Tag Archives: Apple CarPlay

July 13, 2025 · 3:00 am

Where Should the Radio Industry Be Focused?

You most likely have heard how the radio industry in America is trying to get Congress to pass a law requiring that all cars sold must have an AM radio installed in them. Radio folks say this is necessary so emergency information will be available to the general public in times of a crisis.

The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is bipartisan legislation aimed at ensuring AM radio remains accessible in all new vehicles sold in the United States. It would require automakers to include AM broadcast radio as a standard feature, without any additional cost to consumers. The bill also addresses transparency by requiring automakers to disclose if a vehicle lacks AM radio access before the rule takes effect.

But is this really necessary, if we’re being honest with one another?

When Sue and I are on one of our many road trips, and a weather emergency or some other crisis occurs in the area that we are traveling in, our iPhones go crazy with that critical information.

Redundancy

Today, we live in a world with a lot of redundancy when it comes to communication. It’s not like a hundred years ago where radio provided the only means of immediate information to the public. In addition to broadcast radio/TV, we have computers, tablets, and smartphones filling the role of delivering emergency information quickly.

I won’t ever forget the day a tornado alert was issued for Bowling Green, Kentucky, including the campus of Western Kentucky University; every electronic device my students carried with them went off with the tornado warning.

The sound was deafening.

Obviously, as I was teaching a class at the time, no one was listening to a radio or watching TV but we all immediately knew of the imminent danger and sought protective cover.

AM Radio

From my earliest years as a listener, it was AM radio that caused me to want to pursue a career in the radio industry.

The first ten years of my radio career were spent on-air, in programming and operations. The next thirty years would see me move in to radio sales, sales management, general management and finally as a market manager of radio station clusters.

Over that period of time I watched as AM radio listenership grew older and declined, while FM radio amassed a large audience and the lion’s share of the advertising revenue.

The point I’m trying to make is, that AM radio was always available in cars and trucks, but people had moved on; to FM radio, satellite radio and portable music playing devices.

Reach people where they are, not where you want them to be.

Where Did All Radios Go?

Pete Seeger wrote a song that is applicable to the radio issue today, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” This song could be radio’s battle cry, by changing “flowers” to “radios.”

If you go into any retailer today, you’ll feel like Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Arc trying to find a radio receiver.

Recently, Sue and I road tripped to Gainesville, Florida for another one of our grandchildren graduating from high school. During our two weeks of travel, every hotel we stayed in no longer had a radio in our room. Instead they had a large screen TV (up to 85 inches) and by our bed a charging block for plugging in our smartphones, tablets and computers.

So, should the radio industry be adding to the “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act” as well as hotel rooms too? I think not! Have you ever tried to listen to AM radio on one of those cheap radio’s that hotels used to put into their rooms?

The Francis Marion Hotel

On our way home from Florida, we stayed a couple of nights in Charleston, South Carolina at The Francis Marion Hotel. The hotel was named after a revolutionary war hero and built in 1924. The Francis Marion hotel was early to include an AM radio in every room and even housed the city’s first radio station on an upper floor of the hotel.

The 1920s was the Golden Age of railroads, radio and grand hotels, and the Charleston Renaissance was in full bloom.

That was then, this is now.

Today, our room at The Francis Marion featured one of those clock charging cubes by our bedside, two flat screen TVs and excellent WiFi. Oh, and there is no longer a radio station broadcasting from the hotel; that’s been gone for years.

Radio Today

James Cridland reported in his latest newsletter that he read in Radio Today that the UK’s first commercial radio station is switching off two of its FM frequencies. The owners claim that DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) and online streaming serves its audience well enough. Cridland believes they won’t be the last either.

The Future is here, NOW!

What Do We Listen To When We Road Trip?

Everything we want to hear when we’re on-the-road comes from our smartphones. They automatically connect to our Honda’s audio system via Apple CarPlay. For music we can choose from my own music library, RadioTunes or Pandora. If we want to hear any radio station, we can listen to it via TuneIn Radio, StreamS, myTuner Radio, or Simple Radio. Plus, any time I want a quick check of the latest news, I click on my Hourly News app which streams the latest news from NPR, CBC, AP, ABC, CBS, FOX, and the BBC in succession. By the time I’ve finished listening, I not only have a good sense of what’s going on in the world, but how each news service ranks each story’s importance to its listeners.

