Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 09, 2008 at 11:16:42:
Clear Channel Radio, which for the past few months has been beta-testing their iHearMusic.com Internet destination where users can stream over 760 of the company's stations, plus find music news, hear live performances and artists interviews, get ringtones and lyrics, submit music, and more, has now -- in conjunction with iHeartMusic.com -- launched iHeartRadio, a network/application where users will be able access the company's terrestrial and Internet radio streams on the iPhone or iPod Touch. The free, one-time download of the application is available through Apple's iTunes and the iPhone application store.
As part of the iPhone/iPod Touch experience, album art and song lyrics will accompany the music, plus streaming ads will carry through on units and will be measured by CCR's third party metrics provider, Ando.
CCR launched iHeartRadio with 10 of their top terrestrial radio stations based on criteria that includes: meeting online audience goals, percentage of streaming sell-out, seller engagement, streaming audience.
Those 10 terrestrial stations include: CHR top 40 WHTZ (Z100) New York, urban WWPR (Power 105.1)/New York, CHR/top 40 KIIS/Los Angeles, talk KFI/Los Angeles, CHR/top 40 WKSC (103.5 Kiss)/Chicago, rhythmic KYLD (Wild 94.9)/San Francisco, news KTRH/Houston, alternative WWDC (DC101)/Washington, CHR/top 40 WXKS (Kiss 108)/Boston, and sports KFAN/Minneapolis. CCR has also included two Internet radio stations in their offering: erockster and Pride Radio.
Commenting on the iHeartRadio launch in an internal memo, Clear Channel Online Music and Radio president Evan Harrison said, "We have a tremendous consumer offering packed with top on-air talent, a variety of cities and formats including news, talk and sports." He added that the company will work with all of its markets to add a few new stations each week based on the aforementioned criteria, plus they have already started work on the next version of iHeartRadio, "which will likely launch this year."
CCR stations have been streaming to cell phones via Sprint, U.S. Cellular and MetroPCS for the past year.
CBS Radio stations are also available on the newest iPhone via its partnership with AOL. In addition, Entercom has partnered with FlyCast to make its stations in Seattle, San Francisco and Portland available on iPhones.
(Mike Boyle, Radio & Records)