HD Radio on the iPhone? Yes, Indeed!

HD has been making its long-awaited first forays into the world of portable devices recently. Last July saw the release of the new model Microsoft Zune which was the first portable player with HD. In the meantime, clamoring has been heard across the Internet for HD on the iPhone. Well, my friends, today is your lucky day!

There is an app for that. Granted, it does require an external accessory, but the great thing is that HD has now come to the iPhone. For a quick demo done by iBiquity’s chief executive, Bob Struble, check out this video by The Wall Street Journal. I’ll wait here.

Nicely done. While I am not alone in wanting complete integration into the handset, this is a measure that will get us by until a future iPhone has it as a standard feature. Having HD accessibility like this would be fantastic for road trips, cross-country driving, and anything that might take you outside the range of wi-fi or a 3G data connection. Without those, streaming radio ceases to be an option.

Another wonderful thing here is the timing. With iBiquity and NPR Labs proposing a fourfold increase in HD signal strength to the FCC, there is a very good chance that the majority of reception issues will soon be a thing of the past. Combine that with the virtues of HD multicast content and things are looking rosy for HD!

Speaking of multicast options, tech writer Lauren Goode at the The Wall Street Journal mentions one segment of listeners in particular who will benefit:

Sports fans might also like what the app has to offer, since HD Radio allows users to tap into some team-specific channels through both AM and FM. Mr. Struble cites New Yorkers who have retired to Florida and are still able to listen to their favorite Yankees broadcasts as an example.

I’m not a sports fan myself, but I have just relocated across the country and can really see the value to someone living away from their longtime home.

I’m excited about this, and as an iPhone user, I am looking forward to trying it out!

Image: jamescridland / CC BY 2.0

NPR and iBiquity Join Forces to Boost HD Radio

HD Radio is a terrific medium that has had trouble getting momentum. One of the issues holding back progress has been the FCC-regulated power limitations, and the attendant reports of poor reception.

In a collaboration reminiscent of the “Super Hero Team-Ups” popular in comic books, NPR and iBiquity have joined forces to request that the FCC institute a fourfold increase in transmitting power for FM HD Radio. This is no small thing. More power means better reception, and better reception means more use of the medium. It could also play a crucial role in the realm of portable HD players, making them more reliable and, thus, a more attractive option to consumers.

Both commercial and noncommercial stations were included in the dialogue. The data from those talks and NPR Labs’ “Advanced IBOC Coverage and Compatibility Study,” filed this week with the FCC, formed the basis of the joint recommendation. In addition to the blanket power increase, NPR and iBiquity have made a commitment to add specific enhancements to HD Radio, which include  filling gaps in signal coverage creating broadcast standards that reduce the opportunity for interference with nearby non-digital stations.

RadioInk brings us the following quotes on the subject from NPR, iBiquity, and our colleagues over at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). My own commentary appears between the quotes.

“We are delighted that the radio industry is now poised to push this technology ahead together,” iBiquity President/CEO Bob Struble said. “We’ve found practical and balanced solutions that will greatly improve reception while limiting interference to existing analog operations.” [...]

Many fans of the medium will be thrilled at these improvements as they address issues frequently brought forth by critics of HD. In addition, I think we can all agree that improved reception is always a great thing when speaking of broadcast media.

NPR Labs Exec. Director Mike Starling said, “We are optimistic about the future of HD Radio broadcasting, and eager to continue to work with iBiquity on the developments that will make this power increase work to everyone’s advantage — stations, listeners, and receiver makers.” [...]

Having NPR behind this speaks volumes. They’ve been at the forefront of radio’s efforts to embrace Internet technology and social media for some time now. Having public radio involved in the continued evolution and development of HD, a very young form of radio, help to point up its status as an advancement in broadcast media.

NAB EVP Dennis Wharton said, “NAB is encouraged by this consensus agreement of iBiquity and NPR for optional increased digital power for FM HD Radio stations. We urge the FCC to move quickly and allow stations to operate at increased power according to the criteria in the agreement. This will result in greatly improved indoor reception for digital signals, including multicast signals, and pave the way for greater service reliability using portable HD Radio devices.”

