[IRCA] Comments Eric Rhoads' blog about car radios: the sky ISN'T (necessarily) falling

["Stewart, Joseph R" <RandyStewart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since my forwarding of Rhoads' "Radio Ink" article caused a lot of response on these lists, here are some responses refuting Rhoads' suppositions about the "impending" disappearance of AM & FM radios in cars...

Kinsey Wilson of NPR sent out an email to its station reps:
I wanted to respond briefly to the concerns raised on this list by Eric Rhoads’ blog post (below).  The suggestion that automakers are preparing to simply eliminate AM/FM radio from the dash in the next five years is frankly at odds with anything we’ve heard in our dealings with more than a dozen manufacturers over the past three years.  When I saw Chuck Miller’s post, I reached out to Don Grage, who manages NPR’s “connected car” initiatives and is in daily contact with the car companies; and I exchanged e-mail with Fred Jacobs, who was on the panel that provided the fodder for Rhoads’ post. Fred said the claim was made a Gartner analyst at the very end of the session and that he offered little support for his contention. (You can see Fred’s response to the controversy in a post he published this morning under the title “Why the Sky Isn’t Falling.”)
     Our take: We are not aware of any move to eliminate AM/FM reception from the automobiles. At the same time, it’s clear that automakers are incorporating a variety of entertainment alternatives in the dash and that the “center stack” is undergoing the same kind technological transformation that were seeing on other platforms. While we don’t expect radio to be eliminated, it’s quite possible that the simplicity of AM/FM channel selection will suffer as more options become available.
     That’s why we’ve been working to ensure that NPR and local public radio content has a prominent, branded presence in the cars of the future and that our programming is not lost amid the clutter or rolled up by aggregators.
     We’ll continue to provide details of these efforts as they move forward and hope in the meantime we can help keep things in perspective. 

General Motors' "Chief Infotainment Officer" (whatever that is!) sent out this email:
General Motors Will Not Abandon Radio  
 The recent editorial by Radio Ink Publisher Eric Rhoads "A Cold Harsh Reality for Radio," quoting panelists at Convergence 2013 in Santa Clara, has amplified the discussion about the role of AM/FM in future automobile dashboards. 
     Eric's piece has generated pages of feedback from the radio industry and has been shared, liked, and tweeted more than any Radio Ink piece in years. 
     The article prompted this response from General Motors Chief Infotainment Officer Phil Abram: 
Dear Mr. Rhoads:
Your March 8 article "A Cold, Harsh Reality For Radio" came as a surprise to me and the Global Connected Consumer team at General Motors. We are responsible for setting the strategy for infotainment systems across GM. While we are excited about the possibilities of Internet radio services and other emerging services, we understand that AM/FM radio is still a significant source of news and entertainment. In fact, it is an expected feature.
    We can’t speak for other automakers, but to be clear, GM has no near term plans to eliminate AM and FM from GM vehicles. We are committed to providing consumers innovative services that dramatically enhance the driving and riding experience. We expect AM/FM radio to be one of the choices consumers have in our vehicles.
     We know consumers want to be safely connected in their cars, and we’re enabling it with world-class infotainment platforms, telematics systems and safety services. I invite you to visit our facilities to check out our latest developments.
Sincerely,
Phil Abram, Chief Infotainment Officer
General Motors"

And Jacobs Media's "JacoBlog" (Fred Jacobs) says simply, "The sky isn't falling."
http://jacobsmediablog.com/2013/03/11/the-sky-isnt-falling/

Randy Stewart
Springfield MO
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