The Weakest Link

 When I ran a tech company, my chief technology officer, Rich Sadowsky, always used to harp at me about making sure there was no "single point of failure" -- that one tiny thing that can bring the whole system down. You may have massive backups in every possible area, but the single point of failure is the one thing you fail to anticipate, because it never happens. For instance, a 10 cent fuse can bring down an entire radio network if there's no redundancy in one little box.

We're living in a digital world, and we've come to rely on our digital devices. They're always there for us (unless we forget to recharge them). We rely heavily on our phones and our laptops, and many of us even rely on a digital connection to watch our televisions via Roku or Apple TV. Yet there is a single point of failure for all these devices that no one ever anticipates. Power.

This past week we've been reminded about the critical importance of the power grid in America, and the devastation when millions of homes and businesses have their power wiped out by a single storm. Suddenly that website we rely on for weather, for news, is gone. That connection to e-mail our friends and family to see if they're OK is gone. In my home we have Vonage and an Internet-connected phone. Gone. Landline phones might work after a storm, but many households today don't even have them. Yet when power is down, local cell towers can't function and a cellular phone won't work. 

It seems impossible in modern times for a community to go without power for seven to nine days, but those are the predicted downtimes in many communities. When the power grid in New York blew out a few years ago, there was no power in much of the Northeast for close to a week. No power means no communication, no information. Your phone, your iPad, your television, your cell phone are without power, and batteries soon run out with no way to change.

Storms that take out the power may be infrequent, but when it happens, there is a feeling of helplessness. You have no idea what is going on around you, and there is no way to know what you should do next. At these moments, there is a 100-year-old technology that is almost 100 percent sure to be operating.

Radio towers are designed to withstand hurricanes, and most radio stations have 10 days of fuel to operate their transmitters from a generator, and often their studios as well. Two-way radio also works, allowing police, fire, and ham radio operators to communicate with one another and push that information to local radio stations, which keep America informed.

What do you do if you need information? Your cell phone may have power, but there is no cell tower to connect with, no Internet to connect with. You turn your radio on.

Today most households still have an average of six radios in the home. Virtually every automobile in America has a radio in the dash. And almost every American over 15 has a mobile phone, which could contain an FM radio chip.

That makes the phone into a radio -- one that uses little power and lets the phone battery last long enough to let you hear the instructions that can get you to safety. The chip can also send messages to the phone itself, to communicate when phone service is down.

They say that sometimes it takes an act of God to change Congress. Washington, DC, found itself without power and helpless. Only radio was able to come through.

I've waffled about FM chips in cell phones because at times it seems so strange to make such an old technology part of a new technology. But it is in these moments when the purpose is clear.

Once the power is back, people will quickly forget about the days of inconvenience -- until the next time. While this massive power outage is fresh in the minds of your representatives in Congress, give them a call or send this note their way to remind them the power of radio and its reliability during these moments, and encourage them to consider the FM chip in every phone. The chip is already there in most smartphones, it's just not activated. It could be, and should be, in every phone in America.

Get contact information for your Congressional representative here.

Comments

[not fake]

That's the kind of image that i really thing is super image like. If more images very real like this were out there we'd be super full of graet images in the world.

[car crash live]

Howdy! This post couldn't be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this post to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

[Allen Shaw]

Media history has shown that it if far more likely for new technology to co-exist with older technology rather than replace it. Television did not replace the movie theater, cable and sat TV has not replaced the TV networks and affiliated stations,and there is little evidence, to date, that iPods, smartphones,
Pandora, or Sirius/XM will replace broadcast radio. So far, 92% of the American Public agrees with me. Radio is a very efficient way to deliver audio content to the masses. It is free, it's local and requires no effort whatsoever from the user. Most radio stations remain on the air when the power fails. Cellphone carriers cannot warn the public if the power is out at their towers. In short, I believe radio serves major purposes and has a bright future.

[Greg]

Looks like a number of Virginia stations were knocked off the air due to the derecho:

http://lists.radiolists.net/pipermail/broadcast/2012-July/133578.html

I call BS!

[DocNasty]

Eric,

Same point I made in my comment when this story was featured in a blog. Good to see its getting some traction. FM Radio is a must. Internet goes down all the time, calls drop, etc etc. FM Signal is very durable. The Internet will never warn you about tornados, storm warnings, etc.

[Ira Wilner]

10 days worth of fuel on hand? Not likely though I wish it were so. Fuel storage tanks of sufficient size would be huge, be they Diesel or LP. I'm lucky to have 48 hours worth of fuel on hand for my class-B FM which is quite power hungry. Now, if you're lucky enough to be in a community served by gas mains you might have an almost unlimited supply of fuel on hand.

[Greg]

I live in the DC area and listened to WTOP after our power went out. WTOP kept repeating the same news over and over, so I got very little out of their "reporting". Of course, I was following the TV weatherman, who was following the derecho front, and warned us the the power would go out. I tuned around the AM/FM dial with my pocket-radio, and all the other stations acted like nothing was happening. Our cell phones worked perfectly.

I believe this is all a ruse to eventually get HD Radio chipsets mandated onto cell phones. The NAB stated they are not seeking a mandate, but I don't belive them. When Verizon and AT&T didn't even show up at that House subcomittee meeting, where Smulyan showed off the new iBiquity-enabled cell phone, that says volumes. Shapiro, of the CEA, was there just to make sure the word "mandate" didn't appear. Interesting that Smulyan is the only iBiquity investor pushing for HD in cell phones. Can one imagine HD Radio reception in a cell phone? What a joke, but it would be a goldmine for iBiquity. As you stated, Eric, homes have multiple analog radios, plus one in each car, so why the big push for HD in cell phones?

Terrestrial radio has no business demanding that another technology be burdoned with their desires. Some cell phones have FM chipsets, and if consumers desire, they can have them enabled.

This is the exact situation when iBiquity tried to force HD chipsets into satellite radio receivers, during the merger. Good-luck with this one, too.

[Rod Schwartz]

Spot-on, Eric, and worth everyone's time and effort to share with others.

One thing I might add: some talented writers/producers have created a batch of radio spots (:30's and :60's) to impress upon radio listeners the desirability of having radio-enabled mobile phones. Those spots are available for download and airplay, FREE OF CHARGE, at: radioreadyphones.com (Click on "Commercials").

[Mark Heller]

This article is 'on the money'...and frankly, amazing, how one broadcaster is standing up for this, while everyone else is 'whistling in the dark!'. But there are other issues, like promoting the re-use of 82-88 MHz for AM broadcasters or at the least synchronizing AM carriers using GPS frequency technology (at very little cost) to improve nighttime AM radio quality. Everyone wants the sparkly baubble, instead of the item that is a work horse. And, it's an industry-wide problem of folks in power using the words "can't" and "won't".