"As more and more people use their smartphones as streaming devices to get news, get radio, get a lot of things like that over their networks, I don't think people realize how vulnerable they get," he says in a video for, a collection of radio organizations that includes NPR. Smulyan's lobbying has prompted the Indiana Senate to urge mobile carriers to activate the FM chip.įEMA Administrator Craig Fugate has also argued that radio is critical in a crisis. "Every time you buy a phone, you've paid for that radio," Smulyan says. He adds that it's a question of giving the public a choice. "When the power grid is out, the only lifeline for the American public is having an FM tuner," he says. It's a critical resource in an emergency, he argues, when there is no Internet or cell system. "Listening to streaming drains your battery three to five times faster than listening to the exact same content on the FM chip," he says. As popular as this form of consumption is, these apps all suck up costly data.Īside from the huge benefit he sees for the radio industry, Smulyan says users could avoid expensive data charges and save battery life if they listen to the FM chip for free.
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To get local broadcasts, Americans increasingly download podcasts or stream from news apps where they can skip or pause our segments. The smartphone has fueled a change in media consumption habits and it's a growing challenge to radio as the go-to audio source for news. Sprint has turned on the FM chip for phones on its network. Samsung, Apple and LG are among those who have not switched on the chip, but HTC and Motorola chips haven't been blocked, Smulyan says. Most smartphone models come with a built-in FM feature. Smulyan is CEO of Emmis Communications, an Indiana-based corporation that owns radio stations across the U.S. NPR's Robert Siegel spoke with Jeff Smulyan, the point man on this issue for the NAB.
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In 2013 they teamed up to create a free app that allows for free FM listening on smartphones. But the mobile industry, which profits from selling data to smartphone users, says that with the consumer's move toward mobile streaming apps, the demand for radio simply isn't there.įull disclosure: NPR, along with the NAB, has been part of a lobbying effort to require this free radio feature to be enabled. The National Association of Broadcasters has been asking mobile makers to change this. That's because mobile makers have the FM capability switched off. But the FM chip is not activated on two-thirds of devices. You may not know it but most of today's smartphones have FM radios inside of them.