FM Radio on My Smart Phone? What's That About?

dunno, but I got one because I was sick n' tired of FM radio...

Even cheap featurephones (non smart phones) have FM radio built in. It's just a radio, doesn't connect to the cell network in any way, It may show up on a phone as an "app" but in fact you are just using the FM radio chip, doesn't use call time minutes or data. Can be handy, although on my ZTE Android phone even strong FM stations fade out when I am in a bus or train.

How do you access?

Read the phone manual. Maybe you can't in the USA because of the issue you mentioned. Other countries do not restrict.

The unlocking app called NextRadio, that Sprint developed, is now legally available for all carriers and you should check your phone model on their availability list. NextRadio uses some data to get song information but you can go to Tuner Only mode and not use any data or cell network time at all, and also get the battery time benefits.

http://communicationleadership.usc.edu/blog/free_radio_on_phones.html

http://nextradioapp.com/

http://nextradioapp.com/faq/