Everything You Wanted to Know About the FM chip and NextRadio – Jeff Smulyan, Emmis Communications

For many years we have been working on the activation of the FM chip in smartphones on behalf of the American Radio Industry Nothing will change the radio industry like the activation of the FM chip and the implementation of NextRadio and nothing will make radio as compelling for advertisers as the widespread adoption of the chips and the NextRadio systemMost Americans donamp8217t know that every smartphone sold has an FM chip which would allow the reception of FM signals The reason this is important is that unlike streaming the public pays no data charges when listening through the activated FM radioCurrently the American public listens to local radio for over 9 billion hours on various streaming services and they are paying for all of those hours in their data bills In addition listening over the air instead of streaming drains cell phone batteries at one third to one fifth the rate as listening to the exact same content via streaming networksMost important in any emergency when the power grid goes down all phone use is lost and as Craig Fugate Head of FEMA has said amp8220Your cell phone becomes a brickamp8221 With the FM chip activated listeners in any emergency would have a radio that can provide lifesaving information on the device that is constantly with themAs you can imagine the largest carriers have blocked the implementation of the FM chip because they are selling that dataPerhaps the most exciting part of the FM chip is the interactivity that we have brought through NextRadio Inspired by the NAB NextRadio was built by Emmis to make radio visual interactive and compelling not only in smartphones but ultimately in auto dashboards tablets and even the clock radios of the future When the FM chip is turned on NextRadio can provide a visual and interactive element to the content that radio has provided in our communities for nearly 100 years From the moment the NextRadio button is pushed the listener can see a snapshot of everything that all stations in their local market are broadcasting especially album art and song titles The listener can buy the song tell the station they like or dislike the song and share it with their friends If the artist is scheduled for an upcoming concert they can buy tickets add the event to their calendar and even get directions to the venue tied into their map feature on their phoneFor advertisers an entire new world is opened up Marrying an interactive component to any ad running on radio gives the advertiser a simultaneous visual interaction with the customer If McDonaldamp8217s runs an Egg McMuffin ad on the radio a coupon can pop up on the screen and with the push of a button the customer can download that coupon and drive to the nearest McDonalds and redeem it Even the location of the nearest store can be accessed instantaneously and can be mapped through the phone at the same time Websites can be accessed and events can go immediately to calendars If the radio station wants to do contesting prepopulated texts are built into the system Nearly every component of the stationamp8217s broadcast can become visual and compellingWe have found that interactivity is growing listening In our first million phones with the activated NextRadio system listening sessions on fully interactive stations are averaging 16 minutes over 50 higher than the traditional radio averageIn my 40 years in radio Iamp8217ve never seen our industry as unified behind any idea as they are about NextRadio and the activation of the FM chip Nearly every major company is supporting our first carrier agreement with Sprint where 30 million phones will be preloaded with NextRadio In addition almost all of the 1000 most listened to stations in America have full interactivity with more stations added every day These represent Americaamp8217s largest groups but the fervor and support is coming from the smallest companies as wellWe have been ecstatic about our relationship with Sprint but the effort is now moving to other carriers and manufacturers HTC phones with NextRadio are available also at ATampampT Verizon and TMobile as well as Sprint Also Motorolaamp8217s affordable Moto G and Moto E phones are available at many carriers as well making NextRadio more accessible than ever beforeWe have a campaign at the website FreeRadioOnMyPhoneorg led by NPR American Public Media and Educational Media Foundation which urges listeners to ask their carriers to turn on the chips so that vital emergency information will be available to all Americans on their smartphonesThe last piece of the puzzle is to inform all of the 275 million Americans age 6 who listen to radio every week that they have an opportunity to listen to free radio on their smartphones Devito Verdi is in the final stages of preparing a massive campaign that should convince every other wireless carrier and our friends at Apple that this is an idea whose time has comeJeffrey H Smulyan serves as Chairman of the Board of Emmis Communications Corporation an Indianapolisamp8211based radio and publishing company with operations in nine US markets He shepherded the unification of the radio industry behind the installation of the Emmiscreated NextRadio application in a broad array of FMenabled wireless devices A public company since 1994 Nasdaq EMMS Emmis owns and operates 19 FM and four AM radio stations in the nationamp8217s largest markets and cityregional magazines including national titles Texas Monthly and Los Angeles Emmis owns the two top hiphop brands in the world KPWR Power 106 in Los Angeles and HOT 97 in New York CityCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates at MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all 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Everything You Wanted to Know About the FM chip and NextRadio – Jeff Smulyan, Emmis Communications

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