May 21, 2007
Radio Takes a Step Toward Mobile Phones
This morning's Wall Street Journal, under a headline reading:
Clear Channel Expands Mobile Services
brings us a report (subscription required) about how a giant in the radio business is taking steps to harness the growing power of "mobile." An excerpt:
Clear Channel Communications Inc., in an effort to strengthen ties between its radio stations and their audience, is expanding its free offerings of interactive services aimed at listeners' mobile phones.
Starting today, several of Clear Channel's New York-area radio stations will send text-message responses to listeners who submit their requests for a song to be dedicated to someone they know. Listeners also will be able to use their phones to check lists of the last 10 songs aired on the station, find out what songs are coming up, look at traffic conditions in their area and download graphics and ringtones.
"It will be an opportunity for listeners to interact with, talk with and have a relationship with their favorite radio stations," says John Hogan, who heads Clear Channel's radio operations. The service will roll out to other big cities in coming months, with a goal of including 100 radio stations by the end of 2008.
The new service will be free.