hd alliance and ive got bridge in

HD Alliance: "And I've Got A Bridge in Brooklyn to Sell You"

I'll admit it.

The HD Alliance has got my number.

It is the most incredible or should I say incredulous group of

intelligent people in the radio industry. The only problem is, they

are not giving you any credit for being intelligent.

Thus the recent headlines that 2007 was a "breakthrough year" for HD

radio sales.

It's getting to the point that whenever Peter Ferrara says anything, I

don't believe it. This is nothing personal about Peter. It's about the

tactics of the HD Alliance.

HD radio, claims to have sold 330,000 HD receivers last year -- a

whopping 725% increase from the 40,000 sets purchased a year earlier.

They cite cheaper prices and availability at Best Buy and Wal-Mart at

the new low-low price of just $99.

First, Steve Jobs would take hemlock if he sold only 330,000 units

last year.

Ferrara apparently told Inside Radio that he thinks a million of these

needless, horrible sounding and redundant sets could be sold next

year. Write that down somewhere -- one million HD radios next year.

Apparently he hasn't gotten through to his pals at the major groups

yet.

You see, they are having tough times right now -- check their

shareholder value, I mean stock prices. The group heads apparently

don't want to spend squat on compelling new programming for HD

subchannels when they sure as hell aren't spending it on their bread

and butter terrestrial signals.

Ferrara thinks that when the cost of manufacturing HD sets gets low

enough then the manufacturers won't make analog sets.

And that is probably the only way HD radio set sales will increase.

Then will the major radio groups lead the way by starting to program

really cool stuff on HD channels? Notice I said "really cool stuff"

because the next generation has no use for HD radio programming same

old, same old at any price. Hell, if you could have either an iPod or

an HD radio, guess the one they would choose?

Okay, a new laptop or an HD radio. Or, maybe a new mobile phone (which

they need every two years anyway) or an HD radio -- well, you get the

point.

Guys and gals -- see if Peter Ferrara can sell ice to the Eskimos,

swamp land in Florida and all the rest.

He may get some people to believe his hype about HD radio, but the

owners are too smart for that.

In fact, if he succeeds spinning for the HD Alliance, hire him away

and offer him a sales job in radio once again -- that is, if the

self-destructive owners haven't already outsourced their sales to

Google by then.

Seriously, try to buy an HD radio in Wal-Mart. See what you get. I've

had readers tell me that they've been "walked over" to satellite

radios when they ask their young sales associate if they can see an HD

radio.

I finally found an HD radio display Saturday. It was at Ultimate

Electronics in Scottsdale. I barely found a station that could be

received and it sure wasn't worth the price of the radio -- which was

cheap looking. (No one else in this crowded store wasted their time at

the display).

It would be hilarious if it weren't so serious.

The answer is...

Internet radio. Cell phone content. Podcasting. Pandora. AM/FM

streaming. Social networking.

It's not HD radio in spite of what the HD Alliance professional

spin-doctors keep saying.

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