There are (at least) two ways you can view radio’s future.
Either that FM/AM “chips” need to be installed in every device that moves, whether it resembles a “radio” or not – or that radio as an industry needs to translate its content to everything that moves in original ways, and those are unlikely to be in the same form as that content currently lives on air.
I am squarely in the latter category.
Most broadcasters seem to be in the former one.
The idea of sticking radio into every mobile device is radio-centric, not audience-centric. And if there’s anything – ANYTHING – you should learn about the rapid pace of technological change, it’s this: It is being driven by newly empowered audiences, not by the mega-industries serving their own interests.
So while you may want a radio inside every mobile device, your audience says they don’t need this because they already have a radio – in fact, several – everywhere – thank you very much.
What they want is for you to transform your “radio” content into a new experience worthy of the gadgets that experience lives in.
For example, take a look at a map. Now take a look at a map experience on the iPhone. Do you get it yet?
Just as a book differs from the movie based on that book – so will a radio experience differ from what’s on the air now.
Listeners are begging for you to think of radio in more dimensions than the narrow “here’s what we play on the air, let’s move it to the phone” one.
Nevertheless, “FM on cellphones” will be a big topic at the upcoming NAB Radio Board meeting.
Not “multidimensional radio experiences,” but “FM.”
Because they just don’t get it.
UPDATE:
And now, a couple days later…comes this. Hoo boy.