Ideas

Understand the ideas, how do you get everything 'printed' in time. You'll have to burn huge amounts of cd's every day.
Besides that you need loads of content.
Looks like a tough one to me.
Tommy

I think the basic idea is great. I'm one of the iPod-less masses, but I dump a lot of podcasts to cheap MP3 players and play them in my car. However, if I think if you started wrapping those same podcasts in ads and distributing them for profit, the content creators would object on copyright grounds. There might be a lot of content you could re-use freely, but I'm willing to bet that most of the ones I listen to (Nature, NPR, etc.) would not permit this use.

vanhees - You make a good point about burning "huge amounts of cd's every day" but I was thinking to start with bi-weekly additions and scale from there. To meet increasing demand, we could then use CD duplication machines as needed.

micco - My intention (as I said) was to use podcast content with permission which would be cheap (not necessarily free). I believe many podcasts would gladly barter some of their good content for wider exposure. This is just grass roots media supporting grass roots media.

If newspapers can be delivered to newstands day-by-day, surely trucker stops can receive a stash of CDs? Or MAYBE its burn-on-demand? Like an ATM? Device that accepts a credit card, and craps out a CDR 5 minutes later?

Gee I think its interesting. And it would be VERY cheap to market test, just ask a few truck stops to put a rack of cheap news CDs up on display and see if anyone buys em!

There are many better ways of delivering audio content than by CD. I really don't get this. What hassle is it to do stream podcasts to a smartphone plugged into the input jack of the car radio as I do?

nice one Anathema...unheralded genius no more ;-)

why not someting like an RFID transmission (if possible like a router with tremendous speed capable to transmit at least 500mb/sec) of latest news et al via an USB device mounted in your dashboard to receive it every time you get pass the toll booth? The USB device port receiver is then connected to your "player" and turn it on like the original shuffle ipod? The payment for the service is how an ordinary magnetic card works via RFID scanner too... ohhh i speak too much of another wonderful IDEA!

Plausible?

anathema - I agree there are better ways to deliver audio content. Heck, if I could, I'd build a radio station to deliver the content I want - problem solved. Short of that, CDs are an immediately feasible way to reach the "iPod-less masses" (as micco said) plus all the tech-savvy people who don't always feel like cooking their own content. Sometimes you just want take-out.

"The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz explains why pre-packaged content is often better than homemade: If I invest time picking and downloading podcasts into my MP3 player and the experience stinks, I take it as a personal failure. If someone else feeds me the content, I can enjoy the good and grumble about the bad in peace.

saigon - That's a neat technical idea. Getting all the infrastructure in place (agreements with the toll authority, engineering of transmitter/receivers) seems daunting to me. I'd like to see you develop the idea, though, maybe using WiFi (or WiMax even).

I like this - a good example of spotting a niche and working out how to fill it. If you can crack the problem cd duplication at speed then you could well be on to something. As you say, distribution and sales are already-solved problems.

You have two threads going here:

delivery mechanism / technology
content.

I would like to address content.

This could be a local franchise, esp if you use an internet based delivery mechanism to minimize costs. Create templates, provide some syndicated content, make it easy for local people to produce hour-long (or whatever) "shows". They would sound more professional than purely amateur unskilled productions, but would still have local, relevant content.

I like the content thoughts Jill.

On the tech front I can see the appeal of the CD for a lot of people, counter intuative thought it is to me a confirmed technophile. Like;ly to have a limited life as business. I think in car PCs / media centres will emerge fast with wi-fi / cellular / WiMax / UWB providing data dumps to add content.

Mind you I have to say being in the UK I usually just have to tune Radio 4 for this sort of content :-) Wonder if we can get a licence to use thier content on these CDs?

Allan, I love Radio 4. I agree that one day internet will replace radio and TV as delivery mechanisms.

I don't think you are far off in your suggestion about licensing Radio 4's content, given the BBC's predilection for outsourcing. It may be that some of the independent producers would be able to license directly. Perhaps you could give Alan Partridge a ring and see what he says to that ;-)

ABC (Australian) is another interesting source for audio.

CBC (Canada) has a few good programs, but overall Radio 4 is my favourite.

National Public Radio I'm less tuned in to.

