Clear Channel Radio and mobile entertainment provider mSpot have entered in a content agreement, allowing for music programming from ten Clear Channel stations to be heard on mSpot's radio services.

Clear Channel Radio is providing mSpot with Contemporary Hits Radio (CHR) and Urban programming from five of its most popular terrestrial stations: WHTZ (New York), WWPR (New York), KHHT (Los Angeles), WGCI (Chicago) and WMIB (Miami).

Spanish-language content from four Latin channels and a playlist of Hip-Hop hits (from Clear Channel Radio's Format Lab) also are now all available to mSpot subscribers commercial free.

If that's not bad enough, next month mSpot expects to distribute live broadcasts from almost 100 Clear Channel Radio stations.

"Wireless carriers, entertainment and media companies are working hard to make new and compelling content available to a variety of mobile phones," said mSpot CEO and co-founder Daren Tsui. "Radio programming is among the most requested mobile content, so we're thrilled to be able to offer Clear Channel Radio's top-rated and original music channels to mSpot users."

mSpot announced yesterday that they've reached 1 million subscribers since going live with their first service in 2005.

[via FMQB] 

The former president of CBS' radio division, Dan Mason, will replace Joel Hollander as CBS Radio's president and chief executive on April 16th.

Mason left CBS Radio back in 2002 but has been a consultant and adviser for CBS Radio, as well as a variety of clients. Dan Mason worked closely with iBiquity as part of his consulting gig, and his focus will likely be to grow the HD Radio segment of CBS Radio.

"Part of this will be about the core business, making sure we're making the right decisions from a programming standpoint as well as a sales standpoint," Mason told the Wall Street Journal. "The second part is to nurture digital efforts."

Mason echoed a similar statement for the New York Times, "To grow our business, it is a combination of two things: executing for our listener and to explore all the new things that high-definition radio will bring."

So what's to become of Joel Hollander? His departure wasn't unexpected - though a bit sooner than expected - as he told the suits at CBS that he planned to leave when his contract expired at the end of the year.

Rumors abound that Hollander might be making the move to Sirius to sit alongside his mentor Mel Karmazin, but Inside Radio thinks those rumors have little merit. Time will only tell.

At the recent House and Senate hearings on the XM-Sirius merger, it's amazing to see how little is understood about the next generation of multimedia delivery options. A lot of the focus seems to be on WiMAX - maybe because it's a fun buzzword - but the reality is that WiMAX is still a ways off in the distance... and yet mobile phone services (particularly 3G) are here already.

In the first House hearing, the NAB constantly noted that satellite radio is the only "nationwide, multichannel mobile audio programming service" available on the market. My instant thought was that mobile phone services were (intentionally) completely ignored, and I felt Mel Karmazin didn't seem to push that opposing view hard enough.

In the second and third hearings, Karmazin did a better job of highlighting the multimedia abilities of mobile phone networks, but he also lumped in WiMAX into the picture. But WiMAX is completely nascent, and (funny enough) the Congressmen seemed to confuse it with Wi-Fi.

The real threat comes from mobile phone services, and specifically on 3G where the speeds really begin to make a difference. The importance here is that the technology currently exists, and is a high priority by wireless carriers. There's also a massive existing subscriber base (I believe in the realm of 75% of the U.S. population) and so they have an incredible platform to build upon.

Then there's those content agreements. Sprint has a deal with the NFL and the MLB, not to mention other services like MobiRadio which offer ESPN Radio and Radio Disney through several wireless carriers. And that doesn't even include various over-the-air music offerings.

Regardless of all these offerings, the general public (and likely government officials listening to these arguments) don't think of their cellphone as a music device. A cellphone's primary function is to make phone calls. But once a company is actually able to figure out how to meld the function of making phone calls, with that of a quality listening experience, then the general public's opinion will evolve.

...did I forget to mention the iPhone?

No, a $600 touch-screen phone isn't going to instantly change the world overnight. But it's a stepping stone, and one that Apple no-doubt understands. Just like the iPod, they're not the first to come to market with this concept (music + phone), but they'll be the one to properly execute on it. And as the critical mass evolves to accept the iPhone, Apple will evolve along with it - bring wireless over-the-air services to the iPhone - at breakneck 3G speeds.

And Apple will use it's already established relationships with auto manufacturers as a stepping stone as well. Before long, there will be a cradle that you can snap your iPhone into, and have your own person tunes mixed with over-the-air wireless music and live events. The ubiquitous cellphone, and the ubiquitous iPod, will combine to become the next generation of ubiquitous radio. A nationwide multichannel audio service on a device that is globally accepted.

It's not the immediate future. But it's also not the too-distance future either.

So the next time the NAB points the finger at Satellite Radio as being a unique service - ignore the fact that they syndicate programming across hundreds of stations nationwide (and really, is that any different than using repeater towers?) - but just hand them a list of the wireless carriers and give 'em a big smile.

Enter the Toshiba Gigabeat U-series. Available in 1GB and 2GB sizes, the Gigabeat U at first glance looks like your standard issue cutesie digital audio player. Oh, but it's not.

