H(ar)D To Be H(ear)D?
Written May. 16, 2008 by Sean Ross in HD Radio with 2 Comments
When I bought my HD radio 18 months ago, a Radio Shack clerk cheerfully admitted that he wasn't able to demonstrate it for me because there was no signal in the building. This particular store was in a low-rise '50s-era standalone structure -- not the kind of glass and chrome tower or concrete mall/fortress where you could count on having a problem, either. But even there, the HD radio wasn't even plugged in, if I recall.
That's why, according to a report in TWICE, Ibiquity has placed "retail demonstration modules" (RDMs) that connect to up to 10 HD Radios at a time to walk consumers through a simulated demo delivered through the radio's own speakers. Ibiquity's retail development specialist notes that most consumer electronics outlets don't have antennas even for FM radio because "consumers have not needed FM demonstrated to them," for decades.
Having some way of demonstrating HD radio is better than nothing, of course, but two things are a little concerning here:
1) Whatever you think of the various HD radio ad campaigns, this is again likely to be institutional creative that will focus on the product in the abstract and not what's available in your market.
2) What this brings home is just how long it's been since I last walked into a consumer electronics store and heard any radio other than satellite radio. It may have been 35 years since anybody needed a demo of FM, but FM was, of course, the soundtrack of many stereo stores for a long time after that. Bad enough that radio has lost the local deli to satellite -- losing a more music-oriented environment rankles worse.
Reader Comments
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My 2 cents for about the third time: Why do you have a readers comment section when you never publish any of the comments? Do they have to get approved by iBquity before you are allowed to post them?
Robert D Young Jr
22 S Main st #2B
Millbury, MA
KB1OKL
Create its “station” out of whole cloth, rather than simply figuring out a way to get existing broadcast signals to the radios, doesn’t say much for iBiquity’s confidence in either the radios’ real-world performance or in the attractiveness of the HD programming that the stations are delivering. I wonder what the local HD broadcasters feel about iBiquity’s no-confidence vote.