Promoting HD radio

[DavidZ]

I have a question for everyone about HD radio and how it is promoted…or not. From everything I have read on this board, HD radio has few listeners but those that do, tend to really defend the technology. Also, to a lay person like myself who is a radio enthusiast but not in the business, it seems the corporate owners are embracing it but don’t really know what to do with it either.

Most stations let their listeners know where they can be found on an FM HD sub-channel but how many listeners actually pay attention to the top of the hour ID. I would think one of the easiest ways to help promote it is to list it on their “Listen Live” page. For example I’m listening to WBZ-AM on-line right now and when you bring up their listen live link, WODS and WBCN is nowhere to be found.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/#listen-live

I know in the waning couple of days of WODS at 103.3 they promoted that the classic hits would continue on HD2. However how many people, especially if they were on vacation, know they can still get the station either on-line or with an HD radio unless they happened to bookmark WODS.com?

Radio enthusiasts and people in the business may know the HD offerings but I would hazard a guess that the average radio listener doesn’t have a clue.

 

[WNTIRadio]

They can promote it all they want, but when you go into a store and can't buy a radio, or the sales clerk has never heard of "HD Radio" and points you to a Sirius radio, then it's doomed.

What good is brewing the best craft beer if you don't have any bottles to put it in?

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

...and I will attempt to sell you a SSB CB radio that has TWICE THE NUMBER OF CHANNELS,
as the AM ones have. Who wouldn't want that? ;D

 

[raccoonradio]

I did find a "second edition" of the HD portable at Best Buy in Saugus fairly easily, and bought it. (They also had a $50 tabletop model). But yes it's not exactly being promoted with vigor...

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I did find a "second edition" of the HD portable at Best Buy in Saugus fairly easily, and bought it. (They also had a $50 tabletop model). But yes it's not exactly being promoted with vigor...

The revamped personal portable seems to have the same performance as the earlier edition, just different styling.

I also bought one of the "tabletop" portables. HD and subchannel reception is definitely somewhat of an improvement over the small personal portable.

 

[aerie]

Very many new cars (possibly most new cars) these days come with HD radio as standard. In some cases, you have to activate the HD before it will work (why I don't know), so a new car owner might not even realize that they have an HD radio. But there are very few radios for the home (what used to be called "table radios") that have HD, but then again, there are very few table radios of any sort available these days. I guess most people might have one of the cheap little clock radios with the 1 inch speaker to wake them up, but then they go to their iPod-type devices for music. But aside from the top of the hour ID, most stations do not promote their HD services. When I was a teenager, and transistor radios were still relatively new, stations like WMEX would give away transistor radios all day to the nth caller. Some stations even gave away radios that received only the station giving away the radio. But we've never heard a station giving away HD capable radios to promote themselves and the new technology. I would imagine that since the FCC has made Ibiquity's system the default standard for digital radio in the USA, at some point they might require all radios to have it (as they did with FM and with UHF-TV). I really enjoy my HD radio at home: all the music I want, and virtually no commercials or extraneous chatter.

 

[leegart]

Very many new cars (possibly most new cars) these days come with HD radio as standard. In some cases, you have to activate the HD before it will work (why I don't know), so a new car owner might not even realize that they have an HD radio. But there are very few radios for the home (what used to be called "table radios") that have HD, but then again, there are very few table radios of any sort available these days. I guess most people might have one of the cheap little clock radios with the 1 inch speaker to wake them up, but then they go to their iPod-type devices for music. But aside from the top of the hour ID, most stations do not promote their HD services. When I was a teenager, and transistor radios were still relatively new, stations like WMEX would give away transistor radios all day to the nth caller. Some stations even gave away radios that received only the station giving away the radio. But we've never heard a station giving away HD capable radios to promote themselves and the new technology. I would imagine that since the FCC has made Ibiquity's system the default standard for digital radio in the USA, at some point they might require all radios to have it (as they did with FM and with UHF-TV). I really enjoy my HD radio at home: all the music I want, and virtually no commercials or extraneous chatter.

I just bought a cute little Insignia portable HD radio. It uses the headphone wire as its antenna and sometimes you have to re-position to receive the signal. I imagine going mobile and trying to stay locked on an HD signal is a challenge.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I just bought a cute little Insignia portable HD radio. It uses the headphone wire as its antenna and sometimes you have to re-position to receive the signal. I imagine going mobile and trying to stay locked on an HD signal is a challenge.

