Emmis Chairman/President/CEO Jeff Smulyan believes the industry is close to a tipping point with radio’s efforts to get FM enabled-chips on smartphones.
Referencing the public awareness campaign begun this week with noncommercial radio, Smulyan said NAB will lead the next campaign later this summer.
That mirrors comments he made to Radio World earlier this year.
In an earnings call this week with investors, Smulyan said private research from Coleman tells Emmis how positive the NextRadio FM app is with consumers. “We are now certain that this infrastructure we’ve built and making radio interactive is the game changer for our industry,” said Smulyan, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
Sprint has included the NextRadio app on some 15 device models, according to the executive, including the HTC One, which comes with the FM app enabled no matter what the carrier.
NextRadio proponents have been talking with the other carriers and Smulyan believes as the public awareness campaigns roll out “that will cause some of the other carriers to rethink their position.” Proponents believe that will be the tipping point, he said.