While we mostly celebrate non-commercial radio here at Radio Survivor, that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate commercial radio when done well. The problem is that in the 20 years since the 1996 Telecom Act grossly deregulated radio ownership, the quality of most commercial radio dropped precipitously, leaving many stations with very little local programming, with fewer—or maybe even no—local hosts.

Yet, there are still some truly local commercial stations out there, with real, live air staff who are in touch with a community’s tastes and needs. I was delighted to tune in to a few during a recentlty-completed road trip vacation from Joshua Tree, CA back home to Portland, OR.

Old School Local News in Joshua Tree

At the top of the 9 AM hour on a Friday morning I was treated to about 20 minutes of locally reported news and community updates on Z107.7, KCZD-FM in Joshua Tree. Ostensibly a CHR / Top 40 station, the news report included reports from a variety of correspondents, covering local events and other information of local import. It reminded me of the hourly news I heard on WOBM-FM growing up in Toms River, NJ, reported by local journalists and hosts, detailing the kind of regional stories that would never be heard on the stations coming out of bigger cities to the north and west.

It’s easy to understand why radio is an important lifeline in a community like Joshua Tree, located in the California desert, where cell signals and wifi can be hard to find just a mile off the main road through town. Someone visiting the national park probably won’t get a cell signal, but can still turn on the radio and hear emergency announcements, or just the weather update.

Krushing It in Sonoma

The following week I was treated to local DJs serving up alternative, blues and country-inflected rock while rock I stayed a couple of days in Windsor, CA to tour wineries in nearby Healdsburg. KRSH-FM, The Krush—the name reflecting the area’s wine industry—kept us company as we drove around the region. I was sad to hear the signal fade when we later journeyed north.

I left a few days before the devastating wildfires fires began, and once I arrived home I followed The Krush online. The station broadcast regular news updates until it was forced off the air by the fire, but kept updates going on its website and social media accounts the entire time.

Radio Without Rules in Humboldt

Outside Eureka, as we made our way toward Redwood National and State Parks, a scan of the dial turned up KHUM-FM, Humboldt freeform radio. The station’s motto is “radio without the rules,” and I have to say after listening for a few days, this is more true for KHUM than any commercial radio station I’ve heard in at least a decade.

One afternoon around 2 PM the hour started off with the song “Borneo” from Firewater, an eclectic world-beat influenced band that I love, but honestly have only ever heard on the radio once before (on KEXP, by the way). That was followed by the contemporary swing band Squirrel Nut Zippers and the classic swing artist, Bob Willis and His Texas Playboys.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought I was listening to college or community radio. Even many of the DJs had the relaxed, conversational tone you expect on the left end of the dial. But I also heard honest-to-goodness ads, mostly for local businesses, including spots where these business owners testified their support for the station.

Compared to the five-to-seven minute long stop-sets I suffered through while traveling the freeways between Bakersfield and Sonoma County, KHUM’s were refreshingly short, rarely clocking in over 2 minutes. That said, there was a fair amount of repetition, probably reflecting a small inventory of advertisers.

The Advantage of Small

At this point it is fair to recognize that these stations all serve relatively small or rural communities and markets, the kind that are of less interest to behemoths like iHeartMedia or Cumulus. That means big companies are relatively unlikely to buy up competing stations there, consolidating operations and pushing ad rates ever downward.

They also serve communities that seem able and willing to support unique local commercial radio. That’s always the rub with commercial radio – listeners don’t expect to have to donate to keep you on the air, so the local business dollars need to be there. Depending on the local economy, it just might be the case there isn’t sufficient advertising dollars in some small towns.

Nevertheless, it is both refreshing and heartening to stumble into quirky commercial stations that reflect and serve local needs.

Though this piece is about commercial radio, honorable mention goes to community radio KMUD in Humboldt County, which also kept us entertained and informed from just south of Garberville, all the way up past the Oregon border.

Do you know of or listen to a commercial radio station that still provides unique local service? Let us know in the comments.

The post The Joy of Finding Truly Local Commercial Radio (Yes, It Exists) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Chevy in-dashboard AppShop

In 2010 the first in-car receivers with Pandora integration rolled out. This year there were more announcements of dashboard integration with other radio apps like Stitcher, iHeartRadio and Slacker.

New smart dashboards permit drivers to operate these apps via their cars’ control system, but the catch is that they still have to use their smartphones and their smartphones’ mobile data for the connection. While the quality of these integrations have matured over the last four years, especially with the use of wireless Bluetooth connections, relying on the smartphone is still more of a hassle than listening to broadcast radio, especially for shorter trips. For in-car internet radio listening to become mainstream it has to become a fully built-in feature, like AM, FM and SiriusXM.

That’s why the most interesting announcements came from GM and Audi, which said 2015 models will have a 4G LTE mobile data connection, along with a wi-fi hotspot. GM’s offering will will first appear in some mid–2014 Chevrolet models as an option, then become standard on most Chevys in 2015. Audi will offer LTE in 2015 models of its A3 sedan.

Last year GM announced a dashboard app platform and released a software development kit in order to spur third-party development. With this year’s introduction of built-in mobile data, apps will be able to stream internet radio without a smartphone connection. GM’s AppShop is now live, and has radio offerings from the Weather Channel, NPR and Slacker Radio.

For its part, Audi debuted a 10.2“ Android tablet that interfaces directly with its automobiles, including a so-called ”Virtual Cockpit" displaying dashboard gauges.

More importantly, Audi and GM are part of the newly launched Open Automotive Alliance, anchored by Google. The group, whose members also include Honda and Hyundai, plans to develop a mobile operating system that integrates with Google’s Android OS. This portends more cars with fully independent internet connections and applications that access online radio platforms without tying up a smartphone.

The biggest potential speed bump for this trip is the mobile broadband connection itself. Both Audi and GM are partnering with AT&T, which will permit users to either share their smartphone data plan or establish a separate one. But with typical mobile data plans topping out around 4 GB a month, users could find themselves quickly racking up expensive overages with lots of in-car listening and using other data-intensive apps, especially with a back seat full of kids all watching different movies on Netflix.

Now, AT&T’s solution to this problem is to have app and platform companies sponsor this mobile bandwidth for you. While this sounds like a good idea for many users who would like to cut their data costs, as Matthew reported earlier this week, such “sponsored data” plans threaten to squeeze out programming from less well-heeled and non-profit providers, such as public and community radio.

Other wireless broadband providers offer unlimited data plans that would be attractive alternatives. But if your car only supports one carrier, like AT&T, where you can only get a data-limited plan, then you’re stuck.

Smart dashboards built on open standards, like Android, are an important step forward for in-car internet radio. The next, even more important step is to open up wireless connectivity to competition, too. There’s no fundamental technical reason why a given dashboard must be chained to one carrier.

While there are two different wireless standards in the US, there are multiple carriers for both standards. A car owner ought to be able to choose from amongst several mobile providers that are compatible with her model’s standard. An Audi or Chevrolet driver should at least be able to choose between T-Mobile and AT&T, which both support the LTE standard.

