You don't have to tell me your answers. It wouldn't be something
you'd want to share anyway, and most of us have the same answers
you do.
Folks, we have a problem here. It is called public relations
at Ibiquity, or rather, the lack of it.
Where is the marketing support that is supposed to help launch
Ibiquity IBOC HD Radio into the public mainstream of the electronics
industry? Where are the ads on radio, TV and in print? As it stands
right now, Ibiquity isn't even on the public's radar screens.
Just walk into any Radio Shack and ask about Ibiquity or HD Radio.
You've got questions, they've got just blank stares. Or, their
response is, "Oh, yeah! Sirius! Sure, we have that! Right over
here!"
That, folks, is a danger sign.
Can't forget the Motor City
How come there were, until mid-2004, no Ibiquity HD Radio stations
in the most important market in the country for all new mobile
sound technologies, Detroit? Didn't anyone at Ibiquity understand
how important it was that Detroit be one of the first markets
into which HD Radio should have been introduced? Doesn't anyone
understand that all the decision-making about such things as the
makeup of in-car sound systems, including the Japanese and many
of the European cars, are made first in Detroit? Doesn't anyone
understand that it is the auto industry that usually leads in
the development of sound technology?
I'm from Detroit, so I understand this. In Detroit, the automobile
absolutely rules, so it is important that anything reliant on
the automobile be involved with Detroit. Every marketing major
in college should - why doesn't Ibiquity?
Crawford Broadcasting, Clear Channel and other broadcasting
chains have committed themselves to the growth and development
of HD Radio on their stations across the country. They've had
to, in their own enlightened interests. But that's only half the
battle. That's the choir talking to the choir. We need to get
the word to the congregation - the listeners - and get them interested
and involved. They have much to gain by doing so. We as an industry
have much to lose if we don't.
Note the waivers
Ibiquity's licensing fee revenues will be much greater for receiver
sales than they ever could be for the transmitter end. Which brings
me to the next point: Just where is the good in charging all broadcasters
a license fee for the use of the technology, given the circumstances
I've just mentioned?
Note that when push came to shove, those Detroit-area broadcasters
that signed up to inaugurate HD Radio in Detroit, on an emergency
basis, were rewarded with license fee reductions or outright wavers.
That should be another message to the folks at Ibiquity: Charge
the license feeds on the consumer end and keep them low. And cut
out taxing the broadcasters for making your technology available
to the end-user. Your reward will be at the bank.
The problem of marketing HD Radio where there are no HD signals
yet also will be solved, a problem XM and Sirius don't have. Make
the signals happen, market it, keep the receiver licensing fees
low, remove the licensing fees for the transmit end and they will
come.
I have a partial solution, but it asks: Is Ibiquity's solution
to its marketing shortcomings simply to turn the marketing of
the technology over to the local stations that use it? If so,
why didn't they just tell us? Not that the station managers and
sales departments would go for it, but why not suggest a trade-out
of ad time for licensing fees, if you have to?
Even so, doesn't such a strategy inevitably give rise to a spotty,
fragmented and possibly contradictory marketing effort? And, doesn't
that let the door open for a "divide and conquer" strategy by
the likes of XM, Sirius or Leonard Kahn, who always seems to throw
a monkey wrench into the works? Does the thought of HD Radio suffering
the same fate as Motorola's C-Quam AM stereo, which for its time
was a great format, bother you?
Maybe it should. And here's what I suggest Ibiquity do about
it. If Ibiquity has a marketing rep, the company should give him
a new set of marching orders: "Get visible to the public, now!"
If those orders are already delivered but not being followed,
get a new marketing rep. Either way, get visible with the public
immediately.
Do what it takes to get HD Radio on the air and listened to,
everywhere. The audio quality, on both FM and AM, will sell itself.
It sure beats having the public pay $10 and up for radio every
month.
Addendum: I am not alone in my thinking, nor did I think I'd
be. The president, CEO and chairman of Emmis Communications, Jeff
Smulyan, has echoed similar sentiments, quoted in Inside Radio
in January. As my friend from a small-market operation put it,
"There seems to be too many parallels to the situation which occurred
with AM stereo in the 1980s and '90s."
That sort of thinking is going to have to stop, and it's Ibiquity
that has to take the lead in stopping it - Crawford, Clear Channel
and the major markets notwithstanding.
The major markets are, for the most part, embracing HD Radio.
I don't have a problem with that. And ironically, it's in the
major markets where XM and Sirius have, to this point, the lesser
measure of success, simply because local radio there can satisfy
almost any taste.
But it's in the medium and small markets where HD Radio is most
needed, because it is in the medium and small markets where the
lesser choices opens the door widest for the acceptance of satellite
radio. It's exactly there where the listeners need to know there
is a quality audio alternative to paying $10 a month just to listen
to radio without any possibility of local content. And it's exactly
the place where HD Radio isn't happening yet.
But time is running out. The time to make the big marketing
move is now, Ibiquity. You, and radio broadcasting in this country,
have too much to lose to not to get the population of the United
States on your bandwagon and keep them there.
This commentary appeared in The Local Oscillator, the newsletter
of Crawford Broadcasting Co. Corporate Engineering. RW welcomes
other points of view.
