Greater Media and Jump2Go have inked a deal for to include Apple iTunes tagging capability for HD Radio and RDS on the broadcast company’s stations.
That’s according to Jump Founder/CTO Allen Hartle, who told Radio World that the technology for earmarking an iTunes song for revisiting later would be used on 25 Greater Media programming streams, including some multicast channels.
Detroit is one of the markets where tagging would be featured; participants want to demo the feature for automakers.
Broadcast Electronics distributes the Go Commerce tagging product for Jump2Go.
The company will be the first radio group officially to use the feature from Jump2Go; a total of four test stations, owned by Entercom, CBS Radio and Cumulus, are using the technology on an experimental basis, we’ve previously reported. Clear Channel Radio has the tagging capability as well.
The timing for Greater Media’s tagging feature is unclear; Hartle said it’s still in the “software set-up” phase. Greater Media VP/Engineering Milford Smith said the companies would roll it out as rapidly as possible.
Smith told us: “Greater Media looks upon iTunes tagging as an opportunity to start a convergence of the MP3 player universe with the radio universe, two entities that have been largely on a divergent course up to this point in time.
“We believe the association of Apple and its iPod devices with HD radio creates a very positive and attractive image to a younger demographic that may not have seen radio being as compelling a medium as generations past,” he continued. “I believe iTunes tagging is likely only the tip of the iceberg in terms of MP3 player/HD radio interactivity.”