Still, such a choice is only a band-aid if programs like “sponsored data” are permitted to go forward unchecked. What would prevent or discourage all carriers from implementing this idea if AT&T finds it lucrative? The future of independent internet radio truly hangs in the balance.

The post At CES cars use direct 4G LTE connection for internet radio, but data is a speedbump appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Shortly after posting my piece about BlueToothing my Droid Razr to my Panasonic car stereo, I got this fascinating response from San Diego based indie consultant Bob Hudson:

“I put Internet radio in my car back in 2005,” Hudson wrote, “connecting a Palm Treo through the car’s audio system using one those audio adapters that fits into a car’s cassette player (remember tape????).”

In those days, Hudson continued:

” . . . the data connections on what were not yet called ‘smartphones’ was quite slow, but many radio stations offered low-bandwidth connections and thus I was able to cruise around Southern California listening to my favorite blues station (from Kansas City). It was actually easier to do that back then because there were so few models of phones that it was possible to buy a cradle custom-made for your phone. It had audio and power connections so all you had to do was slide the phone into the cradle and it was connected to the car.”

source: bobhudson.com

Reading Bob’s account, 2005 feels like such a long time ago. The iPhone was still two years away. The first 4G handset was five years off. Wireless subscribership hadn’t reached 70 percent of the population (it would pass 90 percent in 2009). And the Palm Treo is long gone, replaced by the Palm Pre series.

But Hudson saw it all coming: “Long before internet radio was available on the go I did a parody piece [see image on right] and actually got several emails from people at tech companies wanting to know more about this miracle streaming device.”

The post The art of wiring a Palm Treo to your car stereo appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Decision

Last December I made a New Years resolution: I would get Internet radio in my Honda Civic by the summer. So in the middle of July I went over to New Sound car stereos in San Francisco and talked to the proprietor Ed Sosa about what I needed: a console with AM/FM plus a USB port and some kind of hookup for my Droid mobile device.

The New Sound HQ on Valencia Street

“Sure,” Ed responded, and while giving me a tour of New Sound’s fabulous Vault of Old Car Stereos, he installed a Panasonic DEH-X6500BT.

“This’ll work,” he assured me. It did. The radio sounded great. The USB very nicely played my thumb drive full of tunes. But I stalled, learning-wise, on the Internet connection. With the DEH you hook your mobile to the console via Bluetooth. So I opened up the instructions, set as usual in a teeny type size suitable for people under 50, and did what it said.

1. Press down on the Big Round Knob that you use to control volume or surf AM/FM channels.

2. Select my Droid Razr from the device list shown on the LED display (it was the only gizmo listed, Thank God).

3. Enter the PIN code disclosed on the instructions.

My car mic; just above the fuzzy dice.

I finished all that and looked at the gadget. “Ok,” I thought to myself. “Now what?” The instructions did not say. And it was the summer, so I wasn’t using my car very much since the school where I drive to teach was mostly closed. Thus I did what I always do in these circumstances. I put the problem off until later.

Discovery

There are all kinds of technology users when it comes to skill. Without getting into all the classifications, I’m a Clueless Blunderer. I’m not a Luddite, but with a million things on my plate, I don’t have the patience to do market research or read reviews. I just buy something and figure it out, or not.

“When all else fails, read the instructions,” goes the saying. That’s me.

By late September I was back in my Honda, staring at my stereo and wondering how to get to the next level. Suddenly I looked up at my dashboard mirror and noticed something. “Gosh,” I said to myself. “What’s that microphone doing up there?” After a moment of narcissism I concluded that I wasn’t important enough for the NSA to have surreptitiously installed it. It must have come with the Panasonic installation and I did not notice.

So I plugged my Droid into my charger, put it next to the console, and starting driving down to UC Santa Cruz, where I teach, hoping in the back of my mind that Something Would Just Happen.

DEH-X6500B: the machine itself.

An hour into the trek, I was listening to some FM rock station along the Highway 17, when I heard a phone ringing.

“Hmmm,” I thought to myself. “Maybe the station accidentally got its wires mixed up?”

The phone stopped ringing again, then it rang some more. I looked at the console: “BT AUDIO . . . ” the LED said. Could it be? I wondered.

“Hello there,” I said out loud.

“Mr. Lasar?” a voice asked, filling the car with sound. “Can we talk?”

“WOW!” I shouted back. “Did you just call me? Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” the voice nervously responded to my idiotic question. It was a student who felt he didn’t get enough course credit for a class he took with me. “Is this a good time to talk?”

“This is awesome!” I shouted. “Perfect time to talk! It works! It works!!”

Eventually I got over the excitement of the moment and actually helped the poor kid. Then I thought to myself: “If I leave it on BT AUDIO can I get, like, my mobile radio apps over my car speakers?” (Which was sort of the point, right?)

Exiting the 17, I parked the next to an elementary school, fired up my Droid Pandora app, and selected a classical channel. A Mozart piano concerto filled my Civic with sound.

“Holy #%$& crap,” I exclaimed as a small group of school children walked by . . .

Next: Internet-in-my-car diary, Entry #2: the Perils of Pandora on the Freeway

The post Internet radio in my car diary, Entry #1: it works! appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Road trip radio listening is a great way to get a snapshot of what radio is like around the country. I just completed a move to Portland, Oregon from Chicago. We had movers take the majority of our possessions, but my wife and I, along with two aging tabby cats, packed into a rented SUV to make the 2200 mile drive to our new home. Along the way we mostly listened to the radio.

Quite to my surprise, we found FM stations that came in strong and had tolerable programming for nearly the whole trip. We tuned in classic rock, so-called “classic hits” and oldies stations that each played an entertaining mix of well-worn tracks that we know well. Certain artists, like Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones, made frequent appearances, with Floyd’s “Time” being the my vote for the song I really don’t need to hear again for a while.

My typical radio listening does not include much classic rock or similar formats, so hearing these moldy oldies was fun and refreshing, rather than repetitive and boring. However, as we pulled into the driveway of our new place, I was finished with these stations.

I appreciated that many of the stations in smaller towns and markets tended towards more eclectic selections, hewing a little less strictly to format than stations in bigger, more tightly competitive markets.

Early on in the trip we captured WLLT-FM in northwestern Illinois. Calling itself “the sound of Sauk Valley,” at about 6 PM in the evening the station was obviously automated. It seemed as though the station has no ad inventory to speak of, with the only breaks being IDs, a pre-recorded weather forecast and a phoned in promo from the head of the local chamber of commerce. The idiosyncratic music mix included Toto and Marvin Gaye.

Our rental vehicle, a GMC Acadia, had an HD Radio, so it was also interesting to experience that service across the west. In general, HD Radio is fairly useless while on a road trip, unless you’re stuck in traffic. My experience was that the HD signals were only sufficiently strong for a short stretch of maybe 10 to 15 continuous miles in most cities. I could hear the Acadia’s radio shift back and forth between the analog and digital signals, though it was impressively smoother than I’ve experienced with other HD receivers.

