Every time I post a blog about HD Radio, I just sit back and wait for the predictable deluge of negative comments – typically from the same people. There’s no doubt that many in our industry have become understandably disenchanted with HD Radio, seeing whatever potential and promise it once had now being jettisoned to the industry’s backburner.
And many have legitimate gripes and concerns. After the HD Radio ad campaign controversy from late last year, Peter Ferrara wisely put together the "HD Radio Idea Summit." I was invited, I attended, and I participated. It was a healthy vent session, followed up by a constructive brainstorm that may have yielded several solid ideas. If nothing else, many Alliance members went back home to their respective companies, and hopefully started pushing for some change, some investment, and some attention for HD Radio.
In these sessions, some of the creative folks from the Alliance’s ad agency, GSD&M, were on hand to discuss the controversial "It’s Your Radio" campaign, and to look for input for the next flight of spots. This is where the "Upgrade" concept was conceptualized, and most participants concurred that it’s an improvement over "Discover It."
My sense of this session – which I suggested in a blog last December – was that it was a start, but something that should have occurred a year or more ago. There are great minds in this business, and if the HD Alliance is to successfully manage this difficult project, it’s going to need creativity, input, and help from more than just the usual suspects.
That’s why I got excited when I received a new HD Radio commercial campaign in my email last week. It didn’t come from the Alliance nor was it dreamed up by a big agency or even by a committee of esteemed radio broadcasters. Instead, it came out of the production studio of Bonneville/St. Louis. Cooked up by commercial production director, Brian Hartmann, it’s clearly an improvement over the original campaign because it positions HD Radio as a positive upgrade. Instead of a replacement for your old tired radio, HD Radio is presented as a complement to AM/FM. You can check out one of Brian’s spots here:
Click Here To Dowload The MP3 File
How many other Brian Hartmanns are out there, eager, ready and willing to make HD Radio work? How many programmers at the local level have exciting ideas about how to program HD2 channels that might just sell some radios? At the "Idea Summit," we heard from CBS’ Dave Robbins talking about his company’s HD2 plans. Energized by Dan Mason’s initiative to do something breakthrough with HD2 channels, the company is embarking on several new concepts – including Amp (a channel for pre-teen girls).
The "Idea Summit" was a start, but if HD Radio is to become viable, the Alliance and its members need to look no further than some of the talented people inside AM and FM stations who are teeming with ideas, innovations, and content that could lead to success. There needs to be an atmosphere of innovation, experimentation, and entrepreneurship that is so often missing from broadcast radio today.
Thanks to Brian Hartmann, who took the initiative by sending his idea to iBiquity, and getting the ball rolling. It’s a start.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Here’s one of the negative comments, you can put lipstick on a pig, put it in a dress, give it liposuction, give it a new plastic face, but unfortunately….. it’s still a pig or actually perhaps a turkey in this case, give it up, this will NEVER work. No one cares, it’s time was 15 years ago when !!!!DIGITAL!!! WAS STILL NEW AND REALLY COOL. now it’s not. The radios still suck and interfere with other stations, the range is still terrible. If digital radio is failing in Europe and it has had a 10-12 year head start on us and their system is superior (no sideband interference) what makes you guys with BRAINS think it’s going to work over here with technology moving so fast? Besides my 1979 240 WRMS per channel driven continuously Marantz receiver will absolutely kill any new HD receiver in sound quality and sensitivity. There is nothing wrong with the sound of radio, there is something wrong with what is coming out of the speakers: Same Old Krap, the same recycled classic rock songs, top 40 pap and right wing talk, wow, that’s really exciting. The problem with radio which diversions like HD just obscures is the fact that the majority of radio today is owned by about 5 big giant corporations who know squat about running radio stations. Thank God it looks like that phase is almost over. Consolidation didn’t work, IT IS THE REASON RADIO IS IN THE STATE IT IS IN TODAY. HD? Even if it worked better than the current system (not even close, the bitrate makes it sound worse than analog FM with a side… err, I mean I mean channels between your channels)) wouldn’t matter because who wants to hear Ramblin’ Man for the millionth time MAYBE a little clearer?
I’m just wondering when you guys are going to admit it’s failed and stop throwing money and wasting valuable ink and time on this junk that will never sell.
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