HD Radio Gets An ‘A’ For Effort…

(Christmas Edition)

The HD Radio Alliance isn’t likely to win the hearts of digital radio listeners or even its ears but it deserves an ‘A’ for effort and a ‘C’ for chutzpah for forging ahead. The Alliance has set its advertising plans for the first quarter of 2010. Their new commercials will focus on HD Radio’s strong points: more stations and no monthly fees. The commercials will spotlight local content on HD2 and HD3 stations with the use of local tagging. They promise that the new spots will make the consumer proposition easy to understand and easy to act on. While they’re at it, can they lower the prices of the radios necessary to hear their product on? That would help their effort…

The Alliance plans to emphasize that HD Radio is a good investment especially in this rotten economy. To that end, they will play up consumers getting more stations without any monthly costs like their smartphone, Internet connection or satellite radio. If you’re still on-the-fence regarding your next listening device, you can visit HDRadio.com to view the local market-specific HD Radio Station Guides at the site where you can see the variety of HD Radios and retail locations near you at their website too…

In my view, listeners are like voters. Most have already made up their minds about their next radio investment but as in elections, there is still the undecided vote or choice. Too bad you can’t cherry-pick the best features of all the available devices and would it be foolish of me to want to do this at a reasonable price??? Wouldn’t that make for a nice Christmas present…  

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1818] Shhhhhh: “Silent Night”, written by Josef Mohr with music by Franz Gruber of Germany is composed.  This clip contains the song in German, the way it was written (12/24)…
2. 1906] The first disc jockey: No, it wasn’t Bruce Morrow. It was Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden who becomes the 1st person to broadcast a music program over the radio from Brant Rock (MA) (12/24)…
3. 1932] Debuted on this date: Radio City Music Hall opens to the public (12/27)…
4. 1948] Massing together: A Midnight Mass is broadcast on TV for the first time from St. Patrick’s Cathedral (12/24)…
5. 1968] Curtains:  “The Breakfast Club” with Don McNeill signs off for the last time on ABC Radio after a run of 35 years (12/27)…
6. 1968] “Twas the night before Christmas“: The Apollo 8 astronauts orbiting the moon read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast (12/24)…
7. 1989] “Happy Trails“: Former Yankees manager Billy Martin is killed in a pickup truck crash in Fenton (NY) at 61 (12/25)…1996] 6-year old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder (CO) (12/26)…2008] Eartha Kitt dies from colon cancer at 81 (12/25)…
8. 2001] Talibanned: U.S. officials announce that Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners will be held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay (12/27)…
9. 2004] Deadly storm: A tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean leaves more than 216,000 dead or missing in Southeastern Asia (12/26)…
10. 2007] Hold that tiger: In the San Francisco Zoo, a tiger escapes from its enclosure and attacks three visitors, killing one of the men and mauling two others (12/25)…

Music Memories: 

• 1955] Debuted on this date: Aunt Irene kvells as the Lennon Sisters debut on “The Lawrence Welk Show” (12/24).  Here it is…
• 1961] Recorded on this date: “She Cried” - Jay (Traynor) & the Americans (12/26)…1966] Recorded on this date: “I Think We’re Alone Now” - Tommy James & Shondells (12/24)…
• 1963] Released on this date: “I Want To Hold Your Hand” - Beatles (12/26)…1975] “December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)” - Four Seasons, without Frankie Valli singing lead (12/27)…
• 2006] Musical ‘Happy Trails’: James Brown dies from congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia. “The Godfather of Soul” was 73 (12/25)…

Happy Birthday…happy birthday“:Ryan Seacrest (35), Ricky Martin (38), Mike Curb (65) and Dave Bartholomew (89)…12/25) Dido (38), Rickey Henderson (51), Annie Lennox (55), Karl Rove (59), Sissy Spacek (60), Barbara Mandrell (61), Jimmy Buffet (63) and Tony Martin (97)…(12/26) Chris Daughtry (30), Carlton Fisk (62), John Walsh (64), Paul Power (65), Phil Spector (69), Abdul “Duke” Fakir (74)…(12/27) Arthur (’Scud Stud’) Kent (56), Tovah Feldshuh (57), Mick Jones of Foreigner (65), Cokie Roberts (66), John Amos (70) and legendary Sun Records musician Scotty Moore (78)…

Timeline Countdown: Merry Christmas, 7 nights until New Year’s Eve and 16 days until the NFL Wildcard Playoffs begin…

This entry was posted on Thursday, December, 24, 2009 at 08: 10:10 p12 and is filed under Today's Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.