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IBOCcrock wrote:
On Mar 6, 9:17 am, D Peter Maus wrote: IBOCcrock wrote: "Radio's Losing Strategy" 5. iPods, Smartphones and the Internet are cooler than radio. Their solution: prop up the uncoolest consumer electronics device of all time - HD radio. Even Joan Rivers is cooler than HD. Make people actually think radio has a future in the digital world using a David Copperfield magic act that shows the consumer a digital radio and then presto, change-o - the compelling, unique programming disappears (or never appears in the first place). Predictable results: None. It's a stiff and everyone knows it including and especially consumers. Better alternative: pull the plug on your HD equipment and vow to never say the letters HD in a sentence again. HD radio is a meaningless, outdated radio concept that has never and will never attract an audience. http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com...-strategy.html Radio has always been Radio's worst enemy. More often than not relying on gimmicks, giveaways, and format, rather than creative competition, talent, and imagination. As David said, 'it works.' Yes, and no. Gimmicks are what JD Spangler refers to as Narcotics of Arbitron. Steven Ennen referred to them as 'Arbitricks.' Overresearched playlists. Focus grouped format clocks, on-air language, and content produce upticks in the numbers. But at what cost? Too many of my GM's have, when presented with the loss of a competitor have taken the opportunity to try less hard. Usually with the epigram: "Where they going to go?" Meaning, the audience has no choice...we've got the music. In every case, this resulted in a demoralizing fall in the marketplace. And, in most cases, an exit of the format to a new and even more overresearched basket of fresh gimmicks. While I'm fully aware that every day, every year, radio stations have to evolve to stay alive, fresh and listenable, what so damned few are doing is injecting creative talent into the airchain. So Radio becomes staid, boring, the same ol'-same ol'. At the same time, abandoning formats, histories and heritage at an alarming rate. This is what happens when you treat your listeners like commodities. So, Radio turns to techological solutions. In the face of the competition of customized and mass customized program offerings. Stereo was a big deal when it was under development. And when it hit the air in a solid, stable, compatible form, it sold radios. But content was/is still what drives listening. Stereo, then as it is today, was widely misunderstood. And listener satisfaction came from just seeing the pilot lit. Even when the airchain was still mono. Why? Because content drove the listening. Today, while nearly every FM Station in the US (but not all) is broadcasting in stereo, with blend circuits, low signal, poorly aligned receivers and high mulitipath affecting signal quality, as much as 2/3's of listening is in mono at any given moment. Nobody complains. Because the content is still there. And quality is consistent. Digital radio, until it begins to provide, present, and promote content that's in demand, offers only technology. And, at today's state of the art, either no signal, or dropouts and drop backs to analog...which offer an abrupt change in quality. None of which are desireable. All of which kill listening. In this light, HD Radio is only a gimmick. And only a techological gimmick at that. Radio, has, once again, turned to tricks, rather than compete with its most powerful tools. The cost of this will be dear. As it has already shown to be. Sadly, though, because buying equipment and flashing the gimmick light is less costly than actual competitive programming, this is where Radio's attention will remain, until either an FCC mandate levels the playing field, or HD radio goes away. Either way, it's going to be a looooong ride down. Meanwhile, shortwave, which, as world politics increases in volatility, has also turned to technological solutions because they're easier and cheaper, will discover the folly of this strategy the first time an international broadcaster is turned off due to content. Or the internet is suspended within a nation during crisis. The point of shortwave radio was that it could be blasted into the ether and provide information and entertainment that crossed all lines without preference, without hindrance, and in a manner that's easy and inexpensive to receive. In an increasingly volatile world, this single tool will once again reveal it's usefulness. Sadly, it will take an object lesson in the vulnerabilities of the alternative systems at a critical moment to make that point.