I believe I Heart Radio may be cutting back on investing into HD subchannels despite many of them discontinue service.
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What happened to the i❤️HD Stations in NYC?
- Thread starter djl
- Start date
HD Radio today is in the position AM Stereo was in the early 1990s: finally supported by many car radios, just in time for nobody to care about it anymore.
I happened to skim through the owner's manual of a new Volvo SUV, and I noticed that although its radio is HD Radio equipped, the manual says it ships from the factory with HD Radio disabled by default. The owner needs to go into the radio's setup menu and enable it if they want it.
But the manual explained HD Radio in surprising depth, even mentioning the "Ballgame Mode" which allows a station to continue to broadcast an HD signal, and the receiver will indicate the HD icon on its display, but it will be automatically forced into analog reception mode, so that a live sporting event can be transmitted without delay.
I happened to skim through the owner's manual of a new Volvo SUV, and I noticed that although its radio is HD Radio equipped, the manual says it ships from the factory with HD Radio disabled by default. The owner needs to go into the radio's setup menu and enable it if they want it.
But the manual explained HD Radio in surprising depth, even mentioning the "Ballgame Mode" which allows a station to continue to broadcast an HD signal, and the receiver will indicate the HD icon on its display, but it will be automatically forced into analog reception mode, so that a live sporting event can be transmitted without delay.
I saw a count earlier this year that there were as many as 750 HD channels supporting the operation of translators that do not have their own AM or FM to permit the translator. Further, there are hundreds of large and medium market FMs making some nice extra income with niche formats; I know of one LA station running both a Persian and a Korean service on its HD2 and HD3 and producing nice income for them.
You had better believe that those station owners care a lot about HD.
That may have something to do with why iHeart is cutting HD in NYC: No available translators.
By and large, HD subchannels were never a huge local programming strategy for iHeart, with a couple of exceptions.
1) Use HD subchannel to feed analog translator, or serve as a repeater for an AM in the same market.
2) Use HD subchannel to further a corporate agenda or marketing strategy (i.e. Pride Radio, The Breeze, Alt. Nation, Broadway, etc.)
3) Use HD subchannel to clear a national format (i.e. iHeart 80s, Casey's AT 40, etc.) to achieve more favorable streaming royalty rates.
In the case of iHeart 80s, I think they just dumped on WLTW-HD2/3 because it happened to be available. It's now originated from a Tucson station. Perhaps iHeart will be leasing out the open slots.
Wouldn't it make more sense for them to put the Broadway channel on WKTU-HD3 and The Breeze on WLTW-HD2, instead of the other way around?
WKTU-HD2 is Pride Radio, and us gays stereotypically also like show tunes. And a "Lighter than Lite" Soft AC format logically belongs on Lite FM's HD subchannel.
WKTU-HD2 is Pride Radio, and us gays stereotypically also like show tunes. And a "Lighter than Lite" Soft AC format logically belongs on Lite FM's HD subchannel.
And a problem affecting many stations is the failure and lack of support for earlier model HD gear. So if there is a reduced technical budget and no money for new gear, they turn some off and use the remaining working gear for the HD's that can be leased.
Yes I did listen to Iheart OTA stations and they have been doing more promos for shows that could only be found on their app. Yes Iheart has been boosting their podcast operations, plus albums only heard on the Iheart app and concert promotions on their O&O's. My take here is that Ihearts demo does not even have HD Radio.
Maybe. Another problem is explaining to unsophisticated people what HD Radio is, and that a special radio is required.
No such explanation needed for the iHeart app or podcasts. Even a 7 year old understands what an app is.
Hartford and New Haven are unchanged except for WHCN, which had EDM on its HD2 and now has nothing.
IHeart has moved the majority of it's music HD2 stations to the non-union smaller market stations to keep costs down. It's more cost effective to stream broadcast HD2 and 3 signals rather than have them internet only for the App. The exception in the major markets seems to be Pride Radio (Your City Here).
There is little or no union labor in doing a "computer in a closet" HD2 or HD3; generally the formats come from somewhere else and may even play off a server somewhere else.
The greater improvement is with better bandwidth for the HD1 simulcast.
And as mentioned, in many cases HD gear is approaching end of life and may be uneconomical to replace.
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