Not in California, but saw this thread pop up. Interestingly enough, I'm just dabbling in streaming Internet radio in my car via my phone. Personally, I think it'll be people who don't have the format they want or the right mix of music in their cities that may jump on the Internet bandwagon quicker. It doesn't take a brand new car with a dashboard. All's it really takes is a radio with aux in (preferable), an FM transmitter or even one of those old fashioned cassette accessories to turn your phone into a vast resource for music around the globe.
Where I live, Greenville, SC, there's only one station that I really like -- an alternative station, X98.5. Unfortunately, that station is said to be going away very shortly either via a flip or a sale to another company (and it's only on a transmitter not a full signal).
That made me start thinking about what the heck I'm going to listen to besides my own downloaded songs. I always thought Internet radio in the car was cost prohibitive because of how much data it would stream. But a little research and I was surprised, an average stream supposedly can get you about 70 hours worth under a 2GB data plan (and I have a 3GB plan). Yes, the sound isn't as good as a high powered station, but it's certainly good enough for someone like myself who wants the kind of music they can't get locally via radio. Since I already am paying for a data plan for my iPhone, why not? I don't have to bother with another added cost of Satellite radio. And I've actually been tracking my download amounts and I think it's actually even lower than what I found from my research and may provide well over 100 hours with 2 GB. That's plenty for someone like me that won't listen more than 2 hours a day at the very most.
And as far as ease? Personally, I think Clear Channel really did something right when they came out with iHeart Radio. It's free and you can get pretty much any format available -- even some with little to no commercials -- and the app is quite simple to use. So here's where it gets interesting. With actual radio companies, like CC, jumping in the game now, it could actually save radio.
If it ever got to the point where it was prevalent all around the country, I have no idea how ratings would be tracked, but I'm sure Clear Channel does, indeed, track it for iHeart. So sales -- particularly of nationwide ads -- still could be possible to keep radio going.
Just some thoughts I had on the issue. I found an Alternative station sponsored by Supercuts that plays a great mix of both both current alt hits and a lot of indie groups I had never heard of. There may be a single 30 second commercial once or twice an hour. How can you beat something like that?
I do think Internet radio will catch on. It's catching on rapidly with built in apps on dashboards in new cars. So I don't see the threat going away. But corporate radio, if they're smart, can try to capitalize on it.
