American broadcasters turn up the volume on misguided campaign to enable FM tuners in smartphones
Millions of consumers have switched off their radios in favor of music and commentary streamed over the internet, a trend that many in the terrestrial broadcast industry allege has been bolstered by device makers and wireless carriers who have conspired to disable built-in radio receivers in a bid to sell more expensive data packages.
Apple's iPod nano includes an FM receiver, but the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch don't.
Most smartphones --?and indeed other connected devices, like tablets --?ship with one of a handful of universal wireless communications chips inside, usually made by companies like Broadcom or Murata. They combine multi-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios in a single package, reducing size and increasing efficiency.
In many cases, these chips also pack a third over-the-air option: an FM tuner.
While many low-end devices take advantage of this to tick yet another feature checkbox, flagship smartphones rarely enable it. Apple's iPhone has never shipped with the ability to natively receive FM broadcasts despite having a built-in tuner, and Samsung largely dropped it from the Galaxy lineup after the Galaxy S3. HTC's One M9 does come with the feature, as do some Windows Phone models.
This has led terrestrial broadcasters to band together in an attempt to convince carriers and manufacturers to enable the dormant chips.
According to Free Radio On My Phone, a group that includes NPR and the National Association of Broadcasters, "all listeners would have easy access to radio for the entertainment they love and information they need, but wireless carriers are dragging their feet and won't activate the FM chips that are in every smartphone."
Broadcasters argue that consumers would benefit by having the option to listen to music without using up their data allowance, or being able to receive emergency broadcasts over the air.
It's true that some manufacturers have disabled the FM tuners only for specific carriers, though it's unclear which side of the fence made that call. What's not true, though, is that carriers could simply enable the feature with a simple software update.
In phones where FM reception was not included in the design --?like Apple's iPhone lineup --?the tuner is often physically disconnected, and there's no FM antenna to be found. Most phones that do include FM capabilities use the headphone cords as antennas, which would require even more hardware changes.
Even if broadcasters do win out and convince manufacturers to begin making FM reception a priority, it may be too little too late as FM radio has begun to lose ground to digital audio broadcasting around the world.
Last Friday, just before the FM lobby's latest push in America, Norwegian regulators announced that in January 2017 the country would be the first in the world to turn off its FM stations in favor of DAB.
Apple's iPod nano includes an FM receiver, but the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch don't.
Most smartphones --?and indeed other connected devices, like tablets --?ship with one of a handful of universal wireless communications chips inside, usually made by companies like Broadcom or Murata. They combine multi-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios in a single package, reducing size and increasing efficiency.
In many cases, these chips also pack a third over-the-air option: an FM tuner.
While many low-end devices take advantage of this to tick yet another feature checkbox, flagship smartphones rarely enable it. Apple's iPhone has never shipped with the ability to natively receive FM broadcasts despite having a built-in tuner, and Samsung largely dropped it from the Galaxy lineup after the Galaxy S3. HTC's One M9 does come with the feature, as do some Windows Phone models.
This has led terrestrial broadcasters to band together in an attempt to convince carriers and manufacturers to enable the dormant chips.
According to Free Radio On My Phone, a group that includes NPR and the National Association of Broadcasters, "all listeners would have easy access to radio for the entertainment they love and information they need, but wireless carriers are dragging their feet and won't activate the FM chips that are in every smartphone."
Broadcasters argue that consumers would benefit by having the option to listen to music without using up their data allowance, or being able to receive emergency broadcasts over the air.
It's true that some manufacturers have disabled the FM tuners only for specific carriers, though it's unclear which side of the fence made that call. What's not true, though, is that carriers could simply enable the feature with a simple software update.
In phones where FM reception was not included in the design --?like Apple's iPhone lineup --?the tuner is often physically disconnected, and there's no FM antenna to be found. Most phones that do include FM capabilities use the headphone cords as antennas, which would require even more hardware changes.
Even if broadcasters do win out and convince manufacturers to begin making FM reception a priority, it may be too little too late as FM radio has begun to lose ground to digital audio broadcasting around the world.
Last Friday, just before the FM lobby's latest push in America, Norwegian regulators announced that in January 2017 the country would be the first in the world to turn off its FM stations in favor of DAB.
Comments
Will CarPlay be able to do this to my vehicle's radio?
