Internet wifi coming to GM cars next month!

[trig]

They direct you to XM/Sirius as opposed to HD Radios (they are available at most electronics stores now at least) because satellite did much a better job lobbying the automotive manufacturers and electronic stores to make customers have that as an option much quicker. Whats not to like about something free for a year when buying a car?

And they had to do a better job lobbying, they invested billions into launching those rockets into space and Howard Stern's Contract, as opposed to HD-allowing some stations engineer or part timer to order the equiptment to set up some side channels, and then have someone program that side channel at a minimum additional expense to the station really.

Though many stations do run the HD radio promos, people don't see any benefit in general.

 

[trusty]

There's NO demand for HD radio. Go to your local Best Buys and see if you can find ANYONE who knows what HD radio is. Most of the time they direct you to a XM/Sirius display.

Is there a Best Buy ANYWHERE that has AM HD on ANY of its car radio displays?




I didn't think so...

 

[jabba17]

There's NO demand for HD radio. Go to your local Best Buys and see if you can find ANYONE who knows what HD radio is. Most of the time they direct you to a XM/Sirius display.

Is there a Best Buy ANYWHERE that has AM HD on ANY of its car radio displays?
I didn't think so...

Is anyone still broadcasting in AM HD?

 

[taylorengineer]

790, The Zone, is still in broadcasting in HD.
Regarding real time streaming or podcasts - unless it is breaking news I agree - doesn't have to be real time. Your radio could be preset to download the morning show at maybe 4:30 AM and then you listen on the way to work at 7 AM. A show built around audience participation could be "almost" real time - just add a heavy buffer in the order of 3-5 minutes so the receiver can grab all the data packets (to prevent drop outs in the audio.)
If additional bandwidth is found then interactive listening may become possible. To listen, all receivers can share the same data stream - I would assume most streaming is set up for multicasting - but I'm not sure how much listener to station connectivity there will be. If there actuallv is a two way connection......think of the possibilities. Combined with GPS data a station could give you specific traffic updates for where you are at that precise moment or they could give you an commercial material specific to where you are. (Gas prices at the QT on the next corner - hot doughnuts at the Krispy Kreme across the street etc.)Stations could precisely gauge listening and allow interactive marketing geared to specific demographics. No more Tampax commercials for us guys......no more tittybar adds for the gals......
I hope the FCC doesn't make the mistake of giving additional spectrum to AM and FM stations - carve out all the RF they can for mobile wifi - it is clearly the future!!

 

[jabba17]

790, The Zone, is still in broadcasting in HD.

I hope the FCC doesn't make the mistake of giving additional spectrum to AM and FM stations - carve out all the RF they can for mobile wifi - it is clearly the future!!

But is anyone still listening to 790 The Zone?

Especially since all the Tech fans SWITCHED TO TRUE OLDIES!!!!!! AND THEY ARE SOUNDING GREAT!!!!! NEXT YEAR RANDY & SPIFF REPLACE WES DURHAM FOR PBP!!!!!

I'd love to see TV channels 5 and 6 be converted to an expanded FM dial (approx. 78-88MHz). Most full-power broadcasters have left because the VHF TV channels under 7 stink for DTV, and the few remaining analog LPTVs can move. Maybe give non-class-A-clears on AM first priority on a move.

I'm not an expert here, but would the 78-88MHz freq band even be useful for mobile broadband? Or is the freq too low?

 

[joybandit]

I would be one of the first people to get wifi radio in my car. I listen to internet radio daily either on my wifi tabletop radio, my computer or on my blackberry. The reason is simple -- I am not a big fan of my local stations. I enjoy oldies -- 60s, 70s (especially 70s) and there is an unlimited selection of these channels on the internet. I have an MP3 player and a ton of CDs but when I'm at work or cleaning the house, I like the feeling that someone is there with me and listening to the radio DJ gives me that feeling.

