DickTaylorBlog

This week Marriott agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve a Wi-Fi blocking investigation that was being conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The issue with the FCC revolved around an investigation into whether Marriott intentionally interfered with and even disabled Wi-Fi networks that its customers had established in Marriott’s conference facilities at their Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Conference Center located in Nashville, Tennessee. The FCC in their news release said their enforcement bureau investigation revealed that Marriott employees had used containment features of a Wi-Fi monitoring system at the property to prevent individuals from connecting to the Internet via their own personal Wi-Fi networks. This allowed Marriott to charge those same customers, small businesses and exhibitors as much as $1,000 per device to access Marriott’s Wi-Fi network.

I’ve always been amazed that when you stay at some of the biggest and best resorts that you have to pay for Wi-Fi access, whereas when you stay at a Hampton Inn, it’s not only FREE Wi-Fi but they also include a really wonderful breakfast too.

According to the FCC, “Consumers who purchase cellular data plans should be able to use them without fear that their personal Internet connection will be blocked by their hotel or conference center.” Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc added, “It is unacceptable for any hotel to intentionally disable personal hotspots while also charging consumers and small businesses high fees to use the hotel’s own Wi-Fi network. This practice puts consumers in the untenable position of either paying twice for the same service or forgoing Internet access altogether.”

And it’s not just your right to receive a personal hotspot on your smart phone, tablet or laptop but also those same rights extends to TV antennas and satellite dishes.

In 1999, the FCC amended its rules so that even renters could erect a satellite dish in “exclusive use areas” such as a balcony or patio. Then in 2000, the FCC added that it also applied to “customer-end antennas that receive and transmit fixed wireless signals.”

You have a right to receive over-the-air signals.

The $600,000 education and three-year compliance plan that Marriott just got from the FCC hopefully will have other hotel chains and conference centers sitting up and taking notice that you don’t need to be a federally licensed broadcaster to receive a monetary slap on the wrist from the Federal Communications Commission.

You might want to make a note of this case in case you ever find your service is being blocked. Here’s a link to the FCC’s press release: http://www.fcc.gov/document/marriott-pay-600k-resolve-wifi-blocking-investigation

Do you think if the State of New York had to do it all over again, they would have gone with “I Heart New York” instead of “I Love New York”? Neither do I. So what always puzzled me was why Clear Channel launched their new streaming application and called it “iHeartRadio.” I mean the logo design for the App was cool, but to me it said “iLoveRadio,” because everyone knows the heart is the graphic symbol for love. Or maybe everyone didn’t know that.

I Love Radio. There, I said it. I’ve loved radio since my earliest days on planet Earth. And so having an App that says that I love radio would have been a pretty cool thing to have on my smart phone. But that’s not what happened. This makes one wonder if the techies who did the design weren’t all that cool.

So you can imagine my amazement when Clear Channel Media & Entertainment (which had already dropped the word “radio” from their name) changed their name less than two years after the last name change to iHeartMedia.

In the meantime, I note that pure play streaming companies are all putting “radio” into their name. Pandora Radio, TuneIn Radio, Spotify Radio and the streamer I’ve enjoyed Sky.FM recently just did a name change of their own. They now call their streaming service “Radio Tunes.”

I think it might be a case of “The Other Man’s Grass Is Always Greener” (cue Petula Clark to start singing). Those that ARE radio companies are trying to erase it from their name as fast as they can and those companies that don’t have an FCC broadcast license are adding to their name.

Maybe adding the small “i” to your name or taking “radio” out is the radio industry’s “mid life crisis.” It’s radio getting seduced by the new.

Instead of trying to be something you’re not, why not work harder at being the best at what you are. Radio has an incredible legacy. Radio was the #2 greatest invention of all time on The History Channel’s list of the world’s greatest inventions. (#1 was the smart phone, to which most people today listen to their favorite radio station or stream)

It’s time for us to say it loud and proud. I LOVE RADIO.

