NAB president and CEO David Rehr packs goods for shipment to soldiers in Iraq at NAB2006 as part of Operation Interdependence.
Radio and television advertising, Web sites and collateral material will be part of the NAB’s plan to educate U.S. television viewers about digital television before the off switch in thrown on analog transmission in February 2009, according to NAB president and CEO David Rehr.
“NAB Update” spoke with Rehr between the Central and South halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center on April 27 after he helped pack and ship 100 boxes of goods to U.S. soldiers in Iraq as part of Operation Interdependence. Rehr told “NAB Update” that the association has “a great shot to educate America on the benefits of digital television.”
Earlier in the week during his All Industry Opening remarks at NAB2006, Rehr laid out a five-point plan to go on the offensive with challenges facing broadcasters, including educating viewers about DTV.
After participating in the Operation Interdependence send off, the NAB chief said the association is still formulating its DTV education plan but identified TV and radio ads as a component of the campaign .
During his opening speech, Rehr also identified going “everywhere to everyone, through every device” as a critical goal for broadcasters. “NAB Update” asked the NAB president how that goal would be met on a local level, given the fact that stations don’t own most of the content they air.
“With all of the emerging change in technology, we are not quite sure how it’s all going to work out,” he said. “But it’s going to work out.
“What we don’t want is to have the great local radio and television broadcasters being denied access to consumers, and I think there are some people in technology who think that, ‘Well, you know, broadcasting is great, but it’s a dinosaur.’ And it’s not. It’s vibrant, it connects with people and we just need to be sure that when the engineers and all of the techies are thinking about new devices they always in the back of their mind say, ‘Well, can we get television and radio signals here because that’s what America wants?” he said.
