Tag Archives: SiriusXM

March 9, 2025 · 3:00 am

Radio’s Most Pressing Issues

This past week, Radio/TV state broadcast associations were in our nation’s capital meeting with their elected representatives in both the House and Senate about issues that are important to them. It’s the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) State Leadership Conference.

More than 500 radio broadcasters from across America assembled to hear Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speak on his support of the “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act,” and advocating for a level playing field in the advertising market.

Cruz is the new Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and he pledged a proactive approach to support broadcasters, create jobs and uphold free speech.

Free Speech

Brendan Carr is the new Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and in only a couple of weeks, since taking this leadership position, his actions have caught the attention of some members of Congress, who were alarmed by recent moves impacting broadcasters.

Representative Jerold Nadler (D-NY) expressed his concern over the Carr’s FCC assault on a media organization’s free speech.

“Exploiting his asserted ‘unitary executive’ powers, [President] Trump is unleashing his sycophant FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, on every newsgroup whose news stories he does not approve of — actually threatening to pull the broadcast licenses for ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and NPR,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). “Is this North Korea?”

The President of Free Press Action, Craig Aaron, in testimony said that threats and opening investigations into broadcast outlets by the FCC is out of the norm.

“The FCC usually talks about licenses on very narrow terms, such as if an owner has committed a major crime,” Aaron said. “The idea that a news organization would be threatened because they asked a tough question of the President, or because they tried to fact check him during a debate, or because they edited their own news content before putting it out over the airwaves is preposterous, and it’s dangerous.”

DEI

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has been terminated by Carr at the FCC and he’s been signaling that the agency might go after FCC licensees over their own DEI programs.

Are DEI programs good for business? Apple’s shareholders think so, so do Costco shareholders, and Hyundai’s marketing executive, Erik Thomas, credits its DEI programs with driving the automobile manufacturer’s bottom line.

SiriusXM

Nine years ago I wrote an article with a title that sounded like click bait titled “SiriusXM Radio is Now Free,” which speculated when the FCC licensed satellite broadcaster would start offering ad-supported channels for free.

Four years later, I wrote that “Could 2021 Be the Year SiriusXM Adds FREE Channels?” speculating that new SiriusXM CEO, Jennifer Witz, would be pursuing revenue growth by  leveraging the 132 million cars the service was available in. SiriusXM, like commercial radio over-the-air (OTA) broadcasters, knows that the competition for listener ears is in the car. The advantage the satellite broadcaster has over AM/FM radio operators is they know exactly what their listeners are listening to, and don’t have to rely on audience estimates that may or may not be accurate in today’s media saturated world.

Last year, what I have been predicting since 2016, became a reality, as I wrote in:  “Ad-Supported SiriusXM Requires No Paid Subscription.”

Monopoly

One of the radio industry’s most respected researchers, Dr. Ed Cohen, wrote “The direct-to-consumer satellite radio business is a monopoly,” shortly after my 3rd article on this subject was published. Originally, the FCC offered only two satellite broadcast licenses, one went to a company called “Sirius” and the other to a company called “XM,” with the idea being they would be competitors and that the consumer would benefit by not having a single company – a monopoly – control satellite radio and what it could charge.

The two companies were supposed to never be able to merge, but in August of 2008, by a 3 to 2 vote of the FCC, that changed. Dr. Cohen does a really good deep dive into explaining how this all came about in his article “SiriusXM and the FCC: Is the Camel’s Nose Under the Tent?” Which is an allusion to a story that takes place in Arabia, with this metaphorical moral:

If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow.

What the FCC never took into consideration was, how much damage might occur to local AM/FM radio stations, if and when, the new combined SiriusXM ever decided to provide an ad-supported free radio service.

Dr. Cohen believes that while this new free service from SiriusXM is limited in scope, like the proverbial camel, it won’t be long before the whole service becomes real competition for audio listeners and advertisers.

People Love Free

AM Radio vs SiriusXM

Dr. Cohen makes an excellent case for commercial radio broadcasters to be demanding, the FCC revisit the SiriusXM merger decision in light of this change by the satellite broadcaster.

By the way, public broadcasters also have a horse in this race, as NPR Now is part of the new free SiriusXM service.

“While the NAB is busy with getting Congress to force OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to include AM in every vehicle, the battle with SiriusXM’s ad-supported venture is probably more important to the industry in the long run,” says Dr. Cohen.

It’s The Economy Stupid

But the most important issue facing the commercial radio industry are the financial fears that have been generated by the Trump tariffs and fire hose of government regulatory changes that seem to come at us on an hourly basis. I wrote about this concern in February with an article titled “The Cost of Uncertainty to Radio.”

Now BIA Advisory Services this week updated its local advertising revenue forecast for 2025. Cameron Coats, in Radio Ink, reports that “over-the-air revenue [for radio] takes the largest hit, falling by 6%.” Digital radio, says Coats, shows a slight increase of 0.1%.

SiriusXM has enjoyed growth through the sale of new cars, but with the high tariffs Trump has announced, it wouldn’t be a surprise if people hang onto their current vehicles a little longer, which also means that AM radio will still be accessible. Without an economic downturn, the average life of a car in America is 12-years, up from 8.4-years in 1995. Progressive Insurance says that a well-maintained car will reach 300,000 or more miles, and those cars have both AM/FM radios as well as SiriusXM.

The radio industry’s most pressing issue is who wins in the car, and in that arena AM radio – a hundred year old medium is not our industry’s best play –

stopping satellite radio’s FREE ad-supported service is.

When the pie isn’t growing,

the game becomes who can cut the biggest slice.

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September 1, 2024 · 3:00 am

What If Every Radio Station in America Could Operate Like EMF?

At the beginning of 2024, I read an article from Rolling Stone.com that I can’t get out of my head. It was titled “Why Is the Radio Full of Christian Rock? Thank This Nonprofit.” It’s a long article, that I encourage you to read, but if you’re short on time, I will summarize its most important content for the commercial radio industry.