When sitting in traffic or moving about town I checked out some HD2 stations and found them to be quite varied, my favorite being the all-funk channel in Portland. But when traveling on the highway it was difficult to hang onto most HD2 signals long enough for it to be an enjoyable experience.

What I particularly appreciated was stations with RDS service. RDS adds text data to a radio signal, which can be used to identify a station, display title and artist info, or even provide traffic news. As a radio geek, I liked seeing the call letters of the station I was receiving, frequently supplemented by the station’s tag line, the name

RDS encoders are relatively inexpensive, so I am sort of surprised that more stations don’t have them. In the major cities along our route, like Omaha and Boise, most stations used RDS, and at least half had HD. Smaller towns were much more hit and miss with RDS.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how many stations sounded like they had live local DJs, or local voice-tracked DJs, at the very least. I also heard quite a few very awkward automated segues. I also heard a couple of automated EAS alerts break into programming to announce severe weather warnings.

On one station in western Nebraska a live announcer came on during the next break to update the warning. It was the first I’d heard of that announcer–I believe the station was on automation–so I’m guessing that he broke in to provide severe weather coverage outside of his normal shift. That is the kind of service local radio should provide.

My little road trip across the Midwest and Northwest demonstrated that radio is alive and mostly well along our nation’s interstates. I just hope you like Pink Floyd.

The post Road trip radio listening reveals the state of the medium appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Weather reports and alerts are a mainstay of most live radio broadcasts, especially during drivetime, and there are plenty of apps that will deliver forecasts to your smartphone. However, updated local weather is more difficult to obtain on streaming services if you’re not just listening to a local station’s stream. Today Slacker Radio releases a new Weather Channel station that provides four daily local audio forecasts.

Each forecast will have current conditions, short and long range forecasts, along with severe weather information. Your default forecast is based on your zip code, but you can choose to receive weather from any market.

Streaming weather updates are available on a couple of other services, although not as widely as one might guess. The Weather Channel is also available on TuneIn for 22 markets, although only updated three times a day. Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio offers dedicated traffic, weather and news streaming stations for 20 major markets. Listening to the Chicago station, it sounds like the weather gets a daily update, at least in this market.

Noticeably absent is the National Weather Service, which operates a wide network of broadcast weather stations that can be tuned in using a weather band radio. But while many smartphones have FM radios, I don’t know of any that receive the weather band. The NWS does not stream any of these stations, however there are independent streams for many of them, although there’s no simple way to stream them, especially when in the car.

It would be useful to have the option to have severe weather alerts interrupt your Slacker program stream. This happens for broadcast, whether a live DJ does the read or the automated emergency alert system takes over and broadcasts the message. All the same, I look forward to checking the forecast for sun (and margaritas) in between Steely Dan and Ambrosia songs on the Yacht Rock station.

The post Slacker adds Weather Channel local forecasts appeared first on Radio Survivor.

US Pirg has released a new report on commuting patterns that has to be worrying some radio people: we are driving less.

“The Driving Boom is over,” proclaims US Pirg Senior Analyst Phineas Baxandall. “The constant increases we saw in driving up until 2005 show no sign of returning. As more and more Millennials become adults, and their tendency to drive less becomes the norm, the reduction in driving will be even larger.”

“Millennials” means 16 to 34 year olds. They drove “a whopping” 23 percent less miles in 2009 than they did eight years earlier. “In addition, Millennials are more likely to want to live in urban and walkable neighborhoods and are more open to non-driving forms of transportation than the older generation of Americans,” the report notes.

Baby boomers, now retiring in droves, are driving less as well. The study challenges government statistics that suggest that driving rates will continue to grow. If US Pirg is correct, that means, of course, that we will be listening to radio in our cars less. And on top of that, those of us who will still use automobiles may not even be driving. We may find ourselves in self-driving cars, watching TV or reading newspapers along the way.

Here are journalism and media professors Austin E. Grant and Jeffrey S. Wilkinson commenting on that prospect at the recent What is Radio Conference in Oregon:

Interviewer: “I know that where I hear radio the most is when I get in the car I turn it on. That’s almost the only time I will listen to radio. How much do you guys predict that [self-driving cars] will affect radio in the future?”

Wilkinson: “Well, it’s going to affect it a lot, unless the people involved in radio stations and radio production, they have to change.”

Grant: “There’s another way to think about it. Radio is typically seen as a secondary activity. You listen to radio while you drive in the car. You listen to radio while you are making dinner. You listen to radio while you are working. There will always be room for a service that provides secondary activity. So even when people are in the car, they might be reading the newspaper, they’ll want the radio. Or it might be TV, but as long as people consume multiple media simultaneously, I think radio will be one of those mediums.”

That’s good to hear, but it seems like every day the prospects for radio get more complicated. Here is the US Pirg infographic on the report below:

The post Will the end of driving mean the end of radio? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Three years ago at CES car stereos started talking to smartphones to control apps like Pandora. This year radio apps are moving en masse from the smartphone into the dashboard. Smartphones still provide the critical mobile data link, although one auto manufacturer announced a deal to integrate that access directly in the dash.

Two major US auto manufacturers announced platforms that will let drivers run third-party apps on their on-board dash computers. Radio apps are some of the first to get in line for this opportunity.

Ford introduced its Sync AppLink platform at the 2011 CES, and this week announced that it is opening up the platform to more developers, offering a software development kit to download. The focus is on music, information and entertainment apps, while the company will deny apps that feature too much text, video or games that would distract drivers. AppLink is available on several cars and trucks, including the 2013 Fiesta and 2012 F–150 truck.

General Motors announced that it will also offer a software development kit to developers. Qualified apps will be downloadable through an app catalog accessible via the dashboard, but the platform is not yet available in any vehicles.

At CES this week GM demonstrated radio apps from iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Slacker and the Weather Channel. Ford’s Sync supports control of apps for iHeartRadio, TuneIn and Slacker, adding Stitcher to the mix, as well as the subscription music services MOG and Rhapsody. There are also apps dedicated to 17 terrestrial radio stations, including New Jersey’s independent rock station WDHA-FM.

Chrysler announced its own mobile entertainment platform called Uconnect, which will have the ability to access mobile data via Sprint’s network, in addition to connecting via a smartphone. The platform features iHeart Radio, Slacker and Pandora apps.

Harman International manufactures home, pro and mobile entertainment systems, and has been offering its Aha radio platform in Kenwood, Pioneer, Subaru, Honda and Acura car stereos, in addition to iOS and Android apps. Aha offers customizable audio channels consisting of content from broadcasters and podcasters, in a manner similar to Slacker Radio and Stitcher, but with an emphasis on localized content. At CES Harman announced that Aha would be added to Ford’s Sync, Chrysler’s Uconnect and Porsche’s Communication Management system.

As smartphone integration gets tighter more drivers will experience mobile streaming radio as seamlessly they do satellite radio. While some radio lovers with smartphones have taken the initiative to connect the audio output of their mobile devices to their car stereos for quite some time, having to control the stream on the phone itself is annoying at the least, and dangerously distracting at the most. App integration with the vehicle’s in-dash controls definitely will grow the audience for online radio, though probably at the expense of some terrestrial broadcasters.

