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FCC Chairman Wants It To Be Easier To Listen To Free FM Radio On Your Smartphone (recode.net)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Recode: Your smartphone has an FM radio in it, only it's unlikely that you're able to use it. That's because in the U.S., less than half of phones actually have the FM tuner turned on. But FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who just recently assumed the top position at the regulatory agency under President Trump, thinks that should change. In remarks made to the North American Broadcasters Association yesterday, Pai said that it's a public safety issue. Both the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Association and an FCC advisory panel on public safety have advocated for turning on the FM radio capabilities in smartphones, since radio is a reliable source of information when internet or cellphone networks go down in severe weather. Although Pai thinks smartphones should have the FM chip turned on, he doesn't think the government should mandate it: "As a believer in free markets and the rule of law, I cannot support a government mandate requiring activation of these chips. I don't believe the FCC has the power to issue a mandate like that, and more generally I believe it's best to sort this issue out in the marketplace."
It requires the use of wired earphones because the wire acts as the FM radio antenna. The FCC cannot change that.
Hey, I like my AM stations better! Down with the FM bigots!
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Carriers have little financial incentive to do so because they profit from streaming data, says Barry Rooke of the National Campus and Community Radio Association.
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No, this is the free market working as intended, putting the consumer at the mercy of the corporations with no government protection whatsoever.
The BS about the free market solving problems by allowing consumers to choose better solutions is a fairy tale told to pacify everyone in the hopes that they won't wake up and realize that corporations collude with each other to maximize their ability to extract profit from consumers by making sure they don't have choices available.
http://nextradioapp.com/suppor...
Let people download an app and make up their own minds about FM. This whole 'the marketplace has decided' bullshit is often just cover for 'We have our reasons. Go away and stop bothering us.'
There are some subtle differences between broadcast FM and streaming content revenue models and middlemen. I wouldn't be surprised if the streaming proponents just want to steer the ad bucks their way. Follow the money.
Have gnu, will travel.
Well, the chips to do it tend to be everywhere - WiFi and Bluetooth chips tend to be triple duty with FM radio thrown in because it isn't hard to add.
The real issue is whether or not it's actually hooked up - usually they aren't. So the phone may have the hardware for it, but not actually be wired up.
The real question is why? I hardly ever listen to FM radio (AM I do a lot). If it was a popular feature, it would be in every phone as a feature. But most people are either streaming or listening to their music.
Finally, given the present administration, what's going on? I don't think it's done out of the goodness of their hearts to give consumers a feature that's sorely lacking.
The quote is now, "The best things in life are for a fee".
Also appropriate here.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
You misunderstood shit.
The enabled FM chip could be insanely useful in case of a major catastrophe. You would be able to listen to information and instructions on the only device you're carrying with you at all times.
It's not about you using it more often, it's about it being there hen you need it most.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Well, "free market" used this way is a glittering generality. Most people who use it aren't referring to the technical economic sense in which individual consumers and producers make consumption, production and pricing decisions autonomously. What they typically mean would be better described something in the direction of anarcho-capitalism, although many are somewhat selective in their application of that philosophy (e.g. they aren't for the free market determining the number of abortions performed, birth control pills dispensed, or marijuana grown).
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A large part of the problem is likely consumers just not knowing about it and the carriers not enabling the chips to drive business to their subscription services. A proper efficient market requires accurate information on both sides of the transaction.
Back when I had a Note 2 I hadn't even know it had come with an FM chip in it. After I found out I called Verizon to complain it wasn't enabled and their support in turn didn't even know anything except to tell me I need more data plan if I wanted to stream radio.
Broadcast FM in the US is 88-108 MHz. NOAA is generally around 162 MHz. It's quite a stretch for an analog tuner, pretty much requiring more hardware for filters and so on; for most SDRs that can already tune FM broadcast, these frequency ranges aren't really a lot different. For a dedicated digital receiver, it may not even be remotely possible.
So ultimately it depends on just how the phone is doing FM, and of course, if the software lets you do what you want to do.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
My hands are tied - honestly! I just tied them myself!
He says he wants FM on all capable phones, and in the same breath says he doesn't "believe the FCC has the power to issue a mandate like that". Well, Ajit, you slimy fuck, I have news for you: your alleged belief doesn't mean shit, you do have the power, and any assertions you make to the contrary are simply inept and sophomoric bullshit politicking. Being a liar is bad enough - being incompetent at it is just diarrhea icing on the crapcake you're trying to get people to swallow.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Honestly, I don't even use the radio in my car anymore. It's been ten years or more since I listened to the radio.
On the other side of the atlantic pond, radio in cars tends to be used a lot, specially for traffic information.
Last time I listened to the car's radio has been lat time I drove it :
the car automatically suspended the music we were listening to announce some traffic jams and incident on the highway.
Most GPS (specially the in-car built-ins) are also able to leverage the digital information (TMC signal on the RDS on FM radios) to also display and take into account such traffic information.
So radio on portable devices can be useful for such traffic informations.
The only thing is, as far as I know, most smartphone with disabled radio chips only have *FM*-Radio (i.e.: plain old analog. Sometimes not even with support for digital metadata over RDS).
Whereas lots of European regions are moving to DAB/DAB+ Radio (digital radio, transmitted as MP2 or AAC digital stream respectively), which is not directly supported on purely FM chips, and would be quite taxing on the battery life if attempting to decode on CPU in software (SDR - software defined radio).
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Not really. Find your local college radio station. They usually have diverse and interesting programming. I find most of my new music now adays from eclectic DJs on small university transmitters. And there are never any commercials on CBC radio. So you have options for sure.
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