Google Radio Stations Mashup

Okay, here’s one I don’t have the skillset to program, but I’d love to partner up with someone on (and just because it’s on the net doesn’t mean you can steal my idea without repercussions):

I have moved probably 30 times in my life, and I’m not a banker’s son or an army brat.  Most of the time I’ve had to rediscover radio stations in the new area, and realistically that takes me a year.  When I travel, I end up listening to NPR or 80s music, solely because I know I can find it without a hassle.  And when I go on a roadtrip, I hit seek frustratingly every 5 minutes.  What the world needs is a way to plan your radio usage as you plan your trips, to search possible stations relative to your location.

It seems that from the FCC or online you could easily get a database of every radio station in the nation and their signal strength–even every broadcast antenna and its strength.  That, by definition, has to be public information.  I want someone, and I think Google itself should do it, to mashup that database with a map, a la geolocation.  Three axes, two for location and the third, normally the size of the pin, would be the strength of the signal.  That would basically give you a good map of which radio stations are in your area, and which radio stations are strongest in your area.

Granted, signal strength gets boosted and wanes throughout the day, but if that’s pretty even-keel across the market, that should be graphically negligible (they’ll all go up, they’ll all go down, but what you’re looking at is the relativity.)  Some stations can reach hundreds of miles at certain times of the day, but if not dismissed that variable could be approximated with a gradient.  Mountains get in the way, but again, people will understand that.  If we could factor in all that stuff we’d be making coverage maps for Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile.  I’m not proposing a “can you hear 102.7 now?” guy driving up and down the street–that wouldn’t be viable–not even for Google.

What I am proposing is a simple mashup, financed in the usual ways, and with a huge emphasis on usability.