You’ve probably heard about the HD Alliance’s recent success in getting additional car manufacturers to offer HD Radio in their new models.
The latest, the 2012 Kia Soul, joins the redesigned 2012 Toyota Camry and Lexus GS350 as new additions to a growing list.
The total number of badges is 19 including BMW, Bentley, Mercedes, Rolls-Royce, and Tesla.
With such a distinguished list of manufacturers, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have something for buyers to listen to?
According to the Alliance, there are about 1,300 HD2-4 stations in the US.
Back out the AM stations simulcasting on sister station HD channels and we end up with maybe another thousand FM options for the 213 million listeners in Arbitron’s 282 measured markets.
The limited number of new stations still might be enough to motivate some buyers to pop for an HD upgrade if the new options appealed to the typical new car buyer.
Unfortunately, buyers will find mostly specialty and niche stations.
HD Radio has created 17 new options for New Yorker FM listeners, for example. These include a Catholic channel from Seton Hall University, a Caribbean channel from SBS, and a “South Asian” channel offered by Emmis.
There’s certainly a place for Catholic radio, Indian radio, and all the other niche and ethnic stations that serve their communities. That’s what radio has always been about.
But is this the industry’s idea on how to make HD Radio a success? Offer mostly simulcasts and a few niche stations that attract small audiences?
All the work convincing more car manufacturers to offer HD may do more harm than good for the industry because it makes the paucity of HD options that much more apparent.
What are new Kia, Toyota, and Lexus owners going to think when they start looking for an HD station and find mostly the same stations they now find on AM and FM?
What are they going to tell their friends about HD Radio?
Let's not forget that many of the same car manufacturers who offer HD Radio today offered AM Stereo in the 1990s, some as standard equipment. Did that save AM Stereo?
Even if every car manufacturer makes HD Radio standard, the service will still succeed or fail based on the quality and variety of the programming buyers find on it.
Unless broadcasters create compelling programming exclusively available on HD channels, the service is dead in the water.
http://hdradiofarts.blogspot.com/2009/01/hd-radio-lemons.html
Is the the HD Radio blog written by that guy with NO experience...and NO credentials in broadcasting and/or engineering?
LOL
Posted by: Bi-Polar | September 08, 2011 at 02:55 PM
Yes, really....
It's a mistake to call it "a case." Apparently what happened is _one_
lawyer, with a BMW, was amazed and upset that he could not tune in all
the HD Radio stations that were supposed to be broadcasting in his area, and decided to get some free publicity with an "investigation" that has gone nowhere. It's like you or I launching an "investigation" because we
can't tune in KKUP or some other low power station. No doubt Toyota did
due diligence before launching all components of Entunes, and found
there was no there there in the noise from this personal injury attorney.
Posted by: Lou | September 08, 2011 at 02:48 PM
No investigation? Really?
http://hdradiofarce.blogspot.com/2009/01/hd-radio-lemons.html
Posted by: Greg | September 08, 2011 at 12:28 PM
**Has everyone forgotten that iBiquity and the automakers remain under investigation for forcing this non-working POS onto consumers, at consumers' expense?**
There is no investigation.
Posted by: Lou | September 07, 2011 at 09:44 PM
Has everyone forgotten that iBiquity and the automakers remain under investigation for forcing this non-working POS onto consumers, at consumers' expense? Let's see how far iNiquity gets, before these law firms file class-actions on the part of non-HD broadcasters and consumers.
Posted by: Greg | September 07, 2011 at 01:41 PM
Mr. Harker is right, and Mr. Harker is wrong.
He's right if all broadcasters do is simulcast their analogue stations on their HD sideband stations. Why would the consumer spend the money for an HD radio? (Well, other than for better sound quality?)
Mr. Harker is wrong because niche formats do have listeners. Me, for example. I live in Houston, Arbitron market 6, and on the whole, there is NOTHING for me on the analogue band. KKRW FM is a classic rock station that plays the same few songs over and over and over and over and over, and, well you get the idea. HOWEVER, the HD-2 signal is my favorite station in town. Yes, I'm sure that it's nothing more than a juke box in a computer in a corner somewhere, but most of the music they play is only heard on that station. I first heard it when I bought my Scion 13 months ago, and since then bought a component HD radio so I could listen at home.
No, Mr. Harker, I do not believe HD on FM is dead in the water or even on life support. But if it's going to thrive, it's the broadcasters that are going to have to invest time and money and personel in them, and market them.
Posted by: Scott Gilbert | September 07, 2011 at 12:09 PM