Radio and Water

An article on Radio Ink on Friday captured our eye. The article featured comments from NAB President and CEO David Rehr.

The former beerman was quoted saying the following:

"...like any long-term relationship, things between radio and its listeners may have gotten a little stale over the past few decades."

He goes on to say:

"Radio is so pervasive, like water, air, and electricity, that many people take it for granted. I believe we must do a better job reminding people why they fell in love with radio. We must reignite the passion."

We agree wholeheartedly.

Like water, music is rapidly becoming ubiquitous. And like water, the secret to the future commercial success of radio is packaging.

If the public is willing to pay for bottled water, then people will be willing to pay for properly packaged radio. And by packaging, we mean convenient, user controlled and different (i.e., perceived quality).

Rehr does touch on these elements by talking about the need to "ensure that radio is incorporated on every new gadget, everywhere" and that "playlist variety and format diversity" is paramount.

As we have argued for months, HD Radio provides stations with an opportunity to improve diversity through its HD2 stations and perceived quality through the transition to digital. HD Radio may not resolve the convenience issue the way a widget might, but as David Rehr says, radio needs to be incorporated EVERYWHERE.

Sometimes the boss is right!

No! to RadioGuard

So we came across an interesting report from John Anderson at the University of Illinois - Champaign.

While we are not sure of his background or angle, the report does provide some interesting insights.

He spends quite a bit of time talking about the interference issues caused by HD Radio. These arguments are not new but are valid.

We have a different take on this issue.

We have argued for increasing HD Radio broadcast power, but also for pushing HD Radio receivers with improved receiver-sensitivity to market.

We have received a great deal of negative comments on this position, but we feel that moving from analog to digital is never a bad thing for ANY station...especially because many of these "community" stations already suffered from poor analog reception.

Instead of fighting against change, why not see how to take advantage of it?

If HD Radio cannot execute during its window of opportunity, these community stations will already have a digital platform for the next medium (e.g., the Internet).

We do agree, however, that conditional access is a bad idea. RadioGuard only makes sense if it was actually guarding people from getting access to something they wanted. Right now, there is no evidence that the programming on the HD2 channels are anywhere near this point.

If anything, we have been arguing the opposite. Put HD2 content EVERYWHERE. Get promiscuous. Make people want it!

CBS and Clear Channel are definitely moving in the right direction online but need to better establish a connection between their new stations online and HD Radio.

RadioSherpa's (humble) advice: Drop conditional access development until these more pressing issues are addressed.

Top 10 Retirement Jobs for G.W. Bush

While brainstorming on our next post, an interesting topic came up.

What is G.W. going to do next after leaving office? Here is our top 10 list:

10. ebay Seller








G.W. can sell off the expensive gifts he and his wife received during their White House days ... such as this one from Nintendo.

9. Steganographer
For those who don't know (we are assuming that this group includes G.W.), steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the sender and intended recipient even realizes there is a hidden message.



Here are some quotes from G.W. which show that he is adequately qualified for steganography:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

and

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."

8. Cherry pit spit contestant
See G.W. practicing his spitting skills on the White House lawns in this David Letterman video shown during the correspondents dinner at the White House. (Btw, you have to wait till the end of the video to see this since spitting is the number one moment!!)

He could compete in the International Cherry Spitting Championship.



7. War driver
We all know just how much G.W. loves wars and driving. Perhaps he can go wardriving (http://www.wardriving.com/) with his buddy, Libby, on scooters.



6. English teacher
Outsourcing American jobs to English-speaking Third-World countries is all the rage. We have a solution to this problem. Send G.W. teach English!....Problem solved.


5. Apprentice
Let's see whether Donald would hire him. Perhaps Trump could hire G.W. to spread democracy to the sparrows living in Trump's hair.



4. Saturday Night Live performer







Whether in opening the doors of China or winking at Her Majesty, Georgie boy has natural talents for slapstick comedy. Perhaps SNL should give him exclusive time every week.

3. Campaign manager for African despots
African leaders such as Kibaki and Mugabe are known to rig elections. Bush could teach them how to do that in a sophisticated fashion with the courts' blessing.








2. First man to mars
Save this planet by sending him there.




1. Inspirational speaker
People like Aimee Mullins inspire us by being successful despite their physical disabilities. This man can teach us how to be a President of the most powerful country despite mental disabilities.



That's our list.

We considered putting obvious jobs like CEO of Clear Channel or Haliburton on the list, but thought those were too obvious.

Feel free to tell us your ideas!

3 Implications the iPhone Creates for HD Radio

Back in March we wrote:

"Wireless Internet in the car is still several years away. (No one is going to stream Internet stations via their cellular connection right now particularly given its low bandwidth and the way carriers charge for data.) Even wireless Internet in the home is still far from ubiquitous."

Although the we still believe this statement to be true, recent developments tied to the iPhone may allow early adopters to use streaming radio on their phones (and thus, in their cars) THIS YEAR.

On Friday the New York Times wrote an article about a new download application that AOL has developed for the iPhone. This new application will allow iPhone users to take advantage of the 3G network to listen to their favorite Internet radio stations. Better yet, using the phone's GPS, the application will actually tune to the digital stream from the nearest CBS station which is now partnering with AOL Radio.

Without question, the 3G network will finally make new streaming applications viable over the phone. Of course, we are still a long way from having the majority of Americans willing to fork over $30 per month for unlimited data plans from the carriers...but pricing will come down.