The amazing thing about all of this is, the streaming of audio content we’ve found, is stable; with no dropouts, static or disruption of any kind. Unlike satellite radio which drops out under bridges, streaming audio does not.

In fact, my blog of January 9, 2022 titled “Why I Stream ALL of My Radio Listening,” goes into detail about how and why I started doing this. https://dicktaylorblog.com/2022/01/09/why-i-stream-all-my-radio-listening/ While we still own the 2009 Honda Accord talked about in that article, we recently upgraded to a 2018 Honda Accord for our road trips, which makes everything even easier. Mind you, this vehicle is seven years old and has an AM radio in it; somewhere, I just haven’t spent any time looking for it. The touch screen does have a button at the top that says FM Radio, even when I’m in Apple CarPlay mode, which is ALWAYS.

The Bottomline

Today we live in an ON DEMAND world. People want what they want, when they want it, and where they want it. The focus of today’s radio owner/operators should be on that reality, not on trying to keep a 20th Century technology alive by forcing it on people.

Five years ago, the Radio Advertising Bureau’s Senior Vice President Jeff Schmidt was telling radio sales people,

“If you’re selling the way you were five years ago,

you’re in trouble because the world is changing

and we need to change with it.”

And he’s right, but not just about radio sales, about the entire radio industry. It can’t try and hold back the massive change that is occurring in the world of communications. That’s the message.

Radio needs to get on board

or

miss the boat.

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April 14, 2024 · 3:00 am

AM Radio in Retreat

While the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is still pursuing its goal of getting Congress to pass the “AM Radio in Every Vehicle Act*,” the number of AM radio stations on-the-air continues to shrink.

How Many Radio Stations Are There?

Inside Radio published the latest FCC radio station count and the number of AM radio stations on-the-air continues to shrink.

In 1968, I passed my 3rd Class Radiotelephone FCC License, Broadcast endorsed, it was also the year that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began publishing its Broadcast Station Totals reports.

At that time the FCC said that 4,236 AM radio stations and 2,306 FM radio stations were on the air.

In December 1990, the next report the FCC published became available showing 4,987 AM radio stations and 5,832 full power FM radio stations were now on the air; plus, another 1,866 FM translator/boosters.

It’s worthy to note that the general public cannot tell the difference between a:

  • Full power FM
  • FM booster
  • FM translator signal

as to the FM listener they all are received on a standard AM/FM receiver. Only broadcasters, broadcast engineers and the FCC are concerned about such distinctions.

So, in just the first two decades of my radio career, FM signals outnumbered AM signals by 2,711.

Telecommunications Act of 1996

On February 8, 1996, President William Jefferson Clinton signed into law what is commonly referred to as “The Telcom Act of 96.” The intent of the legislation was to allow more companies to operate in the communications space, but what actually happened was a flurry of mergers and acquisitions as corporate media giants bought out small, local broadcasters.

The FCC reported that as of February 29, 1996 there were:

  • 4,906 AM stations
  • 7,151 FM stations
  • 2,527 FM translators/boosters on-the-air

almost two FM signals beating the airwaves to every AM signal.

A year after the Telcom Act of 96, the number of AM signals began its decline to:

  • 4,840 (a loss of 66 AM signals in one year)
  • full power FM signals increased to 7,295 (up 144 FM signals)
  • FM translator/booster signals grew to 2,744 (up 217 FM signals)

While AM radio signals were signing off, FM radio signals were growing by an additional 361.

Ten Years After Passage of the Telcom Act of 96

On March 31, 2006, ten years after the Telcom Act became law, and the consolidation of the radio industry began, the FCC Broadcast Station Totals report listed:

  • 4,759 AM signals
  • 8,989 full power FM signals
  • 4,049 FM translator/booster signals

and now something new began appearing, Low Power FM signals (LPFM) which numbered 712,  meaning the radio listening consumer could now access 13,750 FM signals versus 4,759 AM signals.

Wall Street investors were clearly showing more interest in FM signals than AM signals as their money poured into the radio industry.

Twenty Years After Passage of the Telcom Act of 96

Twenty years after President Clinton signed the Telcom Act and consolidation continued squeezing out the mom and pop broadcasters, the FCC Broadcast Station Totals report listed:

  • 4,680 AM signals (down 307 signals from the day I began my broadcast career)
  • 10,811 full power FM signals
  • 6,582 FM translator/booster signals
  • 1,516 LPFM signals

AM signals totaled 4,680 and FM signals totaled 18,908.

