Not necessarily. Manufacturers stopped innovating these devices in favor of phones only. Go to CES. You'll see. Profit margins favor phones to other devices.
People "stopped buying" vinyl too. Yet its still available.
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Rick Shaffer: Old AM radio model is broken
- Thread starter mvcg66b3r
- Start date
Not necessarily. Manufacturers stopped innovating these devices in favor of phones only. Go to CES. You'll see. Profit margins favor phones to other devices.
People "stopped buying" vinyl too. Yet its still available.
And that's why I can't in good conscience do business with Verizon. If the carrier can't even activate FM chips in new models of phone they introduce, forget'em. Not you, though; I'm sure it isn't your policy...
Ultimately, the customer dictates what is activated and what isn't. But the customer doesn't know FM on smartphones is even an option. Radio broadcasters don't want to make Verizon mad by running a campaign that lists the carriers that do have FM chips activated. CBS has the clout to deny selling ad time to Verizon on CBS TV/radio/cable, but CBS wants out of radio so I don't see them standing up to Verizon.
Convenience and familiarity with the brand. Most people don't want to shop around too much for anything.
Just thought of something...Like Verizon, Apple has been famous for not activating FM chips in their phones. Apple is also on the government's radar regarding the unlocking of theSan Bernandino shooter's phone. I don't know where our Congress-people stand on the FM chip issue or if they even care, but this might be a good time to push FM chips in phones legislation. Tweak their nose a bit...
And that's why I can't in good conscience do business with Verizon. If the carrier can't even activate FM chips in new models of phone they introduce, forget'em. Not you, though; I'm sure it isn't your policy...
My "policy" regarding cellular service is the best coverage for my money. In Arizona, that means Verizon since the others don't offer anywhere close to equal coverage outside the major cities and along the interstates. I don't need an FM radio in my phone, as I have one at home and in my car whenever I want to listen to actual radio.
The customer may own the physical phone, but he/she doesn't own the software that activates the features and chipsets. The basic OS software is owned by Google, Apple, or Microsoft, with added "features" (read: paid-for bundled adware) installed and owned by the phone manufacturer and the carrier.
In my travels around Arizona I have found just very small "puddles" where cell phone coverage by T-Mobile is iffy (the foothills east of South Mountain is one example but it only lasts for a few city blocks). Highway and Interstate coverage has been excellent. I haven't tested north of Flagstaff or south of Tucson though nor along I-40.
A little rootie toot toot and the adware is gone.......
I have no issues along I-40, and the holes along US 93 between there and Wickenburg have been filled in the last few years, with some very tall towers along the route, including one where Nothing used to be.
But there still are issues along AZ 79 (the former US 80/89) between Florence and Oracle Junction, where service goes away completely.
I've never rooted any of my phones. In the past, that was a terms-of-service violation that would have cancelled my contract with Verizon. Now that I no longer have a contract (they're phasing those out), I don't know what their policy is now. Besides, I just have never seen any reason to do so.
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They don't care. The reason the chip exists is because OTHER countries require them to be activated. The US does not. So now, the radio industry is looking to pay off the phone companies to get them to activate something they do for free everywhere else. Because the government is on permanent vacation.
I don't know the population/customer density that carriers use to install cell towers but there ain't very much along that stretch of highway. Never has been. It is one part of Arizona that has not changed significantly since 1950. A few miles southeast of civilization there is an old building that was once called "Lighthouse on the Desert". In the old days it was what we would call now a country or convenience store. My family used to travel the Pinal Parkway between Tucson and Phoenix in those days and we used to stop there. Once, in the mid-50's, my parents drove off and left my 3-year old sister sitting on the steps of the store. We were a few miles down the road when my mother noticed there were only 2 kids instead of the normal 3. You never saw a '39 Chevy sedan make a U-turn quite as fast as it did that day.
Notice how quickly this conversation shifted from radio to DXing cell service! That says something.
Older technologies don't always disappear completely but they do leave the mainstream. Desktop computers, incandescent light bulbs, cassette tapes, CDs and AM & FM radios are the technology of the past. Notebooks, tablets, phablets, LED lighting, digital audio files, Pandora and other streaming Internet are the technology of the future. (Desktop computers obviously still play a role in business but for individuals not so much.)
Over the winter I put a bunch of old stuff on eBay. Open reel tape decks, cassette decks, outboard processors, SCSI CD drives, ZIP Drives, JAZ Drives, a Mini-Disc recorder, AM-FM receiver, film cameras, incandescent video lighting, etc. Most of it sold to the tune of about $2k so obviously there's a market for old stuff, but I'm not planning to open a record store anytime soon.
Older technologies don't always disappear completely but they do leave the mainstream. Desktop computers, incandescent light bulbs, cassette tapes, CDs and AM & FM radios are the technology of the past. Notebooks, tablets, phablets, LED lighting, digital audio files, Pandora and other streaming Internet are the technology of the future. (Desktop computers obviously still play a role in business but for individuals not so much.)
Over the winter I put a bunch of old stuff on eBay. Open reel tape decks, cassette decks, outboard processors, SCSI CD drives, ZIP Drives, JAZ Drives, a Mini-Disc recorder, AM-FM receiver, film cameras, incandescent video lighting, etc. Most of it sold to the tune of about $2k so obviously there's a market for old stuff, but I'm not planning to open a record store anytime soon.
TuneIn is your friend as long as the FM station isn't geo-blocked or on a different platform (like IHeartRadio) -- and increasing number of them seem to be.
We're talking about local FM stations in this context. A local won't be geoblocked. And there's an app for iHeartRadio, CBS, etc.
We'll see about that. We already have a situation where a lot of locally owned stations, like KKGO in Los Angeles, geo-block outside of southern California. They're not owned by one of the big guys. But even if they're not, there's no money to be made by listening to stations outside the advertising region of the station. Pandora and Spotify are losing millions of dollars because of music royalty fees, yet they're being held as the standard for what is called radio today. And this is the model that's supposedly killing FM radio.
That's what I meant. KKGO isn't geoblocked within its own (LA area) market. But if I can't hear them in Phoenix, no biggie. We have two country stations here that I don't listen to either, but I can if I want to, on both FM and via my smartphone.
You missed the second half of my post. According to the OP, the internet is killing FM. But the internet is losing money. Neither KKGO nor Pandora can afford to do it. If CBS was held to the same standard as Pandora, we wouldn't have this thread at all. Internet radio is a house of cards built on the mythology of free radio, and someday, the bill collector is going to call. Of course that's after the public is addicted, and the owners of the old technology have all left.
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Groove1670
Guest
As i have posted on other boards, station operators need to support NextRadio and run the provided promos. According the NR site, Verizon has some phones activated (MOTO G & E for example), AT&T just came on board. Sprint was the first. The only real holdout is Apple.
http://nextradioapp.com/supported-devices/
For broadcasters:
http://tagstation.com
http://nextradioapp.com/supported-devices/
For broadcasters:
http://tagstation.com
Hmmm. Goes back to what I said earlier that the real problem getting this done is with the manufacturers, not the telecom companies. They're just looking for a deal, and NextRadio is what they wanted. Apple doesn't care. It's the big dog, and owns its own platform that competes with FM. So they have no reason to negotiate. The FM chip is active in other countries...just not here.
But not Samsung. I just bought a Galaxy S7 and an S7 Edge. Supposedly the FM chip is installed, but Verizon doesn't support it. Not a big deal to me -- both are great phones that do what we want them to do.
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Groove1670
Guest
Once again, it depends on the carrier. The S7 is activated on some of them.
Apple doesn't play nice with anyone, and you are right they don't need to.
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