David Lee Roth has done an absolutely phenominal job at promoting satellite radio. Losing over 75% of his audience in one month, he's proven to those who were on the fence that terrestrial just has NOTHING to offer the radio world. Infinity/CBS Radio had 14 months to find a decent replacement for Howard Stern, and this is what they came up with.

Great job guys. Brilliant move.

While Big Radio execs swoon over the comScore Arbtiron report that there are over 7 million now listening to radio online, they continue to shrug away the 9.2 million Satellite Radio subscribers that're driving around listening to high-quality content. Online radio is fine and dandy, but wake me up when that nationwide WiFi thing actually happens.

Still technology isn't the point. It's all about content, and it's summed up right here:

Clearly, whether those who occupy the executive suites at major broadcast groups admit it or not, there is a growing flight to the new forms of radio. [...] Now we have a wave of people choosing - repeat, choosing - other audio sources. [...] If ever there was a time for broadcasters to start cutting loose with creative programs, it is now. [...] If not, next year you'll read how comScore and satrad report thirty million listeners.

Snippets of wisedom taken from Audiographics... well said Ken!

Just to add a bit to yesterday's "HD Radio" is not really "HD" - apparently "Free FM" isn't really meant to be "free" afterall. CBS Radio (formally Infinity) officials deny that "free" is a reference to cost, but rather to the spirit of its content, as in "free form" or "free for all."

Blech.

Audiographics has an incredibly poignant article on the Radio Industry's own doubts about HD Radio. HD Radio, as you might recall, is terrestrial radio's retort to Satellite Radio. Their tactical approach to countering technology with technology, rather than fixing the root of the problem. See, we all know it's not the technology that makes the service unique - and apparently so do the suits sitting over there at the HD Radio Alliance:

"I'm probably not as excited about HD radio as others have been," said Judy Ellis, chief operating officer for Citadel Broadcasting. "I fear that HD is more for Wall Street than for consumers."

If you want to get an idea of how lost and confused the radio industry is, just look at the name "HD Radio" itself. Fact is, the "HD" in HD Radio doesn't actually stand for "high definition" at all.

"Quite honestly, it doesn't stand for anything," said Peter Ferrera, president and CEO of the HD Digital Radio Alliance. "The concept was somewhat of a steal from HD television, where viewers know it means better quality."

That's a great idea. I think Volkswagon should rename their diesel vehicles to "hybrid" vehicles - because afterall they both get high gas mileage

Thanks tim! 

Ok ok, so maybe that's a slightly misleading headline, but a little horn tooting is in order. On yesterday's Howard Stern show, Howard brought up the biased survey we all got fired up over a couple week's ago. Stern pointed out exactly the same things everyone else thought of - even with a biased survey, 14% of the population is still 40 million people. Not too shabby.

The only thing that's even funnier about the whole thing is that the only people who care about these surveys are people in the industry. So, if you're on the terrestrial camp you can point to it as being gospel, and if you're on the satellite radio camp you can point to it as being biased and crap. But no one outside of radio cares. So let AMS pat terrestrial on the back... no one's listening.

[HowardStern.com]
Thanks to Ian and CrankyMediaGuy for sending this in!