a man to host a local show? Seems like each November there are personnel cutbacks at the Clearchannel stations so that Scrooge Lowery Mays can have a greener Christmas for him and his family!
Click to expand...

It may-not be Christmas [yet], but the Wall Street-directed "L Man" was forced to warm-up early! ..."L-Man's CCU was a MUCH BETTER company before the roadblocks came-off on the goverment-imposed ownership limits. When those came-off, CCU went on a binge that qualified them for intervention and treatment... The rest is history ::)

I know Joe at WHAS... In fact I know his radio history well. CLASS ACT—‘n ten-some! I met him for the first time at a Chi-Chi’s on the east-side of Indy in 1990. He is a friend-of-a-friend, and a TRUE PROFESSIONAL! HE WILL LAND ON HIS FEET, be assured, after being removed from WHAS by CCU’s clear attempt to slash ‘n stash-n-rescue-the-cash.

They took him off [allegedly laid him off]... SAD 'n they LOSE! ...Is there a damn-ethic alive today in “corporate radio”? NOPE :'(
 
Flying-Dutchman said:
HD will never catch on!
Click to expand...

Hey Fly... ‘Remember the AM-only “TRF” portable in the Summer 1970 Radio Shack catalog? I’ll bet that more of those $28 portable radios sold than the current crop of over-priced/under-reforming “HD” rip-jobs - but we HAD numerous DECENT options to listen to back then! I still don't own an "HD radio", and don't plan to ask Santa for one :-[
 
hipporadio said:
Flying-Dutchman said:
HD will never catch on!
Click to expand...

Hey Fly... ‘Remember the AM-only “TRF” portable in the Summer 1970 Radio Shack catalog? I’ll bet that more of those $28 portable radios sold than the current crop of over-priced/under-reforming “HD” rip-jobs - but we HAD numerous DECENT options to listen to back then! I still don't own an "HD radio", and don't plan to ask Santa for one :-[
Click to expand...

I own a Sony HD radio. The price was right, $39 marked down from $199. As a analog radio it has excellent sensitivity and selectivity. Digital reception was limited to a city grade signal. The audio difference between FM analog and digital was boring. There was an slight increase of presence and separation but not enough to justify the technology. The AM band was narrow band analog with speaker phone audio quality. The HD light blinked on many frequency at night but never locked in. As I said, it has good sensitivity but useless at night with all of the IBOC hash.

Would I buy another? Nope.
 
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