 

[taylorengineer]

The only way I would support using ch 5 & 6 for radio is IF only people who don't presently own, and have never owned ANY radio facility get a chance to have the new freqs.
The last thing we need is more of the same type of ownership. Just how many stations does Lew Dickey or the fun boys at ClearChannel need to "compete?"
We need some more black folk owning stations - we need more women - we need more native American Indians (after all....we did steal their land) Maybe we should let the Japanese have some stations and let them show us how to deliver good economical product. We need someone who is not wealthy already - let's let some other people make a fortune.
The one interventionist thing Obama should do is bust up the radio groups and give the business back to real broadcasters. The Mays and Dickey boys can have their 7 AMs and 7 FMs......they were doing quite well with the few stations they owned before deregulation......

 

[agentUrge]

HD Radio still costs too much to get into if don't have a car with a stock HD ready tuner. I have an Alpine radio and the box that I need to get HD in my car costs $200. My satellite tuner package cost less than that.

Back to the topic at hand, Autonet Mobile is the company that is rolling this out and they use the 3G network..but I wonder if any of these wimaxx services use the same kind of 3g network as the ATT or VZW...(i.e. CDMA or GSM). If they had access to a CDMA network, it could be a winner...but I'm not sure it'll be any more of a threat to radio simply because there's only a handful of hand held devices, such as the ipod touch, that could be used in lieu of local radio for one's listening pleasure.

For example:

I could get this service..take my iPod touch, hook it up to my radio via FM modulator or bluetooth and listen to any number of internet radio stations either through the browser or one of the apps from slacker, Last or pandora. But how many other mobile devices like the ipod touch are out there?

I know quite a few people that use their iPhone/BB/Android phone to listen to music rather than radio, but then again, it's a niche group of technology buffs that stay on top of this kind of thing so obviously we're going to jump on it...john doe, on the other hand? Not so much.

I have hopes for it though....I'm more and more troubled with how much disconnect there is with radio...talk radio is the obvious culprit...GST lost me when Kimmer left..otherwise I listened to 99x...well, I haven't felt connected to 99x since early 2008 so at that rate, if I'm going to listen to radio and not feel connected..I'll listen to my satellite and be happy hearing my niche formats.

 

[jabba17]

The only way I would support using ch 5 & 6 for radio is IF only people who don't presently own, and have never owned ANY radio facility get a chance to have the new freqs.
The last thing we need is more of the same type of ownership. Just how many stations does Lew Dickey or the fun boys at ClearChannel need to "compete?"
We need some more black folk owning stations - we need more women - we need more native American Indians (after all....we did steal their land) Maybe we should let the Japanese have some stations and let them show us how to deliver good economical product. We need someone who is not wealthy already - let's let some other people make a fortune.
The one interventionist thing Obama should do is bust up the radio groups and give the business back to real broadcasters. The Mays and Dickey boys can have their 7 AMs and 7 FMs......they were doing quite well with the few stations they owned before deregulation......

Now that would be interesting...in order to get an FM x-band license, you can't have any other license on FM. I say "FM" because I'd like to see some of the AM smalltimers get a leg up (and maybe this might re-clear the clear channels in some cases). You could be commercial or non-com.

Although before consolidation you had the problem with markets like ATL with 6 AC stations with 6 discrete owners (PacSouthern/94Q, Taft?/Peach, Cox/B98.5, SusieQ/Warm 100, Shamrock/Chancellor?/Fox 97, Jacobs/Lite 106). At least consolidation created a diversity of formats in a given market, albeit at the cost of homogenizing formats across markets.

 

[TheBigA]

And that may mean an end to the corporate grip on content distribution - radio is going to find a brand new big,fat pipe to get music, news, and other programming to you in your car.

That's what they said about XM. Satellite radio even got all the car companies to install their radios in new cars, with free subscriptions. What difference did it make?

People will use wifi in their cars to replace GPS. There will be huge parts of Atlanta that will never get free wifi or wimax, so large portions of the population won't have access to anything else. The majority of people really don't have a big problem with radio as it is now. Those who do have satellite.

