Broadcasters in America are Pushing their Campaign to Enable FM Tuners in Smartphones

Broadcasters in America are Pushing their Campaign to Enable FM Tuners in Smartphones

Published on 04-21-2015 11:21 PM

Many consumers appear to have switched off their radios in favor of music and streamed internet commentary, a trend that has many in the broadcast industry worried. Those in the broadcast industry are alleging that this has been caused by device makers and wireless carriers who have conspired to disable built-in radio receivers in a bid to sell more expensive data packages. As of right now, most smartphones and other devices such as tablets, ship with one of a handful of universal wireless communications chips inside, usually made by companies such as Broadcom or Murata. They combine multi-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios in a single package, reducing size and increasing efficiency. In many cases, these chips also pack a third over-the-air option in the form of an FM tuner.

Although many low-end devices tend to take advantage of this as a way to offer another feature, flagship smartphones tend to take the opposite route, rarely enabling it. Apple’s iPhone has seemingly never shipped with the ability to natively receive FM broadcasts despite having a built-in tuner and Samsung seems to have dropped the feature from its Galaxy lineup starting with the Galaxy S3. This has led many broadcasters to band together in an attempt to convince carriers and manufacturers to enable dormant chips.

The folks that are a part of Free Radio On My Phone, a group that includes NPR and the national Association of Broadcasters, had the following to say regarding the matter:

…all listeners would have easy access to radio for the entertainment they love and information they need, but wireless carriers are dragging their feet and won't activate the FM chips that are in every smartphone.

Broadcasters are arguing that many consumers would have the benefit of having the ability to listen to music without using up their data allowance or being able to receive emergency broadcasts over the air. It is true that some manufacturers have disabled the FM tuners only for specific carriers though it remains unclear which party made that decision. One thing that isn’t true though is the statement that carriers can simply enable the feature with a quick software update. For example in Apple’s iPhone lineup, the tuner is often physically disconnected and no FM antenna can be found. Most phones that do include FM capabilities use the headphone cords as antennas, which would require further hardware changes.

If somehow the broadcasters do convince manufacturers to begin making FM reception a priority, it may be too late, as FM radio has begun to lose ground to digital audio broadcasting around the world already. We’ll have to see what happens by waiting patiently. How do you feel about the situation?

Source: Free Radio on My Phone, Radio.no

_{This article was originally published in forum thread: Broadcasters in America are Pushing their Campaign to Enable FM Tuners in Smartphones started by Akshay MasandView original post}

Categories:

1. iPhone,
2. iOS,
3. Apple