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March 05, 2007

HD Radio and Wal-Mart: Does it Matter?

Wal-Mart is going to stock HD radio receivers in 85 markets. No doubt this will get a lot of HD radios into the marketplace, but the fundamental question remains... how is HD radio going to impact radio advertisers?

Wal-Mart and the HD Digital Radio Alliance are launching HD Radio receivers today in 1,989 Wal-Mart stores in 85 markets. The move will be heavily promoted in a major ad campaign that also starts today on Alliance-member radio outlets. Wal-Mart stores will initially stock the JVC HD-W10 Mobile HD Radio receiver for cars, retailing for less than $190.

Mark Ramsey has an opinion on this and he shares it in this recent post.

As for us, we're taking a "wait and see" approach. It's just not clear how the radio stations are going to use HD radio to enhance the value they deliver to their advertisers. As we've said in the past, radio stations have two customers, the listeners and the advertisers. And too much of a focus on either one spells trouble.

Posted by Jeff Small & Brett Astor at 03:15 PM | Permalink