WOW. Great article by Mark Ramsey of Radio Marketing Nexus about The Premature Death of HD Radio. Brings up some great points about terrestrials attempt to beat Satellite at it’s own digital game with HD Radio…. and how HD Radio is just not going to cut it. Doesn’t really bash Satellite either, which I’m impressed with.

Very well written, and brings up some great points. If you’re anywhere interested in digital radio, you must read this.

WOW. Great article by Mark Ramsey of Radio Marketing Nexus about The Premature Death of HD Radio. Brings up some great points about terrestrials attempt to beat Satellite at it’s own digital game with HD Radio…. and how HD Radio is just not going to cut it. Doesn’t really bash Satellite either, which I’m impressed with.

Very well written, and brings up some great points. If you’re anywhere interested in digital radio, you must read this.

Has anyone seen this thing? It’s called the Infusion developed by a bunch of Aussies at Torian (awful website, neat product). I just had a chance to look into it after first spotting it on Slashdot. Some are speculating it might be the Satellite killer - but I’m not so sure. Reception is key, and blanketing the US with Wifi just doesn’t seem possible.

Whatever, it’s still pretty neat.

Yahoo is said to be unveiling a new music subscription service to called Yahoo Music Unlimited. For about $7/month, or $60 a year, is muuuuch cheaper than RealNetworks’ Rhapsody To Go service ($179/year).

Yahoo Music Unlimited is supposed to offer something like a million songs. More information on this as it comes in.

Gotta love this. I recently mentioned how carmakers are getting pissed off at Canada, but now Harry from The Future of Radio has pointed me to the interesting fact that it’s even illegal to own, or even operate Satellite Radio in Canada. WTF is this?! Yeah, that’s smart.

Arbitron and Edison Media Research did a study focusing on the effects of commercials against listenership on Terrestrial radio. None of this is really ground breaking stuff (spoiler: cheap people will sit through commercials for free radio), except for the difference in age groups.

First apparently 47 percent of consumers would listen to a radio station "a lot more" if the station had fewer commercial breaks, while 44 percent would listen "a lot more" if it had shorter commercial breaks.

Even more interesting, more than eight in 10 Americans consider listening to commercials a "fair price to pay" for free radio programming. (even if that programming sucks? I don't know if that was one of the questions...)

Now onto the good stuff.

According to the study, the 12 to 24 age group is bothered more by the quantity of commercials (58 percent) as opposed to how "annoying" they perceive those commercials to be (33 percent).

People in the 25 to 54 age group also are more bothered by the quantity (53 percent) than the quality of commercials (37 percent).

Listeners 55 and older are slightly more bothered by annoying commercials (44 percent) than they are by the number of commercials (35 percent).

So, the younger listeners are getting more and more accustomed to listening to commercial-free music (no doubt because of the terrabytes of mp3s sitting on their hard drives). As they get older, Terrestrial listenership will quickly dwindle unless Big Radio changes something - fast. Meanwhile, the old bags are willing to sit through Dial-A-Mattress and 1-800-EAST-WEST commercials as long as they don't have to hear that damn jingle anymore. What about the hours of incessant begging marathons on NPR? Is there a study on that?

The Business TalkRadio Network and Lifestyle TalkRadio Network will not be airing any shows in the future that are distributed to either of the two satellite radio companies. Wah wah wah.

Currently, of the more than 60 shows that air on the two networks, only four have such arrangements. Oh shucks.

"Those of us in the radio industry have sat back long enough and allowed satellite radio to be perceived as more of a force than it really is. The time has come for there to be more of a concerted effort on the part of all us, particularly the NAB and RAB," said Jeff Weber, executive vice-president of the Business TalkRadio Network and the Lifestyle TalkRadio Network.

"We applaud radio executives like Ed Christian of Saga who have the courage to stand up in opposition to what is obviously competition to terrestrial radio."

Heh. I thought Satellite Radio was just a fad?
[Linkage]

Executives at two of Canada's biggest car makers, namely General Motors and Honda, say that if the Canadian federal broadcast regulator doesn't decide soon on whether to license satellite radio, they won't be able to install units in their 2006 models.

And in the quote that makes me gosh-darn proud, David Paterson, GM Canada's VP of Corporate and Governmental Affairs says about the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission:

"We need a damn decision . . . The 2006 selling season starts now."

[Read]

National Lampoon has announced they're starting a 24/7 radio network in January 2006 with comedy veteran Kent Emmons at the helm.

The National Lampoon Radio Network will be distributed to "major market" FM stations along with a special programming channel for one of the satellite radio services.

No word as to which satcaster will be used, though since XM already has a partnership with them, it's my guess that XM will be the one - though you never know.