Look for the marketing campaign underway for the NextRadio FM app to expand.
Currently underway on NPR, American Public Media and Educational Media Foundation stations, Emmis Chair/President/CEO Jeff Smulyan told Wall Street analysts more stations will take part once an ad agency is involved.
Smulyan said nearly every major radio group is either including the interactive portions of the app for consumers, or “in the final stages” of implementing it, according to Seeking Alpha.
“As I have said in my 40 years in the industry I have never seen the industry come together for something as much as this and I think it’s because people realize that this is a single most important thing our industry can do … change the perception of radio and change the consumption of radio.”
The NextRadio app is preloaded on 28 mostly Sprint smartphones, with more coming later this year.
As for the recently announced dashboard partnership with iBiquity Digital, Smulyan said “both companies felt that it was critical to have a unified look to the American radio industry in cars whether it is analog or digital.”
He emphasized that while “all the cachet in the world is around all the streaming ideas … the reality is that right now 100% of the profitability in the American radio industry is in our over-the-air signal and the whole NextRadio idea is designed to strengthen that.” Talks continue with automakers, other carriers and manufacturers, according to the executive.
