Navigauge Hires Ex-Arbitron, Tapscan Executive

Navigauge, the company that says it can combine radio audience measurement with GPS navigation, has hired ex-Arbitron and Tapscan executive Drew Simpson to lead is product development, sales and marketing efforts. Simpson is the senior vice president of media.
Simpson said Navigauge is out of the test period and its product is deployed in the Atlanta market, passively measuring every audible signal in the market.
Simpson said by marrying demographic and listening data, “We know exactly where they (panelists) are and when they’re listening to a certain station.”
Similar to Arbitron’s PPM panel, in which participants carry the monitoring device with them, Navigauge has panelists who agree to have the device installed in their car for three years.
Carl Ceresoli, technical expert, president and co-founder of the company, told Radio World Online the technology could be used to determine what stations people listen to, and when they tune away from terrestrial stations for other media, such as a CD. The company has the technology to tell when someone tunes away for satellite radio and plans to incorporate this information into the device in future generations of product.
Simpson said the technology can be used to determine when a listener tunes out, and where on the dial he or she goes next, key information to determine a song’s burn rate, for example.
The privately owned company is four years old.