Monday, April 30, 2007

Monday Monday

Good Morning.

Not ready for prime time. R&R reports this morning that Arbitron has suspended its eDiary, citing low return rates.

Speaking of Arbitron: the company is now collecting station info on HD multicasts. Instructions and forms on their website. Arbitron says they won't begin reporting HD multicast listening yet. McVay Media's Dave Lange writes about the E-Diary and more here.

Over the weekend in Chicago: Spent time listening to WDRV (surprised?) when in the car...both the Chicago 97.1 signal as well as the far north simulcast on 96.9. Every hour the station runs a recorded promo for HD radio..highlighting the technology, hardware and programming.

More WDRV: On Wednesday May 9th, the station celebrates its 6th birthday with a free listener concert featuring REO Speedwagon and The Ides Of March.

Added: WCSX/Detroit announced the winner of its $20,000 TV Commercial Contest. See the winner here.


Another programmer blogging:
Congrats to AC programmer Doug Daniels - most recently of Next Media's WZSR/WWYW - for launching
his blog. I became acquainted with Doug after reading this. Like yours truly, Doug is in search of his next great opportunity.

Later This Week:

Tuesday (5/1): Patti Smith on NBC-TV's Jay Leno
Wednesday (5/2): Alice Cooper on NBC-TV's Carson Daly
Thursday (5/3): Alice Cooper on CBS-TV's Craig Ferguson
Thursday (5/3): Bob Weir on NBC-TV's Conan O'Brien
Saturday (5/5): Cinco de Mayo

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

“HD Radio on the Offense”

“But after an investigation of HD Radio units, the stations playing HD, and the company that owns the technology; and some interviews with the wonks in DC, it looks like HD Radio is a high-level corporate scam, a huge carny shill.”

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-03-07/music/hd-radio-on-the-offense

“Sirius, XM, and HD: Consumer interest reality check”

“While interest in satellite radio is diminishing, interest in HD shows no signs of a pulse.”

http://www.hear2.com/2007/02/sirius_xm_and_h.html

"U.S. automakers not jumping into HD Radio"

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN2632750220070427?pageNumber=1

"Bridge Ratings: Sweat the cell phone and don't count on HD"

"In other words, Bridge says interest in HD radio is decreasing even as your station works hard to increase awareness. What can I possibly add to this honest and bleak picture that I haven't said before? My well-intended warnings about HD's "premature death" seem to be rearing their ugly heads almost two years later."

http://www.hear2.com/2007/04/bridge_ratings_.html#comments

"But is 'availability' of HD radios the problem?"

"And one broadcaster reported to me that he asked an iBiquity rep how many HD radios had actually been sold as of the most recent accounting. And this was his answer: 150,000."

http://www.hear2.com/2007/04/but_is_availabi.html#comments

"Is Pay-for-Play HD Content on Horizon?"

http://rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.4028.html

"HD Radio Effort Undermined by Weak Tuners in Expensive Radios"

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/7002/hd-radio2.html

"The FCC Tunes Into HD Radio--And May Turn Off Distant AM"

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2007/03/the_fcc_greenlights_hd_radio_n.html

“RW Opinion: Rethinking AM’s future”

“Making AM-HD work well as a long-term investment is seen as an expensive and risky challenge for most stations and their owners. There is the significant downside of potential new interference to some of their own AM analog listeners as well as listeners of adjacent-channel stations.”

http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0044/t.557.html

Speaking of HD Radio, it isn't going anyware.

Dan Kelley said...

While I'm happy to share your comments, the HD radio debate is outside the scope of this blog.

That said - if a station owners
are making the investment in the technology and programming, they need to/should promote it.

WDRV/Chicago and WRIF/Detroit are two stations I'm aware of putting effort into their HD Radio efforts and investing in programming staff for their HD2 channels.

I applaud that effort.

How long did it take FM radio to finally get into automobiles after launching in the 1940s? What would have similar studies said about FM in its first 30 years?

How many people said "nobody wants that" back then?

Yes, its a different world. But I feel its simply too early to draw any conclusions about HD Radio.

I'd be happy to continue a conversation on this topic via email.

Thanks for contributing!