Good article here with some thoughts about how AM/FM is eventually going to have to get off the crack that is 20 minute spot loads.
Part of the problem is that there is no budget in today’s radio for ancillary products. And most of what broadcasters do online – simulcast or otherwise – is an ancillary product. Why would you hire an airstaff for a side channel?
via Wise Buddah.
I never believed in HD Radio because of the staffing issue. If you are a PD and you work on an HD channel you open yourself up to criticism that you are not focused the next time the GM wants to get on your case. So let the junior staffer or the intern do it. And how are you going to promote it? Hey stop listening to this thing that pays the bills and go listen to 98.5 HD-2! I don’t think so.
Anyway, I don’t want to steal the article’s thunder. It’s a definite must read. I don’t expect anyone to take the advice in the next ten years but there are some good discussion-starters there.