What is EMF?

EMF stands for the “Educational Media Foundation,” a name that does not immediately convey that they are a religious broadcaster.

On their website, the foundation states their mission this way:

“Educational Media Foundation (EMF) is a nonprofit, multi-platform media company on a mission to draw people closer to Christ. Founded in 1982 in Santa Rosa, CA, with a singular radio station, EMF today owns and operates the nation’s two largest Christian music radio networks (K-LOVE and Air1) with over 1,000 broadcast signals across all 50 states, streaming audio reaching around the world, and a growing family of media ministries including podcasts, books, films, concerts, and events. EMF employs nearly 500 team members between its offices in Nashville, TN, Rocklin, CA, and field locations around the country.”

Today, I believe, EMF is the largest radio station owner in America, with more radio signals in its control than iHeartRadio, estimating that it reaches a weekly audience numbering over 18-million listeners. It’s those listeners – and their donations – that fund EMF’s operations, much like the listeners support at public radio stations. EMF’s radio stations are licensed as non-commercial educational (NCE) radio stations and the foundation receives the majority of their donations during their twice annual pledge drives; usually held in the spring and fall.

What is iHeartRadio?

iHeartRadio is America’s largest commercial radio broadcaster and owned by iHeartMedia, which was rebranded by CEO Bob Pittman from Clear Channel Radio in 2014.

Full-disclosure, I worked for Clear Channel Communications from 2004-2010, a time when the company operated in a decentralized manner, allowing each of its radio station’s general managers to make their own decisions based on local market conditions and to deliver what was forecast by the radio station’s annual budget. That would change after I left the company to a centralized management model.

At its peak, Clear Channel owned and operated more than twelve hundred American radio stations. Today, the iHeartMedia website says:

“With over 860 live broadcast stations [with 781 employees] in 160 markets across America, there’s an iHeartRadio station where you live. Discover how our stations can deliver your message live and local to your community.”

Wikipedia says ”iHeartRadio’s main radio competitors are Audacy, TuneIn and SiriusXM,” which I found interesting in that TuneIn owns no radio stations, and while SiriusXM is licensed to operate by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and does employ land-based transmitter sites in addition to its satellites, it is basically a subscription service.

Its real competitor, like that of the rest of the commercial/public radio industry, is flying under the radar.

EMF versus Commercial/Public Radio

Rolling Stone writes: The big difference between EMF and other commercial broadcasters is that it operates without a local presence and unmanned transmitters.  

“Almost every new EMF station operates as a repeater

with no local voices, few local jobs and barely any overhead.”

Rolling Stone says that as of 2022, this “little-known organization had just shy of a billion dollars in net assets (a number that grows steadily year after year), with an annual revenue of nearly a quarter billion. (National Public Radio, by comparison, had net assets of less than $150 million and operated near the break-even mark.)”

The EMF business model has few operating costs – unlike commercial and public broadcasters – where every new radio station they acquire becomes a new source for donations. It’s estimated that about ninety-seven cents of every dollar comes from listener donations.

“Nonprofit EMF has built an unassuming money-making machine.”

-Rolling Stone

The genius of the EMF business model is that it exploits loopholes that the FCC created to help small nonprofits.

“in my own heart, I know God was involved

[in the decision to form a 501(c)(3)]

because being a not-for-profit has paid off for us

many, many times.”

Mike Novak, EMF CEO

The decision to incorporate as a “not-for-profit” entity allows EMF to enjoy many benefits:

  • Avoid paying taxes
  • Waves FCC applications costs and other fees
  • No requirement to maintain a local broadcast studio
  • Legally accept tax-deductible donations from their listeners (a revenue stream not available to commercial broadcasters)
  • The acquisition of translators* that are made more easily available to entities such as religious broadcasters
  • Access to lower FM band frequencies (88.1 – 91.9) that the FCC reserved for use by colleges, community and public-radio organizations and tribes; entities that the FCC envisioned would have limited funds to acquire these frequencies, and  commercial broadcasters were banned from bidding on, but didn’t exclude a not-for-profit giant like EMF from buying up.

Sadly, true community broadcasters find this unlevel playing field almost impossible to compete with, when EMF’s billion-dollar foundation can offer iHeart-level prices for neighborhood radio stations. It’s something I personally witnessed happen in my city of Winchester, Virginia when EMF bought 50,000-watt WINC-FM. All local community programming vanished, along with its employees and building.

While the FCC still maintains a policy of not allowing a single radio broadcaster from owning more than five AM or five FM stations in any one city, it left open a loophole for noncommercial broadcasters by never applying its ownership cap to nonprofits. There’s also no ownership cap on the number of translators a nonprofit may own in a single radio market.

Soft Conservatism

While nonprofits can’t legally engage in any political campaign activity, don’t think EMF isn’t using its fortunes to influence its point-of-view; through lobbying and legislation. Those in the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) industry know that the genre is a punchline for most Americans; it’s something that actually works to EMF’s advantage, by keeping them low profile.

Unfortunately, this unlevel playing field is negatively impacting local commercial and public radio stations to profitably operate, which impacts the communities these stations once served with vital local news, sports, weather and community information.

*Translators are small FM radio signals that rebroadcast a parent radio station into an area the original signal couldn’t reach.

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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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January 28, 2024 · 3:00 am

The Future is ON-DEMAND

I just finished reading the public radio research report “An Audience Growth Strategy for Public Media” prepared by Jacobs Media and Mark Ramsey Media for Maine Public radio service. What really stood out to me was how clearly this report shows where the future is for all traditional linear media.

Linear Is In The Rear-view Mirror

Broadcast radio and television – traditional media – was built on a linear program schedule, delivering to the media consumer, information and entertainment on a schedule determined by the broadcaster. The VCR (video cassette recorder) developed in 1956 became widely available in the late 70s and by the early 2000s was in virtually every American household, giving  television consumers the ability to now watch shows on their schedule, not the program provider’s.

