RadioBanter - Why Niche HD Formats won't work

The more things change the more they remain the same.

"FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio by Richard Neer Villard Books"

Ever since the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened the door to
consolidation, more and more privately owned radio stations are being
snapped up by large, publicly traded companies controlled by Wall Street
shareholders. As a result, only the "money demographics" get radio stations
aimed at them. This is why you hear so much rap and R&B, Top 40, country and
"adult mixes" of Sting and Gwen Stefani. Niche formats simply don't make
enough money to survive. In Washington, D.C., the nation's seventh-largest
radio market, the following niche formats have been killed in the last few
years: nostalgia/standards, showtunes, rhythmic oldies, and opera. Public
radio, ever in search of larger, pledge-generating audiences, has done the
same, killing chamber and choral music and almost all bluegrass.

The game today for radio is the same. Stations are programmed for the money
demographics and is why niche formats on satellite won't be heard on Am/Fm
or HD radio. Ever!

The more things change the more they remain the same.
Below replace HD for FM & Satellite, Ipods and gadgets for Am recievers

In FM, Neer tells a fascinating story about a fellow Called Edward
Armstrong, who discovered and promoted FM radio in the 1930s. He instantly
realized how much better it sounded than tinny AM. Yet, the big radio
companies of the day were heavily invested in producing and marketing AM
receivers, and threw up numerous roadblocks. Driven to despair by bad luck
and corporate treachery, Armstrong came to believe that his life and work
were failures and, in 1954, he composed an apology to his wife and leaped to
his death from a 13th-floor window. Will some Ibiquity executive throw him
self off the roof? Not likeley they just ask the government for a bailout.