Internet Enabled Dashboards Are Critical To In-Car Listening...

(Third Year Anniversary Edition)

Car manufacturers have gotten the message. CD's and DVD's are out and internet radio is in. The trend has now shifted toward internet dashboard radio and products that can play music directly from a Universal Serial Bus (USB) stick or Secure Digital (SD) memory card. According to Financial, an increasing number of radios have direct connections for digital multimedia players and many mobile phones can also be linked via Bluetooth, providing access to online music while in the car and the ability to make hands-free calls. As a result, many of the car radios that have most recently come on the market don't have a CD or DVD device but internet radio is a must in order to compete with other car manufacturers...

According to Inside Radio, the number of cars with a connected car system is expected to grow from 45 million at the end of 2011 to 210 million worldwide by 2016. The global view by Financial isn't quite as enthusiastic. They see the share of the overall car radio market as having increased from 3% in 2009 to 6% last year. What's clear is that in-car radio growth is highly dependent on manufacturers and their technical innovations which include enabling in-car internet access to attract new consumers and encourage drivers with older devices to upgrade to more modern products...

While in-car terrestrial and satellite radio listening won't go away - at the very minimum, the former better be streaming their signal. The latter was first with in-car dominance and have a strong fan base. For both, life has become a lot more challenging...

10 Timeline Memories:
1.1930] Empire Steel Building: The first steel columns are set for the Empire State Building...
2.1948] Some enchanted evening: Rogers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" starring Mary Martin opens on Broadway...
3.1957] The trolley swan song: The last of New York City's electric trolleys completes its final run from Queens to Manhattan...
4.1958] Screened in: The Los Angeles Dodgers erect a 42-foot screen in left field at the Coliseum to cut down on home runs, only 250-feet down the line. The screen won't stop Frank "Hondo" Howard from clearing it with his bombs...
5.1963] Diaper duffer: At the age of 23, Jack Nicklaus becomes the youngest golfer to win the green jacket at the Masters Tournament...
6.1967] Who's your daddy?: Tom Donahue begins the progressive aka AOR (Album Oriented Rock) FM format at KMPX in San Francisco. Donahue will become known as the "Father of FM Radio." ...
7.1969] Save me: The Dodgers' Bill Singer is credited with the first official 'save' against the Reds. Write it down trivia fans. Here's an audio clip of Singer's no-hitter from 7/20/70 w/the great Vin Scully doing the play-by-play...
8.1970] An Oscar for The Pilgrim: John Wayne wins his first and only Oscar for his role in "True Grit". It took him over 200 films to accomplish the feat...
9.1998] Filling Sonny's shoes: Mary Bono, Sonny's widow, wins a special election to serve out the remainder of her husband's congressional term...
10.2003] Palace taken: U.S. troops rumble through downtown Baghdad and seize one of Saddam Hussein's opulent palaces...

Music Memories:

•1968] #1 on this date: "Honey" - Bobby Goldsboro...1970] "Let It Be" - Beatles ..1974] "Bennie and the Jets" - Elton John...
•1985] Elton lights a candle: Elton John performs "Candle in the Wind" at Farm Aid IV in tribute to Ryan White, a young AIDS patient who dies later that day...

Events:

The 2011 NAB Show will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center starting Saturday, April 9 for conferences, Monday, April 11 for exhibits. The 2011 NAB Show will run until Thursday, April 14. For registration and additional information, click here...

"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Russell Crowe (47), Janis Ian (60), John Oates (62), David Frost (72), Jerry Brown (73), Wayne Rogers (78), James Garner (83), Ravi Shankar (91), Bobby Doerr (93) and R.G. Armstrong (94)...

Timeline Countdown: 11 days until Passover, 17 days until Easter Sunday, 30 days until the Kentucky Derby & 31 days until Mother's Day...