“It is painfully obvious neither broadcast radio nor television is growing, especially as it concerns traditional (terrestrial) usage and linear program schedules,” writes Jacobs/Ramsey.

Today’s Media Consumer

America continues to become more diversified: 72% of Baby Boomers are white but only about half of Millennials are white and four-in-ten of Gen Zs are white.

Millennials were born between 1981 and 1994, so VCRs have always been a part of their life and Gen Zs were born 1995 and 2009, which means also having an iPod type device has always been part of their life. Both of these devices contributed to the habit of having what you want, ON-DEMAND.

In 2007, the iPhone introduced us to a media device that made ON-DEMAND media consumption ubiquitous.

Listening Options

Today’s non-radio listeners have a plethora of media options:

  • Spotify
  • Pandora
  • Apple Music
  • Amazon Music
  • Radio Tunes
  • SiriusXM
  • Podcasts
  • Audio Books
  • YouTube
  • Social Media

…just to name a few.

Jacob/Ramsey says “Linear program schedules common to over-the-air [broadcast] stations are not in alignment with new media consumption habits.” Today’s consumer is in control, not the media provider.

ON-DEMAND Digital

In today’s world, the future is “Go Digital, or Go Home.”

Today’s traditional broadcasters (Radio & TV), must take advantage of digital’s ability to serve their audiences with what they want, when they want it and on the media platform they want it on. The same attention given to over-the-air broadcasts will need to be given to all the other ways of content distribution; as each is of equal importance to the media consumer.

“Broadcast radio and television will remain the core business for years to come, but a focus on traditional media can no longer be considered a growth strategy,” writes Jacobs/Ramsey.

Peacock & Netflix

NBC’s Peacock streaming service paid $100 million dollars to exclusively stream the wild-card playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins, setting a record for the most-streamed live event in American history. Comcast Chairman & CEO Brian Roberts considered the streaming gamble a success and a very proud moment for the company, but for consumers it will mean having to pay for playoff games in the future.

This week Netflix announced it had struck a 10-year deal with WWE to air “Monday Night Raw” on its streaming service. This program has been on linear television since 1993; 31-years ago.

Peak Listening On Audio Platforms

This pat week, when Edison Research published their article on which media platform commands the most listening in different dayparts, it was eye-opening.

The only daypart that broadcast radio commands is morning drive (6-10am), which just happens to be the one daypart the broadcast radio industry still invests in live air personalities. For the rest of the dayparts, consumers utilize streaming audio or previously downloaded content to their media device.

My favorite time to listen to radio growing up was 7pm to midnight. Some of the best known and loved air personalities broadcast during this daypart; Big Ron O’Brien, John Records Landecker, Wolfman Jack, Cousin Brucie among others. However, today the research shows that YouTube is what people listen to at this time of day.

Just before the end of last year, SiriusXM announced the debut of its new streaming App. It offers “discoverability and personalization at the forefront, [so] listeners can quickly and easily find and dive into the content they love across SiriusXM’s 400+ channels and tens of thousands of hours [with] on-demand content and podcasts, [allowing] fans to go deeper into their passions and get closer to their favorite music, artists, personalities and sports; [providing]  a seamless listening experience across streaming devices that reflects listener preferences and interests,  [ensuring] subscribers never miss a moment wherever they are and whenever they want to listen.”

Don’t you wish the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters)

was working on something like this, instead of focusing on linear AM radio?*

*https://www.nab.org/documents/newsroom/pressRelease.asp?id=6916

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May 28, 2023 · 3:00 am

What’s Wrong With The Clock?

This past week the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), along with owners and operators of AM radio stations, were all taking bows when the Ford Motor Company reversed its decision to remove AM radio from ALL of its vehicles in 2024.

I don’t mean to rain on AM radio’s parade but something just doesn’t feel right about this quick change of heart. Let’s review the last five weeks.

April 1, 2023

News broke in the Detroit Free Press that Ford Motor Company planned to stop putting AM radio in both new gas-powered vehicles as well as electric vehicles beginning in 2024.

This sounded like it was an April Fool’s joke. However, Ford executives explained that “a majority of U.S. AM stations, as well as a number of countries and automakers globally, are modernizing radio by offering internet streaming through mobile apps, FM, digital and satellite radio options.” Ford said they planned to offer all of these alternatives for their vehicle owners so they could continue to hear their favorite AM radio station stations.

The Push-back

Alex Siciliano, senior vice president for communication at the NAB quickly responded to the news by saying, “we are certain that Ford does not want to alienate the nearly 48 million Americans who listen to AM radio, and we’ll continue to work closely with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation and individual manufacturers to keep this important service in cars.”

The NAB was joined by Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Nathan Simington in urging automakers to keep AM radio in all vehicles, whether they be gas-powered or electric.

Then seven former administrators of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) wrote a letter to the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, about how the removal of AM radio from cars will represent a grave threat to future local, state, and federal disaster response and relief efforts.

Ford Is Not The First OEM Who Thinks AM is Past Its Use-By Date

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) around the world are always looking towards the future, building cars and trucks equipped with what demands will be three to five years from now.

BMW, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Telsa, Volkswagen and Volvo have all removed AM radio from their electric vehicles.

FM vs AM Listening

AM (Amplitude Modulation) radio was invented the early 1900s. FM (Frequency Modulation) radio was invented in the 1930s. The shift in listening from AM to FM started in the early 1960s and by the late 70s, FM radio listenership eclipsed AM.

In June 2015, I wrote on this blog about AM Radio & Streaming Radio. I completed a 3,000 mile road trip consisting of listening to AM radio for the first 1,500 miles, and streaming radio the second 1,500 miles. I wrote:

Small signal AM radio stations primarily identify themselves with their FM translator dial position (How’s that saving AM radio?). The “pups” are mostly syndicated, automated, religious, sports or Spanish. They aren’t very engaging, which is probably a good thing if you’re driving usually because you don’t care when you lose the signal. Oh, and just try to hear their translator FM signal; forgetaboutit.

