[BC] Turning lemons into cherry cola

[Rich Wood]

------ At 06:18 PM 7/28/2006, Robert Orban wrote: -------

>As for the AM side, there are a lot of compromises to be made, Rich 
>Woods's wearisome facetiousness aside, there are plenty of known 
>problems with IBOC.

"Wearisome facetiousness." I like that. Understand that you're dating 
yourself. The term "wearisome" hasn't been used by an English speaker 
younger than 47 since 1976 (spelling bees excepted) , unless, of 
course, you're intentionally trying to be facetiously wearisome. 
Also, my last name is Wood, so you don't need to waste a valuable letter.

>We all know what they are and maybe they will turn out to be 
>unacceptable. This is for the business management side of radio 
>broadcasting to determine.

Since when does management make such serious decisions without the 
advice of it's engineering staff unless, of course, they're major 
stockholders in the technology? We might add advice from the General 
Sales Manager about how we're going to sell 20+ more stations in an 
already overcrowded market like San Francisco.

I just returned from Tweeter and, horror of horrors, I heard a spot 
on a secondary well within the two year commercial-free period. Is 
the HD Dominion falling apart? Shouldn't someone's legs be broken? It 
was the secondary of WTIC-FM. The secondary is their AM. An awesome 
use of a limited coverage facility to carry the programming of their 
50Kw blowtorch AM. I also noticed that the radio displayed "Mix" on 
both formats. That's a Promotion Manager's worst nightmare. Mix what? 
Mix music or Mix talk?

>However, doing nothing is dangerous because demographics are not on 
>AM's side. The current analog audience is skewing older and older. 
>This is a double-whammy, because anyone 55+ is of very little 
>interest to advertisers. So even 55+ AM listeners who are still 
>alive might as well be dead as far as Madison Ave is concerned.

Then AM is dead. If doing nothing is going to kill it, adding IBUZ to 
it will seal its fate. I just bought a mint condition used Nissan 
Maxima with an incredible radio. It receives AM the way I remember 
it. Virtually every position on the AM dial is alive, except where 
there's an IBUZ hash generator in use. I can't wait for the FCC to 
get off its glutes and make a nighttime decision. I'm stocking the 
car with CDs which, strangely, sound more like CDs than IBUZ duz.

>I have to wonder if this blindness towards the 55+ audience is going 
>to change now that the first baby boomers are turning 60. This is a 
>lot of people, many of whom are financially at their peak, have a 
>lot of buying power, and are used to getting what they want.

My bet is that it's going to change. Smart advertisers will find a 
way to overcome the resistance to changing brands.

I also asked a different person about their personal Time Spent 
Listening. CDs got "I can listen all day." For stuff with codecs the 
estimate was "about 2 hours." Unscientific, for sure, but very 
disturbing. Even wearisome.

Rich