A notorious critic of HD Radio is Cleveland radio veteran John Gorman. Yet rather than piling on with the anti-HD rhetoric for which he is known on his blog, the consultant and author provided some subdued and thoughtful comments for this report.
Gorman clearly believes that broadcasting is all about the audience. "If you're in a business such as ours," he says, "where you have to directly connect with your customers, it's all about location, location, location." Thus he feels that his station "has to be smack-dab in the middle of where the action is, where the traffic is, where the people go. I need visibility and tonnage." That prime location today is, in his view, "the Great Convergence — the Internet."
"I do not see any logic
for the radio industry to pursue
a two-pronged digital path."
John Gorman
He adds that he needs "a viable environment to maximize my efforts. I don't want to be in some rarely traveled, difficult-to-access, out-of-the-way side road that only a few know exists." He reasons, "HD Radio is too challenging to be a real player in this brave new media world. Its proponents go over old ground like a dog on a short tether."
Gorman lists the problems he finds with HD Radio technology as follows: "You have to buy a special receiver, which is too pricey for the slapdash formats it delivers, and its stations are beset with incessant technical problems. Those few I know that own an HD Radio complain that they can't always receive the HD Radio side channels."
Thus he feels the Internet is the only worthwhile path to follow. "I do not see any logic for the radio industry to pursue a two-pronged digital path. At best, it's a dollar chasing a dime. If I have a radio station and I want to increase my reach and frequency — the Internet is the only external investment I will make."
He also believes that the current financial crisis has some bearing on this issue. "Every statistic I've read lists the Internet as one of the last mediums a family would strike from the budget," Gorman cites. "Satellite radio, print, cable television are all expendable. The Internet is not."
Ultimately, Gorman takes the long view, and counsels, "Mistakes take twice as long to fix as to make. That's why some never look back and bother to correct them. That's the only rationale I can come up with on why some in this industry still back HD Radio. It's time to move on."
Are we there yet?
The straight press also weighed in on this issue for us. Rob Pegoraro is consumer technology columnist at The Washington Post, and he believes, "HD Radio has been stuck in irrelevancy so far." He blames both broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers, claiming, "The hardware has been hard to find and often expensive — have you tried shopping for an A/V home-theater receiver with HD Radio built in lately? — and on the other hand, the on-air programming can be a little scarce, too."
There are some bright spots, Pegoraro notes: "Some stations take the time to program different, creative content on their HD2 channels and then make sure their regular listeners know about it. Other stations don't seem to want to make that effort." And he feels that's the compelling opportunity, since he's not much impressed by the audio quality. "HD FM just doesn't sound that much better to my ears, at least in the cars I've tested it in, and HD AM is difficult to impossible to find on the dial here" in the Washington market.
Clearly there are folks heeding Yogi's advice and taking either path at the fork in the road — with some going down both ways at once. No one we spoke with is betting against the Internet, but some are clearly less sanguine about HD Radio technology. While a few advise broadcasters to cut their losses now with HD Radio, others say give it time and see what happens.
