16 March 2007, by Anonymous
It's so hard to believe that with the combined intellect and experience of the people representing each company of the HD Radio Alliance, that the organization is getting it so wrong, and that many of the individual stations are not stepping up to innovate. They are simply not connecting with listeners and are not landing their punches when it comes to getting the audience excited about HD radio. It doesn't matter that there may now be more kinds of receivers available, or that their prices are dropping, or even that they are now widely available at retail giants like Wal-Mart. There is no excitement or "buzz" surrounding HD because no one is really talking about the kinds of formats available. No one is talking about the GREAT RADIO on these new radio choices! The HD Radio Alliance spots are run like they were badly produced PSA's and there is no endorsement by the stations themselves....no attempt to take ownership.
If you remember or studied the early days of FM, and the band's run up to parity with AM in about 1978, you remember the push for FM converters. They were desirable because there was an interest in the programming on FM. Listeners knew there was something cool there for them there, they spread this knowledge to their peers via word-of-mouth and they rushed to be part of it...with HD radio, listeners are not being educated properly on how cool the programming is with this new technology, nor do they seem to be discovering it on their own. They don't seem to be including it in their blogs, myspace pages, their viral emails, their discussion in chat rooms or message boards. In the 2000's it is ESSENTIAL to harness the viral aspects of the web to proliferate knowledge and proper image of not just HD Radio, but our main stations as well.
The HD Radio Alliance commercials that the stations run only speak of "hidden stations between the ones you know" or the fact that there is more choice with no monthly fee? But WHAT ARE those choices? Why don't they mention the existence of classic and new country outlets, another alternative station, an all Rams station, a "Chill" format, TWO rock "Deep Cuts" formats, classic hip-hop or an unsigned bands channel? Those new choices on St. Louis' dial sound very appealing. It wouldn't be necessary to identify the HD2 station names, or which FM they were associated with, but just getting the word out on these cool choices might create some interest.
Are the main signal FM's afraid their own HD2's are outprogramming them? Are they afraid of losing TSL to these commercial free stations, even if it is one of their own? Perhaps they should be since they are commercial free, but they won't stay that way forever. I think they should put an extremely low number of spots on the stations now (2-4 minutes an hour), so that they don't pull a "bait and switch" and anger listeners in the future....listeners whose passion for the station was produced by it's zero commercials position. Even a minimally monetized HD Radio spectrum would allow some investment by the companies with regard to hiring some talent to make these stations REAL. More on that shortly.
Another problem with this rollout has been incorrect or outdated information that is not updated or purged from websites promoting HD. In fact, it doesn't appear that the HD Radio Alliance's own website (www.hdradio.com) has a grasp on the situation here. For example, they list two stations at 101.1, each with a different HD product. The old WVRV is there with it's "all new rock" format (both of which no longer exist, of course), and WMVN is also credited to the frequency with its "global unsigned bands"....which is actually correct.
Worse still are the incorrect entries for the Emmis signals. KSHE is listed as featuring 'country variety" instead of the KSHE Klassics they are running. KIHT is listed as "classic hits spice", even as they run the "country variety" format. And, with WIL and KSD each running their own versions of country, is a 5th spot for country on the FM/HD dial (six overall in the market if you count WIL-AM) really necessary in St. Louis? In ANY city? At any rate, the Alliance or at least the stations themselves have got to get on top of that fast.
My thoughts on some of the station's own efforts to promote their own HD channels:
KSHE www.kshe95.com - Nothing. Or if it's there, it's not anything obvious. No mention of HD technology or their participation in the Alliance, nothing about the main signal being in HD, or anything about their HD2 station, which is incredible. It deserves to be promoted, and in THIS TOWN, a KSHE KLASSICS channel would be quite a catalyst to create buzz. But again, it would be so desirable, it could very well impact the mothership in a big way...and I'm sure they've seen that in research. So, better to be there to oppose the Arch's "Deep Cuts" channel (which is also quite good), than not be there at all. Although, to be quite honest, I'm not sure I buy "Tell Her About It" by Billy Joel or "Daisy Jane" by America as proper material for KSHE's HD2, yet I heard them this evening. They were never played on KSHE, they're wimpy and they were big Top 40 hits! The Arch HD2 is more consistently an AOR-based Deep Cuts station, with plenty of familiarity and safe titles, which are essential.
WARH www.1065thearch.com - They have a link in a not so obvious place in their "featured" section toward the bottom of the page that takes you to a page that discusses HD Radio, where to buy and just one little mention of "our deep cuts programming", but no compelling description of it or a way to hear it online. http://www.1065thearch.com
KSLZ www.z1077.com - The best presentation I've found. They have HD Radio prominently placed on their main page, and it leads to this: http://www.z1077.com/cc-common/hdradio/. From this page you can not only hear Z's HD station (New Top 40), but you can hear hundreds of station around the country (CC stations only), and see a great list of available formats. This is how EVERYONE should present their HD efforts if there's any seriousness about reaching the American public.
KYKY www.y98.com - They have a link buried at the bottom of their homepage http://www.y98.com/pages/107601.php that sends you to an explanation of HD Radio, a good mention of their own HD2 effort, but no way to listen to it on the site.
The stations should have a website devoted to each individual HD station. Get it out there for the local market and the world to see...start positioning it and creating its brand NOW. This website should also show what is being played. Very few of the HD's seem to be running an RDS system which would show artist/title....crucial on the all new music stations, the unsigned bands channel and the deep cuts options. It is one of the great historical complaints of listeners: "I like that station, but they never SAY the names of the songs or groups". We have all spent fortunes in money and time analyzing listeners attitudes and behaviors, and we have never really gotten this one right.
Another major key to getting HD off the ground is to incorporate air personalities. Currently, most stations are running sporadic recorded imaging (and frankly, not terribly creative at that), but no live (or even voice tracked) jocks These stations need an airstaff to really connect with the audience, and since many of the formats are so daring, they need to be populated by people with passion for the various approaches who can whip up passion amongst the early adopters of HD. No one expects an HD to have a fulltime staff of five, but why not split the day into halves, and have a part-timer do 2-3 backsell breaks or voice tracks for a 12 hour period. True, these stations are not revenue generators yet, but let's have some forward thinking & planning and invest for the future! In this case, utilizing a staff to beat the drum and create cool images and a community spirit in the tradition (NOT the style) of the early underground/progressive jocks on FM would be the kind of history worth repeating, if only someone were willing to doom themselves to it!
Now, maybe someone knows the answer to this: Are HD stations required to do a standard call letters/city of license Legal ID? I never seem to hear them.
