Was reading @airchecker's Twitter feed and he mentions the future of HD radio. 

Sorry, HD radio isn't going to work.  It's not anything to do with it's technical capabilities. It has everything to do with the big radio mafia and it's likely just too late in the tech cycle. 

No place is the big radio mafia more stuck in the past than HD radio. It puts out a couple of stations, doesn't inform the consumer & then declares it a failure because there is no demand. It's the 1950's text book mentality way too common in the industry.

When Sirius came to market, it's initial iteration was mostly a failure. But it had an idea, stayed focused & the end result is it's a profitable corporation with around 33 million subscribers. Given it's cost & that it's mostly focused on the auto market, that makes it pretty successful.  Of course if you hang around these forums it was doomed for failure. An indication of both petty jealousy & the lack of vision in the radio world. 

It's 2016. You don't wait for "demand" you create it. There was no demand for the iPhone because it didn't exist. There was no demand for much of the technology that's created today.  Programming and development is about fixing problems or improving people's lives.  You see the potential, develop the schema/idea & go forth.  You take a risk & if you're correct you are rewarded handsomely.

But radio treats technology the same way it treated hip hop.  It could never actually swallow that this was the new reality.  While the kids wanted hip hop, the stations played rock music.  When the kids wanted technology, the radio stations thought they should charge for text. 

Yesterday, I watched on CNBC as Facebook vaulted to the fourth most valuable company (by market cap) in the world.  In fact all FOUR of the top companies are in the field of technology.  They all created demand for their products. 

Last edited by Hathaway (February 2, 2016 8:12 AM)