The 50,000 watt signals on AM, like WOWO in Ft Wayne, Indiana, WJR in Detroit, Michigan, WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio and KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are in another universe when it comes to radio programming.

While listening to WOWO, I heard a powerful morning show that was fun, engaging and tuned into the Ft Wayne area. WJR told me about Frankenmuth, Michigan while their midday show was broadcasting live from this unique resort town on the great lakes. WLW was talking about how the Cincinnati police were getting body cameras and how they were loaning them to the news folks in Cincinnati to wear and learn how they work. It was fascinating radio. And KDKA was a potpourri of information about all things Pittsburgh; thoroughly engaging and very enjoyable.

I rode each of these big signal radio stations for hundreds of miles and enjoyed listening to them every minute. Each was different, unique, fun, engaging LIVE and LOCAL.

The observation I made was that maybe the AM band should be reserved for these high power AM signals that have the bench strength to do great radio.

On my drive home I decided to see how easy it is to listen to streaming radio. Here’s what I wrote about that experience six years ago:

The day of my 15-hour drive home allowed me to listen to a streaming radio station through my iPhone4S, fed into my car’s audio system with no dropout, no buffering, and no disruption of any kind. The audio fidelity beats anything coming out of AM or FM terrestrial radio, and even SiriusXM.

On day two of my drive, I again streamed the Radio Tunes’ Smooth Jazz channel knowing that Jimi King and Stephanie Sales would be hosting a LIVE 3-hour Smooth Jazz show (they do this every Sunday). This turns Radio Tunes into a real live radio station, and I will admit that I love the channel mainly because of all the things it doesn’t do the other 165 hours a week. However, for three of the 7-hours of my second day’s drive, the companionship was really nice.

Again, I experienced no disruption to my listening as I proceeded from Maryland and through the state of West Virginia and into Kentucky. I carried Radio Tunes all the way into Lexington, Kentucky where I stopped to have some lunch.

While eating lunch it occurred to me how well my reception to streaming radio through my smartphone was. It offers excellent fidelity, no dropout, buffering or other disruptions.

Ford Decides to Keep AM Radio on All Its Vehicles

On May 23, just about five weeks after announcing that Ford would remove AM radio on all its vehicles in 2024, it reversed course and said it would not only continue to offer AM on both its gas-powered lineup but also its electric powered fleet as well.

That was an incredibly fast change of heart, but what really left people scratching their heads was that Ford also said it would restore AM radio to other Ford vehicles, via a software update, that never had AM radio in them to begin with.

About that clock…

I titled this blog article “What’s Wrong With The Clock?” and here’s why, Herb Cohen was called the world’s best negotiator and he wrote a New York Times bestseller called “You Can Negotiate Anything.” At a conference, I remember hearing Herb speak about his book and telling the story about a couple buying a grandfather clock.

As I remember it, Herb said this couple always wanted to own a grandfather clock but they were too expensive, until one day they found a grandfather clock in a store priced at $1,000. The couple had not seen a grandfather clock priced that low before and were planning to buy it at that price, when the husband thought he’d try and see if he could negotiate the price down a little. So, he said to the merchant behind the counter, “I will give you $500 for that grandfather clock.” The merchant quickly responded with “SOLD!”

The couple then wondered, what was wrong with the clock.

Negotiation is a process, that involves some back and forth, however when the process, as in the clock story, gets short-circuited, it’s human nature to wonder about your victory. That’s how I feel about the Ford reversal decision.

Moral Victory

What AM broadcasters have won in their battle with the Ford Motor Company is a moral victory. AM radio listening is in decline and there’s nothing in the cards that will change that.

If you say that someone has won a moral victory,

you mean that although they have officially lost

a contest or dispute,

they have succeeded in showing they are right about something.

-Collins Dictionary

Color me skeptical, but I sense that Ford has decided that with every AM radio station in America working to obtain an FM translator and then identifying ALL of their programming with their FM dial position, AM radio will put themselves out of business.

It’s not a beachhead Ford wishes to defend.

I also wonder how listenable AM radio will be in vehicles that don’t have the antenna systems and electrical shielding to insure good reception.

“It is much better to lose a battle and win the war

than to win a battle and lose the war.

Resolve to keep your eyes on the big ball.

-David J. Schwartz, The Magic of Thinking Big

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May 21, 2023 · 3:00 am

Radio’s Disappearing Act

Is AM radio disappearing from new cars the issue the radio industry should be focused on?

I think not and here’s why I say that.

WBZ 1030AM

I grew up listening to WBZ AM out of Boston on my daily college commute in Western Massachusetts. Carl DeSuze, Dave Maynard, Larry Justice, Mean Joe Green in the BZ Copter with Boston traffic reports and Gary LaPierre with the news. It was truly “The Spirit of New England.”

So, when Sue and I were headed to Boston for the graduation of our son-in-law from Berklee College of Music, I put on WBZ as we left our hotel in Spring Valley, New York, and we listened to this station on our three hour drive into Boston, we didn’t listen to it on 1030AM, but via its stream on the StreamS application (App). The station, which is now an all-news operation, sounded fabulous.

The fidelity was of higher quality than FM and there was no buffering or dropout of the signal.

Once in Boston, I tried listening to WBZ over my car’s AM radio and the quality was poor, with noise and interference emanating from our surroundings.

What Does a Radio Look Like?

Back in June of 2017, I wrote a blog article asking what a radio looks like today and the most likely answer to that question was a smartphone. I also addressed in that article of six years ago, I was noticing that hotels were replacing those cheap AM/FM radios with charging stations containing a digital clock, perfect for charging smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Car Radios & The Future

Then in September of 2020, I wrote about how radios first came to be an option for buyers of new cars in June of 1930. But today’s new car buyer wants Bluetooth capabilities more than they want an FM radio; AM radio is not a must-have in 2023 according to the latest Jacob’s Media Techsurvey. What do people connect in the car with that Bluetooth, their smartphones.

