Competition Builds For Radio’s Future
At last week’s annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it wasn’t quite a shoot-out between traditional radio and new radio technologies, but it came close.
While satellite radio companies XM and Sirius spared no expense in trotting out their big guns, 21 of the nation’s largest radio groups—such as Clear Channel, Entercom, ABC Radio, Greater Media, Cumulus Media and Infinity Broadcasting—announced a plan to accelerate the conversion of 2,000 radio stations to high-definition radio during the next three years, ultimately bringing the service to all top 100 markets.
Amid all the high-tech swirl at CES, it was XM and Sirius that stole the show with the kind of show-biz flare more often seen at TV conventions such as NATPE. At XM’s booth, there were appearances by big names in music and sports such as Ludacris, Cal Ripken Jr., and Pete Rose.
Over at Sirius, newly appointed CEO Mel Karmazin—who has near-celebrity status on Wall Street and brought almost as much buzz to the satcaster as former Infinity colleague Howard Stern, who will jump over to Sirius in January 2006—held a press conference bedecked with Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.
In general, one needed a scorecard just to track all the new satellite radio receivers and features that allow consumers to get satellite radio just about every place they can get traditional radio. Next-generation radio services were also introduced. For example, Sirius closed a deal with Microsoft to launch two or three channels of premium video content targeting young children by the second half of 2006.
Competition Builds For Radio’s Future
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