Herald article on FreeformBCN, Sam Kopper

[raccoonradio]

http://bostonherald.com/entertainme...hd_and_internet_radio/srvc=edge&position=also

Sam Kopper currently runs FreeformBCN on a WZLX HD signal and online as automated but there are plans to bring back
famous WBCN voices to do shifts. "News dissector" Danny Schecter is already doing political commentaries. (But...how many
HD radios are being sold these days for people to hear it other than online...?)

 

[mgpt6]

Will CBS give it an HD2 for stereo? It almost makes wanna buy an HD Radio for the car,but for now online and a table radio will have to suffice.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Will CBS give it an HD2 for stereo? It almost makes wanna buy an HD Radio for the car,but for now online and a table radio will have to suffice.

So far, CBS doesn't seem to want to sacrifice one of their current HD-2's for "Freeform 'BCN". They are:

98.5 HD-2: "WBCN - The Rock of Boston" - continuing the recent WBCN format
100.7 HD-2: "Radio Mojo" - All blues and blues-rock, current and classic
103.3 HD-2: "The Cove" - Soft rock/soft AC focusing on romantic ballads
104.1 HD-2: "The '80s Channel"

That's all they have for FM's in the market.

HD-3, with its lower bandwidth mono sound, is usually used for spoken (non-musical) programming. It really doesn't work very well for music, and they say there isn't even enough room to add an RDS display with artists/song titles. It seems like Kopper and company are mostly promoting the online stream now, and suggesting people listen to the stream on the go on iPhones, using FM transponders to send the stream from the iPhone, in stereo, to their car stereos.

 

[Signpost]

So far, CBS doesn't seem to want to sacrifice one of their current HD-2's for "Freeform 'BCN".

Is there any way to measure the listenership of the HD2 channels? I have an HD radio and listen to Freeform BCN far more than any other HD offering. The Blues channel is nice to have, but I've never listened for more than 20 minutes or so. Seems the Freeform BCN format would have a wider appeal than "Radio Mojo" or even "The Rock of Boston" - especially if Sam succeeds in getting real live voices on. Greater Media has an Irish music HD2 channel on 96.9 that i find myself listening to more than i ever thought i would.

 

[LA_Guy]

HD channels are all encoded for the People Meter.

 

[Signpost]

Only HD2 signal i know that showed up was 99X in Atlanta -'cause it's on a translator there.

So unless someone with a People Meter has an HD radio, there's really no way of knowing which stations the small number of HD equipped households are actually listening to? It would seem no one who's ever measured for PPM has yet been in proximity of an HD radio.

Is internet radio encoded? Satellite radio? Bet not all college stations are encoded..

 

[pjc1961]

Only HD2 signal i know that showed up was 99X in Atlanta -'cause it's on a translator there.

So unless someone with a People Meter has an HD radio, there's really no way of knowing which stations the small number of HD equipped households are actually listening to? It would seem no one who's ever measured for PPM has yet been in proximity of an HD radio.

Is internet radio encoded? Satellite radio? Bet not all college stations are encoded..

Internet streams of radio stations are encoded; they are only combined with the main signal's share/cume if it's an exact simulcast. Generally the streams are listed separately in the Arbitron ratings since most streams substitute the over-the-air commercials with commercials featuring non-AFTRA talent or occasionally run different programming from the over-the-air stations. For the few station streams that show up, they usually place in the bottom slots on the ratings charts with 0.1-0.9 shares. [I believe? that the most consistently succesful stream share wise is KOST-FM Los Angeles (Adult Contemporary).]

There have only been two Arbitron reports issued for Satellite Radio, the last one issued in Feb. 2008 for Fall 2007. The report only included markets that had Diary based measurement at that time (no PPM markets included). Possibly Arbitron is waiting until there's a majority of markets measured by PPM's before they issue another report OR the satellite signals aren't PPM encoded. Thus, they could only be measured by Diaries, meaning there couldn't ever really be accurate Satellite Ratings until the signals were PPM encoded (since the Diary Markets are shrinking/PPM Markets are growing), if indeed this is the case. (Clarification needed from someone who knows.) The highest ratings for any particular channel were for Sirius' Howard Stern "Howard 100" with a cume of just over 1,000,000 per week and an AQH rating of 0.04 per week. (Not to be confused with "share", which is a %-age of those already listening.)
{{{AQH Rating = The AQH Persons estimate expressed as a percentage of the population being measured. This estimate is printed for the MSA and DMA. It can also be computed for the TSA. [AQH Persons / Population] x 100 = AQH Rating (%)}}}

 

[Mickey37]

So far, CBS doesn't seem to want to sacrifice one of their current HD-2's for "Freeform 'BCN".

I have an HD radio and listen to Freeform BCN far more than any other HD offering. Seems the Freeform BCN format would have a wider appeal than "Radio Mojo" or even "The Rock of Boston" - especially if Sam succeeds in getting real live voices on. Greater Media has an Irish music HD2 channel on 96.9 that i find myself listening to more than i ever thought i would.

I've been listening to 96.9's Irish channel for the past couple of years on their website. Now that I have an HD radio, I too listen more to Free Form BCN than any other station, with the Irish channel a strong second.