A memo to Peter Ferrara, the new industry face of HD Radio:
First of all, congratulations on your new gig. It’s not going to be easy heading up this initiative, but if you play it right, you’ll be a part of radio’s history – and hopefully, its future.
So, in between talking to hardware manufacturers, automakers, and the media, let’s make sure we keep our eye on the content ball. While important that new HD Radio channels display programming diversity, let’s make sure we go back over the ground that terrestrial radio has cultivated over the past 30-odd years.
We were the originators of Top 40, teen-based radio. Before there was "American Idol," there was WABC, WLS, and Z100. HD Radio needs to reach out to teens with choice, innovation, and risk-taking if there’s a true future for our medium. Those Arbitron graphs that show the deterioration of youth radio listening cannot be ignored. And in the process of inventing and championing formats for 12-24s, we need to change the language and the attitude in the sales departments across the country. The 25-54 mantra must come to an end, and HD Radio is the catalyst that can make it happen.
And while we’re on the subject, Oldies must return to the airwaves via HD Radio in a hurry. This is another format that radio built, nurtured, and marketed – only to beat it up, make it more ’70s-focused, and ultimately drive it off the FM band. We invite listeners to buy XM and Sirius to enjoy Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys, and Motown, as we write off the leading edge of the Baby Boom market.
HD Radio channels finally give commercial radio the opportunity to fix what’s broken, acknowledge some mistakes, and move forward toward creating content and providing services that consumers have expected from us all along. From the research we’ve conducted, we still get the feeling that many long-time radio listeners would truly like to see us get it right.
Here’s our chance. Good luck.
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Yes. Let’s not ignore the teens. Studying radio history shows how radio groups actually targeted young people. RKO with their Top 40 stations and ABC too. And they won, not only with teens but with young adults and in many cases the 25+ listener.
Right now with HD radio we definitely do have the opportunity to not only capture the young listener and revive the oldies format. We have an opportunity to actually reinvent radio. Why were the Drake formated stations so successful? I think we all know it was a combination of rotating the right songs (albeit a small playlist) the energy, the production elements and the attitude. And we all know that just about any music format today uses a lot of what we learned from Drake, Storz, MacLendon and others. But I think the next step is personality. We’ve lost that….people, we really have. Yes, we still have high-profile 3 person morning shows. But after 10am basically it’s just some polished voices, quick-witted phone callers and 10 in a row! Okay, that’s a start….but “personality” will take us to the next level. Yes personality can exist in the world of more music. Delilah is a prime example of that. Personally I think American Idol is a success, not because of the varying degrees of talent that is showcased, but because of how the personality judges react and respond to it.
Let’s do this HD thing right. Let’s take what we’ve learned, breathe some new life into it and then inject something that hasn’t been done before…even if it sounds totally off the mark. This is a new millenium, let’s start programming that way!
Ummm, you expect teens to buy HD radios?
Won’t they simply be getting music via their cell phone by the time there’s a reasonably-priced and cool HD portable developed?