The Long Tail: Exploding Radio Chris Anderson comments on a bunch of new stories in the latest issue of Wired magazine revolving around radio. I’ve long felt that radio is due for a pretty serious overhaul. Between podcasting, satellite radio and TiVo like technologies for radio I suspect the way we consume radio entertainment will significantly change over the course of the next three years.
Personally I’m looking for the following. An iPod or mp3 player like device which will automatically record satellite radio programs that I tell it to as well as automatically transfer podcasts that I subscribe to either wirelessly through a 802.11 set up or through a docking station in a real time basis. To further complicate things, the player should double as both a pocket PC or blackberry type device, gps, fm radio and a phone. When I’m listening to any audio I should have the option to have the program muted when a phone call comes in and my headphones should convert to a phone headset if I choose to take the call.
There should also be a skip forward 30 seconds button on the player for fast forwarding through podcasts, fm scheduled broadcasts, satellite radio broadcasts, etc.
The device should include iRock beam it type technology so that when I’m in the car I can broadcast my player to an fm frequency for listening over my car speakers.
I should at all times be able to have the last five days of Stern on my player for consuming (and definitely be able to fast forward through any commercials that may show up on his program once he’s on satellite). I should have an option to record all of my cell phone calls to .mp3 for future personal archiving.
Talk about convergence!