I still wonder what effect this will have on wireless data plans, which have become more restricted and more expensive on the major carriers. The next frontier is cutting the smartphone tie, with mobile data built into the vehicle itself. I would think carriers and automakers could team up to make this option reasonably priced by limiting access to bandwidth hogging apps, like video.

At the same time, these platforms are shipping on a limited number of models, with Ford offering its Sync on the widest range of vehicles. When this kind of integration makes it onto standard equipment–or at least the most popular option packages–is when we’ll see mobile internet radio really take off.

The post Mobile radio apps jump from the smartphone to the dashboard at CES appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The gadget has been a hit at the CES 2011 conference (today is the last day), getting nice reviews from Consumer Reports and Droid Nerds. Here’s a YouTube interview about the device from the Nerds, and a Parrot video for the product below that.

Since it billboards itself as functioning with the iPhone, I’m wondering how well it will work with Android devices like my Droid X. If the reports are positive in that area, I’m going to give it a try.

The post Android powered car radio a hit at CES 2011 conference appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show kicks off this Thursday in Las Vegas. While all the biggest buzz around the show is in anticipation of new tablet competitors for Apple’s iPad, we can still expect to hear announcements of new radio gadgets across the spectrum, from analog broadcast and HD Radio to satellite and internet radio. Some companies have already started with their press releases, while we’re left guessing what will be up in other segments of the industry.

None other than Clear Channel Communications has announced its intent to “have a vital presence” at CES, touting its iheartradio mobile app. The app, which is available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7, allows the user to tune in the web streams of 750 Clear Channel-owned terrestrial stations. In addition to a deal for iheartradio to become available in some Toyota vehicles, Clear Channel promises that “numerous vendors” will display “iheartradio-capable” products… whatever that means. I’m not sure I really get the attractiveness of tuning a distant Clear Channel station via the internet in your car when there are likely plenty of stations with nearly the same playlist on the local FM dial. But I guess I’m not the target market.

We should expect plenty of home internet radios to be announced from companies like iHome, which made a name with iPod docking radios, and Grace Digital Audio, which was an early player in standalone radios able to tune in internet audio streams. Also expect more car stereos and add-on kits that make it easier to listen to internet radio on the road via an attached smartphone. Pioneer tried to make a splash at last year’s CES with a car receiver designed to play Pandora streams via an iPhone, integrated so that the driver can control the Pandora channel via the receiver instead of the smartphone. I didn’t hear much more about it once CES was over, though the receiver garnered respectable reviews.

iBiquity is still stuck at CES 2010

On the satellite radio and HD Radio fronts things have been quiet for the pre-show period. I expect we’ll hear about some more factory-installed Sirius and XM capable car radios, especially since a rebounding auto industry this year is something Sirius/XM is depending heavily upon. I’m anticipating something similar from HD Radio, and I won’t be surprised to hear iBiquity–HD Radio’s parent company–trot our their not-so-new deal with Ford again. In fact, it doesn’t seem like iBiquity is even ready for CES this year, since their press release site is still touting a special section to highlight HD Radio at the 2010 CES from twelve months ago. Regardless of HD Radio’s tardiness, it seems as though mobile in-vehicle electronics will be a significant focus of the show, with keynotes from Ford’s CEO and Audi’s chairman of the board.

For us policy geeks there’s a “one-on-one” with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on Friday afternoon. I’m not sure much of that session will be radio-specific, but he is likely to talk quite a bit about wireless spectrum, which certainly affects internet radio, especially mobile. I wonder if anyone in the industry will take him to task over the Commission’s failure to implement any real network neutrality for mobile broadband. I reckon the electronics industry stands to lose quite a bit if consumers’ wallets are penalized for streaming radio and video on the go.

Unfortunately, the Radio Survivor 2011 budget doesn’t come close to allowing us to send a correspondent to Vegas to cover the show first-hand. Nevertheless, the deluge of press releases this week should provide plenty of grist for the mill. We’ll do our best to chew it up and try to digest what it means for the state of radio in the forthcoming year.

The post What’s in store for radio at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On Monday the trade publication Automotive News reported that the number of car makers offering HD Radio is up, mostly relying on stats provided by iBiquity, which owns the technology. According to the article pricey brands Volvo, BMW and Rolls-Royce now offer HD Radio as standard, while twelve other brands offer it as an option. Curiously, only one Japanese brand, the Toyota division of Scion, offers HD.

However, there are a lot of things one can buy as an option on a car, so the more important question is, Is anyone buying? On the surface, thing don’t look too bad for HD. Apparently 438,000 automotive receivers were sold in the nine months ending June 30, contributing to a total of three million HD Radio receivers sold in the US, both car-based and not. By comparison about eight million cars were sold in the same period, meaning only about five percent of new cars sold were equipped with HD Radio.

After reading a recent Radio World article, I wonder if at least part of the blame is due to the difficulty of actually buying the option. Writer Thomas R. Ray III, who is normally a cheerleader for HD Radio, recounts the difficulty he faced in getting an HD receiver in his brand new Ford Escape. It turns out the Ford dealership had never heard of HD Radio, and so he ended up with a factory-installed analog radio. He encountered further trouble integrating an aftermarket receiver because of the Ford’s much ballyhooed Sync system.

As long as HD Radio remains an option on most cars, I don’t think it’s going to see the kind of growth it needs to become a mainstream technology. As it is, there isn’t enough to recommend HD Radio to make it work the extra hundred bucks or so to the average car buyer, who is probably more concerned with a CD player or iPod connectivity. I remember back when I was a kid in the 70s that AM radios were standard and FM was an option. It wasn’t really until AM/FM radios became standard that you saw FM radio start to take off. I’m not convinced HD offers nearly as much extra as FM did thirty years ago.

The post More car makers offer HD Radio, but can you actually buy it? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Pioneer's Pandora controlling receiver.

As we reported back in January, all the big radio hoopla at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show as about the incursion of internet audio services like Pandora into car stereo systems. Things have been quiet on that front until I noticed an article in the New York times last week that asks “Will the Internet Kill Traditional Car Radio?.” It looks like writer John R. Quain is one of the first press reviewers to have his hands on one of the new Pandora-equipped car receivers, the Pioneer AVIC-X920BT.

Quain reports that the sound was not quite CD quality, but better than some satellite stations. Tethered to his iPhone he noted that

AT&T’s 3G wireless service is notoriously patchy in New York City, so there were occasional dead spots when the music dropped out as the cellphone searched for a signal. Furthermore, the software will not let you create or add new Pandora stations, a nod to concerns about distracted driving.

His is the only review–such as it is–that I could find, though it does look like the Pioneer is shipping.

For everyone else who doesn’t yet have Pioneer’s top-of-the-line car receiver, listening to internet radio in the car still means connecting it via a cable or bluetooth and messing with your smartphone’s controls. And, certainly, 3G data coverage is going to be one of the most limiting factors, especially outside major cities or off major interstate highways.

