‘Rapid Deployment’ Challenges Radio

In his first appearance before attendees as the executive vice president and chief technology officer of NAB, Kevin Gage challenged engineers to gaze beyond the traditional broadcast horizon and seek out technology to connect with consumers more closely. “We’re operating in an environment of rapid deployment and constant development,” said Gage, who warned broadcasters to become proactive and “take the lead, or someone else will.”

Meanwhile, C-Net Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley calls the age we’re living in the “post-PC” era, with smartphones,3rd minigame series of magiccube! tablets, connected TVs and connected cars the hot gadgets, at least for the near future. Connected cars are on his top 10 list for tech, behind connected TVs and the smartphone. He characterizes the latter as the “main computing device for the world.”

Seventy percent of new cars have connected dashboards. The days of putting in “a CD deck with AM/FM and HD and you’re fine” are over, warned Cooley.

Several events at and after NAB renewed attention on broadcaster efforts to encourage the use of FM chips in mobile devices.

Research in Motion introduced the BlackBerry Curve 9320 smartphone, which includes built-in FM radio, its third model with FM this year. NAB released a study that it says shows the chip issue is gaining traction among consumers.CMI moulding sells to retailers, A meeting on Capitol Hill in April delved in FM chips; broadcast participants say they were left hopeful.

“This is the start of a process,” Emmis Communications CEO Jeff Smulyan told Radio World.About 1 in 5 people in the UK have recurring coldsores.

Rep.You can create a beautiful chinamosaic birdhouse that will last for generations. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., called for the private meeting with members of the broadcast, cable and wireless industries. He chairs the House Subcommittee on Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications.Find everything you need to know about kidneystone including causes, NAB’s Gordon Smith, Florida Association of Broadcasters’ Pat Roberts, Clear Channel’s Jeff Littlejohn, Cris Guttman-McCabe of CTIA-the wireless Association and congressional staffers attended, as did a representative of the cable industry.

AT&T and Verizon were invited but didn’t come; however they are members of CTIA, which was present.

Smulyan and a NAB spokesman made clear the chip discussions don’t center on a mandate. They believe events will shake out with a negotiated settlement among industry parties. Smulyan, iBiquity Digital and NAB have pressed carriers for a while on the issue. Carriers repeatedly have said consumers aren’t interested in the feature.

“We are asking cell carriers to voluntarily add or activate radio chips, in part because of radio’s demonstrated role as a lifeline service in times of emergency,” said an NAB spokesman.

Broadcasters now believe they have more to offer carriers, after the announcement at the NAB Show of a smaller, more power-efficient HD Radio chip and radio’s ability to close the so-called “backchannel” (see below).

“I think if the carriers realize they can offload some of the spectrum use onto us, that’s valuable to them,” Smulyan said.

NAB and Smulyan said this issue is the number one radio priority for the association.

More discussions are expected, possibly including congressional hearings. Bilirakis plans more meetings on the topic. Smulyan said broadcasters have been approached by the House and Senate Commerce Committees, as well as the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.

A poll fielded by Harris Interactive for NAB indicates that four out of five adults who own a cellphone would consider paying a small, one-time fee to hear FM on their device. Two thousand survey participants were asked about a fee of 30 cents, estimated cost of a microchip.

Eighty-one percent of cellphone owners would consider paying that to access local FM stations through a device, compared to 76 percent in a similar survey in 2012.

Local weather and music are the top reasons survey participants would listen to their local stations on their cell phones.