The Boston Herald is poised to launch an Internet station next Monday, Aug. 5. Herald staffers already shoot video to post on the paper’s website so producing an online radio station seemed like a natural next step to extend the paper’s news platform, according to executives.
Consumers want news and information that is mobile and they want to be active participants connecting about the issues of the day, rather than being “passive receptors being lectured to” about the news, Herald Editor-In-Chief Joe Sciacca told the paper.
Boston Herald Radio will be part-time, with content actually streamed 12 hours a day. Herald Managing Editor for Web-Print Integration Joe Dwinell and sports staffer Rachel Fox will provide updates and talk shows are slated as well — all to originate out of a new studio.
The company is using a call screener product from Westborough, Mass.-based Backbone Networks Corp. “Talk Radio” is a multiline Internet-based phone system adapted for call screeners and hosts. The software allows Internet and terrestrial broadcasters to air calls from both inside and outside of the studio.
To hear the station, visitors can listen on their desktop or laptop computer at: bostonheraldradio.com or bostonherald.com or download the Herald news or sports apps to hear the station on a smartphone. For in-car listeners, the Herald is telling visitors they can plug their smartphone into the aux jack of their vehicle, plug in their phone and listen through the car’s speakers.