And guess what? Instead of the big radio corporations, content distribution will be controlled and monpolized by a handful of telecom corporations that make CC look like a mom & pop. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

And in the process put all media and contemt delivery systems in the vise grip of governmental control? Will there be an "internet commission".....much like the politically charged FCC....that will play internet czar?

That's an interesting question, because one of the unfilled czar positions in the Obama administration is for the internet. One of the goals of the new FCC is to regulate the ISPs in such a way that they can't make money. Offer a free federal internet that competes with for-profit internet. If you're a consumer, which do you use? Sound familiar? The public option, except for the internet. Coming soon.

 

[taylorengineer]

The reason nothing changed with XM/Sirius is because you still had a finite RF spectrum to use. Just as with AMFM radio, there are just X number of freqs. To further compound the problem, the guv-ment allowed the two companies to merge and become a monopoly - controlled by weasel in chief - Mel "Slasher" Karmezin. I can think of no indivdual who has done more harm to the business paradigm of radio than Mel Karmezin and now he controls yet another chunk of the scarce RF spectrum.
The real fear is the government - Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and The Chosen One are already licking their chops over the internet - Democratic rage over Matt Drudge is going to lead to wholesale power grabs.
The "govern-net" internet ISP for all the "disenfranchised" population who can't afford 3G for their $120 month iPhones - it's on the way. (What the hell does someone on foodstamps and has no job need with a Blackberry? Hell - I'm an engineer for four stations and I don't have a Blackberry - the receptionist has one, however!!)
Once the guv-ment has control of access it will be small work to control who has access to the pipe. We can only hope the Chinese will be kinder masters when they take control of American society in 20-30 years!

 

[Uriah]

Who - and where - is John Gault?

 

[jabba17]

People will use wifi in their cars to replace GPS. There will be huge parts of Atlanta that will never get free wifi or wimax, so large portions of the population won't have access to anything else. The majority of people really don't have a big problem with radio as it is now. Those who do have satellite.

That's an interesting question, because one of the unfilled czar positions in the Obama administration is for the internet. One of the goals of the new FCC is to regulate the ISPs in such a way that they can't make money. Offer a free federal internet that competes with for-profit internet. If you're a consumer, which do you use? Sound familiar? The public option, except for the internet. Coming soon.

Mobile broadband won't replace GPS--it will make it more powerful. Mobile broadband has limited capability to know where you are. But mobile broadband will enable apps like Trapster to work real-time with your GPS, as well as enable more targeted, location-based advertising as someone mentioned earlier, among many other solutions that can blossom when you combine establishing location with fat pipe Internet.

Large metros like ATL will eventually be covered with mobile broadband. What will not be covered, or will take a very loooong time, are rural areas--especially out west. Look at any cellphone coverage map. The same pattern of growth will take place for mobile broadband. First to be covered will be large metros and interstate highways, with smaller cities and major non-interstate highways to come next. Mountainous areas and small towns will near the bottom of the list.

Re: "free" government mobile broadband, keep in mind that municipal Wi-Fi programs across the country are dropping like flies. There's no way to pay for it and keep it "free".

 

[taylorengineer]

In Gault's Gulch....where else

 

[TheBigA]

The reason nothing changed with XM/Sirius is because you still had a finite RF spectrum to use.

However, if choice was the motivation, there was more choice with satellite than AMFM. So that should have been the death of AMFM in the car. My point is that more choices is not a motivation, unless you're a serious music fan.

To further compound the problem, the guv-ment allowed the two companies to merge and become a monopoly

No one cares. The concept was dead before the merger. The merger was just a self-inflicted wound. There could have been ten satellite radio companies, and it would not lead to more subscriptions. The public will not pay for what it gets for free, and satellite is not radio worth paying for. Nor is internet radio. And music royalties will continue to push internet radio out of the range of most consumers. Another self-infliected wound.

We can only hope the Chinese will be kinder masters when they take control of American society in 20-30 years!

