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Another week,
another brand-new(ish) car. Such is the life of the traveler. For
the last ten years, I have made my living travelling the country
working with various businesses in helping them find money. For
radio stations, it's vision and fund-raising. For car dealerships
it's finding money in their rebate processes. For every business in
27 states, it's saving money on gas and electric bills. I am on the
road a lot. And because of that, I wanted to make some observations
about in-car entertainment.
Recently, Eric Rhodes of RadioINK caused quite a stir when he talked
about a conversation regarding in-dash entertainment. The indication
was that at least two of the Big Three auto makers were going to
eliminate AM and FM from the dashboard. Apparently, there was some
research showing that many people are using cellular-based 3G and 4G
data for streaming entertainment. Right now, there are myriad ways
to get entertainment in the car: AM radio, FM radio, HD radio,
Satellite, Bluetooth Audio, hard-line connections to audio devices,
CDs, DVDs, portable media storage (thumb-drives, digital cards) and
hard-drive storage. There are probably others, but these are the
ones that I see the most.
With so many choices, which will be the main access point for people
in the future? Some people suggest it is the streaming of audio over
the cell network. Others sugguest IP-based networks. While IP-based
streaming is at best several years down the road, I listen to my
phone in the car a lot.
One of the main complaints I have about using 4G- or 3G-based cell
phone access to streaming audio is the hit-or-miss access you get
when driving outside metropolitan areas. I can tell you that even in
Columbus (my fair city), I can be driving along listening to a
stream on my Sync system and it will just go away. While iHeart
Radio apparently has a better algorithm that has a more consistent
“hold” on the stream than TuneIn, neither has the normal, consistent
reception that I see most anywhere with AM or FM.
In February, I was in Florida and I rented a 2013 Ford Edge to
drive. It had My Ford Touch (the latest version of the
Ford/Microsoft collaboration). Driving from Ft. Lauderdale up to
Sebring (not exactly metro, but still the heavily traveled US 27
corridor), I ran out of stream frequently. Later, in Orlando, I was
listening to the HD signal of Z88.3. Driving on the near-fringe, I
was getting good analog signal, but the HD kept going in and out.
While there is probably no better-engineered station in the country,
it was still a problem as the Analog and HD broadcasts are a few
tenths of a second out of phase. It sounded like the “record”
skipped every time there was a transition. I must add that in
Orlando proper, it sounded fine and there were no drop-outs on the
HD signal. While this has nothing to do with streaming, it is still
a choice drivers have to make. Thankfully, the HD receiver can be
disabled.
The complication of connecting anything in many cars is horrendous.
For instance, with Ford Sync, if I want to listen to TuneIn or
iHeart, I have to fire up a separate app for that. Then, I have to
verbally tell the system to play “Bluetooth Audio” (no button for
that!). If the stream has started before the Bluetooth starts, it
pauses, which requires another interaction. If I want to get out of
the car and turn it off, the whole process must be started over
again. While I am tech savvy (and patient), if a car company asks me
to make this my main way of hearing audio, I will NOT be a happy
camper. By the way, if your iPhone works better than my Motorola
Android Razr Maxx, good for you…but the majority of smartphones in
the public now are Android (68.1% Android to 16.9% iPhone per
NBCNEws.com). And when an automaker adds iHeart or Pandora to their
dashboard, it’s still got to go through the phone.
So, what's the bottom line? All the choices I have are still based
on getting the entertainment I want to my ears while I travel. I am
amazed at the number of times I find myself going to iHeart or
TuneIn to hear the stations back home. Why? They are talking about
places and things I am interested in. As we advise at Lazarus
Communications Group, concentration on the Big Three (Personality,
Entertainment and a Sense of Community) will mean that even when
getting Pandora/Spotify/Podcast is much easier, we can keep our
audience. And keep them for years to come.
Terry Dismore is the President of Lazarus Communications Group, a
consultancy that specializes in vision and funding. He has been in
the radio business since 1976 and has worked at stations in the
Louisville, Cincinnati and Columbus, OH markets. His advisory work
has led to increased profits for stations and other businesses in 45
states and in Canada. He and his wife of 28 years, Renné, make their
home in Pickerington, OH
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