The concept of the NextRadio app on cellphones is gaining traction, however the team and the radio industry “needs to work harder to let people know this is a valuable service that should never have been turned off or left out of devices where it could be the most useful.”
So says the NextRadio team in their latest blog post.
They point to the leaders of NPR and American Public Media Group who encourage public stations to inform their audience about the issue and inspire listeners to let their voices be heard in favor of it.
Wireless carriers and phone makers “need to see real market demand” for FM capability on cellphones, according to the NextRadio team.
They also highlight a point about the FM chip issue made by David Grossman, technology editor for BBC Newsnight, recently in a video: “[M]ost carriers disable that chip. Change that, and well suddenly, most people are walking around with a radio in their pockets that’s free to use and doesn’t require gobbling up your expensive data allowance. That’s the idea behind NextRadio, a new service just launched in the United States.”
More than 140,000 app downloads have been made by consumers to-date and more than 6,700 stations have been tuned to from the app, according to NextRadio.
