[a fool in paradise]

Music PING

[Diogenesis]

Is not the US Federal government’s only role to
FORCE the citizens to buy selected products?

It certainly is NOT protecting the US border.

[NewHampshireDuo]

In “crisis situations” I wouldn’t plan on relying on cell service. Anyway, stupid idea.

[DBrow]

Why in the world would I want to listen to FM radio on my phone?

Let’s just cut to the chase and GIVE RIAA the cash, and leave cell phones alone.

I guess once they get the idea that they can mandate sales from the Federal level it starts to look good in other arenas.

[NormsRevenge]

I’m sorry. You’ve reached a number that is disconnected or no longer in service. If you would like to listen to some soothing FM music while you ponder your next move, please press 1.

[MediaMole]

Once had a phone with an FM radio.

Utterly useless. It only worked with a wired earphone that was both the source of sound and the antenna. The only use for a radio like this is for talk radio and ballgames, yet those are all on AM.

[NonValueAdded]

Yet another pass-thru cost aimed at us for a service we don’t particularly want. That poor, tortured Commerce Clause ...

[RobRoy]

This is patently absurd.

[KarlInOhio]

Buggy whip manufacturers demand that cars be steered and braked with leather reins and accelerated with a whip applied to the hood.

[capt. norm]

I think all cell phones should be required to have a built in set of scales to weigh fish.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

there is no guarantee the proposal will pass in this session of Congress, or even in any session.

There needs to be a guarantee that this proposal will never pass in any session of Congress. It's outrageous that lobbyists think this is the sort of thing Congress should be legislating, and beyond parody that we have to worry about Congress actually doing it.

[truth_seeker]

Mandatory FM? Adding to the cost of my phone, and my phone bills?

Next thing is some lawyer-legislator will introduce a bill allowing it to be treated as a “public utility” and to add fees.

Your school district, city, county and state will add a “FM Radio-Cell Phone Surcharge”

But what if I prefer AM radio? Prefer Satellite radio? Prefer short wave radio? Prefer no radio?

Freedom. Freedom from paying for things I don’t want or use.

[capt. norm]

I would like a cell phone with a built in electric zapper, but it would zap the person on the other end of the call, especially telemarketers.

[xzins]

could this mandate to buy an FM chip be used as legal justification to force Americans to buy health insurance?

[guitarplayer1953]

I noticed that NPR will what only pay 100 bucks a year?

[fishtank]

Every cell phone should, by law, have a beeber.

[dangerdoc]

What I need is an AM tuner on my phone.

[savedbygrace]

If I want an FM radio, I’ll buy an FM radio. I don’t need one in my cell phone.

[FrankR]

Stations have a lot more competition now than they did when I left radio in 1980; they already had to pay music licensing fees (ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC) for the "right" to play the music. This always seemed backwards to me, as back then hardly a record would have ever been sold if someone didn't hear it first on the radio. The Artists should have been paying the radio station...but I think that was called "payola", and it's illegal.

Now the obamabot congress wants stations to pay another tax to play the music.

Stations, especially in smaller markets, will pay the tax but the resulting new expense will be passed on to the advertisers, who will pass the advertising increase on to the consumer, etc.

Eventually, either at the station, or the retailer(supplier, manufacturer) jobs will be lost because of this new TAX by the greedy SOB's in Washington.

Smaller stations are already down to bare bones with the competition for advertising revenue out there, and now they add this crap.

[paulycy]

The govt will make it impossible to make a profit on FM and make the only option full-time marxist talk radio that nobody will listen to.

At the same time they’ll de-allocate AM radio wavelengths putting the opposition out of business.

That is if we don’t vote them out in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016....