Until a critical mass of car receivers will interface smoothly with smartphones and wireless broadband is more consistently available, traditional broadcast and satellite radio are going to be the choice for most folks who want to listen to something besides their own CDs and MP3s.

While there are quite a few streaming radio apps for all the major smartphone operating systems, I’m quite doubtful that too many listeners will be clamoring to listen to a local or distant cookie-cutter active rock or adult contemporary commercial station over their smartphone instead of just scanning the radio dial. I’m guessing that services like Pandora, specialty internet-only stations and unique non-commercial broadcast stations like KEXP or WFMU will end up being the winners when mobile internet radio becomes truly practical.

The post The Times Tests In-Car Internet Audio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On Wednesday Sirius XM radio (SIRI) announced that it added 171,441 net subscribers in the first quarter of 2010. While this is certainly better news for the company than a net loss, the gain still doesn’t quite put its subscriber base at the same level it was at the end of 2008. Then the company had 19 million subscribers, but tumbled during the first quarter of 2009, losing 404,422. Subscribers now stand at 18,944,199.

Sirius CEO Mel Karmarzin attributes the rebound to “the broad appeal of our unrivaled programming, the benefits of a recovering auto industry and an improving economic environment for consumers.” I’d reckon that increased car sales is probably the biggest factor, given that satellite radio is heavily dependent on its appeal to drivers, most of whom still can’t listen to internet radio while on the road. The downside of this reliance is that the first year or so of satellite radio service for a new car is free. The real sign of recovery will be whether or not these new non-paying subscribers re-up when they have to shell out for it. For the quarter that just ended 45.2% of customers decided to stick around and pay, which is a little better than the 44.6% who did in the first quarter of 2009.

The news caused Sirius stock to bump back up over a dollar today for the first time since February. Nevertheless, the company remains delisted from out of compliance with NASDAQ. It will be interesting to see if Sirius’ subscriber base grows over its 2008 level again, or if 19 million ends up being a plateau. Satellite radio faces very still competition from mobile broadband this year as higher-speed 4G rolls in many major cities and those first Pandora-capable car radios hit the streets.

The post Sirius Subscriptions Bounce Back a Bit appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Is the iPad good for mobile internet radio?

Already some of us have been listening to live streaming internet radio on our mobile devices, like iPhones and Blackberries. But, as I argued last month, the experience still doesn’t quite add up to true mobile internet radio, especially because when you’re using cell data like 3G it saps the heck out of your battery. My experience streaming live radio on my iPhone gives me a little more than an hour before I’m nearly out of juice. The new Apple iPad looks to be a great mashup of an iPhone and netbook, which are both decent devices for listening to internet radio on the go, but also have their drawbacks.

The fact that some iPad models offer 3G wireless data connectivity out-of-the box, for a very reasonable $30 a month without any contracts make it a great candidate for mobile internet radio listening. It won’t necessarily be any better for the car than an iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone. But in other mobile circumstances it shows distinct promise.

So the question is, will the iPad bring us one step closer to truly mobile internet radio? Based on early specs, and having never touched it myself, the answer is a distinct maybe.

The first important factor is battery life. If the battery poops out after only an hour, then it’s only good for short trips. But if you have a longer train or bus commute, or are outside away from a wi-fi connection you probably want at least two good hours. While Apple specifies that you get 10 hours of active wi-fi use on a charge, no 3G batterly life specs are published. With a much bigger battery than an iPhone one would expect that constant 3G use would go longer, but we’ll have to wait until the first longer-term reviews come out.

The next big issue is sound quality. I currently use my iPhone, netbook or MacBook Pro to stream audio in a variety of circumstances, including home and when away in hotels. They’re all fine for using with headphones or external speakers, though the iPhone is the clear winner for fidelity. But I don’t always want to use headphones or lug around speakers. In a pinch the iPhone’s speaker is better than nothing at all (sounding like a pocket radio), and the netbook is barely any better. My MacBook’s speakers are the best in this category, but at the same time it seems wasteful overkill to use this powerful laptop computer just to listen to radio. My hope is that it will sound at least as good as a MacBook Pro, which itself is on par with a portable radio the size of a paperback book. We’ll have to see how the iPad’s speakers measure up against these competitors.

The final big factor is multitasking, and on this measure we already know the answer: there is no multi-tasking on the iPad. This is important because all of the streaming radio apps are not made by Apple, and you can only run one non-Apple app at a time. So you want to listen to a live feed of a Cubs game while Tweeting? No can do. Catch a live feed of the State of the Union while reading the New York Times online? Also a big no. So, unless Apple decides to add the ability to listen to live streams to the iPad’s iPod app–which is allowed to multitask with other apps–this is probably the biggest count against the radio capabilities of the iPad.

At least as far as mobile internet radio is concerned, the iPad looks like a tiny step forward. If the 3G battery life and sound quality are up to snuff, then it’s a bigger step. But without multitasking where you can listen to a live stream while using other apps, the iPad is not the next big thing in mobile internet radio.

The post What does the iPad mean for radio? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Like PE says: Don't believe the hype!

I guess Ford announcing stronger support for HD and the new iTunes tagging features count for something. But where the rubber meets the road is whether car buyers are willing to pony up the extra cash for the higher-end stereos. While Ford is doing better than Chrysler and GM, the last time I checked, the auto industry isn’t exactly thriving. And let’s not forget that just few years ago the big hype was how the auto manufacturers were embracing satellite, yet that seems to have mostly resulted in lots of XM Sirius-equipped rental cars.

I keep searching for information about all these new non-automotive HD receivers and I keep coming up with the same iBiquity press release regurgitated all over the place. The release lists off a pile of model numbers, but no other info that might help me evaluate how great these new receivers might be.

According to iBiquity there is no CES 2010 news!

Only This Week in Consumer Electronics has any useful information, including the most valuable data of all: price. Amongst the models listed by TWICE, at $69 the lowest cost receiver is Radio Shack’s FM-only Gigaware-branded add-on for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The price isn’t outrageous, and marks only a $10 – $20 premium over a typical FM-only radio for the iPhone. Past that, all of the new HD receivers come in over a hundred bucks. That includes even the entry from discount electronics brand Coby, whose HDR700 has a street price of around $99.

I really believe that price is the key here. With the collapse in the quality of commercial radio programming, HD Radio really has not been able to sell itself on programming, despite the largest broadcasters like CBS Radio blanketing their stations with ads touting HD’s virtues. The quality issue is also debatable. So, at best, I think HD Radio is still a curiosity for most people who might be attracted by having a few more channels at their disposal, or having AM news, traffic and weather on the FM HD channels. But what are people willing to pay for this curiosity?

Putting aside geeks, radio-heads and gadget freaks, my bet is that the average shopper is willing to pay a $10 to $20 price premium to get HD Radio. That’s why I think the pricing on the Radio Shack iPhone add-on is about right. But that one device isn’t going to greatly expand HD radio listenership. First, because it’s limited to iPhone and iPod Touch owners, and second because I’m doubtful that too many people want to hang an extra little device off their player. I sure don’t.