What I Recently Witnessed About Radio Use

After COVID began to fade, Sue and I took a trip out to the west coast to visit our children and grand children in that part of the country. What we noticed in every hotel room we stayed was a giant flat screen TV, but no radios, just more of those charging stations with digital clocks.

This prompted another article that same year titled, “Is Radio Up Schitt’s Creek?” Sue and I became big fans of this series out of Canada, that takes place in a fictional town called “Schitt’s Creek,” and takes place primarily in The Rosebud Motel, where the shows characters use televisions, computers and smartphones, but never use a radio.

When watching movies and TV shows, I often look to see if there’s a radio in sight, noticing in British productions they often are, but not in American ones.

Once It Was Radio

When Sue and I stayed in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania we visited the museum inside the Hotel Bethlehem and found that fifty years ago, a hotel having a radio in your room was cutting edge.

The Hotel Bethlehem opened in 1922, two years after the birth of commercial radio in the United States and in 1953, it announced that patrons would enjoy a brand new AM alarm clock radio in every room.

Now seventy years later, Hotel Bethlehem features fiber optic WiFi.

Where Are the Radios?

Last year, Sue and I took a road trip through Atlantic Canada. We stayed in hotels and Bed & Breakfasts (B&Bs) throughout our trip, and found WiFi has totally replaced the AM/FM clock radios.

In Montreal, our room at the Hôtel William Gray, had a Bang & Olufsen (B&O) Bluetooth speaker that easily connected to my iPhone. The fidelity of B&O equipment is legendary and it was a joy to be able to connect any of audio Apps on my phone during our stay.

Radio Set Ownership in the Home

In American homes today, 39% don’t have a single radio set in them, and radio set ownership gets worse for young Americans age 12 to 34, where that number grows to 57% according to Edison Research.

To put this into perspective, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), says only 6% of the population still lacks access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds. Meaning, the internet is more accessible than broadcast radio.

Are Broadcasters in Denial?

Valerie Geller, who wrote the excellent book “Beyond Powerful Radio,” recently said

“You can sit down with a broadcaster who rails against podcasting and digital audio and artificial intelligence (AI). Then you get in the car with them, they’re using GPS, they’re listening to a podcast, they’ve got SiriusXM, they’ve got Spotify. Podcasting and radio co-exist now. That’s our truth.

Radio is its own worst enemy. We have not spent or invested in developing talent. Every other business has research and development (R&D) and they spend on it because they are investing in the future. I love radio, but I hate the state it’s in.

A lot of the voice-tracking I’ve heard already sounds like AI. There’s nothing human about it. It’s just a broadcaster playing an actor playing a broadcaster. AI is just as good as those voice-tracks because there’s nothing real being said.”

AM Radio Leaving the Dashboard

Automobile manufacturers removing AM radio from the dashboard ought to be alerting the radio industry to BIGGER PROBLEMS. The AM situation is a symptom of what we should be focused on, and that’s creating GREAT RADIO.

If you think it won’t happen to FM next, you haven’t been paying attention.

AM/FM radio sets are vanishing from hotels, B&Bs, American homes and big box retailers.

If your listeners aren’t up in arms about that, then losing AM radio in their dashboard won’t be a big deal to them either.

To paraphrase the great sales trainer Don Beverage:

Make your radio station so valuable to a listener,

that they want to hear your programming more

than you want to broadcast it to them.

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May 15, 2022 · 3:00 am

Radio’s Leaking Listeners

The results of Techsurvey 2022* was presented in a webinar this week and two things about the latest data and the trend lines of the last five years struck me.

“We have met the enemy and it is us.”

-Pogo

Walt Kelly coined that phrase in a poster he made for an anti-pollution poster for the first Earth Day in 1970. He would later repeat it in a comic strip he created for the second Earth Day in 1971.

Sadly, the similarities between what needs to be done to preserve our planet and the radio industry are striking. We all know what the answer is, but aren’t applying the solution.

Personalities

Jacobs pointed out that “over the past four surveys, broadcast radio personalities have stayed ahead of the music as a key attribute of the medium.”

Yet, the big radio owners have done more to eliminate the very advantage broadcast radio has over its many audio competitors. Worse, our industry has no plan to create a farm team of new broadcasters that will replace personalities that are retiring or have retired.

Instead radio has tried to compete in areas where, at best, it’s a distant second; like music discovery.

Besides Personalities Radio’s Positives are Under Attack

Radio, we are told is easiest to listen to in the car. Unfortunately, when a person buys a new car, they learn SiriusXM is just as easy to access. Plus now everything on their smartphone easily connects to their dashboard. In fact, Fred Jacobs points out that in Techsurvey 2022 the feature most wanted in a new car is Bluetooth (76%) followed by an FM radio (70%) and having a smartphone connector or auxiliary input (57%).

My first blog article of 2022 told how even with older cars, like our 2009 Honda and 2006 Subaru how easy it was to make them connected cars. You can read that article here. https://dicktaylorblog.com/2022/01/09/why-i-stream-all-my-radio-listening/

It doesn’t take a Mensa to realize that this is another hole in the radio listening bucket.

Radio is “free,” with the tradeoff being forced to listened to very long commercial breaks, which radio listeners say is the thing they most dislike about listening to broadcast radio.

Radio’s covenant with its listeners was, you give us your attention to our advertisers, and we will entertain and inform you. Sadly, radio owners kept adding more commercials to each hour while eliminating the very programming elements that attracted listeners.

There’s nothing wrong with advertising, that is when it is in balance with programming content sought by the user. Podcasts understand this and enjoy increasing listening with advertisers seeing a positive benefit from sponsoring them.

Trends

No one called Paul Revere’s warning that the British were coming as being negative, and neither should anyone who cares about the radio broadcasting industry call those who are trying to promote positive change, “negative.”

Techsurvey 2022 should be a wake-up call to radio people with trends that show eight in ten people that can now connect a smartphone in their cars. Those who own a car with a “connected system” now spend the majority of the in-car time with digital audio or SiriusXM.

