American broadcasters turn up the volume on misguided campaign to enable FM tuners in smartphones

Posted:
in iPhone edited April 2015
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.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 108
    pscooter63pscooter63 Posts: 1,081member

    Will CarPlay be able to do this to my vehicle's radio?

  • Reply 2 of 108
    The same folks who are losing billions per year because their industry had evolved and they have not. And they actually think it's someone else's fault. The Schadenfreud is strong in this one.
  • Reply 3 of 108

    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.

  • Reply 4 of 108
    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!
  • Reply 6 of 108
    Clear Channel bought up most of Houston's FM stations years ago. I for one was sick and tired of commercials coming on, and promptly changing stations to find that the other Clear Channel stations all had commercials on at the same time. That is why I ditched FM for satellite radio that I previously would not pay for.

    Also, I'm sure that would be a huge battery drain.
  • Reply 7 of 108
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ElectroTech View Post



    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.

  • Reply 8 of 108
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    I'd like to see FM support myself. There are still to many places in this world where you can't stream decently. Besides radio stations are very effective at getting critical news to local populations fast.
  • Reply 9 of 108
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,656member

    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.  

  • Reply 10 of 108
    I'm not sure about the top of the line android phones but most of the crap they are selling to people here all have FM receivers, as it boggles my mind to see people with pieces of equipment capable of streaming good quality on demand content, going back and forth from station to station.
  • Reply 11 of 108
    rtdunhamrtdunham Posts: 428member
    I wear one of the old square little nanos on my wrist to pro football games: I like listening to the play-by-play on fm while watching the game. There's frequently inadequate wireless in stadiums to sustain a radio stream. I'd welcome an fm tuner in my phone.
  • Reply 12 of 108
    I think this is a fantastic idea. Radio is the last great free format and could blossom with someone like Apple and Google helping merge smart-device and airwave technology. Image NPR fundraisers being as easy to contribute to as tuning into your device and donating. Buying concert tickets. Is the second-screen stuff video formats are raving about - but for audio.

    I don't see how this is misguided at all!
  • Reply 13 of 108
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    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.

  • Reply 14 of 108
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

    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.

  • Reply 14 of 108
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    I listen to the FM channels every day. Sorry, but it is sheer idiocy to think Talk Radio is just going to be streamed. I can't stand it, but I do enjoy my music and not just the stuff I've collected.

    It's nice to be outside enjoy the day and having a nice radio playing and not have it be an iPod attached kind.
  • Reply 16 of 108
    I would like FM but only if they allow recording of the stream. I have a Windows Nokia phone that work provided but while it has FM I can't record the stream. To get around this I connect my Windows phone to my iPhone via an iRig and a headphone splitter so I can still use the headphones as the antenna.

    I need the ability to record FM because some of the conferences I got to stream via FM for those hard of hearing
  • Reply 17 of 108
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

     

    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.

  • Reply 18 of 108
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member

    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.

  • Reply 19 of 108
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DESuserIGN View Post

     

     

    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?

  • Reply 20 of 108
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

     

    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.

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