HD Radio: Chickens and Eggs

Here is an article from The Washington Post about HD Radio. The HD radio boosters at iBiquity keep saying the same thing--it's the auto dealers and satellite radio (XM and Sirius) services fault. Sure it is.

There are really only a few parts to this issue: technology, programming, portability and on-demand content. HD Radio is getting aced out on all of these by competing products and services--no matter how much branding, marketing and advertising stations do. And generally, public radio stations are not inclined to do excessive self promotion. Colorado Public Radio seems to be the exception in Colorado.

Radio stations--commercial and non-commercial--that offer truly alternative programming may succeed in winning over listeners who care less about portability or on-demand content--that is, if they own HD radios for both their car and their home (portable HD radios are not common). But producing compelling programming requires creativity--and cash. Most public radio stations are not flush with either. Even fewer are flush with both. And what does iBiquity recommend? More HD radio promotion by stations? How innovative!

Radio is Next to Get Disrupted.

This commentary in Current.Org, by Jim Paluzzi of Colorado Public Radio, is well done. Of course it also begs the question, "Why hasn't Colorado Public Radio developed any new or compelling news programming since the beginning of the Colorado Public Radio News Initiative?" Also {temporally speaking}, how long can a 'News Initiative' really last before it becomes a 'News Process?' Just wondering . . .

Has KCFR "[d]evelop a strategy for innovative programming that recognizes that 'local radio' means something new in the Internet-connected world?" If KCFR has developed a strategy for "local programming," what is the actual product? Is more "inserting of local headlines and weather and traffic reports or covering a segment of Morning Edition [or any other NPR show for that matter] with a locally produced package" really all that KCFR News can do, while simultaneously promoting the "filler" with more frequency?

Has KCFR News actually "[thought] about making radio that will compel new audiences to listen?" If KCFR has thought about it, what about their actual broadcasts are "new or compelling?" The Public Insight Network (PIN)? Is this "Network" really going to provide, discover, or reveal innovative content for new listeners? For younger listeners? If so, how so?

From the actual sound of Colorado Public Radio's news broadcasts, it seems like the Vice President of New Media & Technology (Jim Paluzzi) should leave a copy of his very coherent article under the door of the Vice President of Programming (Sean Nethery). Maybe then he'd learn something about what the programming department needs to do on the content side. Or perhaps, Colorado Public Radio should just realize some further "back-office efficiencies" by getting rid of the bureaucratic fat. Which Vice President would you cut? It seems obvious to me. Oink!