How will wi-fi impact radio, particularly AM?

[Don62]

 You will never see Ed Schultz or Randi Rhodes on the same station as Rush and Hannity.

Actually, until Rhodes left her now-defunct syndicator recently she had followed Rush (and was followed by Hannity) on WJNO in West Palm Beach for years.  The station gets good ratings too.

Ed Schultz was on late evenings on 630 AM in Savannah.

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

12 years ago, maybe 15,  I had no concept what the Internet would become.  I don't feel bad.  The visionary Mr. Gates misjudged it also.

Our question is:  Will wi-fi impact radio?  I have about as much confidence in my ability to predict what will become of wi-fi in the coming months and years as I have in my ability of 12 years ago to see the future of the Internet.

I invite everyone to look around and see how parochial we all are.  We see radio from our own little route in the maze and want to imprint that view on everyone and make our predictions.  We see wi-fi from our own little route in the maze and want... you get the idea.

Like a pilot reaching over to enrich the fuel mixture... it would be good to see more people really turn loose of the hand-rail and step out to the edge of the bluff  and say something creative, something visionary, something risky.

I'll jump in the pool first:

If,  IF government at various levels decided to make wi-fi universal the way we did schools and libraries in the last 100 years,  then the masses will have access and traditional broadcasting must be prepared for a rocky toboggan ride.

If those who yell most loudly against creeping socialism and most loudly for free enterprise stop the voices calling for universal coverage by tax based wi-fi distribution,  radio has a much easier future to negotiate for there will be more potential listeners who find the cost of wi-fi just beyond their fingertips.