In the wake of big storms recently, the National Association of Broadcasters and the FCC has piled the pressure on Apple to enable the FM radio in iPhones so they might be used for emergency broadcasts.
In the wake of big storms recently, the National Association of Broadcasters and the FCC has piled the pressure on Apple to enable the FM radio in iPhones so they might be used for emergency broadcasts.
FCC chairman Ajit Pai went as far as issuing a statement saying that “Apple is the one major phone manufacturer that has resisted” enabling FM chips in its phones. There’s just one problem, as Apple points out. The iPhone simply doesn’t have an FM chip to enable.
A spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters said: “Broadcasters are providing information on how to evacuate quickly, where flood waters are raging, how to get out of harm’s way if there’s a tornado or a hurricane. The notion that Apple or anyone else would block this type of information is something that we find fairly troubling.”
Pai echoed this sentiment in a statement, saying:
Sadly for both organizations, Apple is not simply being awkward; the company cannot comply with the requests as the iPhone 7 and 8 do not have FM radios. Apple issued a statement explaining this:
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