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Radios of the Future

T

taylorengineer

I've been thinking lately about radio receivers of the future. What will the future radio do and how will it be better?
I wonder if you will hook it to the internet via wireless and it will download all the music while you sleep. Will it's built in gps function track your daily travel and load commercials for businesses you pass during your commute....will the traffic be specific for where you are going....will weather be pinpointed for your specific location?
Will it be interactive? Besides contests and polling what other use could be made of two way communications?
There is technology to send still pictures using IBOC data. Are pictures something you would find useful displayed in a radio receiver? What would be the commercial possibilities?
 
If I were the benevolent dictator of the FCC:

1) I would get all TV stations off of channels 2-6 and give 5 and 6 to FM. Digital only.
2) I would give legacy FM (88-108) 5 years to go all digital.
3) I would require all receivers over $50 to support FM digital.

If I were a gadget maker:

1) I would work out a deal with a cell telco for unlimited data for my device, kind of like Sprint's deal with Amazon for the (original) Kindle.
2) It would support iHeart, TuneIn, and radio.com out of the box. Commercials would defray the cost of the data; a deal would be worked out with CC and CBS for bandwidth in exchange for carriage.
3) It would support Spotify, Pandora, and Slacker out of the box. Commercials would defray the cost of the data. See above.
4) It would support all non-Apple MP3 stores and you could upload or download purchased music to/from the device. Once memory got cheap and small enough, it would support lossless codecs.
5) It would support Bluetooth for wireless headphones, speakers, and automotive.
6) It would support Wi-Fi.
7) It would support the aforementioned expanded FM band including HD.
8) I like the idea of GPSing spatially relevant commercials, as well as "charging" the device with a stream or extended podcast.

Now, what to do with AM? Can AM be salvaged for anything?
 
jabba17 said:
If I were the benevolent dictator of the FCC:

1) I would get all TV stations off of channels 2-6 and give 5 and 6 to FM. Digital only.
2) I would give legacy FM (88-108) 5 years to go all digital.
3) I would require all receivers over $50 to support FM digital.
Click to expand...

What do you do with hundreds of millions of analog FM receivers? Converter boxes like TV? OK for home stereos, car radios, and the like, but how about portable devices? Not practical.

If I were a gadget maker:

1) I would work out a deal with a cell telco for unlimited data for my device, kind of like Sprint's deal with Amazon for the (original) Kindle.
Click to expand...

Amazon has the money and clout to get that done.

2) It would support iHeart, TuneIn, and radio.com out of the box. Commercials would defray the cost of the data; a deal would be worked out with CC and CBS for bandwidth in exchange for carriage.

3) It would support Spotify, Pandora, and Slacker out of the box. Commercials would defray the cost of the data. See above.
Click to expand...

Those are pretty much mandatory for any internet-radio device. The Grace Digital products have most of them already (except Spotify & Slacker - at least mine doesn't have those).

4) It would support all non-Apple MP3 stores and you could upload or download purchased music to/from the device. Once memory got cheap and small enough, it would support lossless codecs.
5) It would support Bluetooth for wireless headphones, speakers, and automotive.
6) It would support Wi-Fi.
7) It would support the aforementioned expanded FM band including HD.
8) I like the idea of GPSing spatially relevant commercials, as well as "charging" the device with a stream or extended podcast.
Click to expand...

Good idea. A good internet radio should also have an FM tuner, with or without HD - mine doesn't. WiFi is standard, by definition.

Now, what to do with AM? Can AM be salvaged for anything?
Click to expand...

Not much. It'll be the home of religious and foreign language (other than Spanish) broadcasters, and relays of the few remaining shortwave broadcasters, almost exclusively.

The 50 kW blowtorches will hang on unchanged for a few more years, but sometime in the not-too-distant future, their owners will realize that a 50,000 watt Ancient Modulation transmitter is too expensive, and the land it sits on is too valuable to keep running. Once WGN can finally shed that 1970 court order and acquire an FM in Chicago, then you'll see the final gasp of an antiquated mode of transmission, as far as the mainstream is concerned.
 
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