NPR's iPhone app stirs the pot and discussion
Yes, I am becoming increasingly bitter that I don’t have an iPhone. I still like my blackberry and I have a way to go on it before I can cost justify ditching it, but man the iPhone apps are teh awesome. Here’s this from paidcontent today on NPR’s latest version:
The Public Radio Exchange has just released the 2.0 version of its iPhone app, which aggregates almost all the public radio stations in the U.S. This tuner is a collaboration by some of the biggies in the public-radio space: NPR, Public Interactive, American Public Media, and Public Radio International (PRI). The 1.0 version of app has already gotten some rave reviews, but the 2.0 version, released this weekend, goes a lot further: besides streams, it has started showing what’s on right now on those stations, a seemingly small but game-changing move.
via Public Radio Dangerously Close To Making Public Radio Obsolete | paidContent.
Fellow Poynter Tidbits blogger Dorian Benkoil offered this interesting observation:
Rafat Ali, on PaidContent, points out that the new iPhone app to listen to public radio could be a game changer, transforming the model of local public radio listening to a more national, a la carte one. There’s also some back and forth about whether the app — which will eventually allow contributions from the phone, and may be available on other phones, too — will hurt radio stations by removing local loyalties, or help by encouraging more contributions.
I see another issue: will the new app cause a split in the public radio audience, between the have-mores and have-lesses? As I wrote in a comment:
Those who use smartphones will tend to be of a higher socioeconomic status, and probably be younger, than those who listen only over the air. Phone listeners will get a richer, more diverse set of programming, and at some point may be more highly valued than those who listen only over the air. It’s analogous to cable vs. broadcast, and how the broadcast-only audience is less valued, commercially, per viewer.
Of course, NPR’s social media good guy, Andy Carvin, has roots in the digital divide. Obviously, the iPhone ownership as a selective factor of social demography is an unintended consequence of a decision that was platform driven. To go back to the lead paragraph, you can build stuff on iPhones easily that you just can’t build on other mobile device platforms. The killer app is the platform that allows more killer apps.
I think the killer app for an NPR or PBS app is the ability to collect impulse donations to get away from the horrible reality of pledge drives, but I am also not expecting pledge drives to go away. And this is why: I came out of radio, pre-Web, and we knew then what we may lose sight of now…
Radio is the medium of the apocolypse.
It is the lowest common denominator. Cheap receivers, cheap low-band transmitters, low frequency, and lots of battery powered options. It is the original peer-to-peer and one-to-many wireless platform. You never see a sci-fi apocolypse film with someone trying to fire up an mIRC client to find out if someone else is out there, do you?
Don’t worry dividers, radio is not going away. Neither are newspapers, for that matter. Growing into new platforms with content and services is smart, but we don’t abandon perfectly working technologies as we do so. I frequently remind people that my delete key has not made the eraser on my penci obsolete.
