Radio Survivor

Today Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his now-annual announcement for the new version of the company’s top product. While there were several surprises in store, like the addition of video conferencing and HD video recording, there wasn’t anything unexpected for radio enthusiasts.

Jobs confirmed the debut of multitasking with the new version 4 of the iPhone OS which already had been revealed last month. What’s nice about multitasking is that audio apps like Pandora, Slacker, last.fm, AOL Radio and the Public Radio Player will play in the background while using other apps, just like listening to iPod music.

For a hard core online radio listener multitasking may indeed be the “killer app” that makes it worth spending the $199 to upgrade to the 16 GB iPhone 4 from a first generation iPhone or the 3G. Owners of the 3GS will get multitasking, too, which also makes for a cheaper upgrade for owners of earlier models, at $99.

Apple says the new iPhone has a bigger battery offering up to 40 hours of music listening time and up to 6 hours of 3G web browsing. Listening to streaming radio over 3G is quite a bit more data intensive than simple web browsing, so it’s doubtful you’ll get 6 hours of 3G audio streaming.

Unfortunately, new iPhone owners starting contracts with AT&T will no longer have an unlimited data plan available to them, with the biggest data plan topping out at 2 GB per month, with $10 for each additional 1 GB. It’s unclear if a current iPhone owner can continue to have an unlimited plan if she starts a new contract upon buying an iPhone 4, though I should expect so.

Still missing from the iPhone is an actual radio capable of receiving traditional analog or HD broadcasts. When the radio-equipped iPod Nano debuted last October rumors starting swirling that there was a latent radio receiver inside the iPhone. One would think that if the rumor were true, that radio would have come out with the introduction of the iPhone 4. Since we’ve seen no sign of an iPhone radio with this major update of its OS, I’m guessing we’re unlikely to see one in the near future, if ever.

The Federal Communications Commission has called for comment on proposed rules intended to prevent interference between Sirius XM radio (SIRI)  and wireless broadband in the 2.3 GHz band area. But when Sirius XM asked for a one week extension on the comment deadline, the organization representing the various wireless companies blasted the request.

“At virtually every critical turn in these proceedings, the strategy of Sirius XM Radio Inc. has been the same – delay, delay, delay,” charged a representative of the WCS (Wireless Communications Services) Coalition on Wednesday:

“That is hardly surprising, as Sirius XM has little to gain by adoption of final rules. While those rules will provide Sirius XM with its first permanent authority to operate terrestrial repeaters, those rules are likely to require Sirius XM to modify the terrestrial repeater network that it has been operating pursuant to STAs [Special Temporary Authority permits] for almost a decade, something it consistently has resisted doing. And, adoption of the new rules will subject Sirius XM to new competition from WCS-enabled mobile broadband that provides the public with mobile access to free services like Pandora, Slacker and a range of Internet radio services that largely duplicate, if not improve upon, Sirius XM’s offerings.”

We’ve been following this controversy for a while here at RS. The problem is that licenses in the WCS band and Sirius XM’s SDARS band are scrunched pretty close together, and the FCC worries that SDARS terrestrial repeaters could cause interference to WCS operations. WCS represents Comcast (CMCSA), AT&T, NextWave (WAVE) and other companies that want to launch WiMAX mobile services in their portion of the 2.3 GHz zone. (more…)

Slacker mobile/Internet radio has just launched a new venue for unsigned music bands to create their own stations on the service. And the fans of these bands can integrate them into their own custom Slacker Personal Radio stations list.

“We are giving new artists an experience they can’t get anywhere else,” Slacker veep Jonathan Sasse is quoted in the press release the mobile/Internet radio company sent us, “including the opportunity to share and distribute their custom Slacker stations with anyone, and to be included in a service used by millions of listeners through the web and on all leading smartphones.”

The service for bands to upload their music, photos, and bios to create their station is free. Slacker listeners can also integrate these artists and songs into their own custom Personal Radio stations.

Slacker is partnering with the Hello Music company to roll this service out. Here’s the signup page if you’re interested.

The Slacker mobile radio service unveiled BlackBerry 3.0 and Android 2.0 from Research In Motion today. The upgraded operating systems allow users to update their favorite stations via a “Cache Station” menu within the app. Or they can use an “auto refresh” feature that wakes the mobile up overnight and updates station content.

