How many of your devices include radios?

I’m reading the Mark Ramsey Media blog, which is always good for grand, futuristic proclamations. “We are witnessing the dawn of a new age,” an October 17 post declares: “The rise of radio as a feature.”

“That means ‘radio’ isn’t simply a media category run by media institutions.  It is now a feature of other categories – a feature of brands themselves – brands which are capable of monetizing that feature in the same way traditional broadcasters do – with ads.”

The Ramsey example du jour is Microsoft’s new X-Box music service. But is the idea of radio as a component in something else’s brand really so recent? Sure, the Internet has created new possibilities for radio as one of an array of offerings. But I can think of dozens of older contexts in which the technology hopped a ride onto another gadget’s caboose, or was borrowed to enhance a distinctly different product.

Hi-Fi record players with AM/FM

A vintage hi-fi console [bitsandpieces.us]

Boom Boxes and Walkmans

Boom boxes! [wfmu.org]

Clock radios

Who invented the clock radio? I don’t know. The wonderful alarm clock blog hashes out the question nicely. It was either Bulova, GE, Emerson, or somebody else (obviously). Clock radios didn’t really take off until the 1950s with the rise of transistors. But the point is the same: radio became a feature in another device.

Let’s face it: in what other technologies haven’t radios shown up? They’re in showers, hats, Hello Kitties, and, of course, cars. Radio Survivor readers are invited to offer more examples. There must be dozens.

Bottom line: radio as a feature—what else is new?

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