The Gigabeat U has a built-in FM transmitter and receiver, allowing you to essentially rip and share tunes on-the-go. Using the receiver, you can record FM broadcasts direct to MP3. And then using the FM transmitter, you can broadcast your recordings to other digital audio players around you that receive FM (which is pretty common nowadays).

Rip, Mix, Share. Welcome to the (new) Social.

It's just under 12mm thick, sports a 1.1-inch display and rocks out with a 20-hour battery life. The Gigabeat U will be launched in Japan on April 7th with a price of about $118 for the 1-gigger and $142 for the 2-gigger.

[Engadget] 

The boys over at Crave had the chance to fondle the new Slacker player and were kind enough to snap off a few shots of the molestation in progress.

While the Slacker device seems oddly large for just being a flash player, Crave has also learned that the boys over at Slacker are talking to other device manufacturers to make its service (both free and paid) available to all.

Now imagine that... opening up your service to all those willing to support it? Crazy talk I tell you.

[View Slideshow] 

The first question, at least to avid readers here, is how the heck is Slacker able to broadcast audio content over satellite? Well the folks over at WIRED got the scoop.

The company that owns Slacker - Broadband Instruments - is actually leasing portions of the Ku-Band (think Satellite TV) to send the content to the Slacker receiver. Who exactly they're leasing the bandwidth from is unknown.

The reason this has not been attempted before is that the receivers required to pull the signal down were too large (have you seen the KVH TracVision A7?). Apparently Broadband Instruments has developed a smaller receiver - about the size of XM and Sirius receivers - to add satellite reception to the optional docking stations/receivers for the car and home.

Slacker will be able to offer 10,000 tracks per day through this pipeline. The songs will be cached on the Slacker device and checked against your preferences to make sure you don't hear any songs you've banned.

Remember, the service is alot like Pandora in that you can "heart" or "ban" songs to tweak the music to your preferences. Your voting preferences are saved both online and on the device, which then is applied to the channels that you're listening to.

Anyone wanna make some bets that this will be brought up at the next antitrust hearing? Smells like legitimate competition to me.

[via WIRED Blogs] 

A new satellite radio company? But how? The FCC only granted two licenses right? According to CNET, Slacker's radio service is powered by their own proprietary technology that takes advantage of unused commercial satellite signals to send data. A soon to be released car-kit enables the listener to receive the satellite signal which works together with the Slacker portable device (pictured).

Former Rio CEO turn president of Slacker, Jim Cady, said that at first, the company considered a "more satellite-radio-specific (model) as a direct competitor with Sirius and XM. But it morphed into something much broader than that."

In the recent arguments against the XM-Sirius merger, the NAB continuously is trying to smear the satellite radio industry as being "unlawful" companies.

Afterall, they can't go ahead and say that satellite radio isn't competing with terrestrial (see why here). So they instead need to frame satellite radio as being an irresponsible industry not capable of handling the responsibility of being a 'monopoly' (something that terrestrial radio is well versed in).

Take for example their recent ad campaign, where the NAB highlights troubles with satellite radio repeater towers, and receivers with over-emitting FM modulators. These are items that are either already resolved or that XM/Sirius are working with the FCC to resolve.

Yet, as Mel Karmazin poignantly highlighted at yesterday's hearing, four major terrestrial radio companies are settling payola charges with the FCC. What did the pot say to the kettle again?

David Rehr, the NAB's cabin boy Chairman, stated in his testimony to House Judiciary subcommittee that XM and Sirius haven't complied with an "FCC rule to develop a device that works with both services" -- but yet, they have. The 1997 FCC license simply states that XM/Sirius must develop an interoperable receiver - not bring it to market. Mel Karmazin yesterday explained that while a radio capable of receiving both XM and Sirius exists, it doesn't make financial sense to subsidize a radio that can receive another company's signal.

But is all this whining working?

At the recent Bear Stearns Media Conference, where FCC Chairman Kevin Martin Keynoted, it was stated that the FCC would be serious about enforcing rules, but that past infractions do not necessarily have "character implications."

A recent note from Robert Peck at Bear Stearns, highlighted that Chairman Martin stated that the key issue would in fact be defining the market and that concessions would depend on the harms identified.

And when it comes to "defining" the market, well then, terrestrial radio has already done that for us. 

The Bear Stearns Media Conference 2007 kicked off in Palm Beach, and terrestrial radio bigwigs Les Moonves (CEO, CBS Radio) and Bob Neil (President/CEO, Cox Radio) presented today.

Les Moonves essentially steered clear of the satellite radio subject, simply stating, "We're local and [satellite radio is] not." (Les should win an award for that statement, because it's truly perceptive.)

Bob Neil on the otherhand took the subject head on, comparing the XM-Sirius merger to the game of Monopoly (get it?) and equating the merger to the owning of Park Place and Boardwalk with hotels on them.

"It's just too tempting when you have the monopoly," Neil said. "It's just never in the interests of consumers to have a monopoly in one space."

Hello, Pot... meet Tea Kettle. Guess what color you are?