“Cached stations are stored on the memory card of the BlackBerry smartphone and can be played on subways, planes and all destinations in between with no network drop-outs and minimal battery usage,” the release Slacker sent us boasts. “Along with station-storing capabilities, Slacker Radio Plus features ad-free listening, song lyrics, unlimited song skipping, unlimited song requests and more.”

Ditto for the Android, that is, if the user has a Slacker Radio Plus subscription. If you’ve got Slacker Basic Radio you can try the new features out on either Android or BlackBerry for free for fourteen days. (more…)

I don’t listen to the radio much anymore, because there’s nothing on that I can count on either enjoying or finding interesting. And so far as the Internet can create your own channel services, like Pandora or Slacker, they seem to me oddly impersonal and somehow too predictable.

But now I’ve found Shirley and Spinoza Radio. It’s a source of almost endless delight to me. The more creative part of humanity’s bubbling unconscious seems to have found a portal here, and its stuff is all queued up and pouring out now: German disaffected acoustic romantic ennui more sentimental than anything heard in America! Chinese instrumentals on instruments I’ve never heard, with a startlingly new timbre. And suddenly, in front of such music, dialogues that sound like Samuel Beckett on a humorous brew of unseemly drugs. Like this one, with a male and a female voice taking turns repeating stuff like this:

[ Ambient Debussy is in the background, alternating with slightly troubling Hitchcock: ]

—Do you have any suggestions for the more efficient use of our equipment?
—No.
—Think before you speak. A brief description of your reactions, please.
—I don’t remember. It seems to be interesting. They were making a loud noise. Are you in charge of this department?
— Let us put that theory into practice.
— What are they planning to do now?
—Consult the directory.
—It might take too much time.
—Keep to the right. Follow the signs. Dial the number. I shall welcome any questions or suggestions you may have. I shall be there.
—He does not know.

(more…)

The Slacker mobile radio team sent us a press release this morning saying the service is now available in Canada. “Turning Canada on to personal radio has been some time in the making, and we are proud to unveil our Canadian Slacker Radio experience,” declared Slacker marketing Veep Jonathan Sasse in the  statement. “Whether it’s from the web or a smartphone, Slacker takes the work out of listening to your favorite music wherever you want.”

And the release continues:

“Canadian music fans will have access to the free Slacker Basic Radio for up to 30 days. After 30 days, they can upgrade to Slacker Radio Plus, featuring all the same great benefits of Slacker Basic Radio along with station caching for supported mobile devices, ad-free listening, complete song lyrics*, unlimited song skipping, song requests and more. Station caching enables mobile listeners to store their personal stations on selected smartphones for listening anywhere, anytime, uninterrupted.

Listeners can store a station by simply selecting “Cache Station” from within the supported app. The station can then be downloaded via Wi-Fi, over USB or through the cellular network. Cached stations are stored on the smartphone and can be accessed on planes, subways and everywhere in between requiring minimal battery usage and eliminating the need to access the mobile carrier network to play music.”

One question we had about the statement. It calls Slacker “the first personal radio experience to service Canada.” Hey Canadians, is that the case? We know that you can’t get Pandora up there (except maybe by proxy). What about last.fm? Here’s a comment from a disgruntled Canadian. What are the  availabilities?   Send us your comments.

Online music streaming company, Slacker has struck a deal with ABC to carry content from ABC News Radio. Included in the partnership will be national news, world news, sports, politics, entertainment, business, and tech news, with recognizable shows such as “Good Morning America”, and “Nightline”. Slacker Radio will expand its number of available categories with the integration, but everything comes with a price. Initially, the service will be free for all users, but will eventually become exclusive to Slacker Radio Plus subscribers.

The service will be integrated directly within Slacker, making the additional category available on mobile devices as well. Users will also have the ability to have news updates play at the top of every hour, regardless of what station they are on, as well as flip through segments when on the ABC News station. The full service is expected to be available in early 2010 with the familiar $3.99 per month, or $47.88 a year, for the premium Slacker service.

