I’ve told you about the changes coming up at WGCU in Fort Myers, Fla., where classical music will soon be moved to a channel available only on digital radios. WGCU’s classical channel will air Classical 24, the nationally distributed satellite feed produced by American Public Media. Other public stations have taken similar approaches, filling their digital channels with Classical 24, Classical Public Radio Network (when it was still on the air), or other 24/7 formats such as rock or electronica.
Over at the Edison Media Research blog, Tom Webster suggests that radio programmers should give their HD streams a little more thought, especially if they hope to give consumers any real incentive to buy new HD Radios. His focus is on commercial radio, but the advice applies to public stations as well.
The answer for side channels is not to replicate online jukeboxes (how many of them are really successful, anyway?) but to build unique brands that generate true passion.
The solution is not a programming issue but an HR strategy issue. Building those brands takes the time, resources and energy of radio’s fantastically talented programmers and creative staff—all of which they don’t have, because many are already programming 3-5 broadcast stations. So often the HD-2 channel gets relegated to the back burner. It’s simple math, really—if a programmer spends 40+ hours a week making their broadcast programming compelling, what makes the radio industry think we can toss off HD-2 channels over lunch breaks?
Read the full post here.
I agree, but programmers have their work cut out for them. Programming on multicast channels will have to be mighty compelling to drive purchases of brand-new radios. As has been noted ad infinitum, consumers have such a wide range of choices for music programming today. What could stations provide on their HD multicast channels that can’t be found anywhere else, and that would inspire significant numbers of people to shell out at least $100 for a digital receiver?
One strategy for classical stations may be to superserve audiences who are particularly excited about certain niches and are desperate for more. Example: WAMU, the public news/talk station in Washington, D.C., which offers an all-bluegrass channel (with live hosting, no less) on one of its multicast channels. WAMU used to carry bluegrass on its primary analog signal but replaced it with other programming in recent years. It launched the all-bluegrass channel as an Internet stream, BluegrassCountry.org, in 2001 when it made the first of its cuts to the on-air bluegrass. The Web stream therefore had time to build up an online brand and following before debuting as an HD channel.
The analogue for a classical station would be to program, say, an all-opera channel, or an all-new-music channel, and offer it on HD. These are niche formats that may be poorly represented among Web streams. Opera fans in particular are renowned among public radio programmers for their devotion (just ask those program directors held responsible for canceling weekend broadcasts of the Met!).
WNYC offers its all-music WNYC2 as a digital channel in addition to an online stream. KBIA-FM, a dual-format news/classical station in Columbia, Mo., uses one of its HD channels to counter-program its primary program lineup. KBIA2 features classical when KBIA is airing news, and vice versa. Roger Karkowski, the station’s assistant manager/director of engineering, described the station’s HD strategy last month in an article for Radio World. He said that about 40 percent of the station’s listeners who have received HD radios from the station in exchange for pledges are enthusiastic about hearing the classical programming, including the additional opera available. KBIA’s experience confirms Tom Webster’s views:
Comments we get from our HD-R listeners (and online listeners) confirm the importance of not promoting HD Radios; we promote what people want — the additional programming that the radio delivers to them.
Our on-air promotions and pledge drive pitches stress the new programming they can receive. For the past six months, every piece of mail we have sent out to our listeners has included a program grid showing the content that’s available to them either online or with an HD Radio.
Why are people pledging for HD Radios? Content, content, content!
What are they excited about when they get a chance to experience it? Content, content, content!
If you’re a listener to classical radio, what programming would most compel you to buy a digital radio? And if you’re a programmer, what are you offering now on your multicast channels?
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“The satellite merger undermines public radio.”
“There’s apparently an olive branch in Friday’s decision – the Wall Street Journal’s Amy Schatz says the FCC will issue a Notice of Inquiry about whether future satellite radio receivers should carry HD circuitry, so they can pick up local HD signals. Not analog signals, just the digital signals, which would theoretically spur more stations to think about going HD.”
http://tinyurl.com/5pa7cf
“Ibiquity Fears Open Access Will Not Help Adoption Of HD Radio”
“I have said it before, and I will say it again. HD Radio has a responsibility to market itself. They should not be out looking for business model hand-outs. They should not be trying to circumvent negotiations with OEM’s by getting into car dashboards on the backs of the negotiations that Sirius and XM have made, and by extension, on the backs of shareholders in the SDARS companies.”
http://tinyurl.com/6pgnq2
Should the FCC mandate that all HD radios include Satrad? What is really happening is that iBiquity/Struble knows that consumers don’t want their junk technology, which doesn’t even work, so they try and force it onto consumers. Now, NPR wants to revisit the issue, even after open access has already been agreed upon, and exclude analog radio in satrad receviers. I hope that this request spurs non-HD broadcasters to join Bob Savage of WYSL in his fight against this destuctive jamming technology. Of course, it is the NPR stations, which bilked Congress out of millions, who want to jam the smaller broadcasters off the dial. The FCC, when they authorized this jamming machine, declared that the marketplace would determine the fate of HD Radio.
