Sometimes I feel like I’m on a different planet.
One where people speak the truth.
Because from where I sit I can hear the gnashing of teeth over the new Arbitron/Edison HD radio stats, and it ain’t pretty.
I always appreciate interpretive conclusions like this:
Clearly, when we see an awareness curve that looks like this, change is necessary to bring about change.
That’s the very definition of double-speak. Ed Wood couldn’t have said it better.
To be fair, these guys are trying to find a polite way of saying your baby looks ugly. And try as they may, the words…just…don’t…come.
All you need to know about this research is this: It says relatively few know about HD. It says that number hasn’t gone up. And it implies that folks are aware of what they care about, not vice versa. It also strongly suggests this isn’t going to change any time soon – as in, forever.
So belly up to the bar, pour a stiff drink, and ponder what your world would have been if you’d invested less in HD-2 and more in R2D2.
These conclusions support every point I’ve ever made about HD, so I’ll just leave this topic alone for a while to stew in its own putrid juices while I go beat some other dead horses.
The study also pointed out the relatively stillborn nature of satellite radio which today seems hardly “radio of the future” and more like the “radio of the niches.”
The satellite folks are quite aware of this, of course, which is why they are tossing all their eggs into the automakers’ baskets, which is exactly where these eggs belong. In a place, in other words, where nobody has to be sold. They buy the car, the satellite radios come along for free.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, the Spin Show, starring Spinny McSpin.
Take it away, Spinny.