Here’s the release we received:
(more…)

If you are looking for the bright spot in radio’s future, it’s streaming from a digital platform. The Radio Advertising Bureau’s report for this year’s second fiscal quarter makes this abundantly clear. Local and national over-the-air radio saw a 25% drop in revenue, while digital saw a ten percent boost. Digital radio’s revenue from advertising has grown from $180 million in 2007 to $298 million this year. And the Bureau projects continued growth to $908 million in 2013.

That’s in comparison to over-the-air radio, which lost almost a quarter of a billion in revenue in Q2. The Bureau’s analysis tries to put a brave spin on this, comparing that drop to Q1, when terrestrial truly and spectacularly tanked, revenue wise, declining by over half a billion bucks. “We are most likely past the Q1 low point for Radio revenues and are now on the rebound,” declared Jeff Haley, RAB’s President and CEO.

But the contrast between digital and terrestrial is pretty hard to ignore. “Digital will be an increasingly important sector as Radio continues to evolve into a cross-platform medium,” the report flatly notes. It’s unclear, however, to what degree terrestrial radio will participate in this cross platformness.

Abandoned in large part by the automobile industry, its most faithful remaining advertisers are now cheapo restaurants and fast food joints like Arbys, Dunkin Donuts, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, and Subway. “Even while they’re tightening their belts, Americans still want to reward themselves with a restaurant meal,” the report notes.

Coming in second to this slender reed are advertisers whose products will,  ironically, cause  consumers to listen to less terrestrial radio. AT&T and Verizon are pushing cell phone services hard on radio, RAB says, albeit less than in better times.  “Offsetting cutbacks by the two titans, a number of smaller carriers stepped up their spending to help buoy the category in Q2: Qwest Communications (+57%), Leap Wireless (+44%), Boost Mobile (+34%), US Cellular (+26%), and Metro PCS (+19%).”

All this, of course, will help terrestrial radio listeners discover apps like Slacker, Pandora, Last.fm, and who knows what else at an ever faster rate. It’s difficult to see how terrestrial radio is going to recover from this recession in any condition comparable to its recent past.

The great Blackberry/Slacker crash crisis was solved today after I took the generous advice of Radio Survivor commenter ilikepizza and installed an 8GB Micro SD memory card on the device. That gave my Curve 8330 the cache it needed to run smoothly. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Slacker was crashing the OS. Clearly a memory problem at play.

Glad I took the trouble, too, because Slacker sounds fantastic coming out of my Curve, especially when  hooked up to speakerphones.

If you are a non-geek like me, these adjustments don’t come easily. But I went over to my local Verizon store and they helped me install the card. The photo on the left shows where the card needs to go. You’ve got to open the back, pull out the battery, lift up the SD card slot inside the circled area, and slide it in.

Far better instructions here at crackberry.com (“The #1 site for blackberry users and abusers”).

I was impressed that a couple of tech support people from Slacker also contacted me after my earlier post to offer advice. Thank you Slacker,  Anders Steele of fortythreepr.com, and ilikepizza for your assistance. What a team!

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Problem solved! See update to this story.

Drat and double drat, I said, following the considerable amount of time it took to put Slacker radio’s app on my Blackberry Curve. It took about 15 minutes for the whole shebang to download and install, and then what? It played a tune for about a minute and crashed the whole darn operating system.

I patiently waited for my Blackberry to reboot, then tried again, thinking maybe that would fix the problem. The thing just bonked out again. Nuts.

It’s slow as poop too. Pandora is so much faster. But I’m trying the app again as I write this. Meanwhile I went over to Blackberry Cool today and it looks like I’m not the only one encountering this problem. Here’s what Ed had to report in his comments:

“Slow? Yes but also bugged up. It crashes my curve often. Still I think its great when it works. I never bothered with radio streams until slacker came out with their caching feature. I have deleted all my mp3 files from my media card to make room for stations.”

Ditto says Martin. “On a Curve the thing is almost unusable. The performance is dog slow and seems to tie up the whole device,” he notes. “I removed it figuring its probably designed for a Bold….”

Alas. But hmmm… When I fire the app up it says, “You’ll need an SD card to cache stations.” I think that might be the problem. More on this when I find out.

Meanwhile, Slacker whacked my system again. Doh!