What’s The Use?

"What do I need this for?"

I open Clubhouse and that question comes to mind. I turn on the radio and the HD Radio signal cuts in and out and that question comes to mind. There's a wider lesson in this.

While I've been musing about Clubhouse and its shortcomings for a while now, PR guy Ed Zitron wrote a strong takedown of the app, asking the question, "do you know a single soul who has spent more than a few minutes on Clubhouse in the last 3 months?," and noting, as have I, that the app's content presently consists mostly of a handful of people rattling around in rooms you probably don't want to visit unless you're really into Bitcoin and NFT grifters or mingling singles or anything that includes several random emojis in the title. It really is a lousier version of talk radio, or something akin to those 900 chat lines advertised on late-night UHF TV in the 1980s. Zitron notes that the app is "a solution in search of a problem," which brings me to HD Radio.

If it wasn't for a blog post by Fred Jacobs at the Jacobs Media website, I would not have known that this week marked the 15th anniversary of the rollout of HD Radio, and longtime readers of my column will remember that back then, I regularly ripped HD Radio for several sins, from the deficient technology to weak programming, but one of the central themes was "who asked for this?" More precisely, I asked what need HD Radio was filling for the consumer, not the radio industry. The radio industry's need, I could understand: Faced with an onslaught of digital competition, radio wanted something digital of its own to tout. But the public wasn't asking for digital radio, and 15 years later, it still isn't asking for that. It also wasn't thinking, "you know what I'd like? Radio, just more of it."

The success of competitors to radio like streaming or podcasts is not predicated on being more of the same; those media offer things radio doesn't, whether it's customization (the songs you want, without the ones you don't), or talk about things regular talk radio doesn't talk about, or being able to listen to a show on your own schedule. Better sound quality? Let's remember that FM, leaps and bounds better than AM, failed to get a foothold when its only selling point was sound quality. It took off only when it offered programming that was more desirable than AM's, namely the ability to listen to, say, rock hits and album cuts without sitting through the typical AM Top 40 mix of songs from all genres. Led Zeppelin without Dean Martin? Sold. (Though FM's first breakthroughs tended to be easy listening stations, but that's the same thing in reverse -- Paul Mauriat without the Paul McCartney, James Last without the James Gang, okay, I'll stop.)

I can think of one successful use case for HD Radio: feeding analog FM translators with programming. It's a quirk in the FCC rules, based on the prohibition against translators originating their own programming. But that's not for the benefit of the consumer, and that's one thing over 15 years. 15 years is plenty of time for a technology to find a use that justifies its existence.

It is, of course, possible for things to justify themselves over time. I remember when the Apple Watch came out and I saw the hype and could think of no use cases that would compel me to buy the watch. Then they added health features that made me think it might be a useful, if moderately unsightly, thing to wear. Now, I wouldn't be without it. Twitter was the same; I had to use it for a while before I got the hang of it. A cat? Why would I want a cat in the house? Oh, right, companionship and love and all that. Okay, then. I suppose I could return to those 15 minutes or so when Marie Kondo was famous and everyone was throwing out anything that didn't "bring them joy," but at least I think I could come up with a justification for everything I own, even if the reasons are long expired (can't bear to depart with my Mini DIsc recorder. Think anyone would want it on eBay? (checks eBay) Huh. Maybe I CAN bear to part with it.).

I have HD Radios in the car and at home and I don't listen to anything HD. I have Clubhouse and Greenroom and other social audio apps on my phone and I can count the number of times I've dropped into a room on them on one hand. These are technologies that were developed by people who apparently never took the basic step of determining why anyone wanted or needed what they were offering, or what they could do tha wasn't already being done better elsewhere; Maybe it doesn't matter if your goal is to get funding from VCs who are also not asking the right questions and just trying to hop on the hot trend hoping for the best, but for long-term success, giving people what they want or need is sort of essential, isn't it? If your show, your station, your podcast, whatever you do doesn't fill your target audience's desire, rethink it. The lesson we're learning from Clubhouse's 15 minutes of relevance and HD Radio's 15 years of irrelevance is one you can apply to yourself and, really, everything: If you aren't offering anything people want and/or need, you're destined to fail.

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Speaking of justification and need, if you're a podcaster wondering what a network can do for you (and what else you can do to be successful and make some money), you really should come to (or watch, via the virtual version) Podcast Movement in Nashville August 3-6, where I'll be moderating a panel for Audioboom on the value (or not) of podcast networks. Click here to register for either the in-person event (please, be vaccinated) or the virtual version. See you there.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
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