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outdated radio concept that has never and will never attract an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