Two years or so ago, WKSU launched two online streams to compliment the stream of the station’s on-air broadcast signal – one all news and information, the other all classical (with Classical 24 alternating with station-produced hours). To the surprise of some, although streaming is still not at a very high level, classical far outpaced the news content. So, when WKSU added two HD side channels last month, one went to classical (when many assumed the news stream would get the slot). The other channel is WKSU’s Folk Alley, which offers a mix of traditional and contemporary folk, world and acoustic music and launched online about the same time as Bluegrass Country. Folk Alley has been picked up by a couple of other stations as well.
But all has not been without controversy. A blog post by our GM was met with heated discussion on the value and cost of HD and the real question may be HD vs. online radio as more and more cars are equipped for WIFI.
I am a member of WNYC and a heavy user of wnyc2 as a web stream. Absolutely nothing would get me to buy an HD radio, as I have four computers on which to listen.
I believe that pushing stand alone HD radios is ill-considered. Most people who are going to be interested in classical music have computers. I don’t even believe the business about the listeners to that Florida university’s station. It is in a university town. University people have computers.
Go into your local big box electronics store and ask where they have HD radios. My experience was that they send you to the section where they sell car radios. I tried Best Buy and Circuit City, just as a matter of research.
Richard: One could argue that, at least for now, HD Radio has a slight edge because there are models for cars, whereas we’re not yet able to listen to Internet stations while driving. Actually, I guess now people can plug iPhones and the like into their car stereos, right?
I’ve heard lots of stories that echo your experience asking for HD radios. The radio industry has tried to fix that problem with an educational campaign for sales clerks, but it sounds like they have a ways to go yet.
Mike-
Thanks for your comments. I understand that from the service side-PubRadio being a service- HD radio looks different than it does from my side. I realize that cars look like a big potential market for HD radio, what with internet radio in cars being probably way way off.
But, and I am going to blow my WNYC horn again, I think that WNYC realizes and understands the power of the internet, the global reach for listener ears and member dollars. What has been done on wnyc2 in programming is nothing short of a huge gamble which seems to be paying off, or so they tell me. And, wnyc2 should be a beacon of light unto the nations: do something different, get away from the same old same old. George Preston and Brad Cresswell have done it with an incredibly tasteful mix of very new and very old music, everything from Osvaldo Golijov on back to Harry Partch and Conlon Nancarrow.
One of the best measures of this is that the same influence has been brought to the WNYC-FM Evening Music broadcasts, because that programming is also streamed in mp3 at 128kbits.
And, wnyc2 is nothing like C.P.R.N. or Classical 24.
What I am saying is that the real potential today in internet listening in homes and offices, all over the world, twenty-four hours a day.
The lesson here is not new music. The lesson is to figure out something to do that others are not doing. It’s not that hard. There is not much intelligent competition.
I have spouted off enough, I am going to shut up for a while.
Thanks.
Interesting. This makes me wonder whether WNYC could syndicate via satellite its WNYC2 feed to allow other stations around the country to carry it on their HD channels. WXPN in Philadelphia does something similar with a Triple A-formatted stream, XPoNential Radio. I wonder what would be stopping WNYC. Actually, I think NPR helps out with WXPN’s channel. Perhaps marketing or satellite-time costs are a hindrance.
NPR is also distributing Folk Alley as HD side channel content. I’m not sure what broadcasters they have in their stables for classical format.
As far as everyone having computers, I’m sure we can all agree that the classical audience runs older – and they are the last to adapt to new technology. Even if they have computers, figuring out how to stream music and hooking up decent speakers to get the best sound out of an 128KB MP3 stream. And, many people who have computers at work are not (or no longer) able to stream music in their workplace. We’ve had a lot of people write us at FolkAlley.com to say that their employers have blocked listening. No matter what HD does, it doesn’t cost the broadcasters – and employers – streaming costs.
Ann: I’m guessing NPR does not have a classical HD channel now. They were distributing CPRN at one point, before it signed off.
Re the blocked listening, amazing! Another reason that I’m glad I’m a freelancer. 🙂 So how much does streaming cost a station these days?