MAKING RADIO SEXIER

According to Mediaweek, radio has been having some pretty hard times in that past few years. Station revenue decreased by 2.3% last year, and is projected to fall by 3.1% in 2008 mainly due to the economy. 

Radio is expected to improve in 2009, and by 2010, the BIA Financial Network is predicting a .9% growth. According to Mark Fratrik, vp of BIAFN, "While it has been a rough several years for radio the efforts it is making to engage its listeners online and through the digital airwaves will hopefully come to fruition in the next few years ".

Since stations have been trying to make their broadcasts more listener-interactive, it is not surprising that Clear Channel has decided to partner with iTunes.

On April 7th, CC announced that it will become the first radio chain to feature iTunes tagging across 345 channels broadcasting in HD. Evidently, the feature allows listeners to press a button on their HD radio to tag a song, store the info on their iPod, then purchase and download songs via Apple iTunes when synced to a computer.

According to vp of distribution and development at CC, ". . . iTunes tagging is mostly about the radio experience for the listener. The biggest effect of the marriage of HD radio and Apple is that it makes digital radio sexier. 

With the radio marketplace currently down, and not projected to go up til 2010, do you think this is a good move for CC? Do you think this partnership will be effective?