According to Robert Struble, CEO of iBiquity Digital, the current convergence of Internet-connected mobile media technologies in wireless personal and automotive platforms represents a best-of-times/worst-of-times scenario for radio.

Holding forth in a recently published column on his company's website, Struble opines that radio cannot survive in a digitally connected world unless it provides the kind of interactivity consumers have come to expect from other platforms such as tablets and smartphones.

Struble goes on to say that HD Radio can provide radio stations that interactivity, using a variety of applications such as current HD Radio iTunes Tagging and traffic apps. By harnessing HD Radio's ancillary data capacity as a one-to-many downlink, synched consumer wireless devices can then act individual data backhauls.

These latest musings form senior leadership represent a significant shift in how iBiquity intends to market its technology to the majority of broadcasters who have yet to make an investment in IBOC. Yet even as the emphasis moves from multi-channel content to the development of new apps and business models, doubts among cash-strapped broadcasters still looking for an obvious ROI may linger.