The car is the last beachhead that broadcast radio has left, and it is under Sirius attack.

SiriusXM

Techsurvey 2022, like all the surveys that have been done before, use as their database, fans of radio broadcasting. They are the core of our industry and so when we see these folks leaving us for other forms of media, it’s like seeing the canary in the coal mine lying on the floor of its cage.

One of the reasons given by people who still listen to broadcast radio, as to why they continue to listen is, it’s become a habit. When a person buys a new connected car and gets SiriusXM to listen to for free, what is happening is that a new habit is being formed. Not only do they now have access to a myriad of content options, but often their favorite radio personality might be rediscovered hosting one of the music channels.

During the pandemic, SiriusXM removed the paywall for their App as well as listening on a smart speaker, both of which had been available for an extra charge. What Fred Jacobs showed on his webinar was how this positively impacted listening at home, at work and other places for the satellite provider. The habit of listening to SiriusXM was now something that could be done everywhere, and that should keep any radio broadcaster awake at night.

The tipping point is that magic moment

when an idea, trend, or social behavior

crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.

-Malcolm Gladwell

I fear we are at the tipping point.

*Watch the full presentation of Fred Jacobs webinar on Techsurvey 2022 here: https://jacobsmedia.com/techsurvey-2022-results/  

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March 27, 2022 · 3:00 am

What Makes Your Radio Station Unique?

In teaching broadcast sales at the university, one of the things I taught my students was to help their advertising clients to identify their unique selling position in the marketplace. In other words, what was the one thing that made them different than everyone else in their specialty.

Something For Everyone

The answer you most often hear when you ask an advertiser what makes them unique is, “well, we have something for everyone.”

Something for everyone is nothing special for any one. To the radio listener, it’s like blah, blah, blah. It’s meaningless. Why? Because every other advertiser selling everything from soup to nuts says the same thing and the listener has become trained to tune out these advertising clichés.

Plumbers

Plumbers are probably not something you ever give much thought about, UNTIL you need one. That’s true for lots of repair services when you think about it.

What’s the one thing you hate about calling a home repair company? Knowing that you will be kept waiting and waiting and waiting for their arrival at the time when they said they would.

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation and only one bad one to lose it.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing could have said a lot of things about the services they provide, but instead they decided what would make them unique in the ears of future customers would be being punctual.

Benjamin Franklin

The Punctual Plumber

They built their whole franchise around the realization that people hate to be kept waiting. In fact, they promise when you don’t have time to wait around, you can count on them to be punctual plumbing professionals, but if they are ever late, they will pay YOU for every minute they’ve made you wait. Doesn’t that resonate with you? It does for me.

Give Your Radio Station a Diagnostic

When is the last time you pulled out the Advertiser Diagnostic sheet and used it on your own radio station(s)?

What makes your station unique? Not the music, that’s for sure. The songs you play were carefully crafted by composers, producers and talented artists, who have record labels that have worked relentlessly to get those songs played on as many radio stations, pure play streamers, movies, TV shows and any other place that uses music to entertain people.

Is your brand name unique? Well, if you branded your radio station KISS you are one of 78 radio stations in America that call themselves that, along with radio stations in Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Iceland, Greece, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, Canada and Australia. It’s no different than calling your radio station HOT, Jack, Bob, Alice or some other cute name that dozens upon dozens of other radio stations are doing, especially in a world where voice commands increasingly are the way people are accessing audio on their smart devices.

But if your brand is 650AM -WSM, you are the only one in the world that has that brand. You have set yourself apart from the estimated 44,000 radio stations currently on-the-air in the world. WSM is the Home of the Grand Ole Opry. I don’t expect this historic radio station to ever call itself by any other name, but by the one it owns exclusively: WSM.

Streaming Radio

In a world where you can receive virtually any radio station on an App like TuneIn, being unique and one-of-a-kind has never been more important.

If a person tries asking Alexa, Siri or Google to play the KISS radio station, I have no idea which one she will play. However, I don’t have to wonder for a second, if I ask my smart speaker to play WSM, I will hear any other radio station, but the one from Music City USA, in Nashville, Tennessee.

What Makes Your Radio Station Unique?

If you stake your radio station’s future on things created by others, like music, talk shows, network news, syndicated programs, jingles – things every other radio station in America has access to – then your radio station is NOT unique.

When other providers are able give your listeners more of what they want while eliminating the things they dislike, your days as a broadcaster are numbered.

Another way to think about this is, if you were to eliminate all of your commercials – the thing radio listeners say they object to most – would you be able to sustain your radio station by listener support, like public radio and Christian radio does? Or the way that Netflix or SiriusXM does?

If a listener hasn’t heard of your radio station,

wouldn’t choose your station or recommend it,

your brand is dead.

<Picture: The Fuse Vert is a premium vertical vinyl audio system which can also play FM radio>

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March 13, 2022 · 3:00 am

The Car Radio is 100

Commercial radio was born in November of 1920. The first OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) car radio came along in 1922 designed by the Chevrolet Motor Company and manufactured by Westinghouse. This first car radio was heavy, cumbersome and expensive; costing $200. In today’s dollars this would be the equivalent of $3,347.00. A 1922 Chevrolet, Superior 5-Touring automobile was priced at only $860, so you can see how expensive it was to buy one with a radio installed.

The good news is the radio worked and would then birth 100-years of innovation in the automobile dashboard.

The 1920s Car Radio Sales Pitch

With a radio in your car, your family could drive anywhere within a hundred miles of a radio station while being entertained, informed and educated.

It’s hard for any Baby Boomer to imagine not having audio entertainment as standard equipment in their dashboard.

1930s

It was radio engineer Paul Galvin that would pioneer more affordable car radios which he manufactured and sold through his new company, called Motorola.

1940s

Midway through the 40s, it is estimated that nine million cars now had radios in their dashboard and people were becoming concerned that they were leading to distracted driving thereby causing more auto accidents. Both broadcasters and radio manufacturers made the case for how having a car radio was useful in emergencies and alerted drivers to bad weather conditions.

