Crowd-Sourced Radio More Socially Tuned

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Two leading players in the emerging medium of crowd-sourced or audience-controlled radio revealed new social media integrations that will allow users to send and receive alerts when one of their selections is on the air.

The tandem announcements from Jelli and Listener Driven Radio follow a series of moves by both services to expand the reach and variety of their interactive music applications.

Jelli unveiled a new partnership with Twitter, integrating the microblogging service into its Web site so users can alert Twitter followers when their song is on the air. The tweets include the names of the artist and song, as well as the call letters of the radio station where it's playing.

Mike Dougherty, Jelli CEO, stated that "integrating Twitter with Jelli cranks up the engagement quotient and makes broadcast radio more immediate, more responsive and that much more social."

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Jelli has a similar partnership with Facebook Connect, announced in January.

Listener Driven Radio unveiled "Instant Alert," a new feature incorporated into its existing integrations with over 280 social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Friendster and MySpace, as well as Spanish-language social networks. Users are immediately notified when their chosen songs are on air.

The alerts can be delivered via e-mail, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Jabber and Google Talk. LDR said Instant Alert is designed to help bring repeated tune-ins to radio stations, one of the main features requested by programmers.

The new social media integrations come amid a major expansion of crowd-sourced radio. In October of last year, Triton Media signed a deal with Jelli that allows Triton to offer its 4,500 affiliates the interactive programming feature. Then in March, the partners announced they would be syndicating two programs, "Rock Jelli" and "Pop Jelli" (previously Top 40 Jelli). The syndication offering launched with 10 affiliates, including WBOS Boston, WPST Philadelphia and KXTE Las Vegas.

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