Radio Broadcast Signals 2024

Which brings us to the present day report, March 31, 2024. The FCC Broadcast Station Totals report now lists:

  • 4,427 AM signals
  • 10,983 full power FM signals
  • 8,913 FM translator/booster signals
  • 1,960 LPFM signals

Remember, the radio listening public DOES NOT distinguish between the different classifications of FM signals, as they all appear on the same FM radio receiver they are using.

To the radio listener, they have

4,427 AM signals compared to 21,856 FM signals

they can access. Almost 5 times as many FM signals as AM signals, and each year we witness those AM signals either reducing their power or just signing off-the-air and turning in their FCC broadcast license.

Radio Dominates in Vehicles

The latest research from Quu ( www.quureport.com ) shows that in 2023 model vehicles:

  • 100% of them have an FM radio
  • 98% of them have an AM radio
  • 98% of them have Android Audio
  • 98% of them have Apple CarPlay
  • 92% have SiriusXM
  • 70% have HD Radio

What surprised me about this research report, was that this was the first time I’ve ever seen separate AM and FM numbers listed. All reporting about radio usage should list AM and FM listening separately. I feel it is disingenuous to give the false impression that AM and FM broadcast signals contribute equally when that’s clearly NOT the case.

Having access to an audio service does not equate to usage.

Fred Jacobs in his TechSurvey 2023 for example, revealed how HD Radio was only listened to by 16% and SiriusXM was only listened to by 28%, which shows that despite their high availability numbers in vehicle dashboards, usage is still low. Unfortunately, AM/FM is never broken apart, but listed together so can they can garner 86% of the listening.

I’m thinking that both HD radio and SiriusXM usage might eclipse AM radio listening, if we were allowed to see AM and FM usage shown separately.

Vehicles On The Road in America Today

According to S&P Global Mobility, there are 284 million vehicles on our roadways and the average age of them continues to rise to a new record of 12.5 years. About 23% of all passenger cars now are 20 years or older with the bulk of them made between 2015 and 2019.

By 2050, when electric vehicles are projected to make up 60% of new sales, the majority of vehicles on America’s highways will still be powered by gasoline, because most vehicles today last twenty years meaning AM radio will still be in most cars, but the bigger question is how many AM radio stations will still be on-the-air.

Radio Needs To Look Forward

In ten to twenty years, AM radio will be at best a niche way to listen to audio.

Where the radio industry and the National Association of Broadcasters should be focusing their time is keeping FM radio viable, in all vehicles and FREE!

Sadly, the FM band is becoming overcrowded with signals and this, I believe, needs to be seriously addressed.

Finally, I would like to believe, as does Scott Shannon, that radio can still succeed in the 21st Century if it will just be “authentic, local, magical, and deliver an audio product with passion.” Or as radio programming consultant and author Valerie Geller puts it:

Great radio is interesting people communicating with listeners

by telling the truth, making it matter and never being boring.

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April 16, 2023 · 3:00 am

Saving AM Radio

The radio trades have been full of headlines about saving AM radio, especially in the dashboard of America’s cars and trucks. Here’s some of the most recent ones I’ve seen:

NAB launches campaign for AM radio

State Broadcasters Group Ask AM Stations for Help

Can The Industry and Congress Keep AM Radio in the Dashboard?

Detroit Newspaper Looks at Loss of AM Radio in New Ford Vehicles

The National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations (NASBA) even put out an online survey “to more accurately craft the AM broadcaster owner’s message and to develop actionable items to keep AM [radio] in the dash.”

Let me tell you why everything I’ve read in the broadcasting newsletters, magazines and websites seems to be focused 180-degrees in the wrong direction.

What Features Do New Car Buyers Want?

