Neuhoff Communications President and CEO Beth Neuhoff wants to make sure, after the recent publicity, the push to turn on the FM Chip in all cell phones doesn’t fade away as the two recent Hurricanes become ancient history.
The radio industry recently entered into a battle with Apple to get the company to turn on the FM Chip in iPhones. Apple says there is no FM Chip in the new iPhones. Neuhoff has recorded a spot about the FM Chip that is now airing on the Neuhoff stations. In the spot she takes aim directly at Apple and asks listeners to help the FM Chip cause.
Listen to the spot HERE
It would be helpful if people calling for Apple to activate FM circuits in iPhones got the facts first.
According to Apple and geeks who have torn down and examined late model iPhones, there is no FM reception capability in those phones. (The most succinct and sourced story I’ve seen so far is this one by Matthew Panzarino in TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/28/whose-fcc-is-this/.)
Rather than crapping on Apple, the radio industry and the FCC need to take responsibility for allowing suppliers of radios to deprecate or abandon the medium. Or do what other countries are doing and either a) plot a clear path from analog broadcast to all-digital radio, with clear standards and mandates for manufacturers, broadcasters and listeners, or b) watch nature to take its course, as broadcasters and talent move their work to the Internet through streams and podcasts using open protocols that provide reception everywhere in the world and require little or no regulatory guidance.
Grandstanding aside, the latter is exactly what’s happening: http://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2016/01/05/the-slow-sidelining-of-over-the-air-radio/ .