1-3-2012
HD Radio its promise a digital opportunity for our analog medium has been the subject of lot?s of analysis and opinion. Last week my blog (which you can read by clicking on the red icon) started a conversation about a few issues I have with HD radio. My opinion is there are some technical barriers to entry here. The user interface is too complicated and the immediate opportunity is clouded.
HD radio offers additional bandwidth that means more stations so I decided to look at how my hometown of Dallas Texas stacks up on their HD2 offerings. Dallas has some of the big operators. Clear Channel, CBS and Cumulus plus a few smaller operators and independents. How would a listener find all these hidden station on HD? You might hear promos on the air, since I didn?t do an over the air monitor, I used the iBiquity web site I found with a Google search for ?HD radio Dallas?. I find 24 HD radio station frequencies. HD2 and 3 stations represent content opportunities and there are 19 in the DFW listing.
4 of the 19 are simulcasts of AM stations in the market. You can find sports talk 1310 ?The Ticket? as an HD2 on the 99.5 frequency of KPLX ?The Wolf?. The Ticket 1310, it?s a decent frequency by day and OK at night. This seems like a good use of the bandwidth.
What content offerings might lure listeners? Most of the formats are slight off shots of their parent station with a few notable exceptions. ?Pride? a dance mix approach that targets Gay listeners. Smooth Jazz, the market used to have a Smooth Jazz station that was in the top ten in ratings. Music Summit, Indy Universe and ?The Strip? a rat pack standards station. A couple of these are somewhat unique.
The most unique use of the bandwidth is the HD3 For KRLD-FM ?The Fan? The station is a 24/7 ?Dallas Cowboys? station. ?All Cowboys All the Time?. This is the kind of programming that shows commitment to product and considering how big the Cowboys are in Big D, that is a truly inventive use of the bandwidth. Dallas has growing populations of immigrants who don?t speak Spanish. Would these populations present a listening and more importantly a business opportunity?
A few groups like Greater Media have received some deserved attention for their inventive HD2 efforts. If what we do is content then our industry will have to work harder to create unique and innovative content to convince listeners to brave the tech gauntlet to find our additional HD programming.
There have been more than a few people argue that there are more streaming capable devices than there are HD Radios. Why not offer compelling content on your HD2 /HD3?s on air and on line. Stations seem to offer some of its local HD2 stations on line but it?s hard to find. I couldn?t find Clear Channel?s local HD2 offerings on their local stations web site or on iHeartRadio. I found ?The Strip? on the Jack 100.3 website but couldn?t find it easily on Radio.com, I did find it on the mobile version. We need to make our programming easy to find on any device.
Talk to radio operators these days and they love to tell you they are in the content business. Many would argue we are in the distribution business. Pick the one you like but if we are going to compete successfully in the Digital 21st century we are going to have to do everything we can to make it truly easy for listeners to find our content.
Dan Halyburton is EVP McVay Cook and Associates and can be reached at 214-707-7237. Follow Dan @danhalyburton. E-mal Dan at dan@halyburton.com
(1/3/2012 5:46:11 PM)
1 - INTERFERENCE. 2 - Terrible coverage. 3 - iBiquity's proprietary junk-science technology. Everything else (like whether a subchannel is labeled 92.3-HD2 vs. 110.6 or whether the latest model of Honda Civic has an HD-capable radio or not) is absolutely inconsequential.
(1/3/2012 3:48:04 PM)
@Randy:
"Retailers"
"Find, learn about and purchase HD Radio products at 14,000 retail locations nationwide and on-line. Here is a partial listing of retailers who carry a wide range of HD Radio receiver products for your home, your car and when you are mobile"
http://ibiquity.com/retailers
But, iBiquity already did that, right? LOL! I'm betting that iBiquity stuck everyone with 5-year contracts, which they couldn't get out. Radio Shack is DONE with HD Radio, as are the other major retailers. LOL!
(1/3/2012 3:13:38 PM)We are a non commercial educational group owned by the local school district and have 3 FM-HD multicast stations; 2 are simulcast on HD1 and we have one AM-HD Station working extremely well. We are just beginning to program HD2 and HD3 on the FM's and it is not an option on AM. Typically, stations have programmed FM HD1 & HD2 to have 15KHz of bandwidth for better audio where HD3 is about 1/2 that and more suitable for voice and lower quality music. For now we are going to promote our HD2 & 3 as a publicly available altrnative to Satellite radio and try not to compete with our main channel. Ibiquity did a fairly good job getting manufactures on board but try to find an HD radio at your local retail store. I feel that Ibiquity's big challenge now is in concentrating their lobby efforts to get the National Retail stores on board with HD. It's needed if we are to promote it and get the listeners we need to sustain it.
(1/3/2012 2:44:11 PM)
@Bob: Good points. It's as if everyone set up iBiquity to fail. Companies like Texas Creative with their silly commercials and HD Radio interns dresssed in orange jumpsuits handing out HD Radio flyers. After years of ineffective commercials, someone finally figured out to tell listeners they need to buy HD radios? Well, Bob Struble lied back in 2002 at the NAB rollout of this joke technology telling broadcasters that IBOC had the same reach as analog, and that it wouldn't cause extra interference. Then, broadcasters found out for power increases on FM-HD, they had to purchase new transmitters and associated costs. Here's a suggestion - why don't HD broadcasters get together for a class-action against iBiquity?
(1/3/2012 2:18:56 PM)
Many years ago Cox Radio conducted a research study to find out how listeners would prefer to use HD Radio.
1) Would you prefer to go to one frequency and select HD sub channels from that frequency?
OR
2) Would you prefer that HD Channels appear as their own channels on an expanded Phantom Band. (Example: 92.3 HD2 appears at 110.9)
Respondents overwelmingly chose #2 because it was easier to use and understand.
For some reason the radio industry and iBiquity chose to go with #1 and now they have what they have.
The general public does not get HD radio and doesn't seem to want it. Nobody knew that there was something wrong with FM.
When stations identify themselves (Example: WCBS-FM, WCBS-FM HD New York)Listeners overwelmingly think that they are getting HD Radio. They don't know that a reciever is required to get the signal.
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