The Digital Dash: Radio Must Stay Noticed

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Nashville, Tenn. — In a 2016 Radio Show session devoted to the “connected car” and technological advances in what will appear in-dash on vehicles in coming years, Jacobs Media president Fred Jacobs reminded the radio industry professionals in attendance that AM and FM isn’t being taken away.


img_3769“The days when radio was front and center in the dash … those days are gone,” Jacobs says. “But it’s not that AM and FM have been taken away. We’re going to be there, with everything else. The question is

If it will be ‘AM/FM,’ or if it is going to be apps for the radio stations we tune to, now.”

Jacobs’ mobile app company, jacapps, is at the forefront of connecting radio with mobile technology. In 2013, jacapps partnered with Ford Motor Company to adapt mobile apps for compatibility in the SYNC AppLink and SmartDeviceLink systems.

Ford Motor Company Global Lead/Business Development & Partner Management Scott Burnell was in attendance, and noted that Ford was becoming “more of a software company” thanks to its technology push toward the “connected car.”

AS RBR + TVBR reported in August, jacapps is in the process of launching an Apple CarPlay-enabled mobile app. WMMR-FM 93.3 in Philadelphia, Greater Media’s heritage rocker in the market, has become the first station in the U.S. to get the app — the result of a five-month series of dialogues with Apple.