Donny Osmond vs. Pandora
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I feel better having just heard that the radio industry is pulling out all stops to improve its image, increase audience loyalty, and become the central focus of the community again. Donny Osmond is going to do a radio show! (There's no truth to the rumor that Citadel will make the program available for on-demand listening via 8-track.) Add this to the brilliance of iBiguity's Bob Struble declaring "The Race For The Dashboard Is On." It's evident we've started 2010 with a demonstration that terrestrial radio is still troubled.
Are radio leaders serious? In a business filled with tremendously talented and smart people, is it possible that nobody sees lipstick being put on a pig?
From Greater Media CEO, Peter Smythe, comes this (one of 15 points of consideration for starting 2010): "Educate yourself on the integrated marketing solutions we can create for clients and have an understanding of the component interactive tools we can create." Unless I've missed something at those radio conferences, or in a headline at any radio industry trade publication web site, nothing's been done in the form of "integrated marketing solutions." Is this a reference to running banner ads on a station's web site or putting a made-for-broadcast audio ad in a station's stream? Exactly what "interactive tools" is radio using effectively?
That the head of HD Radio is just now figuring out radio has to "fight" for its place on the dashboard places this revelation with "The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor!" Where was he (or for that matter any radio industry executive) when words about Wi-Max, WiFi, internet radio, and hard drives in vehicles were mentioned in 2003? Struble, Smythe, Suleman, or any one of the dozens of people driving radio's bus back then should've said, "We need to think of the implication of these new technologies. It may be a problem down the road."
Pioneer and Pandora are putting together a nice radio receiver, the AVIC-X920BT, which brings Pandora up on the dashboard. Sony has debuted the CDX-GT700HD, an HD Radio-capable in-dash unit that allows for "song tagging" when an iPod or iPhone is plugged in. When the iPod is later connected to a PC, a playlist is created from which users can purchase and download tagged songs. Sounds like a lot of work in comparison to the Piondora - "To purchase music that plays on your Pandora stations, click 'buy....'"
Will someone please grab the reins of this runaway industry! Will a leader step aside or, at the very least, listen to a youthful, tech-savvy person who can direct radio through the upcoming decade?
The radio industry continues down the road of serving an elderly population and showing it still is without a digital clue - for audience or advertiser. There are plenty of buzzwords, but if you read the trades there seems little action in creating new radio programs or technology concepts that stand a chance of success.
Think Ford Sync is hot for HD radio? Look around. It's not HD that's featured in articles about Sync, but the ability to hear internet radio or plug in an MP3 player. On a personal note, I was at my BMW dealer the other day and asked a salesman how many people have asked for HD Radio. He laughed; said "none, zero, zip."
Let's revisit an October 2007 comment from former HD Radio Alliance President/CEO, Peter Ferrara, made more than a year after BMW became the first auto manufacturer to offer HD Radio: "[Ferrara predicts] by 2011 (model year 2012) HD Radio will be optional in every car and standard in most." Here was my response to his prediction: "Mr. Ferrara is either being overly optimistic, or does not understand the business side of getting inside a vehicle's dashboard." I hold the same view of Mr. Struble's remark.
The current rush in radio is to see how many times you can get the Rush Limbaugh name in print or mentioned on TV, sadly because he's the biggest thing radio has. The focus should be on USING the internet (as suggested by Peter Smythe), though understanding it should have begun years ago. Action should have been in full swing by now. We're long past the point of learning how to use technology.
Here's a list of internet-related items. Radio industry executives, managers,and programmers need to know how each works if they want to efficiently use an internet business model. This list does not include the many items that have failed or are in the process of failing. Everything listed has become essential for anyone in media, especially those in the radio industry, to know. Scan the list and then sit back to try and pick which ones you should be investing time in, according to your needs. When you see how they all tie together, you'll be ready for implementing an internet strategy.
Email Marketing
Subscription-Based Data Gathering
Online Surveys
Domain and Visitor Security
Web Browsers
Online Marketing of Individual Items
Online Marketing Using Bulk Uploads
Search Engines
Domain Name System Relative to Search Engines
Search Engine Optimizing
Search Engine Keyword Ad Buying
Search Engine Content Advertising Networks
Local Search Marketing
Text Advertising
Banner Advertising
Pop Up Advertising
Pop Under Advertising
Flash Advertising
Behavioral Targeting
Internet Advertising Standards
Online Payment Systems (Google Checkout, PayPal)
Podcasting
Web Site Analytics (Google Analytics)
Radio Streaming
Video Streaming
Online Ad Networks
Internet Radio Networks
Internet Radio Advertising Sales
Internet Radio Advertising Auctions
Radio Advertising Insertion into Streams
Synchronized Audio/Video Ad Insertion
Customer Relationship Management Programs
Online Meetings
Video Webcasting
Peer-2-Peer Networks
Social Networks
Wikis
Note: Nearly every item mentioned above has different proprietary systems that must be learned to use each effectively. (Examples: Google has its own keyword ad buying system, as do Yahoo! and Microsoft. Ad insertion technologies offer varying degrees of control; hence, you need to study each before making a decision.)
By no means is this a complete list. Yet gaining knowledge in each of the above items will help you see how your audience is moving about online, how your advertisers are finding new (effective) forms of getting their word out for less money, and how to use the internet within a business environment. These are essential bits of knowledge that individually give only a portion of the picture. Used together they are the way business is increasingly being done.
BTW: In radio's run to use social networking, check this list of social networking sites; then ask how your station will compete with them.
I know radio industry executives won't listen, but please understand that this is no time to be educating yourself on integrated marketing solutions. Hire the people who know, now. Then go take an extended vacation, with Donny Osmond.
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From: Phil Lenz
I think we can say that HD Radio is dead now. Can you say, 'AM Stereo'? Elsewhere in the world the choice was Eureka 147 which is far superior over the iBiguity scam. Even if it did work the big boys haven't offered anything worthy of attracting an audience. Who wants to listen to an HD channel that merely plays from a computer automation system. That is why anyone under the age of 30 doesn't even listen to commercial radio today, which is who the corporate broadcasters are trying to sell to 'they don't get it'. Now the big groups want to increase the power of the HD sidebands to capture a larger audience in lieu of the interference they will cause to adjacent channels, yet these are the same guys that complained about interference by future low power FM (LPFM) stations transmitting 100 watts. I believe HD as well as terrestrial radio as we know it is doomed. With WiFi and WiMax why would anyone want to try to fix a ship that is already sinking. Look to the web for the future of broadcasting, it's like FM was in the 70's, creative, captivating and with personality. |
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From: Greg
It is perplexing to me that Struble continues to make progress with the automakers, so he claims, with all of the problems BMW is having with HD Radio - BMW even has an extensive HD Radio trouble-shooting guide for consumers: http://tinyurl.com/ygbspcb. BMW message boards are filled with HD Radio complaints.
Ford, an iBiquity investor, has been promising HD Radio since 2007, but it never materialized - Ford claims to be installing HD Radio tagging in Sync this year. Now, Volkswagon is supposedly adding HD Radio this year. Are these automakes banking on the FM-HD power increase, which still has not been acted upon by the FCC?
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From: Anonymous
Dead on as usual but it's wasted breath. They won't listen even if you tie them down and feed them Mantovani all day | |
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