I strongly agree that the FM tuners (and AM as well) should be activated. I listen to old-school radio every single day and would very much like to be able to listen via my phone without having to stream.
And the Norwegians aren't really an ideal model for the argument against. After all, they still eat dried fish.
And on the other side of the pond, they're pushing for DAB to be included in smartphones:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/11159430/BBC-aims-to-boost-flagging-DAB-sales-with-smartphone-push.html
Also, I'm sure that would be a huge battery drain.
I haven't listened to radio for at least ten years. I do get streaming news from an all news station but that is all. Free the spectrum for digital NOW!
But it doesn't. DAB is a misguided mess that wouldn't work in America, because we have too many radio stations. And the spectrum is still used for TV broadcasts. There is no reason to push to eliminate FM radio.
The question is how many people do not listen to streaming radio mainly because they're afraid of using too much data and being charged for it? I bet it's very few. An FM tuner on my iPhone is moot because I can listen to any radio station I want via app.
I think what the industry is actually trying to stop is people listening to out-of-market radio stations rather than listening to in-market radio stations, since advertisers need listeners in-market. Furthermore, most of the regular ratings services don't include streaming.
The other issue is what would listening to FM broadcasts on my phone do to battery life? Would it consume more or less power than streaming? If it's more, I'm really not interested. And FM reception in Manhattan is pretty lousy anyway, due to tall, steel buildings. There's dead spots, you can't get FM inside many office and apartment towers and there's multi path distortion, all of which can be avoided by streaming.
What the industry should be doing is creating better programming and encouraging people to listen via any means. How someone listens shouldn't matter. The industry refuses to realize that with better alternatives on the web, few want or need "fast food radio" anymore. To succeed in any business, you have to differentiate. Commercial over-the-air radio no longer differentiates. Music radio has tiny playlists, over-compressed audio, long stop-sets (commercials) and DJs (if they have them at all) who are not personalities, but liner card readers. I'm amazed as many people listen as still do. Radio has destroyed itself because when radio was deregulated and radio stations were bought up by huge conglomerates, they went into huge debt. That necessitated maximizing commercial time, cutting costs and appealing only to the lowest common denominator. In doing so, you mainly have stations that either appeal only to young women or to people who listen to only rap and hip-hop. On the commercial dial, there's virtually no classical, jazz, true free-form rock, true oldies, etc., because those demographics don't appeal to advertisers. But radio isn't going to get better because with declining revenues, the only thing these conglomerates are going to do is milk these stations until they completely die. Once streaming becomes ubiquitous in cars, I think it's all over for commercial radio.
I don't see how this is misguided at all!
FM is basically line of sight. With such a tiny antenna inside a phone, you would not be able to pick up most stations with the quality you would want, especially for music, except the ones with 5000+ watt transmitters, and then you'll be listening to non-stop ads.
Last Friday, just before the FM lobby's latest push in America, Norwegian regulators announced that in January 2017 the country would be the first in the world to turn off its FM stations in favor of DAB.
And how is that really relevant, since DAB is also broadcast radio and can't be picked up on an iPhone either?
When you say, "Millions of consumers have switched off their radios in favor of music and commentary streamed over the internet." you misstate things. People haven't "switched off their radios," they are just getting their radio where they can. If they could tune into FM on their phones on the go, I'm sure they would (just as nearly everyone does while in the car.)
Radio is far from dead.
It's nice to be outside enjoy the day and having a nice radio playing and not have it be an iPod attached kind.
I need the ability to record FM because some of the conferences I got to stream via FM for those hard of hearing
FM is basically line of sight. With such a tiny antenna inside a phone, you would not be able to pick up most stations with the quality you would want . . .
Funny, as many have pointed out, it seems no problem at all with the radio equipped iPods, even the Nanos.
There are times where I wish I could listen to the local baseball & football games but can't because the app that streams the local programming rolls over to alternative programming as soon as the game starts. I'm not going to carry around an FM radio just for that.
Funny, as many have pointed out, it seems no problem at all with the radio equipped iPods, even the Nanos.
Is the quality any good?
FM is basically line of sight. With such a tiny antenna inside a phone, you would not be able to pick up most stations with the quality you would want, especially for music, except the ones with 5000+ watt transmitters, and then you'll be listening to non-stop ads.
It use to be (and pretty sure still the case) the headphone cord is the antenna.