Check this out: a portable media device (pocket-sized) that wirelessly delivers music, sports scores, news and other content. It runs on ordinary batteries and can be used virtually anywhere. Car units could give real-time traffic information to drivers. The units or system could be used in conjunction with or integrated into home entertainment systems. And the biggest advantage? The content is free, paid for by minimal advertising or in some instances user donations.

Selection of content could be by a simple jog dial system (much like an iPod). To allow for live, broad-coverage area podcasts* (such as for live news or sporting events) a system of high-power transmitters would be needed, and they would have to be unobtrusive. Perhaps on high towers or mountains near large communities to allow for greatest signal dispersion.

The live nature of this novel medium would allow for new forms unavaliable to today's recorded mobile media devices. A user could call, e-mail, or text responses in to give instant feedback or allow for live interviews.

It would be useful to utilize avaliable free RF bandwidth somewhere between 500 and 2000 kHz. The lower frequencies might pose a problem with reception, so a higher set could be used, perhaps in the 80-120MHz range (which with the right tweaks could deliver stereo or other multiple-channel audio). These are out of the bands typically spewed into by today's mobile electronics (2.4 GHz being a notably crowded example).

If we wished to minimize the costs for lower-end devices, we could send our signals in analog instead of digital, eliminating the potentially costly and power-consuming digital signal processing system.

The only problem is naming the device...

I have only come up with a few possibilities, and they aren't very interesting. To appeal to the leet/1337 generation and the Radical sensibilities of today's young (under 35) crowd, perhaps the RAD10, or maybe a more pronouncable RADIO.

*(broad-coverage-area-podcasts needs a shorter name, like "broadcasts")

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