Future Samsung Phones Will Have a Working FM Radio Chip (androidpolice.com)

A few months ago, LG announced a partnership with NextRadio to unlock the FM chip in its smartphones. Now, Samsung is doing the same. Android Police reports: NextRadio made the announcement, rightly explaining that FM radio is essential in areas with low connectivity and in emergency and disaster situations where a connection might be difficult to obtain or maintain and where access to information could be a matter of life and death. With the chip unlocked, users will be able to listen to local radio on their phone using the NextRadio Android app. The press release mentions that "upcoming [Samsung] smartphone models in the U.S. and Canada" will have the FM chip unlocked, however I did find several existing Samsung devices with their FM chip enabled on NextRadio's site.

Comments

You could have AM radio.

[fyngyrz]

My Galaxy S7's FM radio has worked with NextRadio (FM broadcast band) for quite some time now. AM is possible, if they are so inclined to make that happen. Because...

Also interesting is that for an FM radio to be practical, you need an antenna, and so far, that's been the wire to the earbuds / headphones, which is decently longish. So very likely implicit in this "there will be FM radio" lies an "there will be an audio jack", and also, "if we want AM radio, we can do it." Ever since low power software defined radio has been possible, this stuff can be done. Particularly in a high-power availability device like a cellphone. It can be done the old way, too, but not nearly as well.

I suspect the whole "there will be FM" thing is known somewhat gleefully in the hallowed corporate halls at Samsung as "taking advantage of Apple's... courage."

Re:You could have AM radio.

[bobbied]

Me thinks you severely underestimate the size of the required antennas. FM at about 100Mz has a wave length of about 3 meters and AM frequencies are between 400 and 500 meters. FM is doable in a cell phone's size but it's going to be a tight fit. AM is going to get pretty big and heavy pretty quick and I doubt that even a ferrite core antenna will make it in your average cell phone successfully. If you don't have some minimum fraction of a wavelength in your antenna, your receiver will pick up almost nothing so I'd expect that nifty AM receiver to struggle even if you have a 50KW station a mile away.

Re:You could have AM radio.

[bobbied]

For FM, sure, for AM? Not so much given the very long wavelength. But you also have to have a headphone jack, something not as common as it once was.

A bit late

[nospam007]

Norway has already abandoned FM completely, the rest of Europe not far behind.

Re:A bit late

[zdzichu]

Actually Norway was first, but there are dates set to sunset analog radio in most countries. IIRC around 2024 there would be no FM transmissions in Europe.
Surprisingly, analog radio sunset is harder than move from analog to digital TV. TV switchover was much quicker, it was mostly done few years ago. But radio 1) is much easier and reliable to use in emergencies; 2) is used in many cars, and a car have about 15 years lifetime.

Re:A bit late

[Misagon]

You are generalising. Introduction of DAB radio is not the same thing as choosing to abandon FM radio. Most of Eastern and Central Europe don't have any DAB broadcasts at all and most of the others are only doing trials.
Sweden has decided not to discontinue FM radio broadcasts for the time being after strong objections from the Ministry of Defence (emergency broadcasts) and because of lack of customer demand for DAB radio.

People tend to instead replace their FM radios with personalised streaming services on their cell phones, for which there is also more commercial interest.

DAB does not offer any tangible benefits over mobile streaming and FM. In good conditions, DAB could provide either better audio quality or more channels than FM, but not both.
In bad conditions, weak reception of emergency broadcasts over FM can still be intelligible where as the same over DAB would just cut off.

Re:Does NextRadio use the FM chip, or Wifi?

[ClickOnThis]

It turns out that the Samsung Galaxy S5's FM chip is supported by NextRadio -- provided your mobile provider hasn't disabled it. Mine has (Verizon.)

There's more information on supported devices and networks here.

Re:Wait I want AM radio

[dryeo]

Depends on how remote, at least during the day, using a standard radio. Where I am right now, I get a lot more FM signals then AM even though the transmitters are about as far away.
If you're really remote, you should have a good multi-band radio, though I believe shortwave is being used less and less, a strong AM signal can cover a good chunk of the continent at night.

Re:But FM is being phased out

[Doctor Memory]

Long-wave AM requires a long antenna to pull in a decent signal. It's a shame, but that's physics for ya.