As the first generation of portable HD receivers is currently on the market, reliability and reception are factors that will be of vital importance for market adoption.

This looks like another jump forwards for HD radio. Personally, I’m looking forward to it. I love the options offered by its multicast capabilities in particular. We shall see how the FCC receives this request and then I shall revisit the topic.

Image: iBiquity and NPR logs / Fair Use: reporting

Reps. Conaway and Green: Champions of Radio

There is a discussion of the Performance Rights Act (PRA) scheduled for November 17 on Capitol Hill.  Among the invited participants are National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) President/CEO Gordon Smith and Joint Board Chair/Commonwealth Broadcasting President/CEO Steve Newberry, as well as representatives of label-backed pro-royalties group musicFIRST.

Of course, there are two members of Congress not invited who would like to attend and add their own views to the mix: Reps. Mike Conaway (R-TX) (pictured) and Gene Green (D-TX). The two radio supporters  have penned a missive to  House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) asking to participate in the dialogue.

Here is an excerpt from that letter I found on RadioInk:

Green and Conaway write, “We are the lead sponsors of H. Con. Res. 49, the ‘Local Radio Freedom Act,’ a resolution supported by more than 250 of our House colleagues that opposes any new financial burdens on local radio broadcasters. We have serious concerns that legislation imposing a new royalty on local radio stations, particularly in this economic climate, will be tremendously harmful to radio stations and their employees, local communities that rely on radio, and recipients, such as charities and nonprofits, that receive free airtime for their causes.”

They go on to cite the inclusion of Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), a proponent of the new royalties, and other House members not currently on the judicial committee as a precedent for their inclusion. I’m sure that the recent Neilsen studies, showing that radio has a greater audience than the Internet, will add some fuel to the fire on both sides. The musicFIRST people will see an even bigger pot of gold to shoot for at the end of their legislative rainbow, while our side has more solid proof of the reach and value of airplay.

Just take a look at Business Insider’s Chart of the Day for a great visual representation of the numbers from the study. For more depth, there is also an interview on Media Life with Lorraine Hadfield, managing director of global radio measurement at The Nielsen Company, about “why radio remains ubiquitous, why listening is higher at work than at home, and why not everyone has an iPod.”

With newly verified data showing radio to reach 77%  of adult listeners (64% for the Internet), we have a clear illustration of how pervasive radio is. Our medium continues to hold the crown as the number one discovery mechanism for music, something the labels are well aware of.

Image: Mike Conaway / Public Domain: Govt.

Radio: Double Digit Growth and the Youth Demographic

Here is more verification of the fact that young listeners still use radio as their medium of choice, and by a large margin too! The Council for Research Excellence (CRE), funded by The Nielsen Company, recently released the results of their Video Consumer Mapping Study. Despite the fact that the study’s focus was TV, there is still a goldmine of info pertinent to the world of radio.

Radio Business Report (RBR) brings us a summation:

“What you find is a much more complex view of what’s going on with audio than we have been led to believe. It really seems like the young group – they tend to be more audiophiles. They’re really into their audio. So, it’s not that they abandoned radio, per se, but they essentially augment with some of these portable media/digital media devices,”[Michael] Link [Chief Methodologist at The Nielsen Company] told RBR-TVBR.

Up until now, there was no differentiation made between media usage of the Internet and the time spent using other software or email. As any modern computer user knows, there is a gulf of difference between the two.

To break it into simplest terms, here are the four tiers of audio media usage as determined by Mr. Link’s analysis of the study’s data:

1. broadcast & satellite radio (79.1% daily reach);
2. CDs and tapes (37.1% daily reach);
3. portable audio [iPods/MP3 players] ( 11.6% daily reach), digital audio stored on a computer such as music files downloaded or transferred to and played on a computer (10.4% daily reach), and digital audio streamed on a computer (9.3% daily reach);
4. audio on mobile phones (<2% daily reach).

