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outdated radio concept that has never and will never attract an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.