A while back (two years, actually), I made a post on another board asking Program Directors (and others) for their answer to this simple question:

What will you and your station do to compete when cellular companies start broadcasting their own radio stations?

The general response was along the lines of “Pfft, nobody would listen to radio on their cell phone, that’s CRAZY Cell phones are for CALLING, not listening to radio!!”. The question was laughed at, deemed impossible, declared unfit for consideration, and overall rejected as stupid impossible. Now, two years later, I’m reading RCR Wireless News (a trade publication for the wireless industry) and stumbled across this article: “Cingular Launches MobiRadio Service”. For $7 a month, customers will have access to 44 commercial-free all-digital audio channels. Music quality will be about on par with a 128-bit MP3 stream — far superior to FM radio.

The whole idea behind the question (and the ensuing “conversation”) was the idea that for the past few years, radio has completely failed to do the public any good. Sure, we get news reports — once an hour. Traffic updates come every 20-30 minutes, provided the host isn’t too busy talking about toast (”OMG WACKY MORNING ZOO LOL!!”) or what Britney ate for lunch six weeks ago. If you’re REALLY lucky, you might even hear a song (sped up 6%, so as to fit in more commercials).

My drive to work is about 30 minutes in length. I have about 10 minutes from my house to the beltway, which means I have 10 minutes for whoever is on the air to shut the hell up and give me a traffic report. By the time the station gets around to telling me traffic is stopped at the Eisenhower Interchange, I’m already stopped at Union Deposit. Worthless.

Cellular radio can fix that. Imagine this: Upon waking up, you check traffic on your cell phone — clear roads all the way to work. As you get in your car, your cell phone gets an update - jacknifed water buffalo at the Colonial Park exit, detour 81 south to 581. Your phone then syncs up with your car’s audio system (probably via Bluetooth) and begins streaming content specifically tailored to you. You’ve already told your provider that you want a 5-minute summary of world news and 5 minutes of the local AP feed, followed by songs from your iTunes-style intelligent playlist.

Two years ago, when I made that post on radio-info.com, I said that the networks were coming. Today, they’re here. Verizon Wireless, Cingular, and Sprint/Nextel all have networks capable of streaming 144k or better to their individual users nationwide, and well over 1.5mbps in some metro areas. Those networks are live today, continuing to grow tomorrow. You can rest assured that in this era of cutthroat wireless competition and ever-falling rates, carriers are fighting to the death to expose new revenue streams. Wireless content delivery is where it’s at.

One of the most oft-repeated mantras of radio people is “People will never pay for radio! Ever!”. Let’s run a few other phrases up that same flagpole:

Why would anyone pay for cable TV when you can get UHF for free?
Why would anyone pay a premium for broadband when dialup is cheap?
Why would anyone ever pay to have a phone in their car?
Who would pay to send a text message from their phone?
Who would pay for a RAZR phone when other cell phones are free?
Who would pay for an Audi when a Focus is only a third of the cost?

You get the idea. Two years ago I predicted that the terrible-and-getting-worse quality of modern FM will be the window of opportunity that lets cellular providers sneak in and steal the industry. Today it’s happening. I’m willing to go on record and state that by 2010, today’s broadcasting giants like Clear Channel and Cumulus will be in the fight of their lives, hemmoraging subscribers to the likes of T-Mobile and Sprint/Nextel.

All while screaming “People will never pay for radio!” in a raspy, fading voice.