TagStation Team provides latest updates

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tagstationI was just sitting around thinking about how great TagStation is, and you know what makes it really special? It’s multi-purpose. Think of it like a content hub. TagStation takes events that come out of your station’s automation system and links them to extras – data, images, and interactions. Now you have an enhanced song, spot, or promotion that’s ready to be displayed on not only HD Radio receivers, but just about anything that has an FM tuner, an internet connection, and a way to display images. This could be the NextRadio app in a smartphone or tablet, a connected car dashboard, and probably other devices that the world hasn’t even dreamed up yet. Whatever the final output, TagStation is that glue between the audio broadcast and the extras that take advantage of the fact that that thing you’re listening to is connected.


Now, rewind to where I mentioned the connected car dashboard. We’ve thrown that phrase into the list of TagStation benefits for a while now, but what does it mean to say that the same TagStation-enhanced broadcasts that are delivered to the NextRadio app could automatically display in a connected car? What IS a connected car dashboard, and how does radio fit into it? How close is the auto industry to a standard?

We need to talk about it. So we’ve planned a webinar next month called “NextRadio and the Connected Car: Growing Listeners With Interactive Content” which will be presented by Paul Jacobs and Paul Brenner. After a similar well-received talk at the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters annual convention back in March, we’re making the presentation more widely available by doing a live webinar which will also be recorded and available for viewing after the event. Details are below.

But first, check out how the NextRadio numbers are coming along – really picking up steam in these last couple of weeks! What are all of these new users seeing when they tune to YOUR station?

By the Numbers

Over 500,000 app downloads

Over 9,300 FM radio stations tuned to from the app

Over 550,000 hours of listening through NextRadio

A 4/5 Google Play Store user rating

NextRadio and the Connected Car: Growing Listeners With Interactive Content

So mark your calendars, friends! Join Paul Jacobs and Paul Brenner next month for this free webinar highlighting something on the minds of us all: What’s our place in tomorrow’s connected car dashboard? This will be a free presentation offered over video stream to all broadcasters. We do ask for registration so we may conduct a moderated Q&A session after the talk.

Paul Jacobs is a leading radio consultant running the day-to-day operation as VP/GM of Jacobs Media, the nation’s leading rock radio consulting firm. He is also president of its incredibly successful mobile apps division, jacAPPS. With more than 30 years of broadcast experience on his side, his viewpoints on radio’s future in connected car dashboard are invaluable.

Paul Brenner is SVP/chief technology officer for Emmis Communications focusing on technology business development, industry partnerships, broadcast engineering strategy, and the development of new broadcasting and Internet content distribution systems. He is also the president of the Broadcast Traffic Consortium, and leads the TagStation data service and NextRadio smartphone app development teams.

Together, Jacobs and Brenner make a compelling case for the radio industry to prepare for what is already in development – car dashboards in which traditional radio will find itself suddenly needing to compete for its prime spot.

Here’s what’s on the agenda:

The big picture: an overview of the connected car

State of the solution: NextRadio and TagStation for the connected car

Future of radio in the car

What should radio’s plan be?

The discussion will be followed by answering questions from participants and leaving everyone with list of ways they can take action now. We hope you’ll sign up to attend. It’s really a topic that affects the entire industry.

“Radio people, to a great degree over the past few years, have not seen this one coming,” said Fred Jacobs at Convergence 2014, and in regards to radio in the car, it has “always been a nice kind of peanut butter-and-jelly relationship.”

More phones! Our second waterproof NextRadio-enabled smartphone hits the shelves 6/18 at Boost Mobile. The new Kyocera Hydro ICON promises to survive your crazy summer water mishaps like a champ. We could all use help like that, right?

And watch our for NextRadio appearances at the New Jersey Broadcast Association, Florida Association for Broadcasters, and Virginia Association of Broadcasters annual conferences this month. See you there.