[IRCA] Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig
From: http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com HD on QVC -- Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig You've got to hand it to iBiquity, the firm that brought you HD radio over ten years too late and shrewd enough to copyright the term HD while at the same time saying it doesn't really mean high definition. As the saying goes, you can't put lipstick on a pig, but somehow, iBiquity has managed to get QVC to sell HD radios to its vast home shopping network audience. Hope QVC has better luck than Radio Shack, Best Buy and Wal-Mart selling these empty radios. Hey, whatever happened to that hype? You can't easily find an HD radio in those stores let alone a young salesperson to close the sale. Maybe QVC viewers can buy George Foreman's grill along with their HD radios so that they can cook this pig because there are going to be a lot of unhappy customers out there once they plug it in. In case you haven't heard HD Radio broadcasting is sweeping the country according to iBiquity's web site. Did you know that HD is available to over 80 percent of the population. More than 1,500 AM/FM stations are currently offering subscription free digital content, including more than 600 HD2 multicast stations offering unique formats and content. Wow, such a deal. Let me guess. You need to buy a new expensive radio, right? Here's what iBiquity says, All a consumer needs is a new HD Radio receiver; the content is free. The radios are priced for everyone from under $100 from major mass-market retailers across the U.S. Virtually everyone can experience the crystal-clear digital sound on AM and FM as well as the broadcast-exclusive new FM channels. Those under $100 models must really sound good. iBiquity seems to have left out the expensive $400 models. Just an oversight, I guess. This roast pig is getting me sick to my stomach. While some radio broadcasters are holding out hope that HD will energize the declining radio industry, others are apparently thinking about their options -- including unplugging their HD hardware and moving on to a solution that actually holds promise -- say, the Internet. Let's imagine how QVC's customers are going to feel when they unpack their HD radios and plug them in for the first time: 1. Where's the beef? (Sorry, this is a pig -- where's the pork?). Where's all that exciting programming I was told would make the purchase price all worthwhile? Do they file a class action suit, return the radios for a refund or use their new less than $100 HD radios as antiques? 2. Where's the fidelity? K-Fed had more fidelity when he was married to Britney than HD radio has now. Yes, it's better, but no -- not that much better. A Bose it's not. Satellite radio it's not. It's just not. 3. When do these consumers figure out that you get what you pay for -- HD radio content is free. Radio companies are waiting for them to buy millions of new radios before they spend their precious money on new programming. Maybe this HD-QVC marketing marriage will backfire and help sell satellite radios. At least satellite sounds better, comes in cars and has hundreds of millions of dollars of programming built into it. 4. Oh, and where's the unique formats and content. I'm telling you, maybe I've been hanging around the record industry too long but lawsuits would be flying for misrepresenting the product. Yes, I have been blinded by the Big Four labels. (It appears the RIAA is going to take a class action suit that could paralyze its efforts to sue the pants off music pirates -- if successful. I've got to stop thinking like a lawyer and start thinking like the lowly program director that I have been proud to be). HD subchannels are really nothing that radio PDs can't program. They have lots of ideas. Unfortunately, few companies are listening to their ideas for the main terrestrial channels. That's why radio programming sucks. It's that simple. Selling HD radios to consumers at this point is like selling a potion from Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show as a cure for disease. HD is a disease. At best, it's an engineering work around for analog radio. At worst, HD gives false hope that listeners will actually float radio owners by buying the expensive equipment to receive a digital signal with precious little content attached. This is nuts. Steve Jobs wouldn't expect his customers to buy an iPod without offering a vast music library to make the device a worthy investment. By the way, a competitor of Apple, Spiral Frog, just launched its run at iTunes that must be directly out of the pages of the HD playbook: Spiral Frog's music is free, but you can't share it. You have to wait 90 seconds for the first download. Have to sign-up and re-sign up monthly. It only works on Windows. Can't be heard on an iPod and, oh, did I mention that only one of the big four labels is contributing music to that pig -- I mean frog. Another pig you can't put
Re: [IRCA] Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig
Karl, I would expect Ibiguity to pull out all of the stops, but QVC? So many people are glued to these shopping channels. You know many who buy the radios will not return them even if they don't work, being mail order and having to pay the postage. 80% of the market? I would differ with that statement. Of course the big push is FM IBOC, not AM. I have an idea there is a lot more IBOC on FM in the marketplace than AM and probably always will be. Maybe some poor souls will be lucky to get an HD FM signal, but with the better quality of FM anyway, the general public may not even realize the difference between FM analog and FM IBOC. Patrick Patrick Martin KAVT Reception Manager ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig
I couldn't agree with you more, Karl. What a waste of time and money. This will be the first time I have watched QVC since I first got cable in the '1980s. I will even have to search to find what channel QVC is on my cable box. I wouldn't miss this for anything. It will be fascinating to see how they will promote HD radio. let's see! buy a radio that has formats that were rejected by regular over the air radio because they didn't make money. Yeah, that's it. How will they demonstrate the so called better quality signal when many of the receivers are inferior in quality and performance. This should be good. One other thing, didn't the HD Radio Alliance promote this as technology for a younger audience when they first began marketing HD? Doesn't QVC attract an older group of people than they want to approach to buy the radios? Another example where they talk out of both sides of their mouth. Larry Stoler - Original Message - From: Karl J. Zuk [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: irca@hard-core-dx.com Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 4:56 AM Subject: [IRCA] Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig From: http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com HD on QVC -- Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig You've got to hand it to iBiquity, the firm that brought you HD radio over ten years too late and shrewd enough to copyright the term HD while at the same time saying it doesn't really mean high definition. As the saying goes, you can't put lipstick on a pig, but somehow, iBiquity has managed to get QVC to sell HD radios to its vast home shopping network audience. Hope QVC has better luck than Radio Shack, Best Buy and Wal-Mart selling these empty radios. Hey, whatever happened to that hype? You can't easily find an HD radio in those stores let alone a young salesperson to close the sale. Maybe QVC viewers can buy George Foreman's grill along with their HD radios so that they can cook this pig because there are going to be a lot of unhappy customers out there once they plug it in. In case you haven't heard HD Radio broadcasting is sweeping the country according to iBiquity's web site. Did you know that HD is available to over 80 percent of the population. More than 1,500 AM/FM stations are currently offering subscription free digital content, including more than 600 HD2 multicast stations offering unique formats and content. Wow, such a deal. Let me guess. You need to buy a new expensive radio, right? Here's what iBiquity says, All a consumer needs is a new HD Radio receiver; the content is free. The radios are priced for everyone from under $100 from major mass-market retailers across the U.S. Virtually everyone can experience the crystal-clear digital sound on AM and FM as well as the broadcast-exclusive new FM channels. Those under $100 models must really sound good. iBiquity seems to have left out the expensive $400 models. Just an oversight, I guess. This roast pig is getting me sick to my stomach. While some radio broadcasters are holding out hope that HD will energize the declining radio industry, others are apparently thinking about their options -- including unplugging their HD hardware and moving on to a solution that actually holds promise -- say, the Internet. Let's imagine how QVC's customers are going to feel when they unpack their HD radios and plug them in for the first time: 1. Where's the beef? (Sorry, this is a pig -- where's the pork?). Where's all that exciting programming I was told would make the purchase price all worthwhile? Do they file a class action suit, return the radios for a refund or use their new less than $100 HD radios as antiques? 2. Where's the fidelity? K-Fed had more fidelity when he was married to Britney than HD radio has now. Yes, it's better, but no -- not that much better. A Bose it's not. Satellite radio it's not. It's just not. 3. When do these consumers figure out that you get what you pay for -- HD radio content is free. Radio companies are waiting for them to buy millions of new radios before they spend their precious money on new programming. Maybe this HD-QVC marketing marriage will backfire and help sell satellite radios. At least satellite sounds better, comes in cars and has hundreds of millions of dollars of programming built into it. 4. Oh, and where's the unique formats and content. I'm telling you, maybe I've been hanging around the record industry too long but lawsuits would be flying for misrepresenting the product. Yes, I have been blinded by the Big Four labels. (It appears the RIAA is going to take a class action suit that could paralyze its efforts to sue the pants off music pirates -- if successful. I've got to stop thinking like a lawyer and start thinking like the lowly program director that I have been proud to be). HD subchannels are really nothing that radio PDs can't program. They have lots of ideas. Unfortunately, few companies are listening to their ideas for the main terrestrial channels. That's why radio