All of these are potential sources of material, as are the many people who make radio already.

Thinking about this a little more, there are some great radio documentaries which deserve wider exposure. It's a niche audience, but not a trivial one.

Compilations of these (b/c they do not stay live on internet very long) would be a good product.

For Radio 4 lovers, anyway!

Many of radio 4's documentaries have online archives going back years. For instance, Melvyn Bragg's frequently mind-blowing "In Our Time" programme has an archive at http://www.bbc.co.uk...e_archive_home.shtml

anathema, thanks - you're right that some things do get archived for a long time (yay!).

But what do you think of having compilations of any great audio material on CD as a consumer product?

I can see from the discussion above that I need to frame my idea better:

Dashboard News fills a crying need in the U.S. created by the long average commute times (30 minutes and up) and large geographic areas not served by good radio content.

My U.K. friends may be blissfully unaware of the dearth of radio choices your poor cousins in the U.S. have. In any given AM/FM radio market, there are roughly 20 music stations and 5 news/talk stations. Take away the sports and political stations and you are left with maybe two drive-time news outlets, a scratchy news-ticker AM station and the excellent, but broad public radio station.

In the last few years, satellite radio (XM and Sirius) has stepped in to fill that void with a hundred niche stations but is a pricey and very commercial alternative akin to the cable TV of radio.

In contrast, Dashboard News is intended as an impulse-buyable, grass roots medium that would be a cross (in spirit and in content) between an alternative weekly newspaper and a well-produced podcast. Technophobes could listen and feel like they are a part of the podcasting "in-crowd" without the hassle. Yet, even techies who could gather their own content might come to enjoy the ready-made content.

Also, the quantity of material needed is not as big a problem as some comments suggest. We'd start with only an hour a week and ramp up from there if demand (and budgets) allowed.

I wonder if you could franchise the physical CD production and distribution to local affiliates.

I like the core idea of offering better audio options. I agree that there is a big need.

How you choose to produce and deliver it is wide open.

Good luck with this.

I certainly share everyone's enthusiasm for high quality audio content. I drive to work daily at 3am when there is very little on the radio hence my predilection for podcasts.

However, my preference would be for targeted content which I don't think could easily be delivered on CD unless the CDs were burned by the users themselves.

I am assuming though that we are aiming at the less tech-savvy listener who would be no more likely to be able to burn a cd than to download a podcast.

If the CDs were produced in mp3 format then it may well be possible to have enough breadth of content to have a 'station' for everyone but how widespread are car radios with mp3 capability?

I guess for people with iPods it's another $50 or so to buy the iTrip or similar product, so you can play the iPod through the car radio.

I like the spontaneity of picking up a CD at a 7-11 or coffee place, news stand, etc. Instead of buying a newspaper, perhaps?

I also like the download, though personally I would be more inclined to listen directly from the computer rather than downloading and playing in the car, but that would be different if I had regular & predictable commutes.

I hope this idea goes ahead - it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

jill has the right idea- you don't want to be in the business of burning physical CD's. you want to be in the content aggregation and advertising business. what about making it easy for the guys who currently hawk newspapers to have something extra to sell? provided they can find an internet connection and access to a burner (kinkos?) you could make a portal that merges creative commons-licensed audio with advertising you sell to produce an ISO for a CD a day that the newspaper sellers can download and burn then sell for $3 a pop.

there are sites already like podsafeaudio.com that are hubs of cc-licensed music. the motivations of the artists submitting their stuff there are to get more exposure for themselves. I'm sure there are equivalent directories for podcasts licensed under cc. your value would be in splicing in the ads, making the ISO's available and supporting the resellers with tips on how to best merchandise these. You'd need a witty host to tie all the segments together and make it interesting but you could be onto something with this.

sean

I like the idea too. I would like to propose a third edition: Zoom (a collection of verbal puzzles and trivia). I could easily see how my idea (ibreaktime) could mash up with your idea, although your idea is audio based and mine is visual based...but so what.

Gordon gave a good tip: simply try it out on a small scale.
Tommy

Pixlelman: i forgot to say Thank You for allowing for all allowing me to used your idea and my comment as the inspiration of an other idea now in the round.

I am open to collaborate since you have the content and i got some innovative idea from your stand point what do you think?