So what does this development mean for the HD Radio Alliance.

We think it is three-fold:

1) This announcement further validates our belief that HD Radio has rapidly shrinking window of opportunity.

2) This announcement and coming onslaught of other streaming radio applications tied to the iPhone (e.g., Pandora, Last.fm) will only further steal buzz from HD Radio's marketing efforts. The question has to be asked: "Will early adopters ever embrace HD Radio or will HD Radio only happen via brute force (i.e., via car manufacturers)?"

3) On the positive side, terrestrial radio appears to finally be willing to embrace new mediums that may cannibalize their OTA broadcast revenue...because they realize this is the future.

Note that on (1) we did NOT say that the window was closed. But things are getting interesting and we would not want it any other way!

CBS Radio Gets Crunched

Although mentions on RadioSherpa definitely carries some pull :-), it is not too often terrestrial radio ends up on TechCrunch.

It happened yesterday.

TechCrunch gave a mostly positive review to the new CBS Radio partnership with AOL Radio.

"Even on the Web, radio is local. People still tune into their favorite college or hometown radio station from hundreds of miles away. Today’s relaunch relaunch of AOL Radio (in beta) embraces that aspect of radio in many ways."

RadioSherpa was already saying that this was a good move for CBS Radio a few months ago. We actually find the new flash player a little clunky. We also agree with TechCrunch that more social networking elements need to be included. But it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Not to be redundant with our previous post, but our advice at the time still holds true:

"...we also say to CBS Radio, time to parlay your winnings into an even bigger win:

Increase awareness of HD Radio by putting your HD2 radio stations online. HD Radio would benefit immensely from exposure on the AOL Radio platform."

Yes, a FEW HD2 stations are on the player, but CBS could definitely place a few more on their dial and could clarify what the HD2 logo means.

When 14% Really Equals 240

The New York Times had an article today indicating that the average share of Americans listening to radio at any given time has shrunk about 14 percent, or 2.3 percentage points.

While this news was not surprising, the huge disparity in radio listening habits between college graduates and nongraduates was quite shocking. The Times indicated that college graduates listen to radio on average 240 minutes less than they did in 1998. Nongraduates listen to radio only 30 minutes less than 1998.

The author of the study, Edison Media Research, indicated that part of this difference was due to the fact that college graduates are less likely to be able to listen to the radio at work.

We are a little more suspect.

The difference in the types of jobs held by college graduates and nongraduates clearly existed in 1998.

The decrease is more likely due to higher penetration rates for the iPod and other car entertainment options (e.g., the cell phone) among college graduates.

What does this foretell about the attractiveness of radio for advertisers....

Not good!

The time for radio to act boldly is now.

Extremely Splendid Positive News

Radio Ink reported yesterday that ESPN Radio is launching the ESPN HD Radio network on June 7, offering customizable sports content to the 1,700-plus U.S. stations broadcasting in HD. The launch is timed to coincide with the start of the UEFA Euro Cup 2008 soccer tournament, which will be the new HD network's first offering.

Wow!

Where did this come from?

Sadly, several of our recent blogs covered stories of programming CUT BACKS in HD Radio.

This type of development from ESPN is what RadioSherpa has been pushing for in this blog.

If HD Radio is going to take off, programming on the new HD2 channels needs to be compelling and new. Soccer coverage of the UEFA Euro Cup can fulfill both of these requirements.

Let's hope that this announcement encourages other broadcasters to become more creative with their new HD channels.

Half Pregnant with HD Radio

RadioSherpa has been arguing for the past several months that increasing the broadcast power of HD Radio is critical for the ultimate success of the medium....even more critical than low-power chipsets.

We know first-hand the struggles consumers face with their HD Radio signal.

But today we came across a post from Garrison Cevall in Radio Business Report that is a great reality check. Here is what Garrison says regarding the complications for radio broadcasters when they increase the broadcast power for HD Radio:

"But what does higher-powered HD Radio implementation mean at the station level in terms of engineering and capital costs? The early work of some of the transmitter manufacturers indicates that increasing digital power will require a significant “de-rating” of transmitter power. This will typically mean the addition of another similarly rated transmitter (using a combining technique) or the purchase of a new transmitter of roughly twice today’s power level."

Obviously this could be a huge cost for broadcasters. But Garrison concludes with this warning:

"Those folks in the trenches of the real world, and particularly those in the middle and small markets dealing with a recession economy, competition from other entities and limited technical staff and financial resources, are still questioning the wisdom of implementing HD Radio in their markets at all. I don’t know that I particularly blame them. But I would also suggest that not adopting digital radio broadcasting may not be wise given increasing competition for other program stream providers – even in the middle to small markets. The problem is, you may ultimately risk losing those “ears” to the “new media”."

We agree 100%. Without improving HD Radio's reception, it is DOA.

Broadcasters and iBiquity should be pushing the FCC now to increase the power. The broadcasters should also be prepared to make the substantial investment to accommodate this change.

Even then, as we have argued before, this is only part of the problem. Broadcasters need to invest now in new programming for HD Radio.

Time to put up or shut up. Why should consumers invest in HD Radio if the broadcasters do not?

This is not an easy decision. These are big expenses facing the broadcasters. But stations cannot afford to be half pregnant with HD Radio.

If broadcasters are not willing to make this investment, then they should stop confusing consumers.