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Sports Team-Oriented HD Channels: A New Trend?

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

By now, you may have heard that CBS Radio, which has radio rights to the Philadelphia Phillies, has put a "Phillies 24/7" station on the HD-4 channel of one of their FM stations.

Previously, in Pittsburgh, Clear Channel started an all-Penguins channel on one of the HD subchannels of its alternative rock FM station.

Is this what it's going to take to get HD radios selling? Clearly, most sports content can't be streamed online, so it's not like you can punch up the Internet stream for these kind of HD channels and hear everything.

Thoughts?

By the way... I like how Tom Taylor wrote about the Phillies channel in TRI last week: "Somebody on the Philadelphia R-I board has an HD radio..." That in itself should have been the big story. ::)
 
When KLOU had the St Louis Rams broadcast rights, their HD-2 channel was all old Rams games. I doubt that sold a single radio. The few people who even knew about HD radio used to laugh about the Rams channel.
 
Old Rams games on HD-2... haw haw haw! :D :D :D

Thanks for the glimpse at the future of HD, Lynn! "Coming soon! The all-2009 Stock Quotes Channel! December 1999 weather forecasts! Live swimming! Bowling that sounds so live and natural you'd swear you were there!"

HD would be endlessly funny if it weren't for the destructive interference.
 
Once again it's an interesting idea hamstrung by the technological difficulties of HD radio.

I think it'd be a big seller if each major team had its own dedicated channel in its home town, for exclusive listening in decent fidelity to all the games, and especially as a "special feed" for the people at the ball park. But the sound quality isn't really that good, much less on an HD-4, and the loooong delay negates any at-game listening.

…and with no real HD radio penetration yet… strike three, yer out!
 
ESPN has offered an ESPN-HD channel for their affiliate FMs to put on their HD2s for a while now. I have no idea what's actually on the channel though.
 
Savage said:
I heard it was Texas Hold 'Em. :D
Click to expand...

That would be pretty entertaining! I don't know much about the game, but I've seen the tournaments on TV. I can only imagine what the colorful descriptions of the players wearing their shades, earbuds, etc. would be like on radio.
 
Just imagine hearing a poker game on the radio. Poker itself is pretty boring except for a few hands packed with action. Most of the time it's fold, fold, fold, pocket aces win the blinds, fold, fold...
 
radiogooroo said:
ESPN has offered an ESPN-HD channel for their affiliate FMs to put on their HD2s for a while now. I have no idea what's actually on the channel though.
Click to expand...

I believe it's just an alternate slate of programming, with different live games on the HD-2. When I was in Memphis during college football season, I was able to catch some of an Alabama game on WMFS' HD-2 while the main channel carried a different ESPN-fed game. It was nice to have the choice since no one carries Alabama football that far outside the deep south.
 
Chicago had an all-NASCAR HD3 station for a couple of years on WUSN-HD3. Excellent idea, but very poorly programmed by CBS Radio / WUSN management. They completely ignored all shows produced by Motor Racing Network and Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, instead only airing shows from the inferior Performance Racing Network. I remember the same cycle would repeat every 3 hours. Sometimes the same repeats would continue for more than 1 week, after another race had already finished, so the shows were talking about a race that was already 2 races old.

Also, a god-awful local produced show (At The Track Radio) hosted by 3 guys who sounded like they belong at a high school station. The Chicago area has some local racing experts, but the cheap management at CBS/WUSN would rather hosts who could barely put together a sentence.

I heard that CBS Radio will be starting an all-White Sox station on WJMK-HD3. Hopefully they will do a better job...
 
NASCAR in Chicago is like surfing in Montreal.
No local interest to speak of, has been declining steadily over the years.
There are a dozen cities where it might do well.
Why not put an all-hockey format on an HD 3 in Austin, TX?

Back when NASCAR used actual cars, the degree of interest was higher.
Since then, auto racing has become a big spectator sport, expecailly in the south,
but there is no longer ANY connection between the autos used and actual vehicles driven by consumers.
Here in the midwest, in the rust belt, where we actually MADE steel and cars,
it's not nearly as intersting anymore as when you could buy one of the homologated versions of a NASCAR model,
and the technology proven in racing was applied to them, instead of cheaper engineering, "good enough" for consumers.
 
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