Wow. Radio has a 67.5 % lead over iPods and MP3 players? I can see that. About 75% of the time I listen to music on my iPhone, I’m streaming a station rather than listening to a music file. This gets really interesting when you look at the projections made in another RBR/RBTV piece:

According to updated projections from SNL Kagan released Monday (Nov. 2), radio online revenue will grow by double digits this year to $441 million, a 12 percent increase over 2008.

In 2010, online radio will hit $530 million, a 20 percent gain. The segment will continue its double-digit growth pace hitting $827 million by 2013.

So kids these days are still listening to radio, albeit on a variety of platforms that only came into being in years. Those platforms — Internet in particular — are experiencing explosive growth in ad revenues. The positive advertising figures in particular are heartening, coming as they do at a point when the U.S. is still firmly in the grip of a serious recession.

Double digit growth is not a phrase we’ve heard much of in recent months…

Image: flattop341 / CC BY 2.0

Radio Surge In September

This past year has been one filled with apprehension and economic worry. Like most other businesses out there, radio has seen a marked slide in profitability while the economy reels. Now, according to Gilford Securities analyst Jim Boyle, there is good news for broadcasters.

Radio Business Report takes a look at his findings:

Radio revenues, it seems, were only down -14% in September, after spending most of the year in the minus twenties.

Boyle suggests that in a climate in which advertisers remain highly skittish, radio’s cost advantages, along with its offer of short schedule durations, is working in its favor and improving its results quicker than expected. And he suspects Entercom is particularly well-positioned to take advantage.

Yes, that’s right, a negative number is good news. It’s a small improvement, but it still represents a rough average of a 6% jump in the revenue stream. As the bad financial news continues to roll across the economic landscape, that small percentage swims against the prevailing currents like a salmon in the spawning season.

Friday Morning Quarterback brings us more of the micro picture:

Boyle also found more signs of improvement in September, noting that in the previous three months, “there was only a single market out of nearly 50 that had revenue off [by] single-digits.” In September, nine markets’ revenue was “merely off single-digits.”

I’d be willing to bet that to the other eight stations mentioned above, this news is anything but small.

These days, everyone is hurting:  individuals, corporate conglomerates, small businesses, etc. The financial travails that broadcast has suffered are not limited to our industry, but rather affect every business and person in the nation. In the face of such mammoth financial worries, that small 6%, which represents millions of dollars, is important both to the bottom line and to morale.

Mr. Boyle is correct in his assessment of radio strengths in the face of the downturn. I’ve commented on these strengths myself in prior postings. The relatively low-cost compared to other advertising platforms radio becomes and easier line item in the budget to justify.  As advertisers watch every penny, the cost factor combined with the massive reach of the medium present a lovely combination.

With each tentative step on the road out of recession more companies will be looking at the most cost-effective means of promoting their products and services. Radio will be ready to help.

Image:joeltelling / CC BY-SA 2.0

Briefcase Broadcasting: The Smallest FM Station Ever

Picture if you will a radio station that can fit in a briefcase. Sounds like something out of The Jetsons, doesn’t it? It’s not. As a matter of fact, the first 30 of them are already deployed to Ghana, the Togolese Republic, and Nigeria. Welcome to the world of portable broadcasting!

The Wantox FM Station seems to be an impressive device. Weighing in at 18 kilograms, it is miniscule when compared to the rooms full of gear one usually thinks of when visualizing a radio station.  Now, just to be clear: there are comparable radio devices already in existence, mostly in use by various military and field organization, but this one has been engineered to be more compact and more cost-effective. The latter in particular is highly important in the Third World environments in which it is to be used.

Peter Onguti, a Kenyan born Canadian, is the mind behind this portable wonder. The idea came as the result of discovering just how expensive it is to set up a full radio station.

Via The Standard (Nairobi):

“I was shocked when I learnt that for an investor to set up a radio station one had to part with a minimum of Sh5 million [Somali Shilling] just to buy equipment,” he says.

