How long more do you think FM radio will last?

Radio is for life

It's fair to say that FM and traditional radio has possibly lasted longer then we would have imagined. It seems digital radio has not become the new norm or any thing close to it, in this country. DAB had had some success in the U.K. but has failed in Ireland.
In America Satalite radio has had reasonable success but is that the future of radio. 4G was also a possibility but bandwidth issues will always be a problem in hotspots.
So what's the future?

L1011

Has outlived CDs as default spec in cars which I suspect nobody would have imagined when CDs took off in the late 80s / became standard fit in cars in the 90s.

Until there is an ability to deliver audio streams to every car on a crawling M50 (or equivalent) without taking down mobile networks, FM will still need to exist. High enough quality assuming the station have a sensible processing setup for relatively cheap transmission hardware both in capital and running costs.

prunudo

Hope it stays for as long as possible, why remove something that works, unless you're on WiFi, using 4g to listen to the radio uses to much data and then there's the issue with crap battery life in phones. 3 aa batteries and you get over 2 weeks listening on my work radio.

Logue no2

jvan wrote: »

Hope it stays for as long as possible, why remove something that works, unless you're on WiFi, using 4g to listen to the radio uses to much data and then there's the issue with crap battery life in phones. 3 aa batteries and you get over 2 weeks listening on my work radio.

Go over to the LW thread and tell the anti LW posters that!

Ursus Horribilis

It'll be around for a long time yet because I don't see anything else replacing it any time soon. And from an ordinary punter's point of view,what's wrong with FM?

When Saorview came along, the better TV picture and sound were an obvious upgrade on what had gone before. What does DAB have for anyone who happens to live in an area with coverage? From what I can see, all you're getting are a couple of extra channels being broadcast at a low bitrate.

I do a lot of driving and have switched mobile networks a couple of times. I use Spotify and Internet radio in the car and I can confirm that there are still plenty of mobile Internet blackspots around the country.

NIMAN

Plenty of years left in it yet.

Harry Palmr

FM is cheaper and more reliable than any other delivery system as long as that's true it's place is secure.

Stasi 2.0

Niether the FM or AM broadcasting bands are in parts of the spectrum which could be usefully redeployed for broadband or mobile telephony.

As such there is less demand on governments to sell off these frequencies -even if some governments dont understand this.