Don't Touch That Dial
Michael Hedges October 25, 2007

Broadcasters have long cast a wary eye toward the digital realm. Even
with grudging acceptance that 'the world is going digital' the unease
is endemic. And the answers from consumers only reinforce every
digital fear.

Programming side broadcasters tend to be rather more right-brained
than the left-brained engineers and accountants. Programmers talk
about concepts; engineers talk about boxes. Broadcasting needs both
sides of the brain, certainly, but visualizing consumer behavior
remains the domain of programmers.

Something about digital radio has bothered broadcastings' concept
side, something not well articulated.

American broadcaster Cox Radio commissioned veteran audience
researcher Bob Harper to find out how radio listeners may or may not
use the new digital radio platforms. In a series of focus groups
conducted in three US cities two years ago Harper sorted out a quite
different layer of digital questions. The results were summed up
nicely by one study participant - "Why don't they just leave it
alone?"

Consumers' experience with media profoundly affects their choices,
preferences and willingness to change. The American experience (North
and South) differs from the European and Asian. US media outlets are
overwhelmingly commercial, market-driven enterprises. More than half
of European listening and watching is to public service broadcasters,
mostly tax supported and mandated to fulfill government requirements.
Commercial broadcasters, wherever they may be, stay in business by
monetizing a measurable audience. Tax supported media need only
satisfy the taxing authorities; the average listener or viewer rarely
gets a vote, just the bill.

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Where digital channels have been introduced, generally over the last
decade, devices on which to receive them have not exactly been flying
off store shelves. The possible exception to generalizations about
digital radio adoption is the UK market, where the BBC and commercial
partners worked together to bring DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting)
into the media mix. This success has not elsewhere been duplicated.

Bob Harper's study tackled digital questions not entirely unique to
the US market. American broadcasters have warmed considerably to HD
Radio, formerly known as IBOC - In-band, On-channel. DAB in the US was
DOA. HD Radio uses existing licensed frequencies to offer as many as
three digital channels, sitting at the sides of the conventional FM
frequencies. HD Radio offers a reasonably inexpensive technical means
of 'going digital' without messing with the cash-cow - FM. About 4,000
HD Radio channels are available right now in the US. European
commercial broadcasters are also warming to HD Radio for the same
reason. DAB and its variants are - UK exception noted - the domain of
Europe's public broadcasters. The other variant in Europe's digital
radio mix is DVB-H, the mobile phone standard. Bob Harper's study
asked the big, universal question: "How are they going to tune in?"

It's the receiver question, but more. These are questions the
engineers never ask. Europe's public broadcasters - BBC exception
noted - don't ask either, far better not to confuse the tax people.
It's the real listener question.

Obviously, to hear a radio channel some sort of receiving device is
necessary. Radio and TV channels are located on the great spectrum by
address, a frequency, often referred to as a dial position. People
know this through experience. Receiving devices display, one way or
another, the dial position so folks can find the station of their
choice. Digital radio offerings ask listeners to hunt for their
favorite stations differently. Listeners like to have an address,
preferably one they understand.

In Europe, very likely, receivers that replace the six or eight in
your household right now will be multi-band and will, rather
automatically, jump from one band to another. Finding your favorite
morning radio station will mean using, at least once, an electronic
program guide similar to those offered for television programs because
a radio channel could be on any of the aforementioned bands, including
old MW and FM. These smart, not so little radio receivers will save,
adjust, swap, replay and otherwise do all the work. It's all in the
chips. More bands - more chips. More chips - more money. DAB receiver
prices in the UK have fallen to as little as £50. Don't even ask for
one in Switzerland.

HD Radio addresses will be much like my apartment building. And
hunting for one of those extra digital channels could be like hunting
for me. The number on my building is 15. To find which apartment I'm
in somebody must first get inside the building, not easy as there are
codes, locks, bars, guards and dogs. To find the digital channel
adjacent to an FM channel - call it HD2 - you must first,
figuratively, get inside the building - tune to the main FM channel -
so your receiver can lock-on to the digital signal. Who's going to go
through all that trouble? Nobody, said Bob Harper's study.

Since the right-brained programmers are overtly concerned with
marketing their radio brands to real people, the address is paramount.
When American radio listeners are shown photos of billboards pitching
Cowboy Radio 1066 HD2 (I made that up but that's what an address might
be) they scratch their heads and say "Where's that? It must be
satellite radio."