It can be, but a real HD car stereo, with a more robust receiving circuit and an FM antenna installed on the outside the car would do much better than trying to use the personal portable inside of a car.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Very many new cars (possibly most new cars) these days come with HD radio as standard.

No, most do not come with it.

In some cases, you have to activate the HD before it will work (why I don't know), so a new car owner might not even realize that they have an HD radio.

No, you don't have to activate it. This is not satellite, where there's a monthly fee involved. HD is (apart from the cost of the radio) free and doesn't need to be activated. If the reception conditions are right, it will pop up automatically...a HUGE "if."

But aside from the top of the hour ID, most stations do not promote their HD services.

If I were an owner running HD, aside from promoting my main channel (which by FCC rules must simulcast the FM analog with at least one HD channel), why would I dilute the audience on the main channel, which is the one that makes me money?

we've never heard a station giving away HD capable radios to promote themselves and the new technology.

The group I work for had several dozen cartons of them sent to each of our markets for giveaways.

I would imagine that since the FCC has made Ibiquity's system the default standard for digital radio in the USA, at some point they might require all radios to have it (as they did with FM and with UHF-TV).

Doubtful. Most stations in the US still don't broadcast in HD and there's no good reason to force them to do so. The small- and medium-market individually owned stations just don't have that kind of money, and many of the large groups have also stayed away. Equipment costs are the equivalent of essentially building another transmission plant. That's not cheap. Then you have the recurring cost of licensing.

 

[johnster]

I do actually have several non-radio friends who now have them in new cars. Ford for one has it in the radio/navigation package. So if you get the sync/navigation thing you get HD. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWDsynAgWjk
At the same time I know many home receiver companies that have given up on it due to slow sales. Yamaha and Sony being two examples. I do think if the car manufacturers continue to add it out as a basic feature the other could come back but otherwise I think it's done.

 

[iyiyi]

That's odd. Last night WVEI was running a decent spot on the brand-new Insignia portable HD. They promoted the fact that it can run on batteries, you can easily take it to the beach, the price is $49.95 -- Which they stated is the same price of the original Insignia NS HD01...

Damn good HD promotion!

-

 

[aerie]

Very many new cars (possibly most new cars) these days come with HD radio as standard.

No, most do not come with it.
According to the ibiquity web site, it is available on many (not all) models of acura, audi, bentley, bmw, buick, cadillac, chevrolet, ford, gmc, hyundai, kia, lexus, lincoln, mazda, mercedes-benz, mini, scion, subaru, toyota, volkswagen, and volvo

In some cases, you have to activate the HD before it will work (why I don't know), so a new car owner might not even realize that they have an HD radio.

No, you don't have to activate it. This is not satellite, where there's a monthly fee involved. HD is (apart from the cost of the radio) free and doesn't need to be activated. If the reception conditions are right, it will pop up automatically...a HUGE "if."

Here is a video of how to activate the HD radio in a Volkswagen Passat. It is not active by default http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJF9483eMaw

But aside from the top of the hour ID, most stations do not promote their HD services.

If I were an owner running HD, aside from promoting my main channel (which by FCC rules must simulcast the FM analog with at least one HD channel), why would I dilute the audience on the main channel, which is the one that makes me money?

I am sure station owners made the same complaint when they were told they had to program their FM stations separate from their AM stations.

 

[nd2023]

It makes sense why some car radios would require the HD feature to be activated. They must have gotten tired of all the people complaining that the radio is bad because it's an HD radio that constantly drops out.

The iBiquity web site will make it seem like HD radio is more popular than it is. It's an option on the high end models, not standard on every model. When HD radio becomes as standard as seat belts, then it's here to stay.

I've been hearing far fewer HD radio ads now than in 2008. So if iBiquity isn't advertising as much, that says something. For a product in the growth stage, heavy advertising is key to making sure it continues to grow. There are almost no new HD sign ons, and a lot more are turning off the HD for good.

It says a lot when the homeless guy playing music on the street has a larger audience than all the HD2 stations in the market combined.

