talkingDigital

Current rumor has the next iPhone equipped with an FM radio, something that SanDisk, Microsoft and other have offered for several years.

FM radio offers music with DJs and not much else. Anyone who knows how to use their media player probably has every song they really like already loaded on their device. This makes FM radio a very poor feature. There are few things less random than most media player’s random play feature. FM radio is one of the few exceptions. Chances are that your local CHR, AOR or Top 40 station plays the same 20 songs during the same time blocks every day – perhaps in different order.

Enter AM radio. Few people use AM radio for music. Talk, news and sports are the primary uses for AM radio – in other words, live radio. The content found on the most popular AM stations is best if listened to live. Live callers, live sports, live and breaking news.

More FM news, sports and talk stations are popping up, but AM radio is still primarily where live programs are aired.

I tend to listen to podcasts more than music on my iPod. I like podcasts because they offer timely news and conversation about topics that I am interested in. Sounds an aweful lot like talk radio doesn’t it? I would gladly give up the FM radio, voice recorder, cover art and loop single song feature for AM radio.

I can’t figure out why the industry hasn’t seen the connection. While the top radio format is often country – news, sports and talk are almost always sure bets for high ratings. The content is rarely stale to the interested listener whereas any song eventually gets old if you hear it enough times.

Shows like Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Tom Martino, Dave Ramsey etc. have more daily loyal listeners than any modern popstar. I would love to see a major manufacturer release AM radio into a device. At first analysts would gripe, but the fans of AM radio are large enough to make a big difference in sales. That is a fact that can be seen by the fact that all of the most popular talk radio shows offer monthly podcast subscriptions. If you can’t listen while you are on the go, then you must pay to listen later.

On Saturday May 9, 2009, my 11-year-old son and I took off at 4am for a quick trip up to South Jordan, UT to see Star Trek at Nerdtacular 09.

This was the third year for the event put on by Scott Johnson of MyExtraLife.com, Extralife Radio and The Instance podcast.

My son had so much fun he ranks it second only to a Weird Al concert I took him to a few years ago. But, he also noted that he hasn’t done very many things like that. I have to say, as a guy who has done many things like that, I would put it  right up there with those things too.

I would have to say, the event feels like a combination of all of the positive aspects of waiting in line all night for an XBox 360 or Playstation, a sci-fi (syfy) film fest, a really good Comic-Con panel discussion and celebrity book signing.

I spent the drive headed to the event explaining the lore of Star Trek to my son in case the movie was heavy on references to the old TV show. As it turns out, he loved the movie having never seen the TV show, but I had to explain the lore of Scott Johnson instead as Brian shouted, “Lame” or we discussed why we can’t let our kids listen to ELR when we heard that “O” was co-hosting.

We had a great time and Scott and Kim Johnson went out of their way to provide such a fantastic event. After the film we gathered at a nearby park where the Johnsons provided every kind of junk food available at Sam’s Club (or was it Costco?) .

I look forward to being there next year. I have posted a couple of videos I took with my digital camera (batteries were dying so excuse the focus issues) and some photos I have posted on Flickr.

Thanks again to everyone, it was a great day and a fantastic way to spend some time with my son.

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