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Everyone's so busy buying satellite radio receivers, listening to podcasts, or podcasting their own shows that nobody cares about AM/FM radio anymore. That's what you might think if you've been following the hype around satellite radio, and especially podcasting, but it's simply not the case. Judging from the user e-mail I receive, a lot of people are looking for the best MP3 player out there that receives FM radio. And in many cases, people are looking for AM, too. In fact, the last number I heard for the US radio audience was 300 million. So radio obviously fills a clear need for high-quality, free wireless content, and people aren't about to give that up no matter how many iPods they own.
So, the anecdotal evidence I've collected shows that people definitely want quality radio programming, even though there are enough amateur podcasts out there for you to be bored to tears for the rest of your natural life.
But listeners are only half the equation. Without marketers--who are interested in selling to those listeners--the radio model falls apart. A recent joint study by Millward Brown and Information Resources Inc. found that the "return on investment" (or ROI, in suit-speak) for ad buyers on radio is actually 49 percent higher than for ad buyers on TV. To be fair, TV's ROI has been falling lately due to both TiVo's ad-skipping function and the Internet's TV-skipping function. However, that doesn't change the fact that radio has become an even more compelling medium for advertisers, even as people buy up MP3 players at ever-increasing rates.
Time for RadioTime
All we need now is a good, smart way to put radio onto an MP3 player. Several players on our Top MP3 Player lists have FM tuners, but most have less-than-perfect reception (due in part to interference from spinning hard drives). And, of course, the near-ubiquitous iPod line lacks FM completely. (Griffin Technology had planned on selling an FM tuner attachment for the iPod but scuttled its plans due to some new issue with the 3G iPods. I'm thinking that the problem was related to the spinning hard drive somehow.)A service called RadioTime could be the perfect answer for adding talk radio to the iPod, or to any other player that supports MP3s. It's like TiVo for radio, except better. TiVo can only capture broadcast video, while RadioTime lets you search and record both broadcast and online audio. In fact, users of the service don't need to distinguish between online and terrestrial radio, because they both get recorded via the same easy-to-use interface. Additionally, they both transfer over to any MP3 player. (Of course, you can also listen to recorded programs on your computer.)
The RadioTime folks I met with were extremely proud of the guide that powers the service. They employ people all around the world to help create a comprehensive planet-wide guide to local radio, which lets you search your local market for talk shows of all stripes. As the monthly digital music correspondent on the Computer America talk show, which broadcasts in most markets late into the night on Fridays, I can certainly appreciate the allure of having listeners be able to listen to programs whenever they want. Stations broadcast radio at all hours, and RadioTime lets you listen to the slice you like, whenever you want.
You can use the RadioTime guide for free, and you can try the recording function for free--for seven days. After that, the recording service will run you $39 a year. But to take full advantage, you'll also need a way to receive AM and FM radio on your computer. RadioTime sells a package for $59 that includes the $70 Griffin Radio Shark USB AM/FM radio receiver, which, like RadioTime itself, works with both Macs and PCs. Talk about a bargain.
When this 4GB music-lovin' phone becomes available in the US in 2006, you can bet I'm going to be all over it.
2006: Enter the Nokia N91
I would be remiss were I not to mention in this column one of the coolest radio functions I have ever seen. It came in an unlikely form: a hotel suite sneak peek at Nokia's N91 cell phone, which, when it comes out in 2006 (maybe slightly earlier in Europe), will include a 4GB hard drive and a full-fledged music client for all sorts of nifty music/cell phone tricks. We'll be telling you all about those soon enough. So for now, let me tell you about the Nokia N91's Visual Radio feature, which was developed by Nokia in partnership with Hewlett-Packard. The N91 includes an FM radio tuner, like several previous Nokia models, but while you listen to the N91, the broadcaster has the option of sending you interactive data.The short story: This means you can give the thumbs-up to a song (or maybe to an FM American Idol contestant), answer on-air quizzes, request songs, and do whatever else those wacky DJs think of to send your way. Nokia has already lined up a partnership with Infinity Broadcasting for Visual Radio, and the company's considering licensing VR to automotive manufacturers for inclusion in the dashes of vehicles. If RadioTime doesn't convince you that radio has a future in our increasingly technological world, the Nokia N91's Visual Radio feature certainly should. Music fans aren't losing radio. On the contrary, they're getting an even better version of it.