 

[pqgeorge]

HD Radio/IBOC is pretty much a lost cause. The FM version simply doesn't have the coverage of standard FM Stereo. The AM version sounds very tinny and the high end frequency response sounds very artificial. And we all know the interference issue, especially at night. The analog component of an AM IBOC station simply sounds horrible and hissy. FMeXtra (Digital Radio Express) was a better system of digital broadcasting. Unfortunately, iBiquity had Digital Radio Express (now VuCast Media) buy stock with them and basically took FMeXtra out of the running for digital broadcasting. Had FMeXtra become the standard for digital broadcasting, it would allow for full Stereo coverage (similar to standard FM Stereo) and several subcarriers much like HD2 and HD3. It simply would use the existing bandwidth for SCA and not cause interference to the adjacent channels. The AM stations could use either the subs of co-owned FM stations or the FCC could use a portion of the spectrum of Channels 5 and 6 for digital use for the AM'ers. Considering that VHF-lo is basically useless for DTV, why not use it for Digital Audio only. I'd also like to see experimental use of 26 MHz for DRM as well. Hey, what the heck. Other countries are doing it right now.

 

[Speaker of Truth]

Mr. George provides a nice summary..HD Radio was a nice idea, never promoted properly, because in the end, consumers didn't care..and still don't and likely never will..some GMs thought it would be a money maker..it was not..and never will be..

 

[KB1OKL]

HD radio is promoted very little because it works very poorly, there is no motivation to promote it. It's only been promoted on HD alliance stations that have free extra time left over, you can hear the commercials about stations beside the stations for example around midnight or 1 AM on Tuesdays.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I hear spots on WZLX for their HD subchannels, "Radio Mojo" and "WBCN Free Form Rock", most every day, and during prime hours, not at 1 AM.

 

[dumber than a box of hair]

Clear Channel has already dumped advertising for the HD Alliance.

...and that very well may be game, set and match. When the largest radio group in the country, and iBiquity's largest broadcasting investor, stops promoting the tech, its days are numbered.

And yes, what promotion there was just plain stunk. It was insulting, degrading, infantile and devoid of information that listeners needed to know...and enormously frustrating, because once upon a time radio had no equal when it came to promoting itself. Instead, about a quarter of the people surveyed thought that since HD was being promoted, they were actually listening to HD on an analog radio and had no clue that you had to buy an HD radio (not that they could have found too many of them anyhow).

 

[GeneSavage]

My biggest frustration with HD was discovering it was highly compressed audio. I now understand why it has to be that way... but if it can't be done as transparent digital audio (say, at least 256 kbps if you're using the old mp3 format), I'm not impressed.

My wife is baffled by HD. Listening to analog, she says, "the radio sounds fine to me... not as good as CD, but I don't need it to sound that good."

I mention the extra channels. She says, "what extra channels?" I explain about the oldies on one, the 80s rock on another, the alternative pop on another, and all the NPR offerings. She replies, "oh," and looks bored.

HD was a solution looking for a problem. Analog FM can sound great, but most program directors make sure their engineers set their audio processing for "blowtorch." Put that squashed signal on digital, and it still sounds squashed. Most people are unimpressed with first-channel offerings, so "abandoned" second and third channel offerings sure don't impress.

If internet radio wasn't coming up and going portable, HD might have something going for it with the alternate channels... IF they were programmed properly. As it is, it's too little too late for broadcast, was promoted similarly to AM stereo, and the receivers were about as available and about as understood. The programming is for the most part bland national programming, and at least sounds like it was turned on and forgotten.

We keep forgetting it's about content and instead try relying on technology to get us listeners. Listeners are no longer impressed.. at least that's my impression.

(BTW, I have an HD radio and love it, for the slightly improved fidelity on FM and on the one AM in town that's HD, and for the alternative programming... ESPECIALLY the NPR offerings. I also suspect in a few years it will be just another analog radio with a few extra buttons.)

 

[bobdavcav]

I just got an hd tuner for my phone and my friend is having a hard time finding one for his, apparently they're selling out at Radio Shacks down there. I think we're in the 60s or so when it comes to hd. How many people thought fm was going to be the next big thing back then? There are two things I don't like about this radio though,
1. When listening to analog fm, the stereo signal doesn't seem to be picked up as far away from the transmitter as on other radios.
2. The drop-out problem. I was listening to KCDA HD2 last weekend and it kept dropping, going to complete silence, kind of gets annoying. Are there any additional hd channels for the few am stations in HD? If not, then what's the point of running in hd? If you really want to run in hd on an am station, just simulcast on one of the subchannels of an fm station.