NAB EVP/CTO Feels Radio And Cellphone Carriers Are 'Natural Partners'

Kevin Gage

NAB EVP/Chief Technology Officer KEVIN GAGE gave the keynote speech YESTERDAY (10/10) at the BROADCASTERS CLINIC AND UPPER MIDWEST SBE Regional Meeting in MIDDLETON, WI, and told attendees that "radio and cellphone carriers are natural partners -- as much as it doesn't always seem that way -- and that they should support one another in their efforts to inform the public," reports RADIOWORLD.COM.

He told the engineers at the meeting that the mobile industry's text-based alert system is limited, and reinforced the NAB's argument in favor of adding FM to cell phones by saying "actual radio reception in mobile phones is an efficient way to inform people about danger, because radio has no character limits and because broadcasters often upend their advertising and programming schedules to share critical information in depth," noted RADIOWORLD. Listeners, he said, turn to broadcasters in emergencies. No other medium can match broadcasting’s "one-to-everyone architecture."

GAGE quoted The NAB's recent research that 2012's top 10 best-selling smartphones all had inactive FM receiver chips inside. That research, he added, "proves what an easy lift it would be" for wireless companies to activate FM in phones.

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