Today when the topic of distracted driving comes up, it’s usually about handheld cellphones being used by drivers. But back then, Radio-Craft Magazine told of the battle being waged between state legislatures and radio manufacturers: “Ever since auto-radio installations became popular, a controversy has been going on…as to whether auto radio presented an accident hazard or not.”

The president of the Radio Manufacturers Association made the case that car radios were safe saying:

“Radio is not distracting because it demands no attention from the driver and requires no answer, as does conversation between the driver and passengers. Motor car radio is tuned by ear without the driver taking his eyes off the road. It is less disconcerting than the rear view mirror.”

Several states proposed steep fines for drivers, while others considered making installing a car radio a crime.

The Princeton Radio Research Project was created to study the effects car radios were having on automobile safety. In a paper published by Edward A. Suchman for that project, he reported that his small study found no link between car radios and traffic accidents.

1960s

In 1963, Frequency Modulation (FM) radios were introduced into the automobile for the first time. Radio penetration in cars had now reached 60%.

Along with FM radios, the 60s also gave birth to both eight-track tapes and car stereos, primarily due to the use of transistors, instead of vacuum tubes. Solid state transistors were smaller, drew less power and emitted very little heat.

1970s

If the 60s belonged to the 8-track tape player, the 70s would belong to the stereo cassette tape player. Recording tape manufacturer Maxell promoted these cassettes as nearly indestructible.

1980s

While the Compact Disc (CD) would be introduced in the 80s, it didn’t really become ubiquitous until the late 90s, coexisting with compact cassette players in automobile dashboards for two more decades.

21st Century

Probably the biggest disruption to the automobile dashboard came with the advent of Bluetooth allowing smartphones to interface with a vehicle’s entertainment system.

In 2011, automobile manufacturers stopped offering cassette tape players in their new cars, soon followed by the elimination of CD players/changers.

Today’s new cars come equipped with access to Satellite Radio, and an automatic interface with your smartphone allowing you the ability to stream anything you want to hear into your car’s entertainment system.

In fact, my first article for this blog in 2022 was “Why I Stream ALL My Radio Listening,” which diagrammed how my car radio audio systems are now programmed by my iPhone.

“Radio is not going to be Numero Uno in the dash any longer.”

-Fred Jacobs

AM/FM radio will most likely coexist with other forms of audio access for a period of time, but the writing is on the wall.

The definitive answer to how long over-the-air radio will continue to be used in the automobile really depends on broadcasters and whether or not they offer compelling and attention-getting content that audio consumers demand to hear.

AutoStage

Xperi’s newest in-dash experience is AutoStage. It was demonstrated at CES2022 and it should be noted that this system comes with the following pre-sets: SiriusXM, FM, AM and TuneIn Radio.

I use the TuneIn Radio App for most of my radio listening, but why was it chosen by Mercedes Benz? Turns out the answer is, “TuneIn’s radio stations can be accessed worldwide in 197 countries on more than 200 different platforms and devices.” TuneIn says it “provides the displaced radio listener a connection to home with local, national, and international stations anywhere they go and on any device.”

In other words, why would any audio consumer need DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), DAB+, Digital Radio Mondiale, HD Radio, AM or FM when they can receive any radio station in crystal clear audio via streaming?

With the exception of the proprietary content offered by SiriusXM, everything else is available via streaming at no charge.

Waxing Nostalgic

Car radio has come a long way from the day William Lear and Elmer Wavering drove their girlfriends to lookout point high above the Mississippi River town of Quincy, Illinois to watch the sunset and their dates told them how much better this romantic evening would have been had they been able to listen to music in the car.

Lear and Wavering shared their girlfriends’ comments with Paul Galvin who would go on to make Motorola car transistor radios, and then AM/FM radio would dominate the dashboard for the rest of the 20th Century.

So, now moving further into the 21st Century, radio broadcasters really need to follow the advice of Steve Jobs in order to survive and thrive, and that is to:

Think Different

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January 9, 2022 · 3:00 am

Why I Stream ALL My Radio Listening

Twelve year ago, radio broadcast engineer Tom Ray, penned these words: “Unless we give Joe Consumer a reason to go out and purchase an HD Radio for his car – until he can obtain it easily and at a reasonable cost, and a device that works – I fear HD Radio is going to go the way of FM quad and AM stereo, relegated to the scrap pile of history.”

Tom Ray wrote his article for Radio World when he was the vice president/corporate director of engineering for Buckley Broadcasting/WOR Radio in New York City. He was a strong and vocal supporter of HD Radio and his WOR was one of the first AMs on the air with an HD Radio signal. So, any broadcaster that read Tom’s article, “HD Radio Shouldn’t Be This Hard,” should have taken it as a wake-up call about steps the radio industry needed to take to stay relevant in their listeners’ lives.

Buying a New Car in 2010

Tom is a loyal Ford customer, so when his Explorer went to the automobile graveyard with 230,000-miles on it, Tom wanted to get a new Ford Escape, equipped with HD Radio. The only problem was, Ford wasn’t putting HD Radios into their Escapes, instead, they were pushing Satellite Radio. (Tom noted that his wife listened only to Satellite Radio in her car, saying “in her opinion there is nothing worth listening to in New York’s Hudson Valley, 50 miles north of New York City.)

This should have been yet another radio industry wake-up call about its future.

I encourage you to click on the link and read what Tom Ray wrote a dozen years ago about how difficult it was to put an HD Radio into a new car which, at that time, didn’t offer OEM HD Radios and how he, as a broadcast engineer, was totally frustrated trying to install an aftermarket one.

Streaming Radio at Home

Since Christmas 2017, when my wife gave me my first Amazon Echo smart speaker, our Echo family has quickly grown to four of these devices. There is nowhere you can be in our home and not ask Alexa for something.

Since 2017, all of our in-home radio listening is via streaming.

