Shapiro Says He Has No Plans to Run for Public Office

BALTIMORE -- Asking the government to require FM tuners in cellphones, as the NAB has done, “brands” the radio industry as “desperate” for a bailout, CEA President Gary Shapiro said Thursday at the Arbitron-Jacobs Media Summit. Shapiro, who in the summer will mark his 20th year at the CEA’s helm, has no plans to run for public office, he told us at the conference.

Challenged in a question from the audience to explain why building FM tuners into cellphones wouldn’t help radio broadcasters by raising ratings and ad revenue, Shapiro said it was a bad idea and one that had no support among consumers or in Congress. “In the spirit of the holiday season, NAB declines comment” on Shapiro’s remarks, NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton told us by e-mail.

"Overwhelmingly, consumers have said we don’t want the government designing product,” Shapiro told the audience of radio executives. “Consumers are against it because why should you have the right to force something into a product? Why just radios? Why not put them in pillows? How about lamps? Where does it stop?” His voice rising in anger, Shapiro told the radio executives in the audience: “What right do you have to come and tell a company they must have a chip with an FM receiver? What possible justification is there? So you appear desperate, in my opinion. Now you can argue with me about that, but that’s a real bad strategy.” Mandating FM chips in cellphones is “not going to happen,” Shapiro said. “I've talked to a billion congressmen, and there isn’t one I can find who thinks it’s a good idea. It’s one of the dumbest ideas of all time."

What radio does as an industry “brands you as an industry,” Shapiro said. “Radio already has this perception of being an old medium, because it is old.” He asked his audience, “Do you want your industry branded as a buggy-whip industry, as an old industry, by having government step in and require people to have that view?” If he radio broadcasters on Capitol Hill, “I would not go for that short-term political gain for the long detriment of my industry.” Later, Shapiro posed for photos holding a buggy whip that the session moderator gave him as a tongue-in-cheek gift for a previous statement -- repeated at the conference -- that the FM tuner proposal made the radio industry “looks like it’s weak, desperate and needs government to step in."

"You will have wireless Internet capability seamlessly in your cars in the next few years,” Shapiro said, laying out his view of radio’s future competitive landscape. “Everything is happening in that direction. Almost every car in America will have wireless Internet, either directly as part of the car or as an aftermarket product. There will be wireless Internet everywhere you look. Wireless Internet means you can get not only any radio station in the country, but any type of music service anywhere you want, which means thousands of broadcasters, thousands of people, trying to get into your car with their particular brand of audio content."

In public policy, the U.S. “is doing everything wrong we can possibly do as a country, frankly, to make sure we don’t innovate,” Shapiro said when asked to recite the themes in his new book, The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream. The book is due to be released Jan. 6, the opening day of CES (CED Dec 8 p5). “Innovation to me is about economic growth,” Shapiro said. “It’s our last chance.” He thinks “we're the only generation that has handed our kids” a weaker economy, he said. “That infuriates me, frankly."

Shapiro’s remarks prompted one audience questioner to ask him if he plans to run for public office. He didn’t answer the question, but he told us in an interview that he has no such political ambitions. “I love my job,” Shapiro told us. “I could give you 10 reasons” why he has no plans to run for Congress or other public office, he said. He joked that neither major political party would want him as a candidate after reading his criticisms of both parties in the new book.