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MARK RAMSEY MEDIA

Radio: Why Connected Cars Don’t Matter

Aug 25, 2016

Radio: Why Connected Cars Don’t Matter

From Radio Ink: While the radio industry grapples with what it should be doing about the connected car, there may be some comfort in knowing consumers are still a bit baffled by the connected car as well. Nielsen’s new AutoTECHCAST report shows that nearly one-third of consumers have never heard of these technology-enabled vehicles. “These consumers don’t know what connected cars do, and are not associating vehicle brands with infotainment badging.” Both the auto and radio in

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Radio’s Future in a Self-Driving Car

Jun 16, 2016

Radio’s Future in a Self-Driving Car

Estimates vary, but the consensus seems to be that we’ll see a meaningful number of self-driving cars replacing the human-powered ones by 2020, less than four years hence. Personally, I think that’s a bit optimistic, but I have no doubt that the future of cars is a self-powered one. While we fret about the future of radio in fast-changing conventional dashboards, we’re missing the much bigger worry: What happens when all the tech sacrifices made to cater to the driver’s atten

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No AM Radio? Automakers Should Listen To Their Customers

Feb 8, 2016

No AM Radio? Automakers Should Listen To Their Customers

Now I am as pro-technology as anyone you’ll find in the audio space, but the reason to be pro-technology is to be pro-consumer. Because any technology that doesn’t serve the interests and desires of consumers is a solution that, by definition, nobody wants. And the only thing worse than not being wanted is being UNwanted. So it is with the ridiculous decision of BMW and Tesla to dispense with AM radio in some of their recent EV vehicle lines. Not surprisingly, some consumers

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Look Out! Ford will Support Apple CarPlay and Android Auto by 2017

Jan 4, 2016

Look Out! Ford will Support Apple CarPlay and Android Auto by 2017

Ford is going all-in on bringing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to the auto dashboard: Ford is making Apple CarPlay and Android Auto available on all 2017 vehicles equipped with Sync 3 in North America, starting with the all-new Ford Escape. Owners of 2016 vehicles equipped with Sync 3 will get an opportunity to upgrade “later in the year,” the company said without providing details. What this means is that, beginning with 2017 auto models, the new car will essentially become

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The New Auto Dashboard Isn’t as Scary as Radio Thinks

Sep 29, 2015

The New Auto Dashboard Isn’t as Scary as Radio Thinks

Every time there’s some new innovation out there which enhances the choice set available to consumers who want to hear audio entertainment or information, a chill runs up the spine of every broadcaster, because with such a large fraction of listening, radio seems to stand more to lose than to gain from the expansion of choice. Without question, new choices squeeze existing options. Indeed, given the growing number of distractions available to consumers across every platform –

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How Many Cars will be Dashboard-Powered by Google and Apple?

May 6, 2015

How Many Cars will be Dashboard-Powered by Google and Apple?

There’s much interest and much consternation about the entry of Google and Apple into operating-system extensions for the car dashboard with Android Auto and CarPlay, respectively. According to BI Intelligence: By 2020, nearly 40 million cars will be using Android Auto and 37.1 million will be using CarPlay, and that will cover nearly all cars launching connected car services, according to BI Intelligence estimates. That conclusion springs from a premium-priced report from BI

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Your New Auto Dashboard Debuts This Month

Jan 4, 2015

Your New Auto Dashboard Debuts This Month

In a preview of CES, The Hollywood Reporter cuts to the chase – the most fundamental reason why the technology of the car dashboard is bound to change no matter what the power players of the radio industry desire: Car buyers—particularly millennials—are no longer as susceptible to the [auto] industry’s traditional marketing tropes of styling, horsepower and handling. Instead, they see the car as an extension of their digital lives, and increasingly demand that it mesh seamles

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The Nail in HD Radio’s Coffin – And What It Means For You

Aug 28, 2014

The Nail in HD Radio’s Coffin – And What It Means For You

From Tom Taylor Now: A site named GMAuthority says among the changes for the [Chevrolet] Traverse, “HD Radio [is] removed.” There’s more. For the 2015 Silverado truck, GMAuthority says “HD radio feature removed from all radios.” Same for the 2015 GMC Sierra truck, here. For the high-end Buick Enclave, the previous “Color Touch AM/FM/SiriusXM/HD Radio with CD player” is replaced by “AM/FM/SiriusXM radio with CD player.” No mention of HD. As for the Chevy Impala, no HD, and Sir

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Chevrolet’s Plan for Built-In Wi-Fi In Your Car

Aug 13, 2014

Chevrolet’s Plan for Built-In Wi-Fi In Your Car

There’s a tendency for some broadcasters to put too much faith in the idea that consumers will prefer traditional radio over the online variety because of scarce and expensive bandwidth. But the reality is that bandwidth is neither that scarce nor that expensive, when compared to the value derived from it. And one way to circumvent the limitations of your mobile phone’s bandwidth altogether is to access the net from another hotspot. Like, say, your car. That’s exactly Chevrol