After flying back to Canada, he interested his partners into coming up with a small, and cost-effective radio station kit for a growing broadcast market.

“Two engineers, Ron Robins and Yves Maynard took more than two years to come up with a prototype of a small radio station,” Onguti says.

[...] Onguti says the station, Conexe Inc, is suited for Africa and the Third World as it is cost-effective, easy to install and can be powered by solar, electricity and even a car battery.

Portability combined with low-cost and ease of use. That’s a powerful trio of characteristics. In addition, the unit has five separate input channels so that one can plug a laptop, CD player, or iPod directly into it. It also includes five tape recorder player mics and a telephone hookup that allows it to broadcast phone-in programming.  While the baseline unit only has a range of about 30 miles, there is another slightly bulkier one that boasts a 100-mile range and Onguti says they are working on one whose broadcast radius should cover the nation.  Onguti has certainly set his eye upon rebooting broadcast, and not just radio either. His company, Conexe Inc., is also working on a similar briefcase-sized TV station.

I can see this being effective not only in the Third World, but also in disaster zones, war zones, and a wide variety of situations.  Another thing to consider is how this will affect the radio landscape beyond the Third World. Many of the most ubiquitous and substantive changes of recent decades have centered around portability and shrinking size.  One only has to look at the way smart phones have changed the listening landscape to see that. I’m curious to see what effect portable stations have as they become more common and financially accessible.

Share your speculations with us. What do you think will be the ramifications as this device mainstreams?

Image: collinj / CC BY 2.0

CMJ Songwriters: Radio More Important Now

College Music Journal (CMJ) recently held its annual shindig in New York City, the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival.  It’s a well-known event that usually focuses on new and breaking music and industry developments. This year, it seems that radio is getting some well deserved recognition.

There was a panel at the event called “The Path of a Hit Song.” While all sorts of promotional vehicles were mentioned ranging from MySpace, viral marketing, online video and television commercials there was a consensus among panelists that the way to have a hit is to “get it on the radio.”

Glenn Gamboa at Newsday brings us the skinny (bolded emphasis is my own, FYI):

Songwriter Nina Ossoff, who has worked on songs for Daughtry and Phil Stacey, says because declining sales have hurt everyone in the industry, she now has to “deal in volume,” trying to get as many songs placed wherever she can to make up for lower sales and a lack of radio exposure. [...]

“Radio’s become more important because of what has happened,” said David Katz, half of the production-songwriting team S*A*M and Sluggo, responsible for recent hits from Boys Like Girls, The Academy Is . . . , and Metro Station. “The hit song’s become a more important medium because no one buys albums any more.”

Mr. Katz’s comment really made me sit up and think. I still tend to buy complete albums/CDs when purchasing music, but then again, I also still have a huge stack of vinyl LPs along with my overflowing hard drive full of digitized tunes. Many these days do not. It’s easy to hop on Amazon or iTunes and buy just the one track that appeals to you and call it a day. Viewed from that perspective, their assertion that radio is even more important now makes perfect sense.

Radio is still one of the most universally accessible media types, crossing all socio-economic boundaries, all racial and ethnic divides, and penetrating all levels and aspects of society. Radio is the “hit maker,” even in this age of social media. It reaches those without Internet access as easily as those online, and the only learning needed to use it is the ability to hit the “on” switch and fiddle with the tuner.

Did you go to CMJ this year? Did you attend the panel? If so, leave us a comment here; we would love to know your thoughts!

Image: CMJ 09 Logo / Public Domain: Reporting

Local Radio Freeedom Act: You’ve Got Mail!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) were the recipients of a letter recently. It was handcrafted by Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and John Barrasso (R-WY), co-sponsors of the Senate version of the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA).

The LRFA is a response to the Performance Rights Act (PRA) currently working its way across Capitol Hill. Where the PRA wishes to impose additional royalty fees upon broadcasters, the LRFA seeks to keep them from being enacted.

John Lyon at Arkansas News provides an excerpt from the letter, in italics below:

“We believe that artists and their labels are currently more than fairly compensated by local radio stations in the form of free and unparalleled promotion. Free radio reaches over 235 million potential music consumers each week,” the letter said.

