iBiquity: Stations Want More HD Radio Sales

[davideduardo]

I can certainly envision ad agency execs saying, "Radio can't even sell itself, how can we expect them to sell cars." HD is a problem on so many levels.

I can't even imagine ad agency executives even talking about this. Agency executives are mostly concerned with serving the client and campaign development.

Agency people also know that radio, like tv, cable, the internet, etc., is a medium and sales depend on the proper combination of factors like consumer interest in what is being sold, the quality and price point of the product or service, the availability at retail or convenience in purchasing, etc.

If anyone at an agency even paid attention to the HD campaigns, they probably don't know how many radios have been sold. Or, if they have an idea, they know that heavy promotion with bizarre messages for a product consumers were not interested in simply proves the old saying, "the best way to get a bad product off the market is to advertise it."

 

[TSL2]

I can certainly envision ad agency execs saying, "Radio can't even sell itself, how can we expect them to sell cars." HD is a problem on so many levels.

I can't even imagine ad agency executives even talking about this. Agency executives are mostly concerned with serving the client and campaign development.

Agency people also know that radio, like tv, cable, the internet, etc., is a medium and sales depend on the proper combination of factors like consumer interest in what is being sold, the quality and price point of the product or service, the availability at retail or convenience in purchasing, etc.

If anyone at an agency even paid attention to the HD campaigns, they probably don't know how many radios have been sold. Or, if they have an idea, they know that heavy promotion with bizarre messages for a product consumers were not interested in simply proves the old saying, "the best way to get a bad product off the market is to advertise it."

I bet those agency guys have heard of HD radio. But are unaware of the local HD stations
right in their market. I bet those agency pros don't own an HD radio and their clients are not asking
about HD radio advertising. I'm just saying!

Running generic HD spots isn't enough. Who's the morning team of your local HD2 stations in your market? Nobody! Maybe seeing billboards might help, how about TV? promoting.
HD has problems big issues well beyond technical beta issues!

 

[TheBigA]

It's my opinion that many advertisers and ad agencies incorrectly see that as a failure of radio as an advertising medium,

There is a simple rule in advertising: The customer can't buy what it can't find. The product needs to be in stores, and needs to be easy to find. Anyone in an ad agancy understands that. And this is not a radio problem, or a radio station program or an advertising on the radio problem. This is, as I stated in my earlier post, an iBiquity & retailer problem. Deals exist, but they aren't being policed or enforced. That has to happen, but iBiquity is simply too small a company to enforce its deals.

And please, don't get me started on how HD pretty much tanked DXing on either band.

DXing was killed by the FCC when the eliminated clear channel stations and started over-licensing AM. HD didn't help, and it was done for the exact same reason as the over-licensing of the band. But it wasn't what killed DXing. FCC policy is 100% opposed to the concept of DXing, and has been for 25 years.

 

[mmnassour]

Until there is something being broadcast on HD that people want to ... have to ... listen to, it will continue to be a failure. Even the poorest system (which HD is) can succeed in the marketplace with programming that people want.

No, I don't know what it is.

 

[RememberWHEN]

BRNout makes 2 valid points:

If it's problematic just receiving the HD signal...game over...

...and if you can pick up the HD component...will the artifacts chase you away over time?

While I've not heard the rebroadcast of WLS-AM on WLS-FM HD2...I can tell you that WLS-AM (at Citadel prompting) turned off their AM-HD signal some months back...and then went back to fulltime C-QUAM AM stereo (they had been HD days / C-QUAM nights). If you are able to find at...what...a yard sale or the such??...an AM stereo radio, you would find 'LS sounds an order of magnitude again better than whatever analog radio you are currently listening to them on.

I'm 80 miles out from the station, listening on a couple of "wideband" AM stereo receivers and their audio signature is quite nice. No low bit rate artifacts here, thank you. Full soundstage with dynamics. Commercials and beds are nicely "musical". Competitive to FM in some respects. They prove that AM can sound very good.

The weak link over the last 3+ decades are the poorly designed analog radios. A pity.

 

[TheBigA]

Until there is something being broadcast on HD that people want to ... have to ... listen to, it will continue to be a failure.

In some markets there is, but no one knows. It's the tree falling in a forest. If you don't own a radio that can pick it up, you won't know it's there.