While we also occasionally streamed radio in the car, on all of our road trips from 2018-2021, SiriusXM always seemed to be offering a 3-month free listening trial that I can honestly say we enjoyed the listening to. But, I’ve never been a subscriber, because other than road trips I spend very little time in the car.

Streaming Radio in the Car

In October, while enjoying my latest free 3-month trial for SiriusXM radio, I decided it was time to bring my in-house streaming radio habit into both of our cars. We own a 2006 Subaru Forester and a 2009 Honda Accord.

The Subaru doesn’t have an AUX input, the Honda does.

Streaming in the Subaru was accomplished with a Blue Tooth receiver that will broadcast on any FM frequency (88.1 works best). In the Honda, this same device’s output was plugged into an AUX receptacle.

The result is, as soon as either my wife or myself enters one of our cars, the Nulaxy KM18 immediately pairs with our iPhones. I installed the AINOPE Car Phone Holder Mount to hold our phones, and keep them easily assessible to control whatever we would like to listen to.

Total cost for each car: $33.43. Time to install, virtually nil. I just plugged the Nulaxy KM18 into a power port and it was operational. The AINIOPE holder easily clamps to an air vent on the dashboard and holds any smartphone.

Unlike the nightmare that Tom Ray experienced back in 2010 trying to put HD Radio into his car, this installation by me, a non-engineer, was a piece of cake.

A Call to Action

I recently sat in on a Radio World webinar called “A Call to Action, radio’s existential battle for the dash.” Paul McLane, Managing Director of Content/Editor in Chief of Radio World at Radio World/Future U.S., hosted the webinar and did an excellent job. However, one particular piece of information shared during the presentation that I thought was crucial was, how Mercedes Benz was equipping their vehicles’ radio screens with the following pre-sets: SiriusXM, FM, AM and TuneIn Radio.

TuneIn Radio is the App I use for most of my radio listening, but why was it chosen by Mercedes Benz? Turns out the answer is, “TuneIn’s radio stations can be accessed worldwide in 197 countries on more than 200 different platforms and devices.” TuneIn says it “provides the displaced radio listener a connection to home with local, national, and international stations anywhere they go and on any device.”

In other words, why would any audio consumer need DAB, DAB+, Digital Radio Mondiale, HD Radio, AM or FM when they can receive any radio station in crystal clear audio via streaming?

With the exception of the proprietary content offered by SiriusXM, everything else is available via streaming at no charge.

Cellular Plan

Now it goes without saying, that streaming consumes data. Each cellphone service provider offers different plans and different price rates. My wife and I are on Verizon’s unlimited phone/text/data plan. We have no landline phone in our home and our iPhones are our lifeline to being connected with each other, our family, our community and the world.

I’ve found streaming radio in our cars provides us with audio quality that is pristine. There’s no buffering or dropout, and it’s been a more reliable signal than AM, FM or SiriusXM radio, especially when traveling through tunnels.

Streaming Apps

I thought you might be interested in knowing what streaming Apps I have on my iPhone, here’s the current list:

  • TuneIn Pro
  • Audacy
  • Pandora
  • Spotify
  • Amazon Music
  • NPR ONE
  • YouTube
  • Simple Radio
  • StreamS
  • Apple Podcasts
  • AccuRadio
  • 650AM WSM
  • Stitcher

Why I Prefer Streaming My Radio

We live far enough away from Washington, D.C. that radio signals for WTOP or WETA experience lots of noise and dropout, depending atmospherics, sometimes making them totally unlistenable. However, their streams are always crystal clear.

This fall Sue and I escaped to Cape Cod for a week and when I get on the peninsula, I love turning on WFCC – Cape Cod’s Classical station – 107.5 FM. Now with streaming radio, I can dial up WFCC on my TuneIn radio App and listen when we’re back home in Virginia.

Full disclosure, I am the midday DJ on WMEX-FM in Rochester, NH. But even if I weren’t on the station, WMEX-FM would be my #1 pre-set for streaming. Gary James, the station’s morning man and program director, puts together a music mix that I find absolutely fabulous. It’s the music of my life.

Which brings me to another important point, radio today is global. No longer is your radio station competing just with other local stations, but radio that is streaming from anywhere on planet Earth.

Streaming also makes it possible for ON DEMAND spoken word radio, also known as Podcasts, to be easily available in the car.

Simington on Streaming

FCC commissioner Nathan Simington recently addressed Ohio broadcasters saying, “content delivery power had shifted away from broadcasters – stations and networks – and toward ‘online platforms,’ something he thinks the FCC needs to recognize in its quadrennial review of media ownership regs.”

He warned that:

  1. “Online media platforms are growing rapidly and threaten dominance over traditional media platforms; and
  2. Broadcast advertising revenue has flatlined, having been siphoned off from higher margin online platforms.”

The Future is Streaming

88% of the world’s population now uses mobile broadband as its main source of internet access, and nearly 90% of homes in the United States now have internet streaming. 2021 saw an estimated 22% ad industry growth rate, which Magna Global said was “the highest growth rate ever recorded” by this agency, beating a 12.5% growth rate recorded in the year 2000. The caveat however is, digital dominated traditional advertising raking in 64.4% of the growth in ad spending.

RAIN reports “The U.S. recorded music industry will exceed a 48-year revenue record set in 1999 (based on current estimates),” all coming from revenues paid by streaming music services.

The Harvard Business Review recently published “4 Principles to Guide Your Digital Transformation,” by Greg Satell, Andrea Kates and Todd McLees. In it, the authors wrote, “digital transformation is not just about technology. We’re desperately in need of a shift in focus. Leaders must inspire and empower their entire organization to boldly reimagine their work environment, customer needs, product offering, and even the purpose of the enterprise.”

Tom Ray was the proverbial “canary in the coal shaft” back in 2010, with few paying attention. Sadly, based on the early news coming out of the 2022 CES in Las Vegas, nothing has changed.

We’re living in a communications revolution,

bringing about changes that will be both

permanent and irreversible.

Revolutions never maintain or preserve the status quo.

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