Jacobs Media - iPhone/iTouch Radio Player Application

"Stationalized" iPhone Radio App

For more information contact:
Pauljacobs@jacobsmedia.com or call 248-353-9030

There is nothing hotter... or cooler... than the iPhone. This device is the gold standard for multi-functional gadgets and shows the potential for mobile technology. As you may be aware, last quarter it passed the Motorola Razr and the BlackBerry Curve to become the leading handset in the U.S. The radio industry understands that ultimately, being able to stream on mobile phones is a key pathway to our future, given their popularity.

Recognizing the potential and the necessity for Radio to be mobile on the iPhone, we have commissioned a developer who has already done this successfully to provide radio stations the ability to get their logos right on the iPhone desktop so your listeners can stream your station through the phone.

Many broadcasters already have their streams available on iPhones through larger applications like FlyCast, iheart music, and AOL Radio. But in these cases, their streams are one of hundreds that the user has to scroll through an alphabet soup of call letters, locate, bookmark, etc.

Our vision was to simplify the process, and showcase an individual radio station’s brand and stream(s). Instead of a generic logo on the iPhone desktop, our program uses your station logo, making it brainless for your listeners to go to the App Store, easily locate your station, and download the app for free. Once that’s done, they can launch your stream with one touch. Our app also allows you to include up to five channels on iPhones, including your HD channels.

You can also place a link on the main page of your website. One click takes the iPhone owner directly to your streaming app, bypassing the iTunes Store main page and App Store menu of apps by category. A couple of clicks and they can stream your station on their iPhone.

Here are some live examples of this App you can download right now. This will provide a sense of the variety of ways we've implemented and customized the app for various commercial, public and online-only properties:

KOZT/Mendicino County
KUJO99/kujo99.com Internet station
KUT/Austin
HardRadio.com/The Heavy Metal Super Site
WBOS/Boston
WCCC/Hartford
WHQG/Milwaukee
WJFX/Ft. Wayne
WKLH/Milwaukee
WMMR/Philadelphia
WRAT/New Jersey
WRIF/Detroit
WTMD/Towson, MD
WVBB/Ft. Wayne
Even More Coming Soon!!!

If you want to watch a short video about how easy it is for your listeners to download the app and begin streaming on their iPhone, click below:

Customized Radio Player for the iPhone & iPod Touch

We’ve borne the upfront developmental cost for the iPhone app and are offering it for $1,000 (to our clients and stations in their clusters it's a one-time fee of $900 per station..) The iPhone app is non-market exclusive and is available to the entire broadcast industry.

An Mp3 stream is required for now. If you don’t currently stream in the Mp3 format, we can discuss with you what’s involved. *We now support AAC formatted streams (Requires iPhone 2.2 or later software however). We hope to support additional platforms in future releases.

We’ve already set this up for many stations– to see how simple and cool this is, go to the iTunes store and type in “WRIF” in the search box. Of course, if you’ve got an iPhone, you can download the app directly from the App Store and listen to the station on your phone.

If you’re interested in purchasing the iPhone streaming app or have any questions, contact Paul Jacobs or Tim Davis at the 248-353-9030 and they’ll review the details. We will work with you to make sure your logo looks great, as well as help you configure the splash page that opens when an iPhone owner selects your station to stream. While the process is relatively simple, our development partner, Gladworks, may take up to five days to complete the build, and another few days for Apple to approve it and post the app on iTunes.

Getting station streams on iPhones (and ultimately other mobile devices) is critical to the success of radio. And now we can do it for a pretty small cost.

What people are saying:

Customized treatment given to iPhone function. A one-touch Jacobs Media-developed “stationalized” iPhone application lets listeners access individual station streams. A customized station logo also appears on the iPhone desktop. Listeners are taken directly to the station’s audio content instead of having to navigate through a directory or third-party system. Up to five individual custom streams — including HD channels — can be provided. “Radio stations will be accessible through the coolest mobile device,” Jacobs Media President Fred Jacobs remarks to Inside Radio.

“This is where our radio streaming initiatives have to go.” The Detroit-based consultancy’s Tech Polls indicate sources radio listeners stream the most are their favorite local stations. “Now they have a way to get prominent placement on iPhones — right there with Pandora, YouTube, and every other cool media application,” says Jacobs. “It’s open to anyone in the industry who wants to see their station’s logo front and center on the iPhone.” Greater Media, Detroit rocker WRIF is already using Jacobs’ “stationalized” application and will soon be followed by co-owned and similarly-formatted WMMR, Philadelphia; Alternative WBOS, Boston and rocker WRAT, Monmouth-Ocean.