But let me throw it back at you: What qualifies as something you'd HAVE to listen to that you can't get anywhere else? Music? Really? Talk? Who? Information? It's all available elsewhere for free, and you don't need to buy a new radio.

Howard Stern quit his syndicated show and gave up an audience of 14 million. He went to Sirius where people HAD to buy new radios in order to hear his show, and less than a million people did. So what?

 

[davideduardo]

I bet those agency pros don't own an HD radio and their clients are not asking
about HD radio advertising.

The larger clients don't talk with AE's and agency execs about radio stations. They talk about marketing and campaigns and budgets. The agency comes up with a media plan with allocations for radio, tv, the web, etc. And since the larger accounts buy nationally or regionally, they don't discuss what format is on which station anyway...

 

[Savage]

I've had several ad agency people, including media planners, comment to me about HD Radio. The head of the media department at a leading local agency reads this board and agrees with me about HD (hi, Dude, in case you're on the channel.)

He's also a DX'er. Go figure, right? And loves AM radio (on a personal level, of course, and only with a bag over his head, because we all know AM is worthless, right?

Other than the bag interfering with putting on headphones, and IBOC skywave noise at night, he doesn't have any particular problem with AM radio. He does agree that AM's primary problems are (a) neglected facilities with lousy programming and (b) poor receivers.

And, no - he's not 90 years old either.

Any media planner or agency person with authority who isn't conversant with technological trends within the media they purchase, isn't doing their job. I don't know what is happening in distant markets, but I can assure you that around here, media people are aware of HD. Which is NOT to say they understand why we, the industry people, are doing this to ourselves.

I would characterize the ad-agency attitudes towards HD Radio as something between a shoulder-shrug and a quizzical look, to "what the hell is wrong with you radio people??"

 

[Savage]

David - the new logo on our station website includes the AM. It's just smaller than the FM. We elected to rework the logo(s) to promote the FM. It takes folks a while to discover a new signal.

And the website IS still www.wysl1040.com.

 

[mmnassour]

Until there is something being broadcast on HD that people want to ... have to ... listen to, it will continue to be a failure.

In some markets there is, but no one knows. It's the tree falling in a forest. If you don't own a radio that can pick it up, you won't know it's there.

But let me throw it back at you: What qualifies as something you'd HAVE to listen to that you can't get anywhere else? Music? Really? Talk? Who? Information? It's all available elsewhere for free, and you don't need to buy a new radio.

Howard Stern quit his syndicated show and gave up an audience of 14 million. He went to Sirius where people HAD to buy new radios in order to hear his show, and less than a million people did. So what?

As for Stern, one can argue that his deal actually saved Sirius, then competing with XM, by giving it unique content that could not be found anywhere else. And which company survived? Not XM...

What do I want? Well personally, it's music that I can't hear anywhere else...music that I now have to go to Internet radio for. Elsewhere, I'd KILL to have a mobile stream for BBC Radio 2 that doesn't involve hooking up a phone to my car.

The NPR stations are the only ones even making an attempt at new and unique programming on HD.

HD is the real estate that radio can use to re-invent itself. Instead, the corporations are using it as the broadcast equivalent of a parking lot, a parking lot for the same tired old crap that has driven an entire generation to the Net and iPods. They're gone...it's time to do something for their kids.

 

[TheBigA]

As for Stern, one can argue that his deal actually saved Sirius,

Maybe, but it killed his relevance. Depends on what you want in life. My point is that 14 million people didn't rush out and buy Sirius radios. Only a small fraction did. That's what would happen with HD if content people HAD to listen to was only available there. It wouldn't move the meters much more than they're moving now. So why bother? It's a tree falling in the firest.

In Chicago, CBS uses one of its HD channels to program nothing but new releases. Lots of music you've never heard before. 24/7. The other HD runs classic country. It's the only broadcast station in the city playing Hank & Lefty. But no one cares. They want to hear Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber.

HD is the real estate that radio can use to re-invent itself. Instead, the corporations are using it as the broadcast equivalent of a parking lot, a parking lot for the same tired old crap that has driven an entire generation to the Net and iPods. They're gone...it's time to do something for their kids.

