iPod nano: Radio industry cheers FM support

Apple delivered on one of the most-demanded features, radio, in the latest iteration of its iPod nano, and radio broadcasters seem thrilled by the news.

What’s interesting about the FM tuner inside the iPod nano is its capacity to rewind up to 15-minutes of a radio show, and a new tagging tool which lets users make a note of songs they’ve enjoyed for later purchase through iTunes, using technology from the Radio Advertising Bureau’s "Buy From FM" platform.

This is a significant move, which boosts just how attractive standard FM radio broadcasts can now be in a digital age. Jeff Haley, CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau, said: "The idea that an 85-year-old medium has the chance to remain relevant and capture new distribution in an environment when those things are hard to come by is very exciting."

Jeff Smulyan, chairman-CEO of Emmis Communications, says the move will help make radio ubiquitous, pointing to the radio industry’s determined effort to ensure FM tuners are installed on all portable devices by 2013. The industry argues that making such a move would deliver a relevant emergency broadcast system, among other reasons.

The technology is there, but there’s a lot of nascent activity to really drive interactivity to radio," Haley said.

Until now, the radio industry has only had one similar deal in place, with Microsoft and the Zune.

Of course, we know the iPod touch and iPhone already have the technology inside existing models to receive FM radio broadcasts, but this has been blocked by Apple for some unknown reason.

Future developments for the Buy From FM standard promise radio stations and advertisers the chance to tag their radio ads to become interactive through the MP3 platform.

Clear Channel’s iPhone/BlackBerry app, iheartradio gathered 2.5 million users in June, a report claims.