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Radio’s REAL Problem on the New Auto Dashboard

Apr 7, 2014

Radio’s REAL Problem on the New Auto Dashboard

Yesterday I wrote that some auto industry analysts believe radio needs to be easy to find and use on the new auto dashboard because ease of discovery and use will trump any discussion of how good or bad the actual content is. In other words, consumers are not likely to seek out great content they care about unless it’s first easy to find and use. While it’s certainly true that making anything easier to find and use promotes both discovery and use, is that even within radio’s

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Radio’s Spot on the New Dashboard – Time to Do a Deal?

Apr 6, 2014

Radio’s Spot on the New Dashboard – Time to Do a Deal?

This past week I had a conversation with someone knowledgeable in the auto technology space: “The dash is getting crowded and complicated,” she argued, “and the harder to find a radio station is the less apt folks will be to listen to it.” “But if the content is compelling enough, they will seek it out,” I replied. “Ease of use trumps compelling content,” she argued back. “It has to be easy to find and use first, and some of these new dashboards don’t even have an FM/AM butto

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Making Sense of the Auto Dashboard

Oct 29, 2013

Making Sense of the Auto Dashboard

It seems to me that radio is in a bit of paralysis by analysis when it comes to the “connected” auto dashboard. As we get lost in the details of what change is coming and how fast, we’re not focused nearly enough on what to do about it, given that such a large proportion of radio listening emanates from that very dashboard. We’re stuck in the theater of the moment. Consider the reality of the situation: The complexity of the new dashboard is overwhelming many consumers. What

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Radio’s Auto Dashboard Strategy: We’ve Got It All Wrong

Sep 19, 2013

Radio’s Auto Dashboard Strategy: We’ve Got It All Wrong

In the race to exploit new digital opportunities, Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker has described three “consumer Internet ‘white spaces’ yet to be reimagined.” One of these was the “ear” and another was the car. And she describes the latter as “largely untapped.” Naturally, broadcasters are in a tizzy because one industry’s white space is another industry’s breadbasket. Indeed, roughly two-thirds of radio listening occurs away from home, largely in autos. What to do? What

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Surprise! Advertisers want Results and Tracking!

Apr 6, 2012

Surprise! Advertisers want Results and Tracking!

That’s the lesson from the vivid interview just posted by Radio Ink with a New Jersey car dealer. Much credit goes to Radio Ink for this post, because I have no doubt that they will receive oodles of complaint emails from broadcasters who presume that the secrets of accountability can be kept from their clients in a digital world. Well, they can’t. From Radio Ink: William Feinstein is the President of Planet Honda in New Jersey. He was so impressed with the results and the tr

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What Wins in the New Radio Dashboard

Mar 30, 2012

What Wins in the New Radio Dashboard

A huge proportion of radio listening happens on the mobile devices known as automobiles, especially during the aptly-titled “drive times.” And there’s considerable concern regarding the impact technology and new listening options will have on that listening as those new choices steadily make their way into cars. It’s fair to say that nowhere in a car is there as much innovation today as there is in the dashboard. And much of that innovation has to do with the entertainment

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Radio’s Power on the Dashboard

Sep 22, 2011

Radio’s Power on the Dashboard

There’s no doubt that technology is bringing new choices to an auto dashboard near you. Nor is there any doubt that consumers will embrace and even demand those choices. It’s customary for broadcasters to freak out about this, as we stand by and watch radio’s hegemony over the dashboard under attack. The natural response is to fight technology with technology – to assume that your FM station must have all the doo-dads and whistles that Pandora has. What is the truth about ra

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5 Reasons Sirius/XM does not need to fear Pandora

Dec 11, 2010

5 Reasons Sirius/XM does not need to fear Pandora

Pandora and other online radio pure-plays want to be in the car, and that will mean trouble for Sirius/XM, right? After all, Pandora et. al. are free while Sirius/XM is not. Not so fast. Here are five reasons why that logic could be all wet: 1. Sirius/XM is destination programming. For Pandora, the destination is me. That is, personalized radio services solve one problem really well, but they don’t solve all problems equally well. Tons of Sirius/XM listenership is for profe

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The Danger to Terrestrial Radio posed by Internet Radio in Cars

Sep 15, 2010

The Danger to Terrestrial Radio posed by Internet Radio in Cars

One third of radio listeners would listen less to local radio if they had easy access to Internet Radio built into their cars. That’s one of the alarming statistics from a recent national study I conducted in conjunction with VIP Research. In the study, which was a national survey of more than 2,000 radio listeners covering 22 markets, I asked this question: If tomorrow you could get Internet access from the dashboard of your car and you could listen to thousands of radio sta

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