“These listeners hear a song on the radio and then go on to purchase CDs and music downloads, buy concert tickets and purchase other merchandise that goes directly to the artists and their labels.”

Radio’s unparalleled reach has launched the careers of almost every musical name of note, taking small local or regional acts and putting them before larger and larger audiences. In addition, the labels themselves would be keeping more than half of the collected fees rather than the artists.

Lincoln and Barrasso argued that in the current economic climate, new fees would be devastating to radio stations. More than 265 stations have gone off the air in just over a year, and more would go out of business or switch to all-talk formats if the Performance Rights Act were to become law, they said.

I’d like to point out the additional danger, one that is quite tangible to most musicians. Many stations, unwilling or unable to pay additional royalties, will only play the “safe” or established tunes, the ones “with a track record.” We could miss the next generation’s Elvis because no one wants to take the risk.

“Further, should this fee be imposed on free radio, it is only a matter of time before other businesses such as restaurants, bars, taxi cabs and hotels are forced to pay for their use of music,” Lincoln and Barrasso wrote.

Think about your average week. Think about how often radio intersects your day, directly or in an ambient fashion. Now imagine that content gone. Gone, or switched entirely to talk. Cab rides become more boring, construction sites merely ring with the sound of hammers, road trips with the same few CDs over and over again. Think about it.

Radio Business Report chimed in on one aspect of this that regular readers know is important to me on a personal level, possible consequences during disasters:

Among the ill effects would be damaging the ability of broadcasters to respond to the challenge in times of emergency – especially when wires are knocked down or otherwise disabled and over-the-air broadcasting becomes the only way to get critical emergency information to the masses.

If we suffer a rash of radio closures because of the PRA, that would leave places like my home town of New Orleans in a bad spot come hurricane season (or its equivalent). I know what it’s like to rely on a radio for info in a disaster zone. Trust me, this one aspect is vital.

Noting the widespread support in the Senate, they concluded, “This legislation clearly evokes strong opposition that transcends party affiliation. As leaders of our two parties, we ask that you oppose any effort to move this bill, either as a stand alone measure or as part of a broader legislative package.”

A sentiment I echo, especially the last part. Unpopular bills often get passed by tacking them on to legislation that is considered “vital.” I hope that Lincoln and Boasso maintain vigilance against this sort of politicking and prevent it.

Image: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Official Senate Photo / Public Domain: Govt.

Crowdsourced Radio Goes National in US, Australia

Some of our readers might recall a post I did in late June of this year about an experiment in applying social media-based tactics to broadcast radio. Jelli started off purely online as a service similar to Digg, which allows users to vote news stories “up” or “down” in order to determine what hits their front page, but applied to music rather than news stories. Listeners are able to access the playlists on the Jelli website and their voting is what determines which songs make it to the air.

Jelli  brought its online/user-driven playlist approach to San Francisco’s LIVE 105 KITS-FM last June and the intervening months have seen it become such a success (30-40% increase) that the company has now brokered a deal with Triton Media Group. This is no small feat as Triton is the content provider for over 45,000 radio stations across the United States.

One cannot deny the popularity of user-controlled media, something proven successful on the Internet for several years now. Of course, we can also look at the evolution of websites like Digg to see some possible pitfalls. There will always be those who try to “game” the system, co-opting it in ways that subvert the normal processes.

To their credit, the folks at Jelli seem to have put a lot of thought into this and already have some plans in place to defuse such possibilities. They are taking a page from that other massively popular online pastime: video games. The more users participate, the more opportunity they will have to “power up” their choices like a video game character with “rockets” and “bombs.”

Josh Lowensohn at C|Net News takes a look at their interactivity:

[...] Jelli continues to work on are countermeasures to keep a group of users from completely dominating the listening experience. For instance, each user is given a limited number of “rockets” and “bombs” each day. Rockets let you jump your song, or someone else’s to the head of the queue to give it a chance at playing next. To even those out, bombs (which are given out a little more sparingly) are able to wipe the score of any queued track to zero, which can keep it from making it on air if users don’t vote it back up.

