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Emmis Communications Corp. subsidiary NextRadio LLC recently signed one big deal and is on the verge of another that could bring tens of millions of dollars to radio stations nationwide as well as bolster the fortunes of Emmis' own struggling stations.
But Emmis Chairman Jeff Smulyan and his followers have farther to travel to reach their goal of turning smartphones into the new-age transistor radio for the masses. NextRadio, an industry-wide initiative led by Emmis, brings terrestrial FM radio to the smartphone via an FM chip that's in all smartphones but is deactivated by most U.S. carriers.
What NextRadio is able to accomplish over the next year, industry experts said, will determine whether Smulyan's years-long quest ultimately succeeds or fails.
Less than three weeks after signing a deal with AT&T to activate the FM capacity in all its Android phones starting Jan. 1, Emmis got a nod Aug. 14 via Twitter from T-Mobile CEO John Legere saying T-Mobile is ready to flip the switch on the FM chip.
With AT&T and T-Mobile on board, "Everyone in radio is getting behind this," said Chuck Williams, market manager for Radio One's Indianapolis cluster of stations. "This is huge."
Though a deal with T-Mobile isn't signed yet, NextRadio officials hope the cellular company will be selling phones with activated FM listening capabilities by early 2016.
The financial ins and outs of the AT&T deal and anticipated T-Mobile deal have not been disclosed. Those pacts come almost two years after NextRadio agreed to pay Sprint $45 million over three years to turn on the chip in that carrier's phones - a first step in proving consumers will use cell phones as portable radio receivers.
"We're scaling the mountain," Smulyan said.
The climb has been expensive.
Already, industry sources said, Emmis has spent more than $10 million, maybe a lot more, on the NextRadio effort. That includes creating the...