[BC] IBOC Query

[Steve]

Hi Phil and those who enjoy reading novels :)

An audio instructor of mine at San Francisco State University had a very interesting statement he used to blurt out from time to time.  "A difference to be a difference MUST make a difference"

Now this was in the mid to late sixties when things that hit the market were very "different". My point? The average Joe or Josephine Blow doesn't really hear the difference from analog to digital. Now hold on before you jump all over that keyboard. I know what you're thinking. "But Steve, the difference between analog and digital is like night is to day" The way I understand all this is we wanted to migrate to digital so the AM/FM playing field would be equal. With this new technology we offer secondary channels on the FM's for yet more programming that's, well, simply thrown together and cycled. We're in media overload as it is, so how much more can we take until this whole thing implodes? Back to Joe and Josephine Blow. Most of them can't tell the difference between Mono and Stereo let alone analog and digital. We still have units with clocks that flash midnight because setting the clock requires a masters degree. I could go on the air or produce some slick promos telling everyone we were broadcasting in HD and they'd buy it! I could turn the stereo pilot off and tell them we were broadcasting in expanded super stereo and they'd buy that as well. Unethical and illegal but cheap, no? It makes my point, however.

We're getting down to splitting hairs and charging big prices for those hairs. Yes the prices will come down but where will we be when it's all said and done? Maybe the Wal-Mart price will be too cheap and Mr. & Mrs. Joe Blow will see it as just that. What this all comes down to is content and we're not providing good content on the channels we already have let alone those we don't yet have. What about income streams when all these new channels light up? There are only so many advertising dollars to go around. I've worked major market radio most of my life until I got fed up with city living and always wanted to live in the country. I got my wish. I love it. I'm in a small community and work for the local station and do voice work for a satellite radio service out of my home. The local cable company has pumped up the selling of time that can be had for a little more money than we charge but the advertisers see it as a WOW, I'm on TV! They buy a package, get 6 or so channels and guess what? I split a gut trying to get them back on the station, if ever. The little gift shop blew what few dollars they had on cable tv advertising and I sit with no buy. It's a jungle out there and we need a bush hog and not fertilizer! This fragmentation is beginning to happen in the majors as well.

Some of the things you mentioned below I'll buy but this whole IBOC and FM HD bit I'm having a real problem with because "a difference to be a difference MUST make a difference" Rich Wood has seen the blank stares at stores he's visited when he talks about this. I've gotten the same. I use his name because he lives closer to a big city where people should be more hip about these things. Yes, I know some of the reasons this is all taking place. Reaction to satellite radio, Internet streaming, iPods and on and on ad nausium but to the average person it's not a shift big enough to make a "difference" in their lives. It's like a hit record. Ya gotta have a good "hook". At least satellite radio does. Drive across the country and keep the same program. iPods allow you to carry around a couple thousand of your favorite songs. Internet stations that allow you to punch in a request and BANG, you get it within a few minutes. Terrestrial radio broadcasters are not offering a competing service or, if you will, a different flavor that's far enough from vanilla. 

Yep, the big elephant is in the room (or squeezing itself through the door) and, frankly, I honestly believe the big guys in terrestrial radio don't know how to handle his arrival other than to use things we already have. No big difference. The global village is alive alright but I don't know how well it is.

We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. We're on that track right now.

I will probably be relegated to the Rich & Willie negativity club. I can live with that. Shootin' from the hip is passe I guess.

Seriously, I hope we can still converse on a very important issue.

Steve
Steve Walker Productions
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Phil Alexander 
  To: Broadcasters' Mailing List 
  Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2006 1:03 AM
  Subject: Re: [BC] IBOC Query



  You are ignoring the relentless advance of technology when the true mass
  production threshold is crossed.

  Look at what has happened with cell phones and portable computers.

  Moto bag phones to the new Sliver. Osborne's to PDA's. Tech marches on.

  At a mass volume, manufacturing cost equates to materials and weight.

  Look at the tech in a throw-away cell phone and tell me pocket digital
  radios are not possible at $24.95 on sale at Wal-Mart.

  As for tossing analog sets, consider video games and computers as the
  models for the present generation. We live in a fast food world, a
  consumer society. How many radio/TV repair shops are left? It is
  cheaper and less trouble to buy new and trash the old. The younger
  a person is, the more easily they will simply buy a "modern" radio
  IMHO - unless we wait so long all they need to do is tune in a stream
  on their ear mounted comuniputer device.


  Phil Alexander, CSRE, AMD
  Broadcast Engineering Services and Technology 
  (a Div. of Advanced Parts Corporation) 
  Ph. (317) 335-2065   FAX (317) 335-9037





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