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Radio Leaves Money On the Table

TheBigA said:
That idea has come up from time to time, and while the expense is minimal for broadcasters, it requires consumers to buy new radios. That's the same issue for HD. We can see how well it's worked for HD. The general view is people don't buy single-use radio devices any more. Combine a radio with something else (like a car or a phone) and you'll sell a few. That's also the case for satellite and internet radios. Radio-only devices are non-starters, and the electronics industry has no motivation to sell them any more.
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A good example of what you are saying involves XM's early efforts to sell stand-alone home or workplace satellite radios. They worked OK in the vicinity of the terrestrial repeaters, but generally in most indoor locations were as useful as a brick with knobs on it. Nobody bought the single use radios.
 
DavidEduardo said:
A good example of what you are saying involves XM's early efforts to sell stand-alone home or workplace satellite radios. They worked OK in the vicinity of the terrestrial repeaters, but generally in most indoor locations were as useful as a brick with knobs on it. Nobody bought the single use radios.
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I remember Elton John doing TV commercials for the portable Stiletto radio. Lasted a year. After that, all anyone talked about was the car.
 
One thing the HD Radio representative pointed out is the big problem getting car manufacturers to adopt HD is, it is best deployed using a LCD screen on the dash. The extra cost was though to be prohibitive in entry level cars, so it isn't available in many new vehicles. Next year, all new cars in the US are required to have a back up camera, so the screen will be there, and can be used for other purposes as well. Will that save HD Radio? I don't know, but it may make it more common in new cars. Still if people keep their vehicles for 11 years, it will be a while before this is viable.
 
TheBigA said:
I'm reserving judgment until the patent runs out. I think it has a chance. Connecting HD stations to FM translators has brought new life to HD.
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Thank you (and Mr. Eduardo) for your insightful answers. It's much appreciated.
 
TheBigA said:
I remember Elton John doing TV commercials for the portable Stiletto radio. Lasted a year. After that, all anyone talked about was the car.
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When I was managing the programming on the five Spanish language channels provided by HBC, I thought it would be great to have one of the portable "shoulder strap" XM radios so I could aircheck while walking or jogging. Wasted about $200 on that one: it dropped out once on every city block, even in a zone where there were terrestrial repeaters. it got nothing at my other place where there were no repeaters.
 
DavidEduardo said:


A good example of what you are saying involves XM's early efforts to sell stand-alone home or workplace satellite radios. They worked OK in the vicinity of the terrestrial repeaters, but generally in most indoor locations were as useful as a brick with knobs on it. Nobody bought the single use radios.
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I used to own a couple of those. They worked great until XM got into trouble for juicing up the repeaters and had to dial them back.

If you really want to listen to SiriusXM at home, they have a great thing going right now with their Alexa skill. The streams sound better than whatever codec they're running in the radios. If you're a AM/FM station, now is the time to jump in with that. It's fairly cheap to do and it's growing.

As for the original post, if you're going to sell digital, there's so much more to it than just a bunch of web banners and spot insertion. Either you need to train your entire radio sales force to know digital, or you need a group in the office who is versed in all things digital and have the rest of the sales force work in tandem.

Customers want results. It's up to us media folks to deliver them an audience, anywhere, any time, on any device.
 
johndavis said:
If you're a AM/FM station, now is the time to jump in with that. It's fairly cheap to do and it's growing.
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The catch is the Alexa is a digital radio, so you have to stream, which means you have to pay digital royalties. That's not cheap.
 
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