The HD Radio Brand

I read just this week at Bridge ratings that HD radio awareness has actually decreased this year. I know I'm a nattering nabob of negativity but read it here. It reminded me that HD radio is a meaningless term. Like the fake syndromes that marketing companies come up with to sell drugs that people dont actually need. Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) meet HD-2 Digital Radio!

The HD radio Brand came from HD television. Now HD television is actually high defintion. HD radio in many cases will be low def. Multicasting can lower audio quality. In radio the codec is IBOC, and owned by Ibiquity exclusively. So they have some control over branding you could say. But they seem to suck at it.

Here are some radio spots they did. You can actually hear listeners get more confused. Stations between the stations? Huh? Why would that require a special radio? A mascott named "Anne Tenna? Oy vey. The branding is just unfocused in general and with the highly technical nature of the product it's difficult to explain no matter what the metaphor.
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It's somthing they need to straighten out soon. IBOC debuts on the AM band at night which is creating a furor among sober engineers. Mexico is concerned enough to write the FCC, going so far as to suggest the interference will be so bad as to violate international treaty.