“An HD Radio milepost: Commercials arrive on HD2 stations.”
So says Inside Radio, as it announces spots on Z100’s HD-2 channel and KSHE’s HD-2 option.
What Inside Radio does not say, of course, is that – for Z100’s channel at least – the web stream is easily accessible on Z100’s website, meaning that what advertisers for Z’s HD-2 channel are really buying is web traffic – which undoubtably dwarfs any “radio” traffic for Z’s HD-2 version.
KSHE’s stream, if it’s online at all, is very difficult to find. So the play there seems to be genuinely HD-2.
Still, since so many HD-2 stations – especially Clear Channel’s – are also web streams, it really raises the question of what’s actually being sold: The HD-2 channel on the radios which folks don’t own or the HD-2 stream on the Internet which actually draws an audience.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with winning advertisers on an HD-2 stream, but let’s acknowledge it for what it is (in many cases, at least): Internet ad sales, not HD-2 sales.