[opendtv] Re: Portable Insignia brand HD Radio

Craig Birkmaier wrote:

> Radio is NOT losing listeners because of subscription services. In
> case people have not been paying attention satellite radio is
> struggling to hang onto the audience it has - new subscriptions are
> few and far between. Type "satellite radio growth" into Google and
> you will get a bunch of hits that are 2 to 5 years old.

I'll grant you that.

AN YET, go to Best Buy, and you'll see both in-home and in-car variants
of Sirius and XM Radio openly displayed on the shelves, and *no* HD
Radio receivers. It's sort of like, in spite of their best efforts, they
could not make satellite radio be more successful, but they're still
trying.

Promotion, as you well know, is a big factor in making a product
successful to teens and early 20 year olds. If Steve Jobs and the Best
Buys of the world had kept iPods carefully hidden away from the start,
they too might have had a hard time of it.

> I'll bet that when Bert went to Best Buy he was the only customer
> on the aisle looking at portable radios - there may have been a few
> customers in the car audio department.

I read very recently the reader responses to an online article, wherein
one of the responders was complaining bitterly at the FCC for not
allowing digital radio in the US. No products to look at is surely
responsible for at least some of this. It also doesn't help that in
their promotions, the radio stations have been calling it "HD Radio,"
instead of "digital radio." Ask the average guy on the street if he
understands what this "HD Radio" thing is. I think you'll be amazed. No
one seems to know.

> If they want to turn this thing around they should be begging Steve
> Jobs to add HD Radio to iPods and iPhones, and negotiating with the
> music industry to sell tracks via the HD radio service rather that
> fighting them tooth and nail to prevent the music industry from
> imposing a performance tax on broadcasters.

Aren't they already allowing songs to be indexed, for purchase later?

The chipset that allowed for portable HD Radios to be built, hopefully,
will see the digital receiver become a common offering in all manner of
low-cost AM/FM radios, without need for added fanfare. It's cheap, it
requires very little power, it's compatible with all global digital
radio standards (although not as implemented in my new toy, that I can
tell), and it performs every bit as well as my stereo component Sangean
HD Radio tuner.

Best Buy has the American TV consumer believe that in order to acquire a
PVR for time shift recording of TV shows, you need a subscription
service. Even the salespeople don't know better. They have been well
trained.

Bert
 
 
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