HD misses the Xmas gravy train

Here’s the most interesting (to me) portion of this article from Billboard Radio Monitor, discussing the absence of HD radio hardware on the market in time for the holidays:

“There’s not a lot going on right now,” [Infinity smooth jazz WVMV (V98.7) Detroit OM/PD Tom] Sleeker says. “It seems like the radio manufacturers keep dragging their feet. We were supposed to get some [radios] in September, and now it’s pushed back until the beginning of the year. It’s not iBiquity’s fault. They’re pushing hard for this. It seems like the delay is with the radio manufacturers.”

For the sake of argument, let’s assume this statement is true.

What it illustrates to me is that the folks who really feel they need HD radio, the radio folks and engineers and dealmakers at iBiquity, are “pushing hard for this.” But the folks who have to depend on interest from Joe and Jane Consumer, the radio manufacturers, are not.

Is this because the manufacturers can’t see an obvious opportunity staring them in the face?

Or is it because the radio folks and the gang at iBiquity can’t smell a bad idea with limited and redundant consumer interest potential?