The radio industry’s primary rating racket says it has to re-compute its ratings for last fall in the Orlando, Florida market. It’s not quite clear just how the error was found, but it’s not the first time this has happened: Tampa’s Party Pirate made the books in his market back in the late ’90s, and such blips have actually happened on and off for decades. Continue reading “Arbitron Accidentally Rates Pirates in Florida”
Month: January 2009
Heads Roll at iBiquity, Clear Channel
Skool is back in session, which means posts to this here page will become shorter and more sporadic (I think, I don’t have a firm read on the class dynamics yet). That being said, here’s a couple of bits of info which seem to back up some earlier prognostications.
This past week iBiquity, HD Radio’s proprietor, laid off 20 people. According to Radio World, these are the first bona-fide layoffs at the company since its founding in 2003 (I would argue they’re the first bona-fide layoffs ever at the company in its nine-year history, since the 2003 departures involved executives, who I don’t believe were exactly given pink-slips). iBiquity’s web site claims the company employs some 130 people; if that number is accurate, that would constitute a corporate workforce cut of an impressive 15%. Continue reading “Heads Roll at iBiquity, Clear Channel”
2009 To Bring HD Death Rattles?
While most policy-pundits are focused on the fast-approaching DTV transition and the potential selection of a new FCC Chairman, the saga that is digital audio broadcasting (otherwise known as “HD Radio”) continues to fly under the radar. However, this may not be the case for long.
Due to heavy industry-maneuvering and a shamefully-complicit FCC, the U.S. radio industry has locked the medium into a sub-standard, proprietary broadcast protocol. The problems with this protocol have long been known. Thus, if there is any force that might bring down HD Radio, it will be the marketplace.
There are several signs that the marketplace is now beginning to act: Continue reading “2009 To Bring HD Death Rattles?”
Mediageek's Year In Review
One of the traditions Paul and I have fallen into the habit of doing is looking back at the past year in telecom policy. Although 2008 was more a year of hot air than actual doings, we decided to take the time on his latest show to critically examine Lawrence Lessig‘s proposal to “Reboot the FCC.”
Since Mediageek the radio show only runs in half-hour segments on the Internets, but is now actually an hour long in real-time, Paul has also posted the second segment of our show, where we examine 2008 in the context of FCC enforcement against pirate radio.