DAN MASON TO ANALYSTS: OPEN YOUR MINDS TO DIGITAL Dan Mason An open letter to all analysts who cover radio:
Please sharpen your focus! You should be writing about all of the great digital products that are coming to radio with the new technologies. Your focus shouldn’t be on a 5 percent pricing increase. Do you really believe that “less is more” will increase the value of a radio station on its own merit?
You continually write about the brilliance of satellite radio. Do you realize in the HD Radio world that every FM radio station will have 2, 3, 4 or more audio channels? Do you realize that the HD Radio system is designed to carry 8 unique products on one frequency? There is a great likelihood that some of these HD Radio channels could even be commercial free. So why would people pay for satellite radio when they can get the product for free?
I will even go further to say that the emergence of HD Radio and 3G cell will make satellite radio obsolete unless you live in the desert or mountains.
Next year, there will be 1,300 radio stations broadcasting in HD Radio. Those stations cover 80 percent of the population of the U.S. Receiver manufacturers are following suit. In fact, there are at least 15 receiver manufacturers with HD Radio products coming on the market this year. Specialty retailers are already stocking their products, as well as major online sources. You can even buy an HD Radio receiver on eBay today.
I’m puzzled as to why, with all of the research and information available to you, that you haven’t written more about HD Radio technology. Over the next several months, you will hear radio stations promote the technology more and more. You will hear of secondary channels that begin as Internet radio streams and later migrate to the new HD Radio channels. The first multi-stream capable radio will be introduced this spring.
As for advertising, do you realize that with every radio commercial, there can be a scrolling text message? For example, if you are listening to a Coke commercial, you will see a scroll that might say: “Buy Coke now at Safeway for the remarkable price of 99 cents.” That type of messaging is something an advertiser would pay for, and that is something satellite radio would have a difficult time doing.
I would caution you that before you downplay radio, a few minutes invested in doing your homework on HD Radio technology would be to your benefit. AM and FM radio is changing before your eyes. |