Traditional radio's last bastion under siege.

[vsa]

Traditional radio's last bastion is under siege. An exerpt from The Auto Channel:

- Autonet Mobile to Launch the First Internet Service for the Car at CES -
Autonet Mobile (www.autonetmobile.com), the first Internet Service Provider for cars, today announced they will debut a new wireless service that turns the car into a WiFi Hotspot at ShowStoppers during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company also plans to announce an agreement with a world leading car rental company to offer a portable, wireless Internet service by the end of the first quarter.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2007/01/02/032768.html

...According to Dave Whetstone, wireless industry veteran and co-founder of Virgin Mobile USA, "The auto industry has been searching for a practical in-vehicle Internet solution for almost a decade. Autonet Mobile's unique approach has been optimized around the specific challenges of keeping laptops, UMPC's, gaming devices and other WiFi enabled devices connected while driving. The Autonet service will help to fill consumers' insatiable need to stay connected, even while on the road."

Your reactions?

 

[vsa]

Fred Jacobs has some good comments on "Sync", the new cooperative venture between Ford and Microsoft. This involves wireless Internet inside new Fords.

"...Ford chose the very end of the year...to announce an innovation in their vehicles that will impact all of us, especially those of you who own and operate terrestrial radio stations..."

"Streaming should no longer be thought of in terms of "How are we going to pay for it?" Instead, broadcasters ought to be thinking, "If we don't have a strong streaming presence, we could get squeezed out of cars (and cell phones)."

More below:
http://jacobsmedia.typepad.com/jacobs/2007/01/sync_up.html

 

[jcolletta275]

Funny that the rest of the industry is just now realizing this. I've been pointing it out as the way radio was headed since 1996.