“Why Would Anyone Buy an HD Radio?” – a Q&A with Marketing Guru Doug Hall &#8

A No-Nonsense Marketing Smart Tip Tuesday, October 20, 2005

Listen to the complete podcast here and also find Part 1 of the interview.

Doug Hall is an inventor, author, and revolutionary. He’s the founder of the Eureka Ranch, a think tank and idea factory.

His clients include Ford, Disney, Procter & Gamble, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, and many more top-tier companies. He’s the author of several books including Jump Start your Business Brain and Jump Start your Marketing Brain. He also hosts a weekly public radio show called Brain Brew Idea Factory.

Here’s the second and final part of my interview with Doug.

HD radio is the industry’s current obsession for the future. What’s your take on it?

I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. It seems like an interim solution, not the real solution. Why would anybody buy HD radio? It makes no sense to me.

I work with the auto manufacturers. I know those guys, and they’re going to add Internet to the cars. And when they add Internet to my car, why do I even bother with HD radio?

I just don’t understand it. And nobody has explained to me the purpose of HD radio. It’s an interim blip. It’s the same thing with XM and Sirius. My show is on Sirius, but I’ll tell you I don’t get it. It’s really an interim solution until we get the Internet – and then we’ve got everybody.

I think radio has phenomenal potential, but not in the form that it has today.

And what will the radio industry look like?

We’re going to be delivering content all through the Internet. That’s where it’s going to go. Even for our little tiny public radio show we have 40,000 podcast downloads.

It’ll be podcasts, one minute pieces going to cell phones, etc. Listeners will consume audio content in different formats and different places using different tools, not just a physical “radio.”

It hasn’t shaken out yet, obviously. But we’ll see audio content transport itself to many different distribution channels.

And the person who owns the content is the one who will rule in the future.

So you have to get out of the mode of thinking about your station as a tower with exclusive access to the audience’s ears?

You’re a studio. Think of yourself more like a movie studio rather than a movie theater. Rather than a projector, you are the creator.

And how much cooler is that?