Internet radio veteran and RAIN Summits president Jennifer Lane is herself living through the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. A resident of Connecticut, she's now into her fourth day without power in her home. And her situation made her think about the value of an FM radio chip in mobile phones.
Radio broadcasters in the U.S. want the government to require mobile phone manufacturers to include a chip in their devices so users can receive analog FM broadcasts (instead of relying on streams). They argue the chip would enable users to receive emergency broadcasts during times of disaster, when phone networks are likely to go down. Device manufacturers, on the other hand, say broadcasters simply want to use the power of the government to keep their outdated broadcast technology relevant. They say if users really wanted FM radio on their phones, they'd be forced by the market to include it.
Lane says an FM chip to listen to local radio wouldn't help her, unfortunately. "Most stations have few or no news reporters. So there’s a ton of local news and a real dearth of local news reporting."
Lane explains that if broadcasters in her market offered important local information -- the latest on the power outage, which roads are flooded, where to find an Internet connection, and even more vital data like where to find showers and water -- this could do a lot to support broadcasters arguments.
And that's not to say that there haven't been broadcasters that have done an exemplary job of providing their markets with important, relevant emergency information. But many were also hampered by the severe weather (read more here), which likely weakens their claim of an advantage over mobile networks.
Lane says her personal experience didn't speak much in favor of an FM chip mandate. "Unfortunately, a lot of local radio stations have peeled back their staffs to such a point that the only 'local' programming they offer is top-of-the-hour headline news, and some ads. That’s not the kind of thing that is going to make people listen on their smartphones, even if they could."
Read her Audio4cast blog (which she was able to upload from a friend's Internet connection) here.
What's found over-the-air proves the point. Storm or no storm.
What is found over-the-air proves the point of this post, storm or no storm.
I'm in Salt Lake, we have numerous talkers, but only one that does any real local news. However, they run 18 minutes of ads any given hour, and two of the three local talk blocks have no call-in interaction, that one is KSL.
The others air various TOH newscasts from various sources, the two NPR affiliates do some but mostly run national programming. A third NPR affiliate that is heard in some parts of the metro has also pared back its local offerings this year.
Nearly all commercial music stations here air little local news, mostly during morning drive. Afternoon drive is only traffic and weather.
Two of the four NPR affiliates air no real local content. KUER uses a team of pro newscasters to read 'rip-and-read' news, but only during AM and PM drive. The classical affiliate utilizes School of Communications (BYU) students to read news and actually do a few stories, and they air those newscasts in AM and PM drive weekdays.
We also have a number of 'rimshot' signals that are outside the core area but only hit part of it via boosters. None of them air local news for their cities of license, and they pigeonhole local information for their towns such as city announcements and so forth to the overnight (12mid-5am) daypart. None of that is heard at all during the 5am-midnight period generally picked up by the ratings.
Two south of Provo are actually not even on the air, and they are only running the boosters as 'translators' for a nonexistent station so to speak, and air nothing at all for the local areas (Levan and Manti), one Calvary Chapel station airs nothing local save for a couple of promo spots, and in fact CSN got the station from an applicant that won on the points system and was required to own the station for four years but the license was assigned only months after the grant to CSN.
So the 'FM chip' thing is not even of any value, and everyone will simply ignore it. Only if the stations actually do something with their signals will they even come back and listen for news and weather over-the-air.