Ah, but people will just love having all those choices. Not so, said
the American radio listeners. Choice fell below quality as people
scaled reasons they might be interested in digital radio. "Make the
popping and crackling go away," they said. If seems that the name 'HD
Radio' triggers the notion of HD TV, which is far superior to analogue
TV in the quality department. The digital reality is that the best
digital radio can do quality-wise - so far - is be just as good as FM.

Are there any other reasons why the digital choice around the world is
iPod?


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ftm Follow Up & Comments
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On October 26, 2007 Bob Harper Paragon Media Strategies USA wrote:

I really enjoyed your piece, "Don't Touch That Dial," and I'm glad my
Focus research was helpful to you.

Since those landmark Groups I have been trying to keep Media folks
updated on the state of HD Radio here in the States. If you or your
readers are interested, you can follow the bouncing blog and articles
at:
http://www.paragonmediastrategies.co...php?page_id=73

Since my Groups two years ago things aren't much better with HD Radio.
Why do I say that...?

**-Cable shopping channel QVC reaches 160 million homes. When they
featured sales of HD Radios for a half-hour recently, they sold
500. **-AM sounds better in HD, but interference is so bad several
large groups have pulled the HD plug on the AMs for now. **-
Listeners are only half as aware of HD Radio as they are the Satellite
stations, even though both technologies debuted at about the same
time. **-People would consider buying a HD Radio for about $40-
$50, yet they average over $200. **-Even now it is not uncommon to
walk thru one of our big electronic stores looking for HD Radios and
either a) be directed to XM or Sirius satellite receivers or, b)
find the sales help can't get the HD Radio to work properly in the
store.

As the Hollies sang, "...it's a long, long road; with many a winding
turn." I hope HD Radio's long road ends soon while we still have this
very narrow window between I-pods and always-with-you-always-on Web-
based radio.

On October 25, 2007 Nick Piggott GCap Media Head of Creative
Technologies UK wrote:

I was somewhat confused by your article "Don't Touch That Dial".

The central tenet of the article seems to be that people won't know
how to tune in Digital Radio? If I've understood that correctly, then
I'm confused about the validity of the research. It's a well
established principle that you can't research anything people don't
understand or haven't experienced. That principle holds equally as
true for a new song as it does for a new way of receiving radio. If
this research was purely US-centric, then maybe its findings reflect a
fault with the way that people are asked to navigate HD Radio?
Research from Europe (and understandably the UK, where the experience
is so much greater) is that people find the "Tune By Station Name"
principle far more reassuring than frequencies. Admittedly, some DAB
radios (now thankfully in the minority and dying out) did expect
people to skip between "multiplexes" and "services", but the vast
majority simply present an alphabetical list for people to choose
from. "EPG" is an extension to that system, which is a richer
information source on individual programmes, and a point of
differentiation on receivers.

I would also question some of the other statements. "DAB in the US was
DOA". DAB was never proposed for the US, as the American broadcasters
and legislators (unlike their North American colleagues in Canada)
preferred an In Band solution. A number of American broadcasters I've
met are envious of the flexibility and relative simplicity that DAB
provides users. "European commercial broadcasters are also warming to
HD Radio for the same reason" - in my travels around Europe I see
people talking about using IBOC technologies because they aren't able
to understand how they would adapt their business to a fully digital
model. IBOC is also unlikely within Europe due to wildly different
channelisation and planning parameters compared to the US. "Don't even
ask for one [DAB Radio] in Switzerland". That's true, as Switzerland
had held back from promoting DAB receivers until the situation with
DAB/DAB+ was clarified. Now that has been resolved, with SRG SSR
staying on DAB and commercial broadcasters adopting DAB+, the arrival
of DAB+ receivers in retailers should happen during 2008.

It seems that the general conclusion from the research is that "it
ain't broke, so don't try and fix it". Given the current state of
terrestrial broadcasting in the US, and the immense pressure from
other digital media (such as iPod, Sirrius, XM, Pandora, last.fm) I
find that an extraordinarily blinkered conclusion to reach.

http://followthemedia.com/alldigital/dial25102007.htm

Exceeding Long Newsgroup "Anti-Radio Bah Bah Bah" Message by IBOC
Crock

IBOC Crock - Do You Own A Shortwave Radio ?

IBOC Crock - Do You Listening To Shortwave Radio ?

boring, Boring. BORING ! ~ RHF