[BC] The usefulness of digital radio

[Steve Schoon]

Thank you, Robert, for that insightful posting.

Would you care to elaborate more on the following:  (Interspersed questions)

Steve

>Consumers tend to purchase complete solutions rather than individual items these days so radio receiver sales are ultimately doomed.

SS> The conventional wisdom is that younger demographic groups will get
smartphones, while the older "talk radio" audiences will still want a radio
that is just a radio, thankyouverymuch.  Over time the smartphone
demographic will become the older demographic, but that will happen slowly
enough for most of us broadcasters to retire before then.  Your thoughts?

>So this is the logical direction broadcasting has to take, integration into a listener's total experience by being a bidirectional interactive medium. If this comes to pass it is a major game changer. Programmers will have the ability to not only measure each individual user listening habits but due to linkage to social media they will have more demographic information than was ever possible in the past. 

SS>  Also a great way to mess things up.  Interactive radio listening could
become a tool for short-sighted broadcasters to flood a listener's
smartphone with annoying content, such as pop-ups.  In today's short-sighted
maximize-the-next-quarter's-profits-at-all-costs mindset, it will be very
easy for broadcasters to shoot themselves in the foot.

>On the technical side of things the most important technology needed right now is a better means of maintaining perfect time alignment between analog and digital program streams at all times. 

SS> Agreed.  Best to not drive away what few HD listeners you may have.  But
I don't see how a smartphone could reliably receive HD signals that are
already -14 dB down, at best.  I doubt that smartphone FM sensitivity will
be any better than that of a Walkman.  Unless you're burning a hole in the
ether, you're not a player in the smartphone receiver market.  What, if
anything, do you think HD Radio's role will be in the coming smartphone
listening world?

>Another interesting point to consider is the the future of AM being part of the evolution is murky. One major technical problem is that development of
>an antenna that can fit in a smartphone is difficult. 

SS> Given the challenges of receiving FM on a smartphone, I expect that
receiving AM will be much worse.  Unless you have a 50 kW blowtorch just
outside of town, I doubt that AM's will be able to play in the smartphone
radio game.  As that demographic ages, this will likely kill off AM, except
for the blowtorch stations, at best.  Your thoughts?