• by Tameka Kee , November 30, 2007

CBS Radio's 1010 WINS has tapped Outside.in to beef up the hyperlocal content on its home page.

The New York-based blog and community information aggregator will deliver news feeds and stories to the "News from the Boroughs and 'Burbs" section of 1010wins.com.

Visitors to 1010wins.com will find the latest blog headlines covering events in their neighborhood, as Outside.in's "hyperlocal" service aggregates news and commentary from local bloggers.

If they choose to click through to Outside.in, they can search all of the content by ZIP code or neighborhood, create profiles, and comment on community establishments like schools, restaurants and bars. Standard banner and skyscraper ads run alongside the content, though no revenue-sharing or ad partnerships were part of the deal.

1010 WINS was one of CBS Radio's first stations to launch an online stream--following WCBS-AM (Newsradio 880) in late 2004. Since then, the station has promoted itself as the leading source of news "anytime on air and online." But when it came to populating the Web property with relevant, community-specific news, station executives realized that tapping outside sources was the way to go.

"As one of the biggest radio stations in the U.S., 1010 WINS has to focus on national and international news--in addition to coverage of New York," says Rob Deeming, Outside.in's COO. "From a local perspective, bloggers can give a much better view on what's happening in a particular community. We have a smart solution for helping people keep abreast of what the bloggers are saying, so 1010 WINS asked us to help."

According to Mark Mason, program director for 1010 WINS and vice president of news programming for CBS Radio, the partnership enables 1010wins.com to be "both expansive and personal while fostering a sense of community between listeners."

Both parties alluded to future plans for melding more radio and Web content.

"We have plans for partnerships with other radio stations as well as a major newspaper," Deeming says. The next likely cities are Los Angeles and Boston, as those are the runners up in terms of the wealth of community-focused blog content, he adds.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for CBS Radio said that the company would definitely like to work out deals like this for other stations nationwide. "It's the natural progression of the medium. Users want to get community-based info from the radio and online, so we have to make it easier and more useful for them to do so," the spokesperson says.