Pick Up Where You Left Off

Who would have thought a little key fob could be the future of radio interactivity.

It's the brainchild of an avid NPR junkie faced with that dilemma all of us public radio lovers run into from time to time: What do you do when you get somewhere, but you're halfway into a story you want to finish hearing.

Up until now, that meant staying in the car a bit longer.

Enter the Radio Bookmark. It looks like the bastard child of a car key remote and a USB jump drive. But what it does may bring radio into the interactive age.

Now when you get home and have to shut off All Things Considered mid-sentence, you can press a button, plug the fob into your computer later, and keep hearing the story on your computer.

The best part of it is that it's being offered exclusively through public radio stations themselves, in lieu of other cheesy thank you gifts. Especially in tough times like these, I can see some real value in a station offering something genuinly useful as a membership incentive.

As much as I love my growing ugly Colorado Public Radio mug collection, I'm glad to see they're actually on board with this new gizmo.

This may be a reason to renew my membership this year, despite the unfortunate death of The Bryant Park Project...