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WWFD 820 AM Becomes First All-Digital AM Station

xmtrland said:
You never know, all digital AM might find it's footing. But I think it would be from organic growth versus being mandated.
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The ONLY way I see organic growth of digital AM is if the internet shuts down, and there is no other option.
 
Almost all new cars have HD radio built in and in large metros, a large amount of people have newer cars or have a lease programme. Its a race between streaming and HD though. Right now, HD is not well known even though a lot of people have it (they just don't know to look) and streaming requires extra steps in most cases which people don't want to bother with when they get in the car. We'll see which one wins out first.
 
It's strange that, just as HD Radio is getting some traction in cars, the consortium has gone silent. No advertising of any kind, not even a revival of the ridiculed "stations between the stations" campaign. Does the HD consortium still exist, and if so, why isn't it spreading the word?
 
praiselightmedia said:
Almost all new cars have HD radio built in and in large metros, a large amount of people have newer cars or have a lease programme. Its a race between streaming and HD though. Right now, HD is not well known even though a lot of people have it (they just don't know to look) and streaming requires extra steps in most cases which people don't want to bother with when they get in the car. We'll see which one wins out first.
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The average age of a car in America is 11 years now. That means that at the current rate of about 50% of all new cars being delivered with HD, it will take well over a decade to get to even 50% penetration of the market.
 
I would like to add that the comment that "almost all new cars have HD radio built in" is simply an untrue statement. There are a ton of cars that do not offer HD radio as a standard option.
 
MarkW said:
I would like to add that the comment that "almost all new cars have HD radio built in" is simply an untrue statement. There are a ton of cars that do not offer HD radio as a standard option.
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Yes, it's only around 50% this year for HD installs in new cars.
 
CTListener said:
It's strange that, just as HD Radio is getting some traction in cars, the consortium has gone silent. No advertising of any kind, not even a revival of the ridiculed "stations between the stations" campaign. Does the HD consortium still exist, and if so, why isn't it spreading the word?
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The consortium has been silent for quite a few years. Mercifully.
 
CTListener said:
Does the HD consortium still exist, and if so, why isn't it spreading the word?
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The consortium was part of iBiquity. When that company was sold to DTS in 2015, all of the marketing for HD Radio shut down. From what I can see, DTS views HD Radio as simply one of its patents that it manages and collects royalties, not as something to be marketed or promoted.

But I agree that it's ironic the technology is having more success now. It's likely to become even more successful once the exclusive patent runs out.
 
TheBigA said:
The consortium was part of iBiquity. When that company was sold to DTS in 2015, all of the marketing for HD Radio shut down. From what I can see, DTS views HD Radio as simply one of its patents that it manages and collects royalties, not as something to be marketed or promoted.
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Could they just be riding on the success with putting HD in cars? Car owners will find "new" stations as they receive HD radios, then broadcasters will start putting up the money to upgrade their broadcast facilities so they can compete better? On FM, I can see some advantages for bigger broadcasters. They can run more programming without hitting their ownership limits.
 
rbc said:
I can see some advantages for bigger broadcasters. They can run more programming without hitting their ownership limits.
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There are really no "advantages" unless there's enough audience to monetize, and so far, there isn't. Right now the advantages are mainly for listeners who get formats that might not be commercially viable. The only HD stations that are attracting a measurable audience are the ones attached to a translator.

In the old days, there was a view that "if you build it, they will come." We've seen that's no longer the case. Just building something doesn't mean you'll attract an audience, and I think that's what the folks at WWFD will discover.
 
rbc said:
What are you basing that on? A particular radio market, or the nation as a whole?
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As I said, the only HD stations attracting a measurable audience are the ones attached to a translator. You can't sell or monetize an audience that you can't measure.
 
TheBigA said:
As I said, the only HD stations attracting a measurable audience are the ones attached to a translator. You can't sell or monetize an audience that you can't measure.
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So you're saying there aren't any statistics on HD listeners?
 
TheBigA said:
I'm sure there are lots of statistics, but I'm talking about reaching the number of people that you can sell to an advertiser.
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I think I get it. You don't have specific statistics for a non-HD1 sub-channel that doesn't have a translator. I suppose HD1 for a particular station would have statistics if it's running hybrid? Radio measurement services (Nielsen Audio in particular I guess) aren't reporting on HD sub-channel listening?
 
rbc said:
Radio measurement services (Nielsen Audio in particular I guess) aren't reporting on HD sub-channel listening?
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They report on any signal that is encoded. That includes streams and HD.

So it's not that I don't have those statistics, but that the stations aren't generating measurable audience.

This is how an HD station shows up in Nielsen when attached to a translator:

WAMJ-FM-HD2

WWWQ-FM-HD2

WWWQ-FM-HD3

Each of those stations is getting about a 1 share in Atlanta.

And I don't recall ever seeing that kind of data when iBiquity as providing marketing information.
 
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I like that, standard option. Th
 
"Standard option" makes such sense: something that one has the option to pay for even though it comes standard...I guess...maybe?
 
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