"What cell phones ever had an FM radio?"Tragically, this question illustrates how successful that Big Tech (Apple, Google, Facebook and the telcos etc.) has been in distorting the free-to-air broadcasting medium and redirecting listeners to its PAID services (Apple store etc.).
The fact that someone is actually unaware that essentially all mobile phones were capable of receiving FM Radio (the standard free-to-air FM broadcasts) until Big Tech nobbled them proves the point.
It's shocking this has happened and that government has dropped the regulatory ball. Traditional broadcasters are heavily regulated and have to pay substantial license fees yet the likes of Apple, Google etc. can do what they damn well like without impunity in the absence of any such regulation. (We only have to look at the damage to the social order these behemoth companies have caused in recent years to see that they have to be regulated).
That Big Tech has managed to essentially kill the FM service on phones to the extent that people aren't even aware of its existence shows that government has abrogated its regulatory responsibly. Moreover,
I find it hard to understand why FM broadcasters haven't kicked up a huge stink over the neutering of the FM service, after all, it's in their interest that their broadcasts can be received on mobile devices.
It's high time this is rectified, a 20% tax or surcharge on every phone without FM enabled would solve the problem instantly. Government could easily justify this on the grounds that FM is a viable emergency service—when the internet goes down, FM would provide an emergency backup information service—one that it's already performed for over three-quarters of a century.