Keeping AM or FM radio in vehicle dashboards has nothing to do with what broadcasters want, it has everything to do with what car buyers want. The lists from various sources I’ve found are all pretty much the same, though ranking positions may vary a little from publication to publication.  Here is what car buyers want:

  1. Proximity Key – a key fob that allows you to unlock (and lock) your vehicle’s doors and start it without having a physical key in your hand
  2. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – smartphone connectivity is as important as a steering wheel to today’s car buyers*
  3. USB Outlets – lots of places to charge or run tablets, laptops and other electronic equipment
  4. Blind-Spot Monitoring and Rear-Cross-Traffic Alert – to keep you informed of what’s going on around your car while you’re driving
  5. Adaptive Cruise Control – systems that adjust your car’s speed while maintaining a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you.
  6. Surround-View Camera Suite – this puts the backup camera on steroids and allows a driver to see a 360-degree view of everything around their vehicle
  7. Wireless Smartphone Charging – a place you can put your cellphone to charge while you’re driving
  8. Rain-Sensing Windshield Wipers – a step-up from intermittent wipers, these blades automatically adjust to the amount of road spray or rainfall coming at you to keep your windshield clean
  9. Automatic High Beams – No need to raise and lower your headlight power manually, these systems do it automatically for you, so you always have the most light your vehicle is capable of producing shining on the road in front of you
  10. Heated, Ventilated Seats and a Heated Steering Wheel

What you don’t find on any of these lists are people asking for a radio, let alone an AM radio to be in their next vehicle.

What Features Do New Car Buyers Feel They Can Skip?

It surprised me to find that ‘Navigation’ topped lists, but then when Sue & I rented a car a couple of years ago, I learned that rental cars no longer offer a navigation system option. What they do offer is Apple CarPlay and Android Audio that automatically connects to your smartphone and displays the navigation software you enjoy using to the car’s video screen. (And yes, that arrangement worked for us perfectly, while driving cross-country.)

So, let’s look at the features car buyers don’t mind not having:

  1. Navigation
  2. Premium Audio System – most feel the hefty costs to upgrade the standard audio system the car comes with is not worth the money
  3. Onboard WiFi Hotspot – like Satellite Radio (which most new car buyers are also OK with skipping) WiFi Hotspots require a monthly subscription fee and are deemed not worth the added expense

Your Baby’s Ugly

The real problem the radio industry has is that it lives in a reality distortion field that has it thinking it’s still 1960s/70s. In other words, it needs to put on a pair of headphones and hear it for what it is.

John Frost’s most recent Frost Advisory email, told the story of a small AM radio station that broadcast a financial talk show that he occasionally tunes into hear. John says “it’s terrible radio, but the guys are really smart, they cough a lot, have lots of room noise and give insightful advice.”

On Good Friday, the show was a repeat of Thursday’s show and so what the listener heard on Friday were invitations to call in (which they could not because the show wasn’t live), announcements that Friday’s show would be a repeat of Thursdays show (but this was Friday) and commentary about the current day’s stock market prices (the market was closed on Good Friday) and nothing is more meaningless than yesterday’s stock prices.

Sadly, this kind of thing isn’t an isolated incident, but standard operating procedure on both AM and FM radio stations across America.

No one wants to hear their baby is ugly,

but for today’s radio industry, that’s the truth.

What Should Be The Focus of the Radio Industry

What keeps running through my mind is,

if the radio industry spent as much time, money and effort on producing a great product on AM radio stations across America, might their radio listeners be leading the charge with the auto industry to keep AM radio in the dashboard?

Let’s look at what fans make happen when a favorite TV show gets cancelled. The first television program to be saved by its fans was Star Trek in 1968. The franchise began in 1966 and 57 years later, it is still going strong.

More recently, fans of the FOX series Friday Night Lights organized a Facebook group with online petitions to show the network their support for this show, having it continue for five seasons despite its less than stellar audience ratings.

In both cases, it was not a television network that tried to convince an audience to watch a program, it was the audience that convinced a network NOT to cancel a program. That’s how it’s suppose to work.

AM radio isn’t coming back, so what the radio industry should instead be focused on is making FM radio the best that it can be and insuring that it won’t suffer the same fate befalling AM radio.

To win in today’s media marketplace, you must have a product that listeners want to hear;

today’s audio consumer has an infinite number of choices available.

When it comes to what new car buyers want in their next vehicle, broadcast radio is not on their list of wants, needs or desires.

That’s a real wake-up call,

if there ever was one.

*On April 1, 2023, General Motors plans to phase out widely used Apple (AAPL) CarPlay and Android Auto technologies that allow drivers to bypass a vehicle’s infotainment system, shifting instead to built-in infotainment systems developed with Google (GOOG) for future electric vehicles. It made me wonder if this was an April Fools prank, but apparently GM is that tone death. 

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