SYNC Up

From Fred Jacob's Blog (Jacobs Media):

While we were out celebrating and watching bowl games, Ford chose the very end of the year (go figure) to announce an innovation in their vehicles that will impact all of us, especially those of you who own and operate terrestrial radio stations.

WiMax is coming to Ford this year or next in a cooperative effort with Microsoft, called SYNC. It means that lots of vehicles are going to be Internet-equipped, raising new issue and questions about how this will impact information and entertainment while people are on the go.

So for stations that still aren't streaming their audio, the SYNC announcement is a red alert. Streaming should no longer be thought of in terms of "How are we going to pay for it?" Instead, broadcasters ought to be thinking, "If we don't have a strong streaming presence, we could get squeezed out of cars (and cell phones)."

It should be a quality stream, and it should be well-promoted on the air. As technology rockets forward, especially in cars (where radio has ruled the roost), streaming is radio's "transportation" to the next wave of automotive innovation.
Read it HERE.