FM Radio on iPhone

No, this is not correct. The chip used for WiFI and Bluetooth reception is capable of FM band, but the phone lacks other hardware, most importantly an FM antenna, which has to be much larger than the internal antennas.

Other phones that have FM receivers use the headset cable as an FM antenna. To do this with the iPhone would mean giving up use of a Bluetooth headset or the internal speaker when using FM

Since FM wasn't added to the iPhone 4, it's safe to assume this isn't an Apple priority. FM is a dying format which can be replaced by internet streaming.

I am shopping for my first personal cell phone and I would really like to have something that combines all the tech that I'm presently carrying around (cell, daytimer, ipod, calendar, scraps of sticky notes, and notebook computer) and I really want an fm radio. I don't understand why they can make the nano ipod with fm and not an iphone? I was given the previous model for Christmas, assuming it had fm, since both my husband and son have mp3 players with fm, and was very frustrated it didn't. I plan to use the cell as a calendar/cell/ music player/reminder with emergency access to e-mail, as I can access home web otherwise. I do not wish to access fm via the web because it will add to my monthly phone cost. Is this just another way of making money and adding to rampant consumerism?

Hmm, that's not correct. Most radio stations I live near don't appear on any internet radio apps, and that's the same with a lot of places. With but a few exceptions, only densely populated areas are fully covered, and that makes up a fraction of the population (our city of 200K isn't).
Moreover, don't listen to anyone who has posted about the iphone's hardware capability, as they are all 100% wrong. The iPhone definitively Does contain all the necessary hardware for FM radio reception. All needed circuitry is onboard the broadcom chip, and it (like on many other phones) is designed to use the headphones cord as an antenna.
As for why the iPhone cant use fm radio, the simple fact is that (like so many other things) Apple (/ Steve Jobs) just doesn't want you to have it. Sometimes it's because they're waiting to perfect Their way (which was reported complete around February this year by an inside source), but mostly it's because they know they can make more money by selling people unendowed crap and later announcing it as a "new feature" (ie lying thru their teeth). Remember the release of video recording? Every iPhone since the first has been able to do it (and a Jailbroken app called Cycorder was created that lets you) but Apple didn't want you to (bc they knew they would be able to capitalize on the announcement later, as they did) so they disabled it.
There is a small effort in the jailbreaking community to find a way around this (see the relevant "thriPhonewiki" pages), but it is currently stalled by lack of technical details on the hardware UART control commands for the broadcom chip. The truth is apple may never "release" (literally, as in out of prison) FM radio capability, at least not until the jailbreaking community has one, and there isn't much reason to expect it (unless of course you're banking on it's successful hacking). My advice to you if you really want fm radio from your phone is to get an android, as they've had fm capability for years (and the 2.3/3.0 update is supposed to be all UI enhancements, so it may even look as great as the iPhone ui soon!).
I hope that properly answered your question.

Have you discovered podcasts yet? There's plenty of great radio programming available via podcasts, and plenty of other great stuff that isn't on radio. FM radio is, these days, about 40% car ads, 40% morons trying to be witty, and 20% of what could loosely be described as music. If you really have a need forit, you can pick up an FM-capable device at any CVS for, like, eight bucks.

Listening to the radio, I want to hear music not commercials or djs babbling about stupidity. FM radio has turn into about 20 minutes of actual content per hour. Since I downloaded Pandora, I haven't listened to the radio in over 2 years and I don't have to deal with commercials or listening to some bozo babble about what he/she did last night.

I keep waiting for apple to release fm radio.I have the fm radio attachment from my days of useing plain iPods.I keep waiting for them to release this as a new ground breaking feature.I stream all my music,but still want that fm software put in.fanboys don't predict what apple will and wont do,they said no mms and look you were wrong.......I think apple listens when enough people respond with a feature they want.

Sometimes I can run Pandora on EDGE if I travel west.
If I travel east all I get is irritation!

But, on the bright side we still get first run episodes of I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke on antennas ;^))

No doubt. A large part of the success of the iPod, going back to the first iteration of it, is the sad state of radio.

I've got about 6,000 songs on my iPhone, plus three podcasts, plus an audiobook app which pulls content from the LibriVox project. And all of that without a single car commercial or would-be witty DJ desperately trying to crack wise. With all that variety, who would want radio? After becoming accustomed to the iPod, I find radio infuriating. Yet, people have complained about the lack of an FM radio on the thing since the day it came out.

My guess is there's no radio tuner because The Steve hates Clear Channel as much as most people in this thread do.

If and when this does happen news sites will make it known.

Nobody here knows the correct answer unless they work for Apple- in which case they're not going to tell you anyways.

If you are insistent on having FM capability in your device, then the iPhone is not for you.

Apple has made no indications that they intend to add FM functionality to the iPhone.

Considering all the radio apps in the iTunes store, there really is no need for FM radio.

If you live in EDGE areas streaming doesn't work - lack of service. 3G is 50 miles away.
FM does work.

Pandora works for me on Edge.

It has nothing to do with being a fanboy. It has everything to do with the fact that there is not a very high demand for FM radio anymore because of all the alternative choices out there.