NextRadio Smartphone App Introduces 'Live Guide'

Emmis Communications and TagStation unveiled groundbreaking updates to NextRadio Smartphone App at RAB/NAB Radio Show Wednesday.

Imagine turning on your radio and being able to see what’s playing on all your local stations at that exact moment. You see your favorite song, click on it, and are instantly hearing its live broadcast. Tuning to the radio content you want to hear is now that simple with NextRadio’s new Live Guide. Much like the days before caller ID on your telephone, blindly searching the radio dial will soon be a thing of the past.

NextRadio is a smartphone app that connects over-the-air FM broadcasts with the internet to give users an enhanced radio listening experience including album art and program information as well as station feedback and other interactive features with the touch of a button. The NextRadio app is currently available for use with 27 different devices on the Sprint Network, as well as new HTC smartphones on all major wireless carrier networks.

Live Guide, a first-of-its-kind visual tuning interface that displays local station choices by real-time album art or custom schedule content, is just one of several major improvements to the NextRadio app which will be available to the public in mid-to-late October.

Other exciting enhancements include:

• A streamlined navigation drawer that puts all user options in one easy-to-find place as well as in-app tutorials showing listeners how to interact with their local stations, a behavior change that can grow radio’s position in the exploding mobile ad business. 
• Dynamically-driven related content “cards” will accompany station songs and programming events to provide the listener with more information about the live broadcast while providing the station with extended advertiser and promotion options. These may include upcoming concerts, record release dates, recently played, next up on-air, and more. All of this, along with improved frequency locating accuracy, is sure to make the radio listening experience easier, more immersive, and more enjoyable.

Paul Brenner

“From the beginning of NextRadio and TagStation we have looked for ways to make the broadcast radio experience consistent with today’s listeners’ expectations for consuming media and entertainment. Anyone that looks at this major update to NextRadio immediately relates with Live Guide and active Card Stacks in making broadcast radio cool again.” said Paul Brenner, Senior Vice President of TagStation “I am proud of what our creative and talented team has accomplished, and everyone in radio should be proud to show off NextRadio as a new way to listen to radio.”

With this new release of NextRadio and its pioneering ability for listeners to visually navigate their station options, there has never been a more imperative time for broadcasters to get up and running on TagStation and ensure that their broadcast channels are providing the best content possible. “The eyes of wireless carriers, handset makers and regulators are watching to see if our industry as a whole can deliver on something innovative. Consumers are telling us that the visual content makes radio interesting again,” said Brenner.