They aren't kinder in their own country, why should they be kinder here? There is no benevolent dictator. It doesn't matter who's running the ship.

I give internet radio 3 years before it becomes as commercialized and as controlled as FM.

 

[TheBigA]

Mobile broadband won't replace GPS--it will make it more powerful.

You underestimate the desire of the public to eliminate monthly fees. Paying for GPS will be as useless as paying for a newspaper. If you have wifi, you just punch up Mapquest, and plot your course.

 

[agentUrge]

One of the goals of the new FCC is to regulate the ISPs in such a way that they can't make money. Offer a free federal internet that competes with for-profit internet.

If you're talking about Net Neutrality, it's got nothing to do with keeping the ISPs from making money, it's about keeping them from controlling what users can and cannot have access too or controlling the quality of access. Here's an example: lets say you're on on Time Warner Cable's broadband plan: they're the parent company of Tuner...mainly CNN. But since Fox News is a competitor Time Warner Cable has decided make access to foxnews.com or any of it's video content more difficult in order to encourage users to go to CNN.com. Another example: Verizon offers fiber optic broadband in other parts of the country: they have partnerships with many companies including Rhapsody...they could very easily make it easy for Rhapsody users to download music a quick speeds where iTunes users have to wait a little longer. Net Neutrality would keep them from being able to do that. ISPs aren't making any more money by being able to do that.

As for the free internet...the only one I've heard of is the Rural Broadband Initiative which has to do with taking broadband out to those areas that don't have cable, DSL or fiber optic...the best option is a screaming 56k. This has been in the works for a few years..nothing really new.

 

[taylorengineer]

I recognize that most Americans are perfectly happy with the current offering on radio. Most are happy with network television and most think everything they need to know about world and national events is covered on "Entertainment Tonight."
The masses will not pay for XM/Sirius.
The popular internet channels will be heavily commercialized - worse than radio because there will be no FCC or license renewal process to strike fear into internet radio providers/operators.
For the minority who wants alternative information and entertainment...internet radio will be great.
The real issue is who CONTROLS the flow of information and entertainment. I'm tired of the current crowd of reprobates who control things now. And if I decide tomorrow that I want to start a station on the internet I can do that and there's not one thing(politically) anyone can do about it.
Maybe people will start internet stations and learn how to entertain people again without the oversight of radio "professionals" and "consultants" who have bastardized the industry. Kids can make mistakes without getting fired - we no longer must have programming suited for even the dullest of dullards. People will have the opportunity to develop their own style.....their own swag.....and some of these people are going to become mass appeal and move society in new directions.
I, for one, think this is a huge positive and will change the world in a good way. I agree that it will be commercialized (it already is)but snatching the power of mass communication out of the hands of big business and government will lead to nothing but good things.

 

[TheBigA]

If you're talking about Net Neutrality, it's got nothing to do with keeping the ISPs from making money,

No I'm not talking about net neutrality, but the desire on the part of the federal gov't to provide free internet access as a civil right. Thus creating a government-owned competitor to ISPs.

However, net neutrality also affects the ability of ISPs from making more money, in that it prevents them from tiered fee plans, where they charge more based on the speed of the service. So the companies that spent billions of their own money to install faster broadband can't pass that cost on to consumers.

 

[TheBigA]

The real issue is who CONTROLS the flow of information and entertainment. I'm tired of the current crowd of reprobates who control things now. And if I decide tomorrow that I want to start a station on the internet I can do that and there's not one thing(politically) anyone can do about it.

You're using 20th century metrics for 21st century technology.

Having a radio station means nothing in the 21st century. Having people listen is what it's all about. So you can have your soapbox, but you can't force anyone to pay attention. There is no power in being able to start your station. Only when you're #1 in your market.

... snatching the power of mass communication out of the hands of big business and government will lead to nothing but good things.

Very idealistic. Once that happens, it ceases to be "mass communication." Thus it loses its power. No one cares.