The new format is listed under the category “Oppressed Voices”, although there is little evidence LGBT people face discrimination in the culture of the United States. LGBT folks have substantially higher incomes than the US average, as they are mostly over educated white kids convinced that procreation is unfair and should be left to poor people to do.
The main distributor of this “format” – and I use the term loosely – is IHeart media. Gay people were a major source of the membership of America Online in the early days. Bob Pittman has a 5th sense of where to find unspent pools of disposable income.
The flood of new FM translators this year is expanding FX translators fed by HD2/3/4 channels, which is where iHeart is hoping to monetize Gay Pride. In order to hear “their” music, this potential audience might choose their next radio or car based on the availability of HD radio to hear radio targeted to their culture. I could see Bernie Sanders advertising on this network.
https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/netgnomes/93296/96-7-minneapolis-coming-out-on-friday/
My newer Ford has HD built-in, and I find myself listening to those stations all the time- almost no commercials!
One of the reasons HD was so slow to take off was the big guys agreed to have no ads for the first year and not choose the formats already used by existing competitors. “radio” viewed HDRadio as just cutting up the audience into smaller pieces as opposed to growing the time spent listening. No ads = no budget to pay humans.
IHeart seems to have a new strategy. Instead of hiring people to program HD 2/3/4, rent out the channel and let someone else do the work and take the risk. This might actually build the critical mass to get past the chicken and egg problem
Geico is the main advertiser. The oldies HD station here switched to Christmas music on November 1st….. The good stations here are from Greater Media and CBS.
Ho Ho Ho!
Sorting these things out is a big job, and accurate information is spotty at best.
Ibiquity was mostly owned by CBS and Clear Channel (iHeart). ABC / Cumulus / Citadel generally did not invest in HDRadio, which may end up being a big mistake. Cumulus under the Dickey brothers spent almost nothing on capital improvements the last five years, like buying new transmitters
The CBS HD stations here run 3-4 Geico commericals in a row. Then, back to music. WOMC HD-3 is interesting as it plays all Detroit-based artists from multiple genres and time periods.
http://womc.cbslocal.com/detroits-boulevard-on-womc-hd3/
Interestingly, the online stream here in MI has Progressive Insurance, Home Depot, Ram Trucks, BCBS of Michigan, DeVry, and Sam Adams Octoberfest as sponsors, a totally different set of ads than the actual HD stream OTA.
Absolutely correct!
The ads heard on streaming are targeted specifically at you – this is why radio puts up with it. A targeted ad based on your individual profile is worth 10x what an untargeted OTA ad can charge.
AFTRA insistence on royalties is another reason streams don’t carry the OTA ads.