Re: [IRCA] Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig
To make things worse, my understanding is that the AM antennas supplied with these units are the ineffective 4-inch, 5 turn loops you get with any general stereo system. The lack of signal coming through these antennas, plus the relative paucity of HD stations on AM (as compared to FM), may lead most buyers to simply ignore the fact that there is such a thing as AM-HD. For instance, if anyone here in the Seattle area buys a unit from QVC, the nearest HD signals on AM are a sports station on 850 hkz, 30 miles away, with 1 kW at night (that is stomped on by KOA in Denver) and a poorly-engineered, generic talk blowtorch some 200 miles away (KEX Portland) that probably won't decode anyway. There simply isn't much decodable HD to listen to around here, even if you have a Quantum Loop. Once arbitron ratings come out for AM stations, and they realize how few people are actually listening to their signal in HD, I would hope that non-HD stations will think twice about investing in it themselves. Kevin S. Bainbridge Island, WA I couldn't agree with you more, Karl. What a waste of time and money. This will be the first time I have watched QVC since I first got cable in the '1980s. I will even have to search to find what channel QVC is on my cable box. I wouldn't miss this for anything. It will be fascinating to see how they will promote HD radio. let's see! buy a radio that has formats that were rejected by regular over the air radio because they didn't make money. Yeah, that's it. How will they demonstrate the so called better quality signal when many of the receivers are inferior in quality and performance. This should be good. One other thing, didn't the HD Radio Alliance promote this as technology for a younger audience when they first began marketing HD? Doesn't QVC attract an older group of people than they want to approach to buy the radios? Another example where they talk out of both sides of their mouth. Larry Stoler - Original Message - From: Karl J. Zuk [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: irca@hard-core-dx.com Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 4:56 AM Subject: [IRCA] Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig From: http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com HD on QVC -- Lipstick on a (Roast) Pig You've got to hand it to iBiquity, the firm that brought you HD radio over ten years too late and shrewd enough to copyright the term HD while at the same time saying it doesn't really mean high definition. As the saying goes, you can't put lipstick on a pig, but somehow, iBiquity has managed to get QVC to sell HD radios to its vast home shopping network audience. Hope QVC has better luck than Radio Shack, Best Buy and Wal-Mart selling these empty radios. Hey, whatever happened to that hype? You can't easily find an HD radio in those stores let alone a young salesperson to close the sale. Maybe QVC viewers can buy George Foreman's grill along with their HD radios so that they can cook this pig because there are going to be a lot of unhappy customers out there once they plug it in. In case you haven't heard HD Radio broadcasting is sweeping the country according to iBiquity's web site. Did you know that HD is available to over 80 percent of the population. More than 1,500 AM/FM stations are currently offering subscription free digital content, including more than 600 HD2 multicast stations offering unique formats and content. Wow, such a deal. Let me guess. You need to buy a new expensive radio, right? Here's what iBiquity says, All a consumer needs is a new HD Radio receiver; the content is free. The radios are priced for everyone from under $100 from major mass-market retailers across the U.S. Virtually everyone can experience the crystal-clear digital sound on AM and FM as well as the broadcast-exclusive new FM channels. Those under $100 models must really sound good. iBiquity seems to have left out the expensive $400 models. Just an oversight, I guess. This roast pig is getting me sick to my stomach. While some radio broadcasters are holding out hope that HD will energize the declining radio industry, others are apparently thinking about their options -- including unplugging their HD hardware and moving on to a solution that actually holds promise -- say, the Internet. Let's imagine how QVC's customers are going to feel when they unpack their HD radios and plug them in for the first time: 1. Where's the beef? (Sorry, this is a pig -- where's the pork?). Where's all that exciting programming I was told would make the purchase price all worthwhile? Do they file a class action suit, return the radios for a refund or use their new less than $100 HD radios as antiques? 2. Where's the fidelity? K-Fed had more fidelity when he was married to Britney than HD radio has now. Yes, it's better, but no -- not that much better. A Bose it's not. Satellite radio it's not. It's just not. 3. When do these consumers figure out that you
