Digital Radio (Continued)

I was at dinner last night with a friend who works in the radio business. He was telling me about the efforts going on to integrate cellphones and radios in the same way that cellphones and digital cameras have been integrated.

That’s exciting to me. Radio is a cheap, ubiquitous one-way pipe. Cellphones are becoming the digital devices of choice for most people (and I include PDA/cellphone combos like the Treo in the definition of cellphones).

Think about the possibilities of a Tivo-like system to record and store the radio shows and stations you like. Then when you are on the plane, train, car, etc, you can just plug into your phone and listen. With the back-channel on the phone, you’ll be able to buy things you hear about (songs, books, and most anything else you might hear about on the radio).

Radio has a great future in the digital age and cellphone integration is likely to be a big part of it.