Will Uncle Sam Shove an FM Radio in Your Cell Phone?

August 23, 2010 By Nick Mokey

The National Association of Broadcasters backs a bill that would make FM radios mandatory in all new cell phones, and the wireless industry isn't happy.

Most smartphones don’t have FM radios. But you won’t hear many iPhone users bemoaning the lack of loudmouth radio jocks and lengthy commercials when they have streaming services like Pandora, Last.fm and Slacker pumping out listener-tailored tunes for free.

Internet radio has bitten off a chunk of traditional radio’s business, and the broadcasting industry knows it. In an effort to corral more people back into FM, the industry now wants to the government to make FM tuners mandatory in new cell phones.

The legal wrangling to make it happen isn’t a standalone effort, but a reaction to a separate battle the radio industry has been waging. The proposed mandate comes as the National Association of Broadcasters’ last desperate move in an ongoing wrestling match with the Recording Industry of America over royalties. After spinning records royalty-free for years, the RIAA is one arm away from locking the NAB into a full nelson by requiring up to one percent of profits. Before it squirms into submission, the NAB has one last request before tapping out: mandatory FM tuners in cell phones.

How can the association justify forcefully shoehorning FM radios into cell phones with the weight of Uncle Sam? The NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton told USA Today that FM tuners in cell phones “provide a tremendous lifeline service” in the event of disasters like hurricanes and terrorist attacks.

Not surprisingly, the wireless industry has taken issues with attempts to regulate FM into its devices. Both the CTIA: The Wireless Association and CEA, the Consumer Electronics Association, oppose the measure.

“Broadcasters should man up, stop whining to Congress and start competing,” CEA CEO Gary Shapiro bluntly told USA Today.

Besides raising the cost of phones, wireless advocates complain FM tuners would make phones bigger, heavier, and quicker to deplete battery life. While a handful of current smartphones already offer built-in tuners, they feature hasn’t traditionally attracted many buyers. Neither Apple or BlackBerry, two smartphone titans, includes FM radio functionality in any of their handsets.

The proposed mandate only exists as part of the NAB’s proposed outline for royalty legislation, in which it would also concede to larger radio stations paying up to one percent of profits to artists as royalties. It has yet to pass congressional approval. In the past, opposition from broadcasters has gummed up the gears that would spin radio royalties into law. This time, it may be the wrath of the wireless that throws a wrench into the works.

Showing 2 comments

T. Carter Ross at 3:07am 24th August 2010 I don't like the idea of a Congressional mandate for FM in cell phones, and the RIAA and NAB's joining forces on this effort against the CEA is an odd situation to say the least, but the idea that cell phones will be broken by the inclusion of FM will make cell phones heavier or otherwise harm performance is spurious at best. A large number of cell phones in Europe and Asia have FM radios in them, and radio listening via cell phone is used. The RAJAR MIDAS6 survey in the U.K. (released in July) found that 13% of adults (15+) have used their phone to listen to the radio; of them 54% use a build-in FM tuner vs. 14% who use a specific station's app. (Presumably the other 32% are using podcasts, streams, or mulit-station apps ... the survey summary isn't clear. The lack of FM on devices in the States is less about consumer demand than the way wireless service providers play an oversize role in shaping which handsets are available to consumers. (The majority of people get their phone for free or at a reduced price through their carrier, and the carriers offer only a limited number of handsets.) Beyond the NAB's point about traditional radio being of value during disasters and emergencies, the recent elimination of unlimited data plans for iPhone users should be a warning sign for consumers. Streaming audio (via the Web or an app) is very data intensive -- something the Pandora app on my HTC Hero warns me about when I start it up. FM radio on cell phones would give users another, not-data-intensive option for music and entertainment, and it could relieve carriers' networks of some of that data-heavy traffic. The idea of a Congressional mandate is bad, but the idea of FM in cell phones is worth pursuing.
1. Crotchety at 2:45pm 24th August 2010 @T. Carter Ross - I would agree with you on this issue. I do have a built in radio on my EVO 4G. I don't use it, but it's there in case there's a need for it in the case of a disaster of some sort. It should be entirely up to the consumer whether or not they want to purchase a cell phone with a radio built in or not. I tend to think most people would opt in so long as it doesn't affect unit price too much, while others really won't care at all either way about having the radio. The choice just needs to be left up to them and not Congress and the NAB/RIAA lobbyists.