That’s not the end of the game-like experience though. In a call with CNET News on Monday, Jelli CEO and co-founder Mike Dougherty (who was previously TellMe’s VP of biz dev) told me that the bombs and rockets were just the tip of the iceberg and that other gaming “power ups” and ways to earn them were coming shortly but could not give specifics on what they would do.

Now, I am a rarity, a computer geek that does not play video games, but I do know a lot of people who do. Gaming is huge, as sales of units like the Playstation and the Wii easily prove. By adopting familiar mechanics from gaming as well as from social media, Jelli is keying in to behavior patterns that are already entrenched in the vast majority of Internet users.  This familiarity creates ease of adoption and ease of use, two things crucial in maintaining and growing a user base.

I’m really excited to see how this is coming together. It was a mere four months ago that Jelli first brought its music from the Internet to the air waves. Four months and now they are about to be broadcast across the nation (and seemingly in Australia as well). I think that is an unqualified radio success story!

So, what does a radio station have to do in order to integrate Jelli? And what’s the time frame for its roll out? When will Jelli be on-air nationwide? And what about Australia? When will it be available down under? Eliot Van Buskirk at Wired has the answers:

Jelli is now officially in beta. Triton-affiliated stations across the country can choose to install the Jelli server, which sits between into the internet and the station’s live-to-air audio signal path, to run their own customized service, or subscribe to one of two syndicated, cross-country shows, Top 40 Jelli and Rock Jelli. The company expects the first of these to be up and running in January in the U.S., and is also launching in Australia through its partner there, Austereo.

I predicted that this could be big, but I must admit to being stunned to see this explosion of growth.

What are your thoughts on this innovative fusion of broadcast, social media and video game techniques? Let us know here in the comments or on our Facebook Page!

Image: Jelli logo / Fair Use: reporting

Rumor Mill: Apple Developing FM Radio App for iPhone?

Okay, so, the most interesting tidbit of FM news coming out of the mobile device market recently has been the launch of Apple’s new version of the iPod Nano with its nifty integrated tuner. Fantastic stuff, and long overdue in my opinion. Still, it’s no secret that the iPhone and iPod Touch (or iTouch, as some call it) rule the roost when it comes to mobile. They also have access to the clear and present game changer: The App Store and direct iTunes access.

Now numerous websites have dissected the new iPhones and found that they do contain the hardware to receive FM. It is contained in their chipset, but is just not activated at this point. Speculation tends to run towards the idea that they are working on getting integrated tagging to work with iTunes Store. Then, in the classic words of The Who, we’re “Going Mobile!“

Chris Maxcer at MacWorldNews comments on the need for a mobile iTunes store gateway, such as the one provided by the iPhone/iPod Touch, when coupled with FM in his recent column:

With an instant method for buying a new tune, I gotta believe a lot more people will buy a song while on the go — and while this most likely won’t happen while driving in a car already equipped with an FM radio, there’s always buying from the seat of a recumbent exercise bike at the local gym. Not only is this an instant sale for Apple and the artists, but it also has the tidy side effect of teaching consumers to buy songs while on the go through their mobile device.

And that is the reason this rumor is so compelling. The logic of the situation makes it a total win for Apple as they capitalize on the “free discovery” aspect of broadcast radio. Impulse buys and opt-ins are steadily being proven to generate more revenue that subscription models, part of the overall change in the business model that Internet and mobile tech is bringing about.

In simplest terms, as Mr. Maxcer said:

Apple’s move will better connect me to music, which will connect me to the store, which will connect me to buy.

We live in the age of access and immediate gratification. Apple has already proven that they are well aware of this and willing to cater to these qualities, and usually they do so pretty well. If this rumor turns out to be true, then they will have upped the quotient of both for their user base. If we are lucky, they will do it in time for the holidays.

Image: rbitting / CC BY 2.0