Cridland: Radio Broadcasters Should Start Worrying

James Cridland

Radio futurologist James Cridland blogs at mediauk.com, if you're a radio broadcaster, you should start worrying right now. 

Cridland writes:

I spent two days in Las Vegas "on vacation", as our American cousins would say. I hired a car, and went to see some of the local tourist hotspots: the Hoover Dam, the Red Rock Canyon, the Neon Museum, and even the Atomic Testing Museum. My car, a Nissan Almera, didn't have a connected dash. It didn't even have HD Radio. Instead, the radio had four buttons - AM, FM, AUX and Bluetooth.  

For the first hour, I flicked through the FM channels, feeling more disappointed with every click. Syrupy, national, NPR programming; a heavily-promoted "Morning Zoo" (though I only heard back-to-back music, and no actual radio personalities); a poor copy of JACKfm called Bob FM; Christian Rock; Spanish music; and financial advice... after the fifth play of Pharrell Williams's "Happy" I desperately needed something else.  

In the car park of the Hoover Dam bypass bridge (I know how to live), I navigated the primitive controls to pair my phone. And realised why radio has a lot to lose from a connected dash - even one as relatively dumb as this one.  

From thereon in, choosing "Bluetooth" on the car stereo automatically connected to my phone, and the millions of tracks I have access to via Google Play Music (and my unlimited data tarrif - even in the US). Jumping out of the car puts the phone automatically in pause. Starting the car again automatically put it back into play mode. Hitting the 'seek' button flicked to the next track.  

The user experience was just like music-intensive radio: but with my music choice: not someone else's. Better - the music dipped every so often, while Google Maps told me where to turn. (I'd have missed those turn instructions if I were listening to FM radio).  

For the rest of my trip, I was listening to Google Play's personalised 'radio' service. Not to FM radio.

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