I don't see it that way. Do you really think the iPod generation was going to buy a big table radio so they could tune in HD Radio? I don't. Now if the radio was the size of a pack of cards and real cool, with the ability to record digital quality music...maybe. But that's not going to happen. And you know all that "tired crap" you say is pushing the next generation to the net? They're listening to tired crap there too.

 

[mmnassour]

HD is the real estate that radio can use to re-invent itself. Instead, the corporations are using it as the broadcast equivalent of a parking lot, a parking lot for the same tired old crap that has driven an entire generation to the Net and iPods. They're gone...it's time to do something for their kids.

I don't see it that way. Do you really think the iPod generation was going to buy a big table radio so they could tune in HD Radio? I don't. Now if the radio was the size of a pack of cards and real cool, with the ability to record digital quality music...maybe. But that's not going to happen. And you know all that "tired crap" you say is pushing the next generation to the net? They're listening to tired crap there too.
[/quote]

No, no, no. The iPod generation is NEVER going to buy a big table radio. The technical needs for big boxes in HD radio is one reason the technology is doomed to failure. I think we're actually on the same wavelength in that regard. But do not for a moment think that the kind of repeater radio programming that the big chains are pushing will ever, ever, attract today's 12-24 year old group. The ONLY thing local radio has to offer is local programming. Destroy that...and all you have left is an iPod that the listener does not control.

And what's the point in that?

 

[TheBigA]

The technical needs for big boxes in HD radio is one reason the technology is doomed to failure. I think we're actually on the same wavelength in that regard.

You're right.

But do not for a moment think that the kind of repeater radio programming that the big chains are pushing will ever, ever, attract today's 12-24 year old group.

You'd be surprised. First of all, most of what you call "repeater radio" is aimed at older demos, like AC. CHRs are still mostly live and local, especially during the most-listened-to dayparts. Second of all, in markets where local goes against syndicated, we don't see any prejudice towards local on the part of younger listeners. Origination isn't the determining factor. They don't watch "Glee" because it's local. This mantra about local programming is mainly coming from radio people, not listeners. If the listeners really want it, the companies have no problem delivering it. In fact the bigger companies are more likely to have the multi-platform content younger listeners want. But what they can't do so far is come up with individualized music programming that allows them to target specialized music mixes to specific people. Giving listeners, not radio programmers, control of the content is more important than local programming.

 

[Tom Wells]

An ipod is just dead music, and you're "tuned out". Oh yes, you can check twitter or or social spots to see what's going
on, but good radio does all that for you. For those who appreciate being connected by radio, "modern"
modes of connectivity seem hoplessly "manual" while radio at it's best does this for you automatically.

I don't want to micromanage my connectivity to the outside world, I don't like tiny little screens and tiny little speakers
OR earbuds.

The best thing ever was going to beach and everyone had the same station on, at -6 db line level...and you could always
hear the music, djs, or commercials in beautiful multi-time-plexed audio anywhere on the beach.

 

[TheBigA]

The best thing ever was going to beach and everyone had the same station on,

That, by definition, is repeater radio.

So was the original network system, where one station simply picked up and rebroadcast the signal of another. It's all been done before.

 

[staticradio]

Pretty much sums it up: new technology, old habits. Most people listen to nothing but the hits, and the niche programming touted by HD Radio sub channels, as well as internet and satellite...does not interest the passive music listener.

 

[davideduardo]

As for Stern, one can argue that his deal actually saved Sirius, then competing with XM, by giving it unique content that could not be found anywhere else. And which company survived? Not XM...

Actually, Mel Karmazin saved Sirius... and he did it partly by merging with XM using someone else's money... alone, neither could have survived.

 

[mmnassour]

As for Stern, one can argue that his deal actually saved Sirius, then competing with XM, by giving it unique content that could not be found anywhere else. And which company survived? Not XM...

Actually, Mel Karmazin saved Sirius... and he did it partly by merging with XM using someone else's money... alone, neither could have survived.

Point well taken. Thank you.

Of course, in "saving" Sirius, he destroyed the music discovery that was part of XM, making it sound just like every other CC station in the country.

But then...that's a discussion for somewhere else.

 

[KB1OKL]

Of course, in "saving" Sirius, he destroyed the music discovery that was part of XM, making it sound just like every other CC station in the country.

Yes.