Once you move into the world of what we might call “premium” or higher-fidelity radios–a market pioneered by the Tivoli Model One–or A/V receivers, then it looks like that $10-20 price premium is starting to become a reality. But again, I’m really not sure how big the market for these items are. I’ll agree that A/V receivers are popular, but how many people really listen to radio on them?

The way HD Radio is going to make it into more households is when there’s an HD-capable $50 radio on the shelf of every local store that sells electronics. That radio doesn’t need to be fancy, but it’s got to have a speaker and a handle, run on batteries or AC, and look like a radio. It shouldn’t be a headphone-only radio, but it should have a headphone jack. It has to be the kind of radio you can take into the garage or the backyard, keep in the kitchen or on the bedside table.

Simply, for HD Radio to take off, the average person walking into the store looking for a new radio (not looking for an HD Radio) has to see an HD-capable radio and decide that the extra $10 or $20 is worth it. As long as HD Radio is depending on folks to go out of their way to seek out and buy HD Radios it will always be a niche market, struggling on the sidelines.

Beyond that, once HD Radio is a $10 – $20 premium on boomboxes, iPod docks and compact stereos then it has a shot at real popularity and use. In the car make it part of every stereo, including the base-model. These are the devices most people use to listen to radio, and right now the HD Radio options for them are skimpy, to say the least.

If the public were dying for HD Radio it would be a hit already. Give them the option to hear it without spending a lot of dough, and HD Radio has a fighting chance. But 24 new models, with only one under $100? Forget about it for 2010.

The post Radio at CES: Hype for HD Radio, but price is still the biggest barrier appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The biggest news at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show might be Google’s new Nexus smartphone, but that doesn’t mean there’s no space for radio in all the gadget frenzy. Your resident RadioSurvivors don’t yet have the travel budget to jet off to Vegas to roam the show floor in person. Instead, I’m picking through the press releases and news stories (which often are just rewritten press releases) from cold and snowy Chicago.

Although I am not a car owner myself (I traded my old Subaru for a new bike this year–no lie!) the automobile is still the site of much radio listening, and the realm of some interesting tech developments. Internet and iTunes tagging appear to be the radio stars this year, with satellite playing a supporting role. As one of our readers pointed out, Ford recently announced that it would offer a factory-installed HD Radio receiver that includes iTunes tagging. In addition the company said it’s working on integrating tagging with Sirius satellite radio, which will also feature the ability to record and playback up to 45 minutes of satellite audio. Shades of Apple’s “live-pause” in the new iPod Nano?

Pioneer's Pandora controlling receiver.

Alpine also takes the iPhone route to offer Pandora in your auto with its iDA-X305S receiver. No to be left out Ford promises Pandora integration along with Stitcher, which is apparently the news/talk yin to Pandora’s yang, and something I’d never heard of before. Yet again, Ford’s approach requires an intermediary, with SYNC project manager Julius Marchwicki promising,

in the future, if you bring Pandora or Stitcher into the car on your phone, it will work seamlessly.

Photo credit: chriscoyier/flickr

I’m also pretty unimpressed with the iTunes tagging feature. That’s primarily due to the fact that there’s very little impressive programming on HD Radio, such that I have a hard time imagining too many people diving for the “save” button. If it’s commercial radio they’ll have the song beat into their skulls every time they get in the car anyway.

Aside from Ford’s announcement, there isn’t much action on satellite radio so far at CES, though the Seeking Alpha blog’s Brandon Matthews passes along rumors that XM Sirius “completely changing its product line.” Matthews also notes that the CEO of mobile audio manufacturer Audiovox would be “unveiling new and exciting Satellite Radio products” at CES. But so far nothing for the car has appeared at the party.

A part of me is glad to see that radio is still grabbing some headlines at the big electronics hoedown in the desert. Maybe even analog broadcast might get some love.

The post Radio at CES: Pandora and tagging rolling out for your car appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Readers comment on our decade review.

Seeing as how we like to encourage some rousing debate about radio, with this post I’d like to highlight a few of them.

Responding to #11, cash-strapped schools turn their backs on college radio, Seth Thornberry points out:

In another example of the spirit of independent radio, the DJs from KTXT got together and created The Llano Idea which has kept up the volunteer run radio (online, at least).

In response to #6, HD Radio launches, but who listens? Who cares? BrianK finds some hope for the service:

Ford announced today that HD Radio is factory installed in their autos and the at least 4X digital power increase for HD radio is on the cusp of being approved which will give listeners stereo reception upto twice as far as traditional auto FM receivers in noise-free and to my ears much better high frequency response

But Greg begs to differ, noting that,

Ford has been announcing that it would add HD Radio since 2007, but it never materialized. Also, Ford is an investor in iBiquity. … BMW even has an HD Radio trouble-shooting guide, and there are nothing but complaints about HD Radio in BMW Forums, so I’m guessing that it will be the same situation with Ford.

And Robert D Young Jr quips:

PS. just one little correction: CD quality is really “seedy” quality.

Blue raises an important point in their response to #5 The Age of Pandora:

What Pandora doesn’t offer is anything local, even though they are a Bay Area company, I think. KDFC is the only radio station supporting the local arts community by staying classical. Radio can still be about supporting and interacting with the local community. Pandora is cool for folks whose tastes are outside the mainstream. …

Gary finds some limitations with Pandora, complaining:

As an opera fan, I don’t like how Pandora gives you the “greatest hits” approach.

Commenting on #4 Podcasting, Brian Cox writes:

Podcasts put the power of broadcast in the hands of the people. As an ex radio guy I’ve slowly watched terrestrial radio take a nose dive. Which is because they’ve lost touch with the listener. Podcasts offer the content that terrestrial radio is afraid to play and say.

And Tapeleg asks,

who in commercial radio these days is producing actual content? Aside from your talk shows (politics, sports talk), who is creating actual content that is original and worth achiving and listening to later?

Mike Ryan of Sydney, Australia comments on #2, the growth of Internet radio, letting us know that

Clear Channel block their streams from international listeners. The content companies may wake up to the concept of the “long tail” – ie bigger audience means more opportunities for sales and artist exposure. Thanks to torrents I have just discovered “Northern Soul”. Amazon UK will be getting an order shortly.

Marvin remains skeptical about the internet radio threat to satellite in his response to #1, the birth and troubled childhood of satellite radio:

Although I enjoy the free internet streams (Pandora. ect.. etc) and have tried to stream from the car with an iPhone and aux cable connection, I must say it was a frustrating experience. … Satellite seems to make perfect sense to me – a few orbiting transmitters unobstructed instead of thousands upon thousands of towers with cell and radio transmitters. Also, the clearity of satellite amazes me … so crisp.

While egiscodr argues,

With the price points and tons of content, I do not think Sirius XM has much to worry about from internet or terrestrial radio.

What do you think? Make your comments here or on the original posts. Keep it lively, just keep it respectful.

The post Notable Comments on the RadioSurvivor Decade in Review appeared first on Radio Survivor.