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - "this is where Radio's attention will remain, until either an FCC mandate levels the playing field, or HD radio goes away." There are no reclaimation requirements for HD Radio, so a mandate would never happen. In the UK, analog was threatened to be turned off, but DAB is failing anyway. A mandate would make no diffference, because consumers no longer buy radios, and this would put an end to terrestrial radio. As for compelling content, it was tried with DAB, but it made no difference - too late, consumers have switched to the Internet, cell phones, and iPods: "Radio: The U.K.'s Digital death notice" "Unlike HD Radio in this country, where most side-channels are on automatic pilot - the U.K. digital channels were, for the most part, well crafted and programmed. Even then, the feedback we were getting from our U.K. users was: why buy a DAB receiver when one could get the same channels on the Internet for free?" http://gormanmediablog.blogspot.com/...th-notice.html "Digital Audio Broadcasting Systems and Their Impact on the Terrestrial Radio Broadcast Service" 15. We will not establish a deadline for radio stations to convert to digital broadcasting. Stations may decide if, and when, they will provide digital service to the public. Several reasons support this decision. First, unlike television licensees, radio stations are under no statutory mandate to convert to a digital format. Second, a hard deadline is unnecessary given that DAB uses an in-band technology that does not require the allocation of additional spectrum. Thus, the spectrum reclamation needs that exist for DTV do not exist here. Moreover, there is no evidence in the record that marketplace forces cannot propel the DAB conversion forward, and effective markets tend to provide better solutions than regulatory schemes. 16. iBiquity argues that in the early stages of the transition, the Commission should favor and protect existing analog signals. It states that this could be accomplished by limiting the power level and bandwidth occupancy of the digital carriers in the hybrid mode. At some point in the future, when the Commission determines there is sufficient market penetration of digital receivers, iBiquity asserts that the public interest will be best served by reversing this presumption to favor digital operations. At that time, broadcasters will no longer need to protect analog operations by limiting the digital signal and stations should have the option to implement all- digital broadcasts. We decline to adopt iBiquity's presumption policy because it is too early in the DAB conversion process for us to consider such a mechanism. We find that such a policy, if adopted now, may have unknown and unintended consequences for a new technology that has yet to be accepted by the public or widely adopted by the broadcast industry. http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPA...-15/i15922.htm As far as dropouts, it's too late: "Is HD Radio Toast?" "There are serious issues of coverage. Early adopters who bought HD radios report serious drop-outs, poor coverage, and interference. The engineers of Ibiquity may argue otherwise and defend the system, but the industry has a serious PR problem with the very people we need to get the word out on HD... In other words, everything you can find on the regular FM dial... The word has already gotten out about HD Radio. People who have already bought an HD Radio are telling others of their experience (mostly bad) and no amount of marketing will reverse this." http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=487772 Even if the 10db power increase is approved for FM-HD, stations can't afford the upgrade: "Natterings of a naysayer" "The 10db power increase that's being talked about for FM may help the digital but will have a negative impact on the analog, which is currently paying ALL the bills. As an example, even a well-integrated 92 and/or 67 kHz relatively narrow-band subcarriers can wreak multipath havoc with an FM signal in some markets. The sheer capital cost of the power increase (if approved) will be staggering considering most of the current hardware and ancillary equipment will have to be replaced." "Where robust in reach, radio is an ailing medium that is undergoing yet another adjustment to bring expenses inline with revised revenue; so another big outlay in capital is not likely. Many station staff level people look on HD as something that was added to their task list with no operational funding and dwindling resources. Sales people are concerned that additional channels may compete for revenue they have running on other stations even in their own cluster. Again, I am talking about the real world conditions, as they exist down here at the street level not in some high-rise corporate office hundreds of miles away from where the action is." Watt Hairston, Chief Engineer, WSM http://tinyurl.com/27f96k Like it or not, it is over for HD Radio. What you're not seeing is Radio's penchant for laying the stinking, rotting corpse out on the front lawn and spending enormous resources to try to revive it. Nothing with HD radio is going to happen overnight. And the last gasp WILL be an FCC mandate. There are too many in and out of the Congress and the FCC who are committed to digital broadcasting. And Powell's FCC mandated that all new modulation schemes be digital. That mandate flies in the face of FCC denials to the contrary today. You don't believe anything else that comes out of Gettysburg. Why the hell would you believe this one thing? Makes no sense. |
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