[BC] AP article re HDRadio - Inventory Figures

[Paul Smith W4KNX]

My feeling is that many of those extra HD channels will be LMA'd to entities
that dont compete directly with the main format.  There is a never ending
supply of Religious people that want to broadcast.  I can see LMA'a going to
all kinds of foreign language formats. I see that as a big market for those
extra channels, and they will sell radios for the rest of the industry.
That way, the primary station gets a nice income from the extra channels,
but doesnt have to compete with itself and dillute the field much which
would hurt the advertiser.

Just my $.0.02 worth from a retired engineer.

Paul Smith
W4KNX
Sarasota, FL

-----Original Message-----
From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
[mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net]On Behalf Of Rich Wood
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 2:55 PM
To: Broadcasters' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [BC] AP article re HDRadio - Inventory Figures


------ At 10:26 AM 8/2/2006, Sid Schweiger wrote: -------

>They're so hot on this new tech, which no one has receivers for,
>that they are completely blind to the economic joke they are playing
>on themselves...doubling the number of FM signals out there without
>any income to pay for them for at least two years.

I guess I have to figure this out and see if any General Sales
Manager would clutch his chest when told he has to help come up with
an additional $1.6 billion in 7 years or so. Mel Karamazin at
Infinity couldn't get 8% growth with whips and chains.

Let's use your market, the Boston Metro (based on Radio-Locator):

31 total FM stations (not including WGBH's translator)
23 commercial stations in the metro
         With secondaries (one each) makes 46 "radio stations"
AM stations not included.
Very conservative inventory estimate of 10 minutes per hour - Talk
stations have much more. Commercial trends lean towards :30s That's
20 units per hour. :30s generally get 80% of :60s Gotta charge more.
240 minutes of inventory per day extra.

That's 87,600 additional minutes per station per year to be sold -
double the existing undersold inventory. Very few stations are sold out.

For the market we're adding a conservative total additional inventory
per year of 2,014,800 :60s or 4,029,600 :30s.