I do most of my radio listening these days via Internet and radio station streams. Two of my favorite radio stations that get a lot of my listening time are WCBS-FM in New York City and KRTH in Los Angeles.

I’ve been listening to K-Earth 101 (KRTH) for quite some time via the Internet. Unfortunately the sonic quality of the stream was anemic at best. This point was really driven home when I took a college spring break to drive the Pacific Coast Highway.

My drive began at LAX. Just as soon as I was handed the keys to my rental convertible, I turned on the radio and cranked up K-Earth 101 and one of my favorite radio personalities, Shotgun Tom Kelly. (Kelly just marked his 17^th anniversary of holding down the PM drive slot, a position previously held by fellow Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, The Real Don Steele.) Man, did that station explode from my car’s dashboard; big and bold with a sound that begged for a driver to put the pedal to the metal on the 405.

When I got back home to Kentucky, I put the K-Earth stream on and was disappointed by the lack of audio gusto. That is, until recently. K-Earth now sounds as good on their stream as they do over-the-air. And that’s not surprising as a lot of stations are really paying attention to the audio quality of their streams. But that, unfortunately, is all they are apparently paying attention to.

Which brings me to “Do The Bartman.” That was a song that Michael Jackson (yes, that MJ) wrote for Bart of The Simpsons. Michael was a big Simpsons fan and he called the show’s producers and volunteered to write a hit song for Bart. (He did and it was.) How do I know this? K-Earth and WCBS-FM told me. Again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again….well you get the idea. They told me this factoid a lot. And I’m not talking over a course of days, try in the same break. Sometimes this factoid ran back to back in that break.

OK, I realize that someone thought it would be a good idea when the stream didn’t have the same amount of commercials sold that the over-the-air programming had, to fill that extra time up with something cute. And it was cute, the first ten times I heard it. But cute goes bad quickly. And cute can really begin to annoy the listener with a very high burnout rate.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether I listen to WCBS-FM with Scott Shannon in the morning (Scott’s doing some of his best radio work ever by the way) or drive home with Shotgun Tom Kelly on K-Earth 101, I will be subjected to the “Do The Bartman” factoid quite a few more times before a new factoid is researched, written and replaces it.

You don’t hear this lack of attention to detail on pure play streams. And that’s where pure plays have the advantage over broadcast radio stations that stream.

Brian Boyer of NPR nails it when he says “Our biggest rule is that if it doesn’t work on mobile, it doesn’t work,” adding, “Mobile-first design is a great mind hack.”

Today’s broadcasters now understand that the sonic quality of their streams is as important as their over-the-air signal, but they still haven’t got the programming of the breaks right yet. It’s really more than just the length of the breaks by broadcasters vs. pure plays, but that’s a big deal too. Broadcasters need to listen to their streams and ask themselves, “Am I happy with the way this sounds?” My bet is they would not be happy.

Oh no, here comes “Do The Bartman” for the umpteenth time.

Tom Taylor wrote this morning in his NOW digital publication “A rose by any other name, would smell as sweet.” What interesting about that old Bill Shakespeare line from Romeo & Juliet is that researchers have actually found that would not be true. Turns out a name can affect how we perceive a lot of things – smell, attractiveness etc. Teaching the next generations at the university I can pretty confidently say that they have no clue what “clear channel” means when it comes to either class of AM radio station or to the behemoth media company (The exception being those who take my History of American Broadcasting class). Since the Clear Channel name is posted on tons of billboards across our land, they most likely equate the name with that form of media. (And iHeartMedia is not changing the name of the billboard division). However, ask my students about iHeartRadio and not only do they have an opinion, but the App on their smartphone. To the radio diehards it may feel like the tail is wagging the dog, but the reality is digital is now the dog and broadcasting is the tail. But what a mighty tail it is and radio has an incredible advantage if it puts that tail to work for it’s future in digital.