Bob Struble

In an interview with Bob Struble, president and CEO of iBiquity, he explains why innovation is important to him and his company and what the government should do to aid innovators. Watch his video as a Finalist in CEA’s Innovation Entrepreneur Award, Small Business of the Year. Winners of the Award will be announced at CEA's Industry Forum in October.

How do you define innovation and what does it mean to you and iBiquity?
 
Bob: I’d define innovation as producing something new, different, better and useful. In the business world it requires taking a look around and asking: how could we do that better? What new or enhanced products and services would better meet consumer demands or solve specific customer problems? How can we creatively combine the tools and techniques at our disposal to solve that problem? We try to innovate continuously at iBiquity. HD Radio Technology was designed to upgrade AM/FM to meet listeners’ expectations in the digital world. And we work every day to innovate around that core technology to better it – improving performance, adding new features, lowering cost, pairing with other consumer technologies. Innovation is Job #1 at iBiquity and any successful technology company. 
 
What has been the rewarding part of pioneering HD Radio Technology?
 
Bob: AM/FM radio is part of most people’s every day lives. 93 percent of Americans listen to radio on a regular basis. So we are taking an engrained piece of our culture and upgrading it for the digital age. Our vision is that ultimately all radios, and there are a billion or so out there in the US, will become HD Radio receivers. It is intensely rewarding to travel across the country, tune up and down the radio dial and hear hundreds of new digital HD2 and HD3 stations made possible by our innovations. I tell our engineers, you will be able to point to the car radio your grand kids will listen to years from now and say, ‘my design is in there, my code is in there, I did that. Pretty cool.
 
What is one thing the government can do to assist innovators and entrepreneurs?
 
Bob: Lay up. Follow the CEA Innovation agenda. Establish the environment that will let creative, hungry companies innovate. Get the federal deficit under control to reduce business uncertainty. Simplify our tax code so our brightest innovators can work on building companies, not on figuring out how to file slick tax returns. Allow free trade so great new products like HD Radio Technology, which like most technology products employs a global ecosystem, don’t encounter illogical barriers. And implement an immigration policy that allows the best and brightest to stay in the US, so we can have the raw material – innovative minds – to build that next great product.