#1 in our series on radio trends of the decade

At end of the first decade of the 21st century there are more audio entertainment options available than any time before. Even if traditional broadcast radio has a case of the doldrums, the viability of radio-like media has never been stronger. Satellite radio is one medium that entered the scene, although its long-term prognosis is still hazy.

By 2000 the perception that commercial radio had seriously declined in quality was widely held. Even listeners unaware of the massive consolidation in the industry perceived the tightening of playlists, more repetition, the inability to talk to a live DJ and make a request and an increase in commercials.

Then, with what seemed like perfect timing, two companies emerged on the scene to offer up a new radio service that promised a real alternative: satellite radio. Americans were already accustomed to receiving television by direct broadcast satellite. But satellite radio would be different. Where satellite TV mostly offered a cable-like service with the same channel, the new satellite radio companies–XM and Sirius–would offer up scores of new radio channels produced and programmed by the companies themselves.

Both companies vowed that their music channels would represent a return to the values of progressive rock radio, with programs hosted by live DJs choosing music according to their informed tastes. By the time both services were live in 2003, there were countless press profiles marveling at Sirius and XM’s array of narrow program genres and guru-like hosts. Home entertainment magazine Sound and Vision ran a lengthy cover story in June 2003 that asked “What’s so great about satellite radio?” The question was answered by four hosts from each of the services. Remarks by Lou Brutus, programmer for the XM freeform-revival station “Special X” were characteristic:

I don’t care how many CDs you have, there’s never been anything like Special X. It could be the day-to-day stuff that falls under the umbrella of “weirdness,” where you might hear “What’s He Building in There?” from Tom Waits, followed by William Shatner singing “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” followed by a 28-minute Jack Kerouac piece… The people at XM are thinking all of this stuff out and putting it together in coherent neighborhoods of sound, for lack of a better term. When radio is done right, I think it’s the most personal medium of them all. *

Next to a return to freeform-style programming, satellite radio’s other great advantage was its freedom from FCC content restrictions. It’s that feature which allowed Sirius to entice self-proclaimed “King of All Media” Howard Stern to sign on in 2004. Well, Stern probably also was seduced by the $100 million five-year contract. Still, as an innovator of the so-called “shock jock” style of morning talk radio, Stern had many high profile run-ins with the FCC over the racy content. In the run-up to his 2006 debut he frequently cited freedom from indecency rules as one of his reasons to go satellite.

For its part Sirius hoped Stern would be the high-profile talent that would attract millions of new subscribers. Nearly four years into Stern’s run at Sirius, it doesn’t seem to have worked out that way. With contracts looming in 2010, Stern’s making noises about leaving while Sirius/XM is unlikely to pony up the hundreds of millions it did five years ago.

Both Sirius and XM burned through hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the decade without scoring a profit. With over 16 millions subscribers satellite radio certainly fared better than HD Radio, but still is perceived as a niche service. These obstacles caused the two companies to merge in 2008–in the face of both public indifference and outrage, due to promises both companies made at the start of the decade that they would remain separate.

To be fair, the startup costs associated with satellite radio were enormous, requiring the launching of specialized satellites along with the deployment of additional land-based transmitters to fill in reception gaps where a sky view is blocked. Futhermore, would-be subscribers had to pony up for new receivers. The service also was launched at a time of great upheaval in broadcast media and the rise of the internet as an entertainment medium. This added up to satellite radio having much more competition at launch than if it had launched when satellite TV did a decade earlier.

But one might also argue that satellite radio did itself in, too, by quickly chipping away at many of its distinguishing features. A great selling point for satellite radio early on was being commercial free. But by 2006 music listeners started to notice very commercial-sounding “promo” announcements creeping in, and Clear Channel began demanding commercials be aired on the channels it programmed.

The merger of Sirius and XM then exacerbated growing listener discontent with many of the music channels, as a November 21, 2008 Rolling Stone article reported:

In the days since the merger has gone into effect, they say, there is a noticeable difference: the DJs talk more, often over songs, and there’s more repetition in the playlists.

I was an occasional listener to Sirius music channels over the course of 2003 – 2008 when I received the service as part of my Dish Network subscription. I turned to Sirius when I was looking for music of a particular genre with much less annoying DJ chatter and less repetition. Still, by the time I unsubscribed from Dish, I had noticed that the rotation on most of the rock channels I listened to had become much tighter. When I first tuned in 2003 it seemed like I could listen all day without hearing the same song. By 2008 that was no longer true. It also seemed like I often heard the same sequence of songs several days in a row. So I turned to online stations instead.

Here, at the beginning of a new decade, satellite radio is still alive. The emergence and spread of wireless internet looks to be the biggest threat. If listeners can get any online station in their homes, cars and mobile devices, then what incentive is there to subscribe to comparatively smaller number of channels on XM/Sirius?

For at least a segment of the audience the answer is access to particular talent and hosts, whether its channels produced by Howard Stern or Bob Dylan, or all-Springsteen or all-Sinatra radio. For others it will simply be the convenience of having all the channels packaged up together in one receiver. But it’s tough to see how long these advantages will last.

When first announced I thought satellite radio sounded like a good idea, especially for listening in the car on long trips outside major metroplexes. In fact, until wireless broadband is widely available outside major metroplexes, that is probably satellite radio’s greatest advantage. That’s why most people’s exposure to satellite radio comes from rental cars. As Craig Finn of the Hold Steady sings in their song “Sequestered in Memphis,”

I think she drove a new Mustang
I guess it might be a rental
I remember she had satellite radio

But are rental cars enough?

*The Special X channel was taken off the air in 2004. It returned as an online-only channel later that year, but without any live hosts. The channel met its end in July 2008 along with all other XM online only channels as part of the XM-Sirius merger.

The post The decade’s most important radio trends #1: The birth and troubled childhood of satellite Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I’m actually amazed at how noncommercial radio has become the site of so much innovation in the medium in the last decade, and how commercial radio is getting left in the dust. On the music side we have Seattle’s indie rock KEXP and New Jersey’s freeform WFMU which both have significant internet listenership along with substantial on demand archives and net-only programming. With traditional public radio you can find archives of nearly every nationally syndicated program, as well as live streams and internet-only shows.

Favorites list on the Public Radio Player 2.0

The new 2.0 player breaks new ground by integrating on demand listening to hundreds of public radio programs, both national and local. The Public Radio Player is a collaboration between all the major public radio organizations led by the Public Radio Exchange, which is itself an innovative (but not the first) online archive of public radio content from member stations, networks and independent producers.

I’ve tried out live radio streaming to my iPhone a few times, and while it’s cool to listen to a distant station while riding the CTA home, I found that it sapped the hell out of my battery. If you want to listen for much more than an hour you need a steady source of power–a car adapter would probably suffice. More frequently, however, I’ve enjoyed the convenience of listening to podcasts, which is how I enjoy most of my favorite weekly programs.

But listening to podcasts requires some degree of forethought, making sure you subscribe and/or download programs in advance to your computer, then synchronizing them with your iPhone. You can also download podcasts directly to your iPhone from the iTunes store, but it’s not the most convenient process. You have to pick through quite a bit of chaff, you can’t search only podcasts and there’s no bookmarking function to return to your favorites.

I spent part of the afternoon trying out the new Public Radio Player 2.0 and I am quite impressed with the on demand playback. First and foremost, on demand programs are downloaded to your iPhone as they play, not streamed. This means that you don’t need to keep a constant edge or 3G connection for the duration of the program, only until it finishes downloading to your phone. That means it’s less of a drain on your battery life. It also means that you won’t lose your program in the middle when your commuter train goes into the subway.

Second, there’s an impressive inventory of programs available for on demand listening. Though I had to work a little hard to find a couple of my favorite programs, WNYC’s On the Media and WBEZ’s Sound Opinions. I could find neither program by browsing, though On the Media showed up in a search. I couldn’t find Sound Opinions at all.

And, crucially, the Public Radio Player 2.0 has a favorites list of both live and on demand programs.

To me the real innovation comes from the ability to easily listen to your favorite public radio programs on demand without having a computer at all. The favorites function makes it much more convenient to pick up daily programs as they become available. Though most daily public radio programs don’t post their podcasts until most affiliates have aired, if you’re that anxious you can still probably find a live stream.

I’m also glad to see that community radio stations are included, like Madison’s WORT. In my brief survey today I wasn’t able to identify any local community radio programs available for on demand, although the national daily news program Democracy Now–which primarily airs on community stations–is there. That may change as more stations embrace podcasts and learn to make them more accessible.

The survival of radio will depend on seeing the medium is broad terms and embracing both the traditional live, linear form and the newer nonlinear on demand world. These worlds don’t have to compete, and noncommercial radio is showing the right side of the dial how it’s done.

The post Noncommercial Leaps Past Commercial with Public Radio Player 2.0 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Every day I learn something new about radio and today I was really surprised to discover that there’s an entire radio service called BusRadio that is piped in to school buses and reaches a million kids. They tout themselves as “a superior, age-appropriate alternative to AM/FM radio programming.” According to an article in the Denver Post:

“BusRadio is free to the school districts and is heard each day on more than 9,000 school buses in 24 states. The districts receive a small amount of money for allowing the music on their buses. There is different programming for elementary, middle and high school students.”

US News and World Report picked up the story this week and goes into more detail about the service:

“…BusRadio sends music, contests, public service announcements, and commercials over the Internet to school district servers, which then forward the programming to buses using wireless transmitters.”

What’s controversial is the fact that BusRadio airs commercials and may not be playing age-appropriate music, according to detractors.  The Post article explains that Congress has initiated an FCC review:

“Supporters say the radio content calms the kids on what can at times be a hectic bus ride.

But some parents say forcing their children to listen to commercials on the bus is akin to having their kids held hostage by corporate America. They also say the music is sometimes age-inappropriate.”

This definitely reminds me of some of the anti-Channel One (ad-supported TV news in schools) rhetoric from back in the day. BusRadio is fighting this backlash and has an extensive Q&A section called “Myth vs. Reality” on its website where it refutes many of these claims. Additionally, they allow parents to register on their website in order to listen to actual BusRadio programs that their kids may have heard.

Regardless, I’m never that thrilled about forcing kids to listen to commercial radio. But the whole brouhaha does bring back memories of my junior high school bus rides. We would plead with our driver to play the hot rock station and would feel so victorious if he complied. That was our bus radio.

The post FCC Taking a Look at BusRadio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The irony would be so delectable if it weren’t for the 1033 unfortunate drivers whose cars were stuck in the mud, many of which were totaled and not returned for over a week.

As Jerry Del Colliano reports at Inside Music Media, a Clear Channel station in Grand Rapids, MI threw its annual B93 Concert Bash on June 20 in nearby Ionia by the Grand Rapids River, apparently oblivious to flash flood warnings issued by the National Weather Service. In fact, a NWS representative told local WOOD-TV that there were warnings about the river level cresting as high as 17 feet by 9:30 AM issued as early as 5 AM the day of the concert.

Severe weather alerts are something that so many people still rely on radio for, and the reason why broadcasters are mandated to participate in a national Emergency Alert System. I can say from experience that the EAS system will spit out notifications of just about all NWS warnings. Recently I’ve certainly seen warnings for flash floods and river flooding issued to our EAS system at WNUR-FM, where I’m the adviser.

More than any old concert promoter, the staff of B93 was in a perfect position to be alerted to the flash flood avisory for the Grand Rapids river. But who knows if anyone at the station even checks the EAS anymore. The system is designed to override programming in the event of a significant emergency, like a tornado warning, but doesn’t with lower-level alerts. And somehow I doubt there was a live DJ on air Saturday morning prior to the concert starting.

Sure, any organization can make a bad judgement call in the face of unpredictable weather conditions. According to most news accounts it looks like local Ionia officials share blame for also missing the warnings and not shutting down the concert. Nevertheless we expect that the public service of radio at least provide this bare minimum of important information, and certainly not carry forward with events that put so many thousands of lives, not to mention millions of dollars in property, at risk.

Such a mishap could have occurred in the pre-consolidation era, but I doubt it. Localism means more than throwing a fee concert (but $15 for parking) once a year. Now thousands of car owners are learning the collateral damage of massive media consolidation.

The post Clear Channel Station Can't Trust Its Own Forecast appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Everybody knows that the trick to getting Internet radio past the early adopter crowd and into the ears of Ma and Pa Kettle means getting into it into cars. Commercial broadcasting seems ready for that to happen. How do we know? The National Association of Broadcasters sent us a profile of Autonet Mobile.

Autonet calls itself the “first wireless internet service provider designed for your car.” It creates a Wi-Fi “hot spot” that pretty much turns your auto into an Internet cafe via a 3g wireless connection. The company says it runs over the “nation’s largest 3g network,” but doesn’t say which one that is . . . presumably Verizon?

Anyway, the car is the Holy Grail, Internet radio wise. The courageous are hooking up iPhones to their FM receivers . But everybody knows that the true mass audience for streaming radio doesn’t come until Mr. and Mrs. Luddite can do it real easy.

Autonet has still has a big problem. It’s expensive. Almost 500 USD a copy and 29 a month for a 1GB plan. 59 for 5GB. And if it runs like 5GB Verizon does on my Blackberry, it may be kinda slow. I have to wait quite a while before the next tune on my Pandora app fires up.

The other sticky wicket the company faces is that it has partnered with Chrysler, which has been sloughling off auto-dealers almost as fast as California is dumping school teachers. But their search engine indicates that plenty of dealers are selling this thing—a whole boatload of them in Los Angeles, for example. And it looks like the outfit has some Toyota dealers as well.

So we’ll see where this goes. In the short run one can expect the pioneer crowd to drive off bridges while surfing the Web on the freeway. In the long run, as prices come down and the economy comes back up, maybe this is one more step towards bringing streaming audio to drive time.

The post The Holy Grail: